To sell on TikTok Shop you need to be 18 or older, live in one of the 24 countries where TikTok Shop runs, and pass an ID check in Seller Center. Opening a shop is free. TikTok takes a cut of each sale instead, 6% in the US on most products and 9% in the UK, and you must hand every order to a carrier within two business days. That is the short answer to how to sell on TikTok Shop.

Below: the documents, the fees, the shipping deadline, what you cannot sell, how creators promote your product, and one thing most guides skip: how to check whether anyone on TikTok is searching for your product before you list it. Every rule is checked against TikTok's own Seller Center pages and at least one guide from 2025 or 2026.

TikTok Shop seller requirements

TikTok's registration requirements are short: live in the country you pick for your shop, use a phone number and email not tied to another shop, and do not be a politician. The longer list is the documents, which depend on whether you register as an individual or a business.

RequirementIndividual seller (US)Business seller (US)
Age18 or olderEvery owner and representative 18 or older
Photo IDUS passport or passport card, driver's license, state ID, or permanent resident cardThe same ID types, for each owner with 25% or more of the company and for the representative
TaxLast four digits of your SSN or an ITIN, plus a W-9EIN, an IRS letter showing it (147C, 252C or CP 575), and the tax form for your entity type
AddressA US residential address; a utility bill, bank statement, insurance policy or card statement if askedA US business address, same proof if asked
BankAn account in your own nameAn account in the business name
OtherNoneA letter of authorization if the person registering is not an owner

Sources: TikTok Shop Academy, How to register as an Individual and Documents for a Corporation or Partnership. Documents must be unexpired, match each other exactly, and be under 10 MB. Checked 22 September 2026.

Other countries ask for the local equivalents, and Be Bold Digital's June 2026 guide puts approval at one to three business days. You also have to live in a country that has TikTok Shop. There were 24 as of August 2026, according to DPL's market list; TikTok verifies your address and bank, so a VPN does not get you in from anywhere else.

RegionCountries with TikTok Shop Seller Center (August 2026)
AmericasUnited States, Mexico, Brazil
EuropeUnited Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland (the last four opened 15 June 2026), Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal
AsiaIndonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan

How to sell on TikTok Shop: register step by step

Here is how to start a TikTok Shop from nothing.

  1. Go to TikTok Shop Seller Center for your country and sign up with your TikTok account or an email and phone number.
  2. Pick your seller type: Individual, Sole Proprietorship, or Corporation/Partnership. Match how you file taxes; it cannot be switched in place.
  3. Enter your legal name, date of birth, address and tax number, then upload both sides of your ID. Each field turns green when it verifies.
  4. Add a bank account in the same name as your ID or business, submit, and wait for approval.
  5. Link your TikTok account so the Shop tab and product tags appear on your profile. A business account is not required to sell, but Ads Manager needs one.
  6. Set up shipping, add products and set an affiliate commission, covered below.

TikTok Shop fees in 2026

There is no listing fee and no monthly fee. TikTok charges a referral fee, a percentage of the item price before tax and shipping, on every sale. The percentage depends on the country and sometimes the category.

MarketStandard referral feeExceptions TikTok publishesNew seller rate
United States6%5% on fine jewellery and pre-owned items; 3% on the part of a pre-owned or collectible sale above $10,0003% for 30 days after a first sale made within 60 days of onboarding
United Kingdom9%5% on selected electronics and beauty, according to one guide; another says no exceptions1.8% for 90 days
Singapore4% to 6% by category2% for 30 days
Malaysia3% to 6% by category1.5% for 30 days
Indonesia1% to 8% by category0.5% to 4% for 30 days
Thailand2% to 5% by categoryNot published
Philippines1% to 6% by categoryNot published
Vietnam1% to 3%Not published

Sources: TikTok Shop Academy, Referral Fees by Category (US, revised 14 May 2026); OneCart (April 2026) for the other markets and new seller rates; Z Media (September 2026) for the UK. Checked 22 September 2026.

Two things the table cannot settle. Delzonic reported in August 2026 that the US rate rose to 8% on 4 August for most non-food categories; TikTok's US fee page still showed 6% in September and no other source confirms it. Some guides list a payment processing fee of about 2% plus 30 cents; TikTok's page lists none, and M2E's guide says processing is built into the referral fee. Seller Center shows the exact fee for your category before you publish. Trust that number over any guide.

Shipping is the other cost. In the US, TikTok has been moving sellers off their own labels onto TikTok Shipping, where TikTok issues the label, and Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT), where TikTok stores and ships your stock for a per-unit fee plus storage. Stacksync gives 9 February 2026 as the cutoff for new US sellers and 31 March 2026 for the rest, while TikTok's fulfillment policy still describes Seller Shipping, so check what your Seller Center offers. A November 2025 thread on r/smallbusiness, "TikTok Shop sellers - how do you actually track your real profit", describes fees, commissions, ad spend, labels and returns landing in different reports. Build a spreadsheet with a line for each before your first order.

The two-business-day shipping rule

Ship within two business days or your account pays for it

TikTok's Fulfillment Policy says every regular order must be marked In Transit within two business days of reaching Awaiting Shipment. In Transit means the carrier has scanned the package, not that you printed a label. Business days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and US federal holidays, so a Friday evening order is due Tuesday night. TikTok tracks late orders as your Late Dispatch Rate, and its LDR policy, in force since 26 January 2026, acts when more than 10% of orders ship late: points off your Account Health Rating, a cap on daily orders of up to half your usual volume, and a longer wait for payouts. FBT orders do not count against you; TikTok Shipping orders do.

GeekSeller notes that enforcement resumed on 6 April 2026 after a pause, that a first breach gets a warning, and that each enforcement can be appealed twice in Seller Center. The practical rule: do not list a product until it sits in a box you could hand to a carrier tomorrow.

Listing your first products

TikTok's listing rules: a title of 25 to 200 characters, at least five images of 600 by 600 pixels or more with a clear front view first and no added text, a description of at least 500 characters, and dimensions for anything that is not clothing. Each size or colour is its own SKU with its own stock count.

What you cannot list matters as much. TikTok's Prohibited Products Policy, revised 1 September 2026, prohibits virtual or digital products unless approved under the Virtual Goods category, which opened in the US in May 2026, by invitation, for digital gift cards, game codes and software licences only. Ebooks, PDFs, courses and templates are out in every market. Neal Schaffer reported in 2026 that the ebook versions of his own books could not go through checkout, and a July 2025 thread on r/Etsy, "TikTok Shop vs Etsy for digital files", reached the same conclusion. If you sell files, TikTok is a place to send traffic to another checkout.

Check demand before you list

Most guides stop at "pick a trending product". TikTok publishes something better in Creator Search Insights, its own search tool in the app and at tiktok.com/csi: how many people searched for a topic in the last seven days, and how many videos exist for it. A topic with millions of searches and no videos is a product nobody is showing yet.

We ran 14 product searches on 21 September 2026, such as "kitchen gadgets", "car accessories" and "amazon finds". Of the 70 topics TikTok returned, 24 had zero videos matched, and 22 of those had over a million searches in the week. Ten of them:

Product topic TikTok listsFound underSearches, last 7 daysVideos matched
testing viral gadgets with friendsgadgets119,630,7730
Useful gadgets for simple repairsgadgets21,326,3310
unexpected gadgets from japangadgets13,682,7030
Top live sale finds for the homehome finds11,367,2080
viral stove and oven productsviral products4,364,9630
viral toy products and featuresviral products4,256,2220
phone devices and accessoriesphone accessories4,202,7600
SKIMS dupes and finds on Amazonamazon finds4,165,5830
cleaning products and washing usescleaning products4,153,5530
Amazon finds and gifts under $10amazon finds3,925,2360

Data: TikTok Creator Search Insights via TokConnect, pulled 21 September 2026. Searches are TikTok's 7-day global figure; videos matched is the count TikTok lists for the topic. Full snapshot (14 searches, 70 topics). The products trends page refreshes this list every week.

Read the table as questions. "Useful gadgets for simple repairs" with 21 million searches and no videos does not mean a repair gadget will sell. It means TikTok had nothing to show those people, so a video with that phrase in the caption lands in an empty result.

We checked two specific ideas on 22 September 2026. For a heatless hair curler, TikTok returned 16 topics; 4 had no videos, including "heatless curl styling problems" at 4.8 million searches, while "heatless hair waves and curls" already had 689 videos. For a car organizer, "car tissue holders and organizers" had 3.6 million searches and no videos, while "bags and bag organizers" had over a thousand. Both products have demand, and each has an angle nobody has filmed yet. That angle is your first product video.

Paste this into your agent

Check TikTok search demand for [my product] and show me how many videos already exist for it. List every related topic with its 7-day searches and video count, and flag the ones with over a million searches and fewer than 50 videos.

Works in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and Gemini once TokConnect is connected. Get a free key (100 credits, no card) or see the setup guides.

An agent connected to TikTok's search data returns that table for your product in seconds. The product research guide goes deeper on reading the numbers, and the weekly products page is where to look when choosing what to stock next.

How creators find and promote your products

Most TikTok Shop sales come through other people's videos. Creators who are 18 or older with at least 1,000 followers can join as affiliates, tag your product, and earn a commission you set on each sale. TikTok's Creator Eligibility Policy, updated 31 July 2026, limits creators under 5,000 followers for their first 30 days to shops with a performance score of 95% or higher, so keep your score high and the newest creators can still pick you.

You set the commission in Affiliate Center inside Seller Center. An open collaboration puts your product in the marketplace every affiliate can browse, at one rate. A target collaboration invites a specific creator at a rate you negotiate, and it overrides the open rate for that creator. TikTok's Seller Center help allows 1% to 80% of the order value and lets you offer a free sample. Hamster Garage, an affiliate agency, put the US average open rate at about 13% in June 2026. You can also set a lower commission for sales that come from TikTok running ads on a creator's video.

The UGC creators guide shows how to find creators already posting about your product type through TikTok search, and the affiliate requirements page covers their side. Two threads set expectations. r/TikTokshop, June 2026, "What advice would you give to a new tik tok shop seller": send samples to more creators than feels comfortable and expect most videos to sell nothing. r/ecommerce, July 2026, "What I've learned handling TikTok Shop issues for ecommerce sellers": keep tracking numbers, parcel photos and buyer messages, because appeals are decided on what you can show.

TikTok Shop ads

Since July 2025 the only ad type for TikTok Shop is GMV Max. You pick products or your whole catalogue, set a daily budget and a return target, and TikTok builds the ads from your videos, your affiliates' videos and your product cards, then spends wherever it predicts the most sales. TikTok's Product GMV Max page says it works for shops of any size and is created from Seller Center. It needs videos to test, so get affiliates posting before you spend.

Your first week: a checklist

  • ID, bank account and tax form show the same name and address, and none has expired.
  • Your category's exact fee, your affiliate commission, shipping per order and a returns allowance are in a spreadsheet.
  • The product is not a digital file, and you have checked TikTok search demand and noted two topics with high searches and few videos for your captions.
  • Every listed unit can be with a carrier within a day, and you know which shipping option your Seller Center offers.
  • Each listing has a 25 to 200 character title, five or more photos over 600 by 600 pixels, a 500-plus character description and dimensions.
  • Open collaboration is on with a free sample on at least one product, ten creators already posting about your product type have a target invitation, and order notifications are on your phone.

The demand check and the creator list are the two items new sellers skip, and they decide whether your first videos land in an empty search result or a crowded one.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to sell on TikTok Shop?

Nothing to open a shop or list products. TikTok charges a referral fee on each sale: 6% of the item price in the US on most categories (5% on fine jewellery and pre-owned items) and 9% in the UK. One August 2026 report says the US rate rose to 8%; TikTok's own fee page still showed 6% in September 2026, so check the category fee in your Seller Center. On top of that come the affiliate commission you set, shipping, and a refund administration fee of 20% of the referral fee (capped at $5) on returns.

What are the requirements to sell on TikTok Shop?

Be 18 or older, live in a country where TikTok Shop operates, and pass verification in Seller Center. In the US an individual needs a passport, driver's license, state ID or permanent resident card, the last four digits of an SSN or an ITIN, a W-9, and a bank account in the same name. A business needs an EIN with an IRS letter, ID for every owner with 25% or more, and a business bank account. Politicians cannot register.

Can I sell on TikTok Shop without a business license?

Yes, in the US and most other markets. Register as an Individual seller with your personal ID, tax number and bank account. You will still owe tax on what you earn, and TikTok reports your sales, so keep records. If you later form a company, you register the business separately; the seller type cannot be switched in place.

How many followers do you need to sell on TikTok Shop?

None. Seller accounts have no follower requirement; you can open a shop with a brand new TikTok account. The follower rule applies to creators who want to promote products as affiliates: TikTok's policy asks for at least 1,000 followers and age 18, with a 30-day pilot for creators under 5,000 followers.

Can you sell digital products on TikTok Shop?

Not files. TikTok's Prohibited Products Policy bans virtual or digital products unless the seller is approved for the Virtual Goods category, which opened in the US in May 2026 by invitation and covers only digital gift cards, game codes and in-game currency, and software licences. Ebooks, PDFs, courses and templates cannot go through checkout in any market. Sellers of digital files use TikTok to send people to a checkout elsewhere.

What happens if I ship late on TikTok Shop?

Each order must be scanned by the carrier within two business days of reaching Awaiting Shipment. TikTok tracks the share of late orders as your Late Dispatch Rate. Above 10%, it deducts Account Health Rating points, limits how many orders you can take per day (up to half your usual volume), and holds your payouts longer. Repeated breaches can remove listings or deactivate the account. You can appeal each enforcement twice from the Appeals page in Seller Center.

Sources and data