TikTok Shop: marketplace guide

About this guide

This is a ChannelEngine guide on the Beijing-based marketplace TikTok Shop. Here you can find information on how to request a TikTok Shop account, how to configure this channel on ChannelEngine, what the specific requirements are, and more.

Table of contents

Commercial information

How to request an account

Associated costs

Channel features

Settings and configuration

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

• Setup
• Categorization
• Mappings
• Pricing
• Listed products

Additional information

FAQs

 

 

Commercial information

Founded	2016
Founder	Zhang Yiming
Headquarters	Beijing, China
Area served (orders)	United Kingdom
Number of monthly visits	circa 2 billion (November 2022)
Website	TikTok Shop
Setup cost	none
Commission	5%
Other costs	none
Payment	14 days after delivery
Product categories	almost anything
Input language	English
Input currency	GBP
Content creation	yes
Minimum number of SKUs	no
Advertisement options	no
Profile on ChannelEngine	TikTok Shop

 

How to request an account

To start selling on TikTok Shop, go to the TikTok Shop welcome page and create a seller account.

Associated costs

TikTok Shop does not charge a setup or monthly fee. However, it does charge a commission fee of 5%.

Channel features

Supported	Not supported
Product content	Marketplace fulfillment services
Product offers	Repricing
Orders	Refurbished products
Shipments	Split orders
HTML formatting	Multiple stock locations
Cancelations (channel)	Cancelations (merchant)
Carrier mapping	Sales channels
Returns (channel)
Returns (merchant)

 

Settings and configuration

The setup of each channel on ChannelEngine follows the same flow, once you add the channel:

1. Go through the Setup.
2. Create a Product selection.
3. Complete the Categorization.
4. Set up the Mappings (content, offers, and carriers).
5. Configure the Pricing (rules and currency conversion).
6. Finish the Activation.
7. Check the Listed products overview.

Channel-specific requirements and exceptions

Setup

On ChannelEngine

1. Using the incognito mode of your browser, log into ChannelEngine and open your TikTok Shop channel.
2. Go to the Setup page and scroll down to the Authorize ChannelEngine section.
3. Click Authorize. A popup opens, prompting you to select the account type. E.g.: Asia, Europe, etc.
4. Log into TikTok Shop's Seller Central using your credentials.
5. Authorize ChannelEngine to connect with your TikTok Shop account.

On TikTok Shop Seller Center

1. Go to Shipping, Shipping options and disable the Express shipping and Standard shipping settings.
2. Enable the Shipped from seller setting. If you fail to enable this setting, all customer information attached to incoming orders is anonymized. Note that customers’ email addresses are always anonymized.

Categorization

Categorization is mandatory if you want to create or update existing product information on TikTok Shop. Both categorizations and mappings only result in updates if the content connection is enabled and the relevant credentials have been entered (see the Setup section).

Note that the categories change according to the sales channel you are using. E.g.: the categories in the United Kingdom channel are different from the categories in the Vietnam channel.

Mappings

Content

There are no category-specific attributes on TikTok Shop.

All products (required)

• Package weight - the package's weight, in kg. The maximum weight is 20 kg.
• Product identifier - the product's GTIN, which must be unique per variation. 
• Product identifier type - the kind of unique code provided in the Product identifier attribute. E.g.: EAN, UPC, ISBN.
• Product image URL 1 - the parent product's image. The image requirements are:
  • The file formats supported are JPG, JPEG, or PNG.
  • The maximum file size is 5.2 MB.
• Product name - the product's title. The maximum number of characters is 188.
• SKU Image URL - the child product's image URL.

All products (optional)

• Package height - the package's height, in cm. The maximum height is 35 cm.
• Package length - the package's length, in cm. The maximum length is 60 cm.
• Package width - the package's width, in cm. The maximum width is 40 cm.
• Product description - the product's description. HTML formatting is supported. The maximum number of characters is 1,000.
• Product image URL 2-9 - the product's additional images. The requirements are the same as for Product image URL 1.
• SKU - the product's SKU.
• Warranty period - the product's warranty period. Select a value from the dropdown menu. E.g.: 1 week, 6 months, 5 years, etc. 
• Warranty policy - the product's warranty policy.
• Brand - the product's brand, which you are only allowed to select if you are authorized to sell it. To map the product's brand, click the related empty field, start typing the brand's name, and select it when it appears. If your brand is missing, get in touch with TikTok Shop.

Offer

All products (required)

• Original price - the product's price.
• Warehouse - the warehouse where the product is stored. Only one option is available, based on your setup in the TikTok Shop back-end.

Carrier

Depending on the sales channel you are connected with, the list of carriers available for mapping varies.

Note that TikTok Shop does not support split or multiple order lines. Every order contains a single order line.

Pricing

Depending on the sales channel you are connected with, the default currency varies. If you do not have pricing attributes in the default currency, you need to set up a currency conversion.

Listed products

If you have problems with products not appearing on TikTok Shop, check the Listed products page for more information.

You can either filter based on the Channel status (e.g.: Invalid for all products that ChannelEngine has not exported, such as products with an empty EAN) or check the Validation and feedback tab to see all known validation/feedback errors for specific products. 

Additional information

Order extra data items

When an order is imported to ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine also fetches extra data items related to the order itself – or to order lines. This extra data is specific to this marketplace. An explanation of each can be found below: 

Order extra data

Keys	Conditional*	Description
package_id	No	The id of the package, e.g.: the first value of PackageList in the order details.

* Conditional fields only display if the channel provided a value. 

 

FAQs

How often does each task run on TikTok Shop?

Tasks run according to the following schedule on TikTok Shop:

Export product data to channel	every 60 minutes
Export product offers to channel	every 15 minutes
Import product offers from channel	every 15 minutes
Import orders from channel	every 20 minutes
Import returns from channel	every 60 minutes
Export order shipments to channel	every 60 minutes
Export returns to channel	every 60 minutes
Export product images	every 60 minutes