In 2025, U.S. sales on TikTok Shop grew 108% year over year, and for some brands, it has become a real volume driver. Not a test channel. Not a side hustle. A legitimate commerce engine.
But success on TikTok Shop does not come from showing up with a product link and hoping for the best. It requires a clear understanding of margins, fulfillment, and how people actually shop on the platform.
This guide breaks down where TikTok Shop works best, where brands get tripped up, and what it takes to operate it sustainably.
Table of Contents
Why brands are betting on TikTok Shop
When TikTok Shop works, it really works.
Shoppers do not just buy once. Retention is strong, repeat purchases are common, and discovery is built into the experience. Products can blow up overnight when they intersect with the right trend, Creator, or moment.
Lower average AOVs make TikTok Shop especially effective for certain types of brands and products.
Best-fit categories tend to include:
Everyday-priced to mid-priced products that benefit from impulse buying
Replenishable or repeat-use items
SKUs that demo well on camera
Products that naturally fit into trends, routines, or hacks
For brands operating comfortably in that range, TikTok Shop can unlock meaningful scale quickly.
For everyone else, it takes more intention.
Key considerations for brands
TikTok Shop is built for brands that are operationally prepared and ready to execute at speed.
Before leaning in, there are a few realities every brand needs to account for.
The impulse price gap
TikTok is a democratized marketplace.
Compared to traditional ecommerce platforms, TikTok Shop skews toward lower order values, with many purchases falling in the approximately $25–$60 range, reinforcing what shoppers already expect: fast, affordable, low-friction purchases.
Higher AOV brands are not locked out, but they do have to adapt. That usually means:
Bundling products to justify value
Offering TikTok Shop exclusive sets or discounts
Leaning heavily on Creator trust to overcome price resistance
A single high-priced SKU with a “Shop Now” button rarely converts on its own.
Understanding platform economics
Affiliate-driven sales come with real costs.
Between:
Referral fees at roughly 6%
Transaction and processing fees around 3%
Affiliate commissions that often range from 1 to 8%
Brands should plan for an estimated 14 to 17% of revenue to go toward fees and affiliate commissions.
That does not make the channel unworkable. It means that margin planning is essential in this environment. Brands that treat TikTok Shop like a bonus channel often realize too late that it is eating into profitability.
Free shipping is no longer subsidized
Shipping economics have shifted on TikTok Shop.
To keep the “Free Shipping” badge, sellers now fund shipping directly, while TikTok provides logistics support through services like FBT.
On single-item orders, those costs can impact margins. This is another reason bundles and higher perceived value matter. Shipping one item at a time is far less forgiving than shipping a well-constructed set.
Why operational performance matters
Seller Performance Score (or SPS) plays a direct role in campaign eligibility and account standing.
Seller Performance Scores below 2.5 can limit campaign eligibility
Seller Performance Scores below 2.0 may impact account standing
TikTok Shop rewards brands that move fast and operate cleanly.
How fulfillment works on TikTok Shop now
TikTok Shop has confirmed that Seller Shipping remains available for U.S. sellers, and previously announced changes to phase it out are not currently going into effect.
With that, sellers still have multiple fulfillment options, including Seller Shipping, Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT), and platform-managed shipping programs. But as the marketplace evolves, brands should monitor updates and choose the model that best aligns with their operational strategy.
At the same time, TikTok is continuing to align fulfillment through its managed logistics services, creating a more centralized system designed to support consistent delivery standards and marketplace performance.
In this environment, operational readiness and inventory planning play a critical role in long-term growth.
Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT)
How it works:
Brands send inventory to TikTok’s warehouses. TikTok handles storage, shipping, and returns, with fees based on item size and volume.
The benefits:
FBT is designed to support scalable growth. It enables faster delivery, improves product visibility and conversion signals, simplifies creator sampling, and reduces operational complexity by centralizing fulfillment within TikTok’s logistics network.
Things to consider:
Brands trade some control over packaging and unboxing for greater speed, reliability, and platform alignment. For brands focused on accelerating growth on TikTok Shop, FBT can serve as a simplified strategic foundation.
Platform-controlled shipping
For brands not fully using FBT, TikTok offers platform-managed shipping options. Select third-party software tools are supported if fully integrated with TikTok’s logistics system. This new structure is designed to maintain consistent delivery standards and performance across the marketplace.
What this means for brands
Fulfillment plays a direct role in performance on TikTok Shop.
With these changes, winning brands will plan inventory early, build margins to absorb platform fees, and treat logistics as a core part of their TikTok Shop strategy.
TikTok Shop best practices that actually drive sales
Once the foundation is set, performance comes down to how you show up.
Lead with native content, not ads
Polished ads do not stop the scroll. Stories do.
The highest-performing TikTok Shop content feels native. Reviews, wear-tests, routines, styling hacks, and honest POVs consistently outperform ad-like executions. Creator videos drive roughly two-thirds of TikTok Shop sales, far outweighing platform-run campaigns.
Shoppers do not want to be sold to. They want to see how a product fits into real life.
Prioritize creators and affiliates
GMV Max campaigns can be powerful, but they are limited and volatile. The most consistent growth comes from creators who understand their audience and know how to sell without sounding like an ad.
Strong affiliate programs create a flywheel:
Creators test and post
Winning videos get replicated
Momentum builds organically
The goal is not one viral hit. It is repeatable creator output.
Use bundles to increase AOV
Bundles do more than increase cart size. They help justify value.
They work especially well for:
Higher-priced brands entering TikTok Shop
Products that work better together
Shoppers comparing cost versus benefit
A bundle tells a clearer story than a single SKU ever could.
Offer something shoppers can’t get elsewhere
TikTok Shop shoppers are deal-aware and novelty-driven.
Exclusive bundles, limited SKUs, or TikTok-only pricing give people a reason to buy now instead of later. When everything is available everywhere, urgency disappears.
Treat speed as a ranking signal
Fast shipping and quick responses do not just improve customer experience. They directly affect your Seller Performance Score.
Responding visibly to comments, handling issues quickly, and delivering fast all signal reliability to the platform. On TikTok Shop, speed is currency.
Ride trends like demand signals
Trends are not just content prompts. They are real-time indicators of what people want.
When the right SKU intersects with the right trend, whether that is an aesthetic, a seasonal shift, or a viral hack, attention compounds quickly. Brands that can move inventory, Creators, and messaging fast are the ones that win those moments.
Always sell the moment
The strongest TikTok Shop listings tie into urgency.
That might be:
A seasonal use case
A limited bundle
A trending routine
A time-bound offer
People buy when there is a reason to act now. Build that reason into how you show up.
The takeaway
TikTok Shop is not a shortcut. It is a system.
Brands that succeed treat it as a full-funnel channel backed by strong operations, thoughtful margin planning, and creator-first content. Brands that do not, may find out the hard way that growth without readiness does not last.
When operations, content, and timing align, TikTok Shop can unlock real scale.
Ready to build a TikTok Shop strategy backed by real creator intelligence? Book a call with Later and find out what's actually possible for your brand.
