How to Open a Shop on TikTok

Ready to turn your TikTok views into actual sales? Setting up a TikTok Shop is one of the most powerful and direct ways to sell products to your audience right where they are, transforming your profile from a content channel into a full-fledged storefront. This guide will walk you through every step of the process, covering everything from the upfront requirements to the promotion strategies that drive real revenue.

First Things First: What Exactly is a TikTok Shop?

Unlike simply putting a link in your bio and hoping for the best, a TikTok Shop is a completely integrated eCommerce solution built directly into the app. It allows users to discover and purchase products without ever leaving TikTok, creating a seamless and incredibly effective shopping experience. When your shop is live, you can transform your profile, videos, and live streams into interactive, shoppable content.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Product Showcase Tab: A dedicated "shop" icon (often resembling a shopping bag) appears on your profile page, acting as your digital storefront where users can browse your entire catalog.
• Shoppable Videos: You can tag specific products in your regular, short-form videos. A small shopping cart icon will appear, and viewers can tap it to see the featured item and make a purchase instantly.
• LIVE Shopping: During a TikTok LIVE, you can showcase products in real-time. Viewers can see a list of featured items, pin products they’re interested in, and add them to their cart while you’re still broadcasting.

The beauty of this is its low-friction design. You're capturing attention and converting it into a sale in the same moment, capitalizing on the "I want that right now" impulse that TikTok’s algorithm is so good at creating.

Before You Start: Do You Qualify for a TikTok Shop?

Before you get too far into the setup, you need to make sure you're eligible. The requirements for opening a TikTok Shop are quite specific, and they differ slightly depending on where you are located and whether you're signing up as a business (a direct seller) or as a creator (an affiliate). For this guide, we'll focus primarily on opening a shop as a seller - the person who owns the products and manages the inventory.

Eligibility for Sellers (Businesses)

If you're a brand, an entrepreneur, or anyone with their own product to sell, you’ll be registering as a Seller. The requirements are centered on proving you're a legitimate business.

• Location: Your business must be based in a country where TikTok Shop is available. As of now, this includes the United States, United Kingdom, and several countries in Southeast Asia (like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines).
• Business Registration: You will need to provide official documentation that proves your business is legally registered. This could be an LLC registration, a sole proprietorship document, or another form of business license.
• Verified Identity: The business owner or legal representative will need to provide government-issued ID, like a passport or driver's license, for verification.
• Bank Account: You need a business bank account to link to your TikTok Shop for payouts.

Important Note: TikTok is strict about the types of products sold on the platform. Prohibited categories include controlled substances, medical devices, weapons, and hazardous materials. Be sure to review TikTok’s prohibited products guidelines to ensure your inventory is compliant.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Opening Your TikTok Shop

Once you’ve confirmed you meet the eligibility criteria, you’re ready to get started. Have your business documents and a form of personal ID handy to make the process smoother.

Step 1: Navigate to the TikTok Shop Seller Center

Your shop isn’t created within the consumer TikTok app. Instead, you'll manage everything from a dedicated portal called the TikTok Shop Seller Center. You can find this easily with a quick search online. This dashboard will be your command center for adding products, managing orders, tracking finances, and monitoring performance.

Step 2: Sign Up and Choose Your Business Type

On the Seller Center homepage, you’ll begin the registration process. You will be asked to provide basic information like your phone number and email address. Most importantly, you’ll be asked to choose your business type.

• Corporation: Select this if you’re a registered corporation, LLC, or partnership. This is the most common path for established businesses.
• Individual Seller/Sole Proprietor: If you're a sole proprietor without a formal business registration (like an LLC), you can still register. TikTok will verify your identity using your personal information and documents.

After selecting your business type, you will need to upload corresponding proof, an ID, and fill in all the required details about your company.

Step 3: Wait for Business Verification

This is the waiting game. After you submit your business information and documents, TikTok’s team will manually review your application to verify its authenticity. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of business days. If there are any issues with your documents, you will be notified and asked to resubmit them. You’ll receive an email once you’re approved.

Step 4: Configure Your Warehouse and Shipping Settings

Once approved, your first task inside the Seller Center is to set up your fundamental logistics. You’ll start by entering your warehouse (or pickup) address. This is where your products ship from. After that, you'll configure your shipping options. TikTok provides a "Ship by TikTok" option in some regions, where they handle the label generation and tracking for you. You can also set up your own shipping solutions if you prefer.

Step 5: Link Your Bank Account for Payouts

Of course, you'll want to get paid! The final setup step is to link your business bank account. Navigate to the "Finance" or "Payments" section of the Seller Center and securely enter your account information. TikTok issues payouts a few days after an order is delivered to a customer, so be sure this information is accurate.

Stocking Your Shelves: Adding and Managing Products

With your shop approved and configured, it's time for the fun part: adding your products. You have two primary ways to do this.

Manually Uploading Products

If you're just starting out or have a small catalog, you can add products one by one directly in the Seller Center. You’ll go to the "Products" tab and select "Add Product." For each item, you’ll need to provide:

• Product Name: Make it clear and searchable.
• Category: Choose the most relevant category. This helps with discoverability.
• Images &, Video: High-quality visuals are non-negotiable. Show your products from multiple angles, in use if possible. TikTok is a video platform, so a short product video can be extremely effective here.
• Description: Keep it concise and benefit-focused. Use bullet points to make it skimmable.
• Variations: Add options for different sizes, colors, or styles if applicable.
• Price &, Inventory: Set your price and enter the number of units you have in stock.

Syncing with an eCommerce Platform

Do you already have a shop on a platform like Shopify or BigCommerce? If so, this is a massive time-saver. TikTok Shop offers integrations with major eCommerce services. By connecting your existing store, you can automatically sync your products, prices, and inventory levels. This means when an item sells on TikTok, the stock count is updated in your Shopify store automatically, and vice-versa, preventing overselling.

You’re Open for Business! Now How Do You Get Sales?

Having a shop is just the beginning. The real success comes from promoting your products genuinely and creatively to your audience. This is where your social media marketing skills come into play.

Tagging Products Directly in Your Videos

This is your bread and butter. Every time you create a video that features or relates to one of your products, tag it! Before posting, you’ll see an option to "Add Link." From there, select "Product" and choose the item from your catalog. A clickable link will then appear on your video. Don't make every video a hard sell, instead, weave product features into the creative, entertaining, or educational formats that your audience already loves.

Example ideas:

• A "Day in the Life" video showing you using your product organically.
• A timelapse of you "Packing a large order" for a customer.
• A tutorial or "how-to" video that demonstrates your product's value.

Going Live with Shoppable Products

TikTok LIVE is a goldmine for eCommerce. It creates a sense of urgency and allows you to build a personal connection with shoppers in real-time. Before you go live, you can create a list of products you plan to feature. During the stream, you can pin specific items to the screen, answer questions from the audience, and demonstrate products up close. This creates a virtual shopping party, and it converts incredibly well because of the interactivity and trust you build.

Using the TikTok Shop Affiliate Program

You don't have to be the only one promoting your products. The TikTok Shop affiliate program allows you to offer a commission to other creators who promote and sell your products for you. You can set the commission rate for each product and open it up for creators to request samples. This essentially outsources your marketing to an army of trusted influencers, putting your products in front of thousands of new potential customers.

Final Thoughts

Setting up a TikTok Shop connects you directly with your audience on a platform that's built for viral discovery, turning your creative content into a real revenue stream. By following the steps from eligibility and verification to strategically promoting your products in videos and live streams, you can build a powerful and successful in-app storefront.

As your shop grows, managing the constant flow of content to promote your products across all your social channels can become overwhelming. This is why we built Postbase to bring some order to the chaos. We designed it for a video-first world, so you can visually plan and reliably schedule your shoppable TikToks, Reels, and Shorts all from one clean calendar. This lets you focus more on creating awesome videos and engaging with your customers, rather than getting bogged down trying to manage schedules across multiple apps.