TikTok Shop UK Shipping: How It Works for Sellers

When you set up a UK shop and add a warehouse address, TikTok selects Ship by TikTok (Shipped via Platform) for you. Every order then arrives with a tracking number and a label already generated; your job is to pack it, print the label and hand it over. TikTok chooses the carrier, pays the courier, and charges you a shipping fee per parcel in your settlement. It is the simpler option and the one most new sellers should stay on.

Ship by Seller (Shipped by Seller) hands the postage back to you. You can switch to it in Seller Center for UK-to-UK orders without asking permission, although TikTok's returns policy still describes it as available to 'selected sellers', so some accounts may find it restricted. Under Ship by Seller you buy labels from an approved carrier — Royal Mail, Evri, DPD and others — and upload the tracking number to the order. You avoid TikTok's shipping fee but pay a small per-order Shipped by Seller service fee (£0.50 including VAT per delivered order when it was introduced on 15 July 2025) and take on the delivery deadline yourself.

One thing to ignore: the widely shared story that TikTok is 'ending seller shipping in 2026' applies to the United States only. In the UK both options remain available, and sellers based in the EU selling into the UK are limited to Ship by Seller.

TikTok's rate card says Shipped via Platform 'uses a variety of carriers, including Royal Mail, Evri, DPD and others'. Royal Mail became the platform's primary delivery partner in October 2025, and TikTok's courier management page lists the limits for each: Royal Mail up to 2 kg and 45 × 35 × 16 cm (its Small Parcel format), Evri up to 15 kg for drop-off or 30 kg for pick-up with a 120 cm longest side and 245 cm girth, and Whistl up to 5 kg and 40 × 30 × 25 cm. You do not choose the courier; TikTok assigns it from the size and weight on the order. InPost lockers are not used for platform labels, and neither is the former Yodel network.

Labels are created in Orders → Manage Orders → Create Label and must be printed at 102 × 152 mm, landscape, on a label printer or a laser or inkjet printer. TikTok does not offer a QR-code or printer-free option for platform labels, so unlike Vinted or eBay you need a printer to sell on TikTok Shop with Ship by TikTok.

You then either drop the parcel at a local parcel shop for the assigned courier — the default — or book a pick-up. Labels printed before 7pm are collected the next day, sellers dispatching around 20 orders a day can get a daily van, and in some areas TikTok routes collections through its own 'Collections by TikTok' partner at no extra cost with roughly two-day delivery. Whichever you use, the parcel must be scanned as shipped within two working days of the order.

• Platform labels: Royal Mail (2 kg, 45 × 35 × 16 cm), Evri (15 kg drop-off / 30 kg pick-up, 120 cm), DPD and others — assigned by TikTok
• Print at 102 × 152 mm landscape; no QR-code option
• Drop-off limit 20 kg, pick-up 30 kg, longest side 120 cm, girth 225 cm — a label cannot be generated if any side exceeds 120 cm
• Drop at a parcel shop or book a pick-up; printed before 7pm means next-day collection

Under Ship by TikTok you pay a 'TikTok Shop Shipping Fee' per parcel, deducted from your settlement. It is tiered by the parcel's weight and dimensions and by your monthly order volume, and the tables live in the Seller Center rate card. TikTok's own worked examples give a feel for the level: £2.10 excluding VAT for a Large Letter-sized parcel (35.3 × 25 × 2.5 cm, up to 1 kg) dropped at a shop, and £2.20 for a 45 × 35 × 16 cm parcel up to 2 kg on a pick-up at medium volume. Bulky parcels over 61 × 46 × 46 cm carry a flat £8.50 excluding VAT, and Northern Ireland, the Highlands and islands add £1.50.

Since 1 August 2026 mis-declaring the weight or size is expensive: TikTok charges the difference between the tier you declared and the tier the courier measured plus a £3.50 handling fee, and the charge cannot be appealed. Weigh and measure every packed parcel and enter the real figures on the product listing.

The buyer pays whatever delivery fee you set on the listing — a flat fee between £0.00 and £3.99 excluding VAT for the mainland (£5.50 for remote areas) or a weight-tiered fee with caps such as £4.79 for 2–5 kg. That fee is income to you, but it is also inside the commission base: TikTok's 9% commission (including VAT; 5% for eligible electronics and some beauty categories) is charged on the item price plus the customer-paid delivery fee plus any platform discount. Your settlement is net sales minus the shipping fee minus commission and other fees, and TikTok's finance FAQ notes it can go negative on an order where the shipping fee exceeds what the customer paid.

TikTok no longer co-funds shipping. Its Free Shipping Benefits policy (July 2026) rewards shops that offer free shipping on orders of £22 or more — the default threshold for new sellers — with a badge and better visibility, but the cost of that free shipping is yours.

If you switch to Ship by Seller you must still confirm, pack and label the order within two working days, then upload the tracking number from an approved carrier in Manage Orders (singly or in bulk). Orders with no courier scan 24 hours after the tracking is uploaded are flagged, and you get 36 hours to correct them. Your delivery promise is 4 business days for UK domestic orders, the buyer can cancel after 7 working days if there is no tracking, and unshipped orders auto-cancel at 7 working days.

In practice that means a tracked service every time: Royal Mail Tracked 48 (£3.65 online for a Small Parcel until 4 October 2026, £3.75 after), Evri (£2.62 to a ParcelShop or £3.04 to the door for a parcel under 1 kg) or InPost (£1.99 for a Small compartment locker-to-locker). InPost's QR-code lockers work well for small items here because you are buying the label yourself — the printer requirement only applies to platform labels. Remember InPost will not carry batteries, liquids or aerosols and covers second-hand goods only up to £50.

Yodel was on TikTok's approved carrier list at the start of 2026, but the Yodel brand was retired on 17 July 2026 when its network became InPost, and the approved-carriers page was unavailable when we checked. Use Royal Mail or Evri unless Seller Center explicitly lists InPost.

TikTok Shop is stricter than any other UK marketplace on speed. Both shipping models require dispatch within 2 working days of the order, and TikTok tracks an On-Time Dispatch Rate (OTDR): 90% or better is healthy, 70% or below reduces your visibility and can trigger an order-volume limit. Serious or repeated breaches lead to an 8-day freeze on your funds plus a late-delivery fee of £7 or £15 per order that arrives more than three business days after the delivery promise (seven business days in total). Under Ship by TikTok, courier delays after an on-time hand-over do not count against you; under Ship by Seller they do, because the delivery promise is yours.

Two more metrics matter: a Valid Tracking Rate of at least 95% (tracking uploaded and scanned for Ship by Seller orders) and a Seller-Fault Cancellation Rate below 2.5%. A seller who runs out of stock after a live sale and cancels the orders can breach the second one quickly, so keep inventory counts accurate during lives.

Buyers have 30 calendar days from delivery to request a return, and you must respond within 2 working days; if a return arrives and you do nothing for 2 days, TikTok refunds the buyer automatically within 14 days. For a product problem — damaged, faulty, not as described — you pay the return postage. For a change-of-mind return the buyer must not be charged: TikTok covers the return label if TikTok arranged it, and you cover it if you arranged it. Outbound postage is refunded to the buyer if they ask within 14 days, and that comes out of your settlement whichever shipping model you use.

Return labels are printable or shown as a QR code at a drop-off point, and returns go to TikTok's designated points. Where a return is caused by a logistics failure on a Ship by TikTok or Fulfilled by TikTok order, the return postage is reimbursed to you. Note that TikTok's buyer-facing help page still describes change-of-mind postage being deducted from the refund, which conflicts with the seller policy quoted above — if you are disputing a return cost, cite the seller returns policy.

Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) is the warehouse option: you send stock to TikTok's UK fulfilment centre and it picks, packs and ships each order, with free storage for the first 60 days (from 24 August 2026), a per-item operation fee (for example £0.78 for an extra-small item) and no Ship by Seller fee. Free shipping on FBT orders over £22 costs the seller £1.99 per parcel. FBT suits sellers with a small range of fast-moving new products rather than one-off second-hand items.

Live selling has no separate shipping policy — every order placed during a live counts from the moment it is placed, so a two-hour live with 60 sales means 60 parcels to dispatch within two working days. Print labels in bulk from Manage Orders, pack from a list, and book a pick-up rather than queuing at a parcel shop.

TikTok's prohibited products policy bans bladed items, weapons, fireworks and explosives, drugs, adult products and single-use plastics among others, and dangerous goods such as aerosols and lithium batteries can only be sent with approval from both TikTok Shop and the carrier. Alcohol and vapes are restricted categories with their own rules. Check the Restricted Products page before listing anything in those categories, because a label will not save an order the courier refuses.