Running TikTok Shop Affiliates In The UK
Category
TikTok Shop
Published by
Tom Emmanuel
Read Time
6 Minutes
The TikTok Shop affiliate programme is where many UK brands find their first sales on the platform, and where it is easiest to waste money. Creators sell your products in their videos and LIVEs, and you pay them a commission you set, only on orders that are not refunded. The programme works when you treat it as daily trading: the right creators, sensible commission, samples you control and follow-up on every video. Here is how it works in the UK and how to run it.
Tom Emmanuel
Founder, Furnace Commerce
How the TikTok Shop affiliate programme works in the UK
Open and Target Collaborations
There are two main ways to work with creators in TikTok Shop UK. TikTok now calls them Open and Target Collaborations; they used to be called plans. Open Collaboration puts your products in the affiliate marketplace for any eligible creator to find and promote. You set a commission rate per product, and TikTok suggests a rate. You can also offer free or refundable samples to creators who apply. Target Collaboration is where you invite chosen creators directly, with your own rate and message. TikTok's UK seller guidance allows up to 200 invitations every 24 hours, with up to 50 creators and 100 products in each collaboration. If a product sits in both, the Target rate applies to the creators you invited. There is a third route through agencies. TikTok Shop Affiliate Partners match sellers with creators through campaigns you set up, either open to all partner agencies or invite-only. You set the rate and sample quota, and you cannot edit the rate once the campaign is live.
Commission, Shop Ads commission and how creators get paid
You set commission per product, from 1% up to 80%. TikTok calculates it on the order value after refunds, and creators are not paid on cancelled or refunded orders. Payment to the creator is automatic once the order settles. There is also a separate Shop Ads commission. When a creator authorises you to use their video in your GMV Max campaigns, you can pay a different rate on orders that come through the ad rather than the creator's organic reach. Set it lower than your standard rate, because you are paying for the ad as well. Our post on GMV Max explains how those campaigns use creator videos. TikTok's UK fee guidance lists affiliate commission as a cost you pay to creators, separate from the platform's own commission fee. We have not found any separate fee that TikTok adds on top of affiliate commission. Build both into your margin before you pick a rate: the platform fee, the creator's commission, any discount you fund and, if you run ads, the ad cost.
Samples: the part that costs real money
Samples are the biggest hidden cost in a creator programme. With free samples you pay for the product, shipping and tax. TikTok's UK rules give the creator 14 days from delivery to post a video, which must stay up for at least three days, or a LIVE with at least one sale. Refundable samples, available in Open Collaboration, work the other way round: the creator buys the sample and gets the money back once they meet your criteria. Put a number on it. If a product costs you £8 to make and £4 to post, every free sample costs £12 before anyone has made a video. A hundred samples is £1,200. If only a third of those creators post, each video has cost you £36, and only some of those videos will sell. That is why the approval step matters more than any other. Review sample requests properly. Look at each creator's recent videos, their audience and whether they have sold anything similar. Ten samples to creators who post and sell are worth more than a hundred sent to anyone who asks. Track every sample against the video it produced and the sales that followed, and stop sending to creators who do not post.
Who can be an affiliate, and who you should pick
TikTok's newest UK eligibility page sets the bar at 500 followers for creators, plus being 18 or over and not a government or political account. Older pages and much of the trade press still quote 1,000, so check the current rule in Seller Center before you plan around it. Follower count is a poor guide anyway. What matters is whether a creator's audience matches your buyer and whether they already sell. The creator search in Seller Center shows audience age and gender, follower counts and past sales value. Start with creators whose audience matches your customer and who have a record of sales, then widen. Run it every day. Send your daily invitations, review sample requests within the deadline, follow up on samples without videos, and move commission up for creators who are selling. That is what separates a programme that grows from one that stalls after the first wave of samples. Keep a simple weekly scorecard: invitations sent, creators accepted, samples approved, videos posted, sales from creator content and commission paid. If samples are going out but videos are not coming back, tighten who you approve. If videos are posting but not selling, look at the product, the price and the brief before you blame the creators.
A creator programme is not a launch campaign. It is a daily trading job, and the brands that treat it that way win.
Questions brands ask about TikTok Shop affiliates
What commission should I offer TikTok creators?
Work back from your margin. After TikTok's commission fee, product cost, delivery and any discount, decide how much of what is left you can give a creator and still make money. A sensible approach is to start a little higher to attract creators, then adjust by product and by creator once you see who sells. TikTok lets you set a rate from 1% to 80% per product.
Do I have to give free samples?
No, but creators are far more likely to post if they have the product. Refundable samples, where the creator pays and is refunded once they meet your criteria, are an option in Open Collaboration. Whatever you choose, approve samples selectively and track them against videos and sales.
How many followers does a TikTok Shop affiliate need in the UK?
TikTok's most recent UK eligibility page says 500, with creators also needing to be 18 or over. Older guidance said 1,000, so confirm the current rule in Seller Center. Either way, choose creators on audience fit and sales history rather than follower count.
Should I use a TikTok Shop affiliate agency?
It can help if you do not have time to source creators every day. TikTok's Affiliate Partner agencies run campaigns for you at a rate you set, with a sample quota you control. Check which creators they actually bring, because you cannot edit the rate once the campaign is live.
Let's work together
Creators not selling?
Tell us your products, your margin and what your creator programme is doing now, and we will tell you what we would change.