TikTok Shop Tightens Fulfillment Rules, Further Shortens Delivery Timelines

Ebrun Exclusive: On January 12, TikTok Shop updated its fulfillment rules on its official website, imposing stricter requirements on seller shipping timelines. According to the announcement, starting January 26, standard orders will be required to update their fulfillment status to "In Transit" within two business days of being placed.

The announcement stated that sellers must complete order shipping and delivery within the specified Service Level Agreement (SLA)—i.e., the number of business days required for an order to reach a designated fulfillment milestone.

All orders must provide valid tracking numbers to meet shipping requirements and enable customers to track delivery progress. Sellers must also maintain key fulfillment metrics to ensure overall performance stability and compliance.

Specifically, different order types have varying processing time requirements during the "Awaiting Collection" stage before shipping.

Regular Orders: Must be marked "In Transit" within two business days from the order date and delivered within six business days.

If an order status is not updated to "Awaiting Collection" (meaning the seller has not added tracking information in the seller center) within seven business days, TikTok Shop will automatically cancel it.

Made-to-Order/Backorder/Custom Handling Orders: Sellers are allowed an additional business day beyond their set handling time to ship, with delivery required within "Handling Time + 5 business days" from the order date.

If the status is not marked "Awaiting Collection" within four business days after the shipping SLA expires, the order will be canceled automatically.

Pre-Order Items: Must be marked "In Transit" within two business days after the pre-order period ends and delivered within six business days from that date.

If the status is not updated to "Awaiting Collection" within five business days after the shipping SLA expires, TikTok Shop will cancel the order.

TikTok Shop further explained that to meet shipping requirements, sellers must ensure orders are scanned by carriers within the specified timeframe. Once a package is successfully scanned, the order status in the seller center will automatically update to "In Transit."

In the "Fulfillment Settings" section of the seller center, sellers can choose to let TikTok Shop automatically set handling times or manually set default values. Handling time, measured in business days, indicates the preparation time needed before shipping.

At the store level, the default handling time for regular orders is 1–2 business days. For custom, pre-order, out-of-stock, or special handling orders, sellers can set longer, item-specific handling times, which correspondingly extend the latest delivery deadlines.

Regardless of order type, if an order remains unshipped after the seller’s set handling time, the system will prompt the seller to update the handling time to ensure accurate customer delivery expectations.

If updating the status to "In Transit" takes longer than the required timeframe, the order will be considered late and count toward the seller’s "Late Shipment Rate." If over 10% of a seller’s orders in the past 30 days are not updated to "In Transit" within four business days, TikTok Shop may impose further controls on related items or the store.

If most of a seller’s orders fail to deliver successfully for 30 consecutive days or longer, or if the order cancellation rate due to seller fault exceeds 90% with undelivered items, the platform may take actions such as limiting order volume or suspending new orders.

However, TikTok Shop has provided some buffer for certain sellers. Sellers using the Order Handling Capacity tool will receive an automatic one-business-day extension to their shipping SLA if order volume exceeds their daily processing limit.

Order Handling Capacity is a TikTok Shop tool that allows sellers to pre-declare their daily order processing cap to manage short-term fluctuations and reduce fulfillment risks.

Despite this, the new rules have raised concerns among merchants.

A U.S.-based seller told Ebrun that under the current rules, sellers are given only two days to update order status from "Awaiting Collection" to "In Transit." Previously, their standard process involved overseas warehouses processing and packing orders the same day, postal carriers collecting them the next day, and scanning and loading on the third day—a workflow that was stable under the old rules.

With the new regulations, fixed pickup schedules and limited postal scanning efficiency may compress actual operational time at warehouses to less than a day.

Additionally, some carriers do not scan packages immediately after collection, delaying status updates, especially during peak seasons. "In such cases, even if delays stem from carrier procedures, the responsibility falls on us in performance evaluations, which is stressful," the seller said.

Other sellers reported that TikTok’s "Daily Order & Aftersales" reminder emails are unreliable or undelivered. Without checking the seller backend at least twice daily, merchants struggle to track orders promptly, potentially increasing operational burdens.

Ebrun will continue monitoring this development. For further details, scan the QR code to follow the author on WeChat.