To raise the quality of products promoted by creators, TikTok Shop has announced an important update to Affiliate Collaboration eligibility rules, effective 26 August 2025.

This change means that sellers and products will face stricter checks before being allowed to participate in Affiliate Collaborations. The goal is to protect creators, buyers, and the overall marketplace by ensuring only reliable shops and high-quality products are promoted.
 

What’s Changing?

Starting 26 August 2025, TikTok Shop will be more selective about which shops and products can join Affiliate Collaborations.

Your entire shop or a specific product may be restricted if:

1. You don’t meet the eligibility criteria (e.g., store rating too low, high negative review rate, too many seller-fault refunds).

2. You receive many serious complaints from buyers. These include:

   • Empty parcels being delivered

   • Selling counterfeit goods

   • Suspected fraud or dishonest practices

In other words, even if your shop meets the usual criteria, you can still be restricted if customers repeatedly flag major issues.

This update is TikTok Shop’s way of making Affiliate Collaborations more reliable. It ensures that creators only promote legit, good-quality products, buyers feel confident shopping, and sellers who maintain high standards are rewarded with more promotion opportunities.
 

TikTok Shop Affiliate Collaboration Eligibility Criteria

To stay eligible for Affiliate Collaborations, sellers must meet requirements at two levels: the shop level and the product level. Both are checked daily by TikTok Shop.

1. Shop Criteria

Your entire shop must meet these conditions:

• No counterfeit-related Violation Points in the last 60 days: Even a single counterfeit violation in the past two months will disqualify your shop.
   

• Store Rating of at least 2.5: Ratings below 2.5 signal poor customer experience and will remove your eligibility.
   

2. Product Criteria

Each product must also maintain a low negative review rate. This ensures creators promote only high-quality items. The limits depend on the product category:

• Electronics: Negative review rate must be below 1%

• Fashion & Lifestyle: Negative review rate must be below 0.7%

• FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods): Negative review rate must be below 0.6%

Important: These review-based criteria only apply once a product has received at least 5 reviews.

Daily Requirements for TikTok Shop Sellers

Unlike one-time checks, TikTok Shop evaluates eligibility every single day. This means your shop or products can be suspended from Affiliate Collaborations at any moment if your performance slips below the required standards.

On top of the shop and product criteria (ratings, reviews, no counterfeit violations), sellers also need to control their Seller-fault Return & Refund Rate. This measures how often customers return or refund products due to issues that are the seller’s responsibility (e.g., wrong item, defective product, inaccurate listing).

The Limits by Category:

• Electronics → must stay below 2%

• Fashion & Lifestyle → must stay below 1.8%

• FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) → must stay below 1.5%

These percentages only apply once a product has at least 5 return/refund cases.

If your shop or product goes beyond these limits, it will be disqualified from Affiliate Collaborations until performance improves.
 

What Happens If You Don’t Meet the Criteria?

If your shop or product falls short of TikTok Shop’s Affiliate Collaboration rules, you risk being disqualified. The impact depends on whether it’s your shop or a specific product that fails.

1. If your shop is disqualified:

• All current Affiliate Collaborations linked to your shop will immediately end.

• You will not be able to create new plans until your shop re-qualifies.

• When you re-qualify, old plans won’t come back, you’ll have to create brand-new ones.

2. If a product is disqualified:

• That specific product will no longer be eligible for Affiliate Collaborations.

• However, your other eligible products can still be promoted by creators.

3. If you get too many serious complaints:

Even if your ratings and review rates look fine, a large number of serious complaints such as empty parcels, counterfeit goods, or suspected fraud can still cause your shop or products to be restricted.
 

Can You Requalify?

The good news is that disqualification isn’t always permanent. If your shop or product improves and once again meets TikTok Shop’s eligibility rules, you can reapply for Affiliate Collaborations. For example, if your rating goes back up, your negative review rate drops, or your return/refund rate improves, your eligibility can be restored.

However, there are situations where disqualification is permanent:

• If your shop or account is deactivated → you cannot rejoin.

• If your products are frozen or delisted due to policy breaches → those products will never be eligible again.

In other words, performance-related issues can be fixed with effort, but serious violations of TikTok Shop’s policies mean no second chances.

Avoid Disqualification with Smarter Order Management

One of the biggest reasons sellers lose eligibility for TikTok Affiliate Collaborations is poor order handling like late shipments, wrong deliveries, or unresolved returns that quickly escalate into customer complaints. For multi-platform sellers, constantly switching between Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop, and others makes it even harder to stay consistent.

With BigSeller, you can reduce these risks by:

• Managing all orders in one place (Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada, Zalora, Shopify, and more) instead of juggling multiple seller centers.

• Automating workflows like printing, packing, and scanning to avoid errors that lead to refunds or disputes.

• Tracking returns in real time, ensuring issues are resolved before they harm your shop performance.

By streamlining operations, BigSeller helps sellers maintain the strong metrics needed to remain affiliate-eligible while cutting down time, errors, and costs.

Try BigSeller for free today and see how much smoother selling can be.

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