What TikTok Shop asks before you can sell

For the US screens in order, use the step-by-step US registration in our roundup.

Rules that apply in every market

TikTok's registration article also asks for a password of 6 to 20 characters with numbers, letters and special characters. Politicians are prohibited from becoming sellers.

Signup will not take a TikTok Organization Account. The Seller Center setup article says that outright, and it lists the portal for Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. Ireland and Spain are the European names on that list.

United States requirements

TikTok's US registration guide walks through signup, business verification, tax, payment and warehouse addresses, then at least one product, then linking an Official TikTok account. Products stay invisible until document verification is completed.

Past that earnings cap, the US tax article requires the tax documents both to keep selling and to get paid. Individual ID rules are in that article too. The file has to be valid, unexpired, legible and uncropped, under 10 MB, in JPG, PNG, JPEG or PDF, and it has to match the registration.

Corporations and partnerships provide a legal business name, a US registered address, an EIN, ultimate beneficial owner details, primary representative details and bank information. TikTok's company guide lists these details.

When TikTok asks for IRS proof, its IRS article says screenshots of the IRS site, SS-4 applications, tax returns and e-file confirmations are not accepted. A later switch of legal entity goes through TikTok's formal entity-change process.

United Kingdom requirements

Pick a seller type that matches the legal structure. That choice decides which documents TikTok asks for, and TikTok's UK guide says it cannot easily be changed later. A separate UK page goes further: TikTok Shop does not allow seller type amendments, so a different structure means a new application.

Sole traders upload a UK passport or driving licence, a selfie with that ID, proof of a UK address, and details of the UK warehouse or stock. That list is in TikTok's UK registration walkthrough.

TikTok's UK company article asks corporate sellers for a Certificate of Incorporation from Companies House, the UK company number and registration date, and proof of a UK business or warehouse address.

European Union requirements

These EU rules come from TikTok's Ireland Seller University. Its registration article says applicants cannot list products until TikTok has verified the information and confirmed successful registration. After that confirmation, every new seller enters a Shop Probation Period.

The onboarding article says the account has to be approved before you can finalize shop information. Bank verification comes next. Neither the products nor the account can be made visible until the bank account is verified.

Payout timing is separate from that approval. TikTok's settlement article puts newly onboarded sellers, and anyone still in probation, on an introductory settlement period, with funds released 31 days after delivery. Sellers out of probation move to standard settlement, 8 days after delivery.

What each market asks for

What changes at launch is when a listing goes live, which papers a company needs, and when TikTok releases the money.

When seller verification stalls

If the rejection names the file, use the US scan rules in that section. Public seller threads also describe rejections that arrive before anyone reviews the scan. Sellers say the next application was rejected immediately after an earlier shop was deactivated, or after a passport was already used in a renewal. They describe it as an identity flag, and uploading the same ID again gets rejected too.

A second pattern is the photo format. iPhone photos default to HEIC. Sellers say a HEIC file converted to JPG is treated as an edited image. Some say the upload went through when the photo was taken as a JPG. Those threads are seller reports, separate from the help pages. The open-a-shop section of the roundup explains how to resubmit a rejected category.

After you are approved

Run one product's price through the fee calculator before you order stock. Category rates are in TikTok Shop fees explained. The Seller Center guide shows fees and payouts on a settled order. Read warehouse and fulfillment choices when you need to decide who ships the order. Once products are live, creator affiliate setup covers how other accounts sell them. The series is listed under all seller guides. If you are choosing software next, the ranked roundup splits research tools, outreach tools and store connectors.

My take

I'd register in the country where the ID and the address are already in my name. I'd put the introductory EU release into the cash plan before buying inventory.

The document lists and the payout windows come from TikTok Seller University in the US, the UK and Ireland, and from TikTok's ads help on who may register. The notes on identity flags and photo files come from public seller threads. How GMV Ledger researches TikTok Shop policies sets out how those two kinds of sources are used.