TikTok Shop Affiliate Commission: How It's Calculated and How to Set It

Commission is the first thing an affiliate looks at and the last thing most sellers think through.

It is also simple once you see the formula. The parts that trip people up are what counts as "the price", and what happens when you change your mind about the rate halfway through.

How the commission is calculated#

Affiliate commission = commission rate × (customer payment − tax)

Customer payment means the item price after your own seller discounts. Shipping fees and TikTok Shop's platform discounts are not part of it.

Here is TikTok's own example, in pesos:

TikTok takes the ₱170 out of the order settlement. You are not charged if the order is cancelled or refunded before the settlement period ends.

Choosing a rate#

Seller Center gives you a starting point. When you set a rate, it shows a suggested range based on what the top products in your category pay. Go below it and you get a warning. Go inside or above it and Seller Center tells you your rate is among the top share of products in the category.

There is one more threshold. TikTok's Growth Suggestions tool wants at least 10% before it gives a high-potential product extra exposure to affiliates.

For a sense of range, TikTok's published case study of a snack company, Chailai Inter Foods, describes commission of 10% to 30%, with higher rates offered to specific affiliates through Target invitations.

None of this is mandatory. The rate is yours to set.

What happens when you lower a rate#

TikTok delays decreases, to protect the affiliates already promoting you.

Say your product is at 15% and you drop it to 12%. Affiliates who already had the product in their showcase or content keep 15% for 30 days, then move to 12%. Anyone who adds it after the change gets 12% from the start.

You can keep changing the rate as often as you like for new affiliates, which means one product can be live at several rates at once. Hover over the rate in Seller Center and click View Details to see every rate still active.

So cutting a rate mid-campaign saves you very little for a month, and affiliates notice. We'd avoid it.

If your rate is good, say so first#

This one comes from our own campaign posts. When a brand offered a 25% commission, we stopped burying it under the product description and put "[25% commission]" at the very start of the headline.

It makes sense when you think about how affiliates browse. They scroll past dozens of campaigns, and the rate is how they sort them. A strong rate hidden in paragraph three is a wasted advantage.

The flip side: rate gets someone to add your product. It does not get the video made. A clear brief and a fast sample do that, and no percentage makes up for a parcel that arrives a week late.

Open rate, Target rate, and which one applies#

If a product has both, the Target Collaboration rate applies to the affiliates you invited. Everyone else earns the Open rate.

That makes the Target rate a useful reward. Paying your proven affiliates a few points more is about the cheapest way to keep them.

Commission and ShopSlayer#

We don't calculate, hold or pay commission. That all stays in Seller Center and TikTok Shop.

What ShopSlayer does is put your rate where affiliates will see it: on the campaign page, next to the brief and the number of videos you are asking for, before they decide to join.