Q: What does TikTok Shop actually take per sale? I'm confused by the fee breakdown.

Q: What does TikTok Shop actually take per sale? I'm confused by the fee breakdown.

A: There are usually three layers, and people only budget for one:

— Platform commission (referral fee) — a percentage of the order, charged by the marketplace itself
— Affiliate commission — the percent you set for the creator who drove the sale, on top of the platform cut
— Payment processing — a small percent of the transaction

So a product driven by an affiliate can carry platform fee + your affiliate rate + processing stacked together. That's how a "healthy" margin disappears.

Do the math before setting price: take your product cost, add all three fee layers on the retail price, then check what's left. If a creator-driven sale leaves you near zero, raise price or lower the affiliate rate on that specific product.

Also worth knowing: organic (non-affiliate) sales skip the affiliate layer entirely — that's your best-margin channel, so feed it.

Got a question? Drop it in the comments.