TikTok Shop UK launched in 2023 and has grown faster than any commerce channel in recent memory. With 20 million UK monthly active users and 67% of them reporting that the app influenced a purchase decision, TikTok Shop is no longer optional for UK ecommerce brands in consumer categories.

But setting up a TikTok Shop product feed correctly is trickier than it looks. Here's everything you need to know.

The currency column trap

This is the most common TikTok feed error, and it's one that catches merchants who've correctly formatted feeds for every other channel.

Google Shopping, Meta, Awin, and most other channels accept price with the currency embedded: "12.50 GBP". TikTok does not. TikTok requires the price as a numeric value in one column and the currency code as a separate column:

Column A: price = 12.50
Column B: currency = GBP

If you embed "GBP" in your price field, TikTok rejects the entire feed with a validation error. This single difference from every other major channel means you can't simply repurpose your Meta or Google CSV for TikTok.

The 60-character title effect

TikTok's For You Page UI displays product names in a very compact format — approximately 60 characters before truncation. This is more aggressive than any other Shopping channel.

Products with long, descriptive titles see the most important information cut off. Titles like "Barbour Men's Thornproof Wax Dressing for Jacket Maintenance and Waterproofing Protection" become "Barbour Men's Thornproof Wax Dressing for Jacket M..." in TikTok's card format.

Optimal TikTok titles are punchy and front-loaded: "Barbour Wax Tin — Jacket Care" works better than the full descriptive title. This is counterintuitive for merchants optimised for Google Shopping, where longer titles with more attributes typically perform better.

Trajekt lets you maintain separate title rules for TikTok — applying 60-character optimisation to your TikTok feed without affecting your Google Shopping titles.

The video_link field: the biggest performance differentiator

TikTok is fundamentally a video platform. The video_link field in your product feed accepts a URL pointing to a TikTok-native product video. Products with a native video receive significantly better For You Page placement than products without one.

If you have Shopify products with video media attached, Trajekt maps these to the video_link field automatically. If you're creating TikTok content featuring your products, linking that content to your product feed can materially improve organic product discovery.

Required fields: the 9 you can't skip

TikTok Seller Center requires these 9 fields on every product:

  1. sku_id — unique product identifier (for TikTok Shop; use id for advertising-only catalogues)
  2. title — product name (max 60 chars optimal, 255 maximum)
  3. description — product description (plain text)
  4. availability — in stock / out of stock
  5. condition — new / used / refurbished
  6. price — numeric only, no currency embedded
  7. currency — separate column, ISO code (GBP for UK)
  8. link — product page URL
  9. image_link — primary product image URL

Beyond these, TikTok supports 27 optional fields including sale_price, brand, google_product_category, item_group_id, color, size, and video_link. Including more optional fields improves algorithmic placement and ad targeting.

TikTok Shop vs TikTok Catalogue Ads

These are two different product types and they use different identifier fields:

TikTok Shop (in-app commerce, products purchasable within TikTok) uses sku_id as the identifier. This is the identifier TikTok uses to match your physical inventory to the product listing.

TikTok Catalogue Ads (advertising-only, links out to your website) uses id as the identifier. These power Dynamic Showcase Ads, Video Shopping Ads, and Collection Ads.

Using the wrong identifier type causes catalogue sync failures. If you're setting up TikTok Shop, use sku_id. If you're setting up Catalogue Ads only, use id.

Get your TikTok Shop feed right the first time

Trajekt generates TikTok-correct CSV — separate currency column, 60-char title optimisation, video links, and all 27 optional fields included.

Start free →

Commission and fulfilment expectations

TikTok Shop charges platform commission on each sale — typically 2-5% for most UK product categories. There are no listing fees. UK fulfilment SLA: orders must be dispatched within 2 business days. Late dispatch affects your seller rating, which in turn affects TikTok's willingness to surface your products organically.

For merchants already fulfilling fast for other channels (Amazon, eBay, own website), TikTok Shop fulfilment requirements are typically manageable. For merchants with longer processing times, it's worth reviewing operations before launching TikTok Shop.