TikTok Shop Updates After-Sales Handling Time Policy
TikTok Shop clarified that After-Sales Handling Time is calculated by dividing total review time by the number of reviews and is displayed to one decimal place.
What are the key facts?
- 1TikTok Shop updated its after-sales seller policy on October 1, 2026
- 2After-Sales Handling Time equals total review time divided by the number of reviews
- 3The metric is calculated to one decimal place
- 4The metric applies to stores requiring seller review of after-sales requests
- 5The platform uses automated systems to manage refunds and identify high-risk buyers
What happened?
TikTok Shop updated its seller policy guidance on October 1, 2026, further clarifying how After-Sales Handling Time is calculated. The metric equals the total time sellers spend reviewing after-sales requests divided by the number of reviews completed, calculated to one decimal place. The platform’s example shows that if a store processes two after-sales requests over the previous 60 days, with a cumulative review time of seven hours, the average handling time is 2.3 hours. The metric applies to stores where sellers must review returns, refunds, product inspections, or after-sales requests, including most US-market self-fulfillment sellers and some cross-border sellers whose after-sales cases require manual handling. The platform also said it uses automated systems to manage refunds, identify high-risk buyers, and verify disputes. The policy notes that holidays, time-zone differences, and delays in customer-service responses may worsen the metric, so sellers should increase the frequency of after-sales ticket monitoring.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
Most US-market self-fulfillment stores and some cross-border sellers handling after-sales cases manually should closely monitor After-Sales Handling Time. The metric is calculated by dividing total review time by the number of reviews and is displayed to one decimal place; holidays, time-zone differences, and customer-service response delays may increase the result.
What should sellers do now?
- 1This week, establish a ticket log for returns, refunds, product inspections, and after-sales requests for US-market self-fulfillment stores. Record the start and completion times for each review and produce an auditable after-sales log.AI Customer Service
- 2This week, review US-market and cross-border stores that require manual after-sales reviews, recalculate the past 60 days of records using the platform’s formula, and compile the cumulative review time, review count, and one-decimal result into a store list.
- 3This week, add checks for holidays, time-zone differences, and response delays to the after-sales customer-service process. Verify pending tickets and escalation records item by item and complete a monitoring checklist that identifies the cause of each delay.