U.S. Site Updates After-Sales Policy: Sellers Must Process Cancellations and Refunds on Time
TikTok Shop’s U.S. site has updated its cancellation, return, and refund policies. Requests that are not handled on time may be automatically approved and refunded by the platform.
What are the key facts?
- 1U.S. site updated customer order cancellation, return, and refund policies
- 2Applies to all sellers of physical goods in the United States
- 3Late handling may trigger automatic platform refunds
- 4Different after-sales requests have different processing deadlines
- 5After-sales responsibilities differ between FBT and self-fulfilling sellers
What happened?
TikTok Shop updated its U.S. customer order cancellation, return, and refund policy on September 22, 2026. The policy applies to all sellers offering physical goods in the United States. If a seller does not process a cancellation or refund request within the specified period after a buyer submits it, the platform may automatically approve the request and issue a direct refund. Return-and-refund requests generally have four business days for processing. Refund-only requests for amounts of $100 or less have two business days, while refund-only requests above $100 have four business days. If a package remains delayed for six calendar days after the estimated delivery date, the platform may automatically approve refunds for certain electronics orders valued at $60 or less and non-electronics orders valued at $100 or less. For FBT sellers, TikTok primarily handles logistics-related returns and refunds. Sellers fulfilling orders themselves bear more responsibility for evidence and refund costs. The change particularly affects cross-border sellers of low-priced goods, electronics, food and beverages, and sellers with limited after-sales staffing.
What does this mean for cross-border sellers?
Processing deadlines for U.S. cancellation, return, and refund requests are now clearer. Late handling may result in automatic platform approval and direct refunds, so sellers should prevent missed tickets and processing delays. Self-fulfilling stores should strengthen after-sales response and logistics-issue follow-up, while FBT sellers should verify which logistics-related after-sales cases TikTok handles.
What should sellers do now?
- 1This week, create a cancellation, return, and refund ticket tracker for U.S. self-fulfilling stores, set reminders for two business days, four business days, and six calendar days after the estimated delivery date, then review all open requests and export the records.AI Customer Service
- 2This week, screen U.S. electronics and non-electronics listings, flag orders valued at $60 or less and $100 or less respectively, review delay and refund risks order by order, and produce a high-risk order list.Profit calculator
- 3This week, review the after-sales workflows for U.S. FBT and self-fulfilling stores separately, clarify responsibility for logistics-related returns and refunds, and complete missing logistics, delivery-confirmation, and communication records for self-fulfilled orders. Prepare a responsibility and evidence checklist.