Self ship against Fulfilled by TikTok
Self shipping keeps control and margin. You print the label in the seller dashboard, the carrier rate is pre-negotiated and tracking flows back automatically. It suits low volume, fragile goods or anything with variable packaging. The risk is your late dispatch rate when a video spikes overnight.
Fulfilled by TikTok removes the dispatch risk and gives your listings a faster delivery badge, which lifts conversion. You pay storage and per-order fulfilment fees and you lose the unboxing. It earns its keep once you are shipping consistently every day and a LIVE can triple volume in an hour.
The metrics that fulfilment decides
Late Dispatch Rate is the one to watch. Keep it under roughly 4 percent. It counts orders not scanned by the carrier inside your dispatch window, so a parcel sitting in a bag until Monday counts as late even if the customer never notices.
Cancellation rate matters just as much. Every out of stock cancellation is scored against you, so sync inventory tightly and set buffer stock on anything a creator is pushing. Breaching these thresholds costs you Shop tab visibility long before it costs you the account.
Returns, refunds and the money you will not see
UK consumer law gives buyers 14 days to change their mind and TikTok applies its own 14 day window from delivery. TikTok often refunds low value items without requesting the goods back, because the return postage costs more than the item. You carry that loss.
You can dispute a refund with evidence, and photographic proof of the packed order plus the carrier weight wins some of them. Realistically, budget 4 to 8 percent of gross for returns and refunds in most categories, higher in fashion where size returns run far above that.