As of Oct 16, 2026
The short answer
On Oct 16, 2026, TikTok Shop Academy (US) republished its main Shop Performance Score (SPS) guide as an introduction to the new version rather than a trial-run guide, updated its SPS appeals guide, published a new Guide to Voice of Customer (VoC), and updated the LIVE Product Listing Guide. For sellers, the key facts are: appeals for Product Satisfaction, Customer Service and Seller Fault Cancellation Rate are available from 10/16; appeals for the new Dispatch Time and Transit Time metrics open in batches from 10/19 to 10/26; and from 10/16, Negative Review Rate uses an order's latest review status within 15 days after delivery, not its first review.
For brands selling on LIVE, the listing guide's advice is to create regular listings and get them approved before the LIVE, and to keep what is on camera matched to the product card. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday on TikTok Shop running Nov 11 to 30 (see our Oct 15 post), that means getting the catalog, the new SPS and negative-feedback fixes sorted in the next three weeks.
For Sellers · titles and dates as shown
What changed in the Academy
Latest courses and articles
- [New] Introduction to Shop Performance Score New Version (US) · UPDATE · Updated Oct 16, 2026. Same page address as the Oct 15 “[New] Shop Performance Score New Version Trial-run Guide”, now retitled.
- [NEW] Guide to VoC (Voice of Customer) · UPDATE · Updated Oct 16, 2026
- LIVE Product Listing Guide · UPDATE · Updated Oct 16, 2026
- How to Appeal Your Shop Performance Score (SPS) Metrics · UPDATE · Updated Oct 15, 2026 on the Academy home; the page itself is dated 10/16/2026.
Latest policies
- Jewelry Products Requirements · Updated Oct 13, 2026
- LIVE Auction: Requirements & Guidelines · Updated Oct 13, 2026 (unchanged; see Policies)
- Pet Healthcare Product Requirements · Updated Oct 9, 2026
- Medical Devices and Medical Supplies Requirements · Updated Oct 9, 2026
Yesterday's course entries (the two SPS dimension guides and the Seller Referral Program) have moved off the Latest list. They are covered in our Oct 15 post.
What the pages say, and do not say
Is the new SPS live?
Our Oct 15 post reported that the Academy scheduled the new SPS to officially launch on 2026/10/16. Today's pages point toward launch day but do not say outright that it has happened:
- The SPS page is retitled from “Trial-run Guide” to “Introduction to Shop Performance Score New Version (US)”, and its “New Version Trial-Run Instruction” section, which held the 2026/9/21 trial and 2026/10/16 launch dates, is gone.
- The appeals page says new-version appeals for Product Satisfaction, Customer Service and Seller Fault Cancellation Rate are “Available from 10/16.”
- But the SPS page's benefits section still reads: “During the new-version trial run, New Version scores will not take effect or impact current seller benefits,” and says final thresholds “will be confirmed at the official launch on 10/15.” Its AI summary also still describes trial scores as preview only.
Our read: treat Oct 16 as the switchover the Academy has been pointing to, but confirm in Seller Center under Account Health > Shop Performance Score which version your shop is scored on and which benefits apply. We do not claim the launch has happened for every shop.
[New] Introduction to SPS New Version (US) · 10/16/2026
The new Shop Performance Score
SPS rates a shop from 0 to 5. Shops with at least 30 delivered orders in the past 90 days (excluding fake, sample and gift orders) get one. Shops are compared only with others in the same calculation category, and dimension weights vary by category. The three dimensions stay the same, but two of them are rebuilt:
- Product Satisfaction is now scored per product. Each product with 5 or more valid orders in 90 days gets a Product Quality Score from Negative Review Rate (NRR) and Non-Buyer Fault Return & Refund Rate (NBFR). The window moves from 60 to 90 days, and the shop score is the order-share-weighted average. To score 4.5 or more, a product also needs a Positive Feedback Rate of at least 90%, or it is capped at 4.4. Scoring tracks are set by the product's own category and price band, not the shop's category, and metric weights vary by track.
- Logistics & Fulfillment moves from On-Time Delivery Rate to Dispatch Time and Transit Time (30-day averages). Seller Fault Cancellation Rate stays, and a Free Shipping Coverage bonus adds 0.5 points at 80% or more $0-shipping orders over 7 days (60% in 12 listed lower-AOV categories), capped at 5.
- Customer Service is unchanged: After-Sales Handling Time and IM Dissatisfaction Rate, both over 60 days.
Lines marked “[Updated on 10/16]”
- Negative Review Rate: “The system no longer uses the first review for an order. Instead, it uses the latest review status within 15 days after order delivery.” On Oct 15 the page said an order's first review counted and edited or deleted reviews were not valid.
- Pre-owned items in non-Pre-owned shops: where a product has one order, the default score is 4.4 if NRR/NBFR is 0% and 2.5 if it is 100%. Shops whose calculation category is Pre-owned stay on shop-level scoring with a 90-day window.
- Free Shipping Coverage: the list of 12 categories with the 60% threshold, and the exclusion of auction orders, are now marked as 10/16 updates. The category list itself matches what we reported on Oct 15.
Low-order-volume protection
- Products: 5 to 10 delivered orders get a default 3.5 on NRR and NBFR; 11 to 30 orders with at most one problem order get a 3.5 floor.
- Shops: where a sub-metric has a numerator of 3 or less, a denominator of 30 or less, and the shop is under 180 days old, Seller Fault Cancellation Rate scores below 3.5 are raised to 3.5, and the IM Dissatisfaction Rate minimum is raised to 2.0. This only applies to shops that have an SPS.
“Benefits of Total Score” as printed
SPS benefit tiers
- 2.5 points: visibility up 10%; Flash Deals.
- 3.5 points: visibility up 20%; accelerated settlement 5 days after shipment; affiliate marketing; campaigns; TikTok Funded Promotions; Shop Recognition Program brand badge eligibility; CRM access; Sales Accelerator; graduation from probation (no limits on products or orders).
- 4.0 points: express settlement 1 day after shipment; Top Rated badge, which has additional conditions such as shop reputation score, positive feedback rate and sellable product count.
- 4.5 points: visibility up 30%.
- 3.0 red line: below 3.0, affiliate and campaign benefits are revoked and related plans and products may be removed; recovering to 3.5 or more restores eligibility. Shops must also stay compliant with no violation risk.
- New dimension traffic incentives: higher Product Quality Scores may unlock traffic incentives per product, and higher Logistics & Fulfillment Scores may unlock them for the shop. The page says the specific requirements are “subject to the launch.”
The page says final new-version thresholds and incentive levels will be confirmed at launch, so treat these tiers as TikTok's published structure, not a guarantee for any shop.
How to Appeal Your SPS Metrics · 10/16/2026
How to appeal SPS metrics
The appeals guide lets sellers appeal SPS metrics directly in Seller Center, without contacting support, when an issue was outside their control and they have evidence.
When each metric opens
- Product Satisfaction and Customer Service metrics: available from 10/16.
- Seller Fault Cancellation Rate: available from 10/16.
- Dispatch Time and Transit Time: expected to open to sellers in batches starting 10/19/2026, with full availability by 10/26/2026.
- Old-version appeals keep working as before.
Where and how
- Seller Center > Account Health > Shop Performance Score. Entry points: Appeal Center (top right), Submit an appeal ticket (bottom of the SPS page), Appeal Order on an individual product page, Appeal Order on the Customer Service page. The Logistics & Fulfillment page entry is not yet available.
- Steps: Submit new appeal > choose the metric > choose the reason > select orders (up to 30 orders per ticket for the same reason) > add information and evidence.
- Review: TikTok moderation takes about 3 business days; if approved, the metric is corrected in about 1 business day and SPS updates automatically. (The page's AI summary says 3 to 4 business days in total.)
- Limit: up to 3 appeals for the same metric on the same order. If all 3 are rejected, that entry closes.
Appeal reasons by metric
- NBFR: inaccurate buyer-selected reason, buyer perception issues (for example taste or smell of food, beverage or fragrance), malicious return/refund, logistics issues, TikTok system issue.
- NRR: malicious reviews, buyer adjusted or deleted the rating, creator false promotion (evidence can include a clip of the creator's video or LIVE under 45 seconds, and order IDs are required).
- After-Sales Handling Time: malicious buyers, TikTok system issue, uncontrollable event (logistics issues do not count here).
- IM Dissatisfaction Rate: malicious buyers, TikTok system issue, uncontrollable event.
- Seller Fault Cancellation Rate: TikTok system issue, non-seller-fault issue (suspicious or unpaid orders, logistics issues, carrier drop-off system issues), uncontrollable event (including lost packages with no tracking update for more than 10 days, and Delivered Not Received).
- Dispatch Time and Transit Time (not yet open): weather or natural disasters, technical issues with Seller Center, and either missing scans by TikTok Shipping Standard Delivery (Dispatch Time; CBT and Seller Shipping orders do not qualify) or order IDs lost or returned to shipper (Transit Time).
Get Live's read: the “creator false promotion” reason matters for LIVE. If a host or creator says something on stream that is not in the product details, the negative reviews that follow count against the shop unless you can prove it with a clip and order IDs. Keep host scripts aligned with the listing, and keep recordings.
[NEW] Guide to VoC · 10/16/2026
Voice of Customer (VoC)
VoC is a diagnostic tool in Seller Center > Account health > Voice of Customer. It brings negative product reviews and quality-related returns together, groups them into themes, and traces each theme to orders.
- What's new: the product level (Good/Fair/Poor) and VoC Index are retired (the FAQ says in V2.1). Each product now shows a Negative Feedback Rate: the share of delivered orders with a negative text review or quality-related return, each order counted once.
- Overview: products with negative feedback in the last 30 days and enough sample size, sorted by negative feedback orders by default (or by GMV or order volume), with a top-issues breakdown per product.
- Product insights: a 30-day Negative Feedback Rate and trend chart, issue themes ranked by share, and order details showing each order's theme and channel (review or return), with shortcuts to Manage product ratings and Manage return.
- Themes: safety, health or restricted-use risk; function or core-use failure; promotion mismatch or item not as described; size, specification or fit; structure, workmanship or durability; material, formula or authenticity; packaging, accessories, shortage or delivery integrity; and subjective experience. TikTok says themes are not determinations that a product is defective or non-compliant.
- Limits: VoC does not issue penalties and has no appeal channel; use review reporting, returns disputes or the violation center. Delisted products stay in VoC. Sellers must not use VoC to identify, contact, retaliate against, incentivize or suppress reviewers.
Get Live's read: VoC tells you why customers are unhappy, and the new Product Quality Score is built from the same kinds of signals (negative reviews and seller- or logistics-caused returns). For a LIVE hero SKU, “promotion mismatch” and “size or fit” themes are the ones a host can fix on camera, by showing the real item, variants and measurements.
Manage Products · 10/16/2026
LIVE Product Listing Guide
The LIVE Product Listing Guide explains how to prepare products, add them to a LIVE and let viewers buy while you present. The page is marked as an update but has no change log, so we report what it says, not what changed.
Pick a selling format
- Regular Listing (fixed price only, or fixed price and auction): created and submitted for review before the LIVE, reusable across LIVEs. The guide's default for everyday LIVE selling.
- Temporary Listing / Buy Now: created during the LIVE from LIVE console > Buy now > Temporary buy now listing, when the entry is available and the account is eligible. It is removed after the LIVE and must be recreated.
- Timed bidding: a Regular Listing enabled for LIVE Auction, or a Temporary Auction Listing (one at a time, or bulk upload of up to 100 rows and 5 MB per file).
- Surprise Set: only if enabled for your account and products meet its requirements.
Key steps and rules
- Regular Listings: Seller Center > Products > Add Products; upload photos of the actual item; complete category, brand, attributes, SKU, price, inventory and package dimensions; resolve Critical Issues; Submit for review. A draft is not under review. Add the product to the LIVE after approval.
- New Regular Listings must include fixed-price selling. Choose “Fixed price and auction” under Selling method to use one listing for both Buy Now and LIVE Auction; they appear as separate cards in the shopping bag. Older auction-only products do not become dual-format automatically.
- Enabling auction on a listing does not start an auction; you configure and start the auction card during the LIVE, choosing Extend Auction or Sudden Death for temporary auctions.
- Add at least one product before going LIVE (LIVE Manager on desktop, or Products in the TikTok app), and check price, inventory and SKU.
- Pin each item when you present it, and make sure the variant on camera matches the product card.
- Afterward, review orders, SKUs and shipping, plus product views, clicks, sales and stockouts to plan the next LIVE.
- If a product is missing from the LIVE list, check review status, available inventory and account or category eligibility.
Get Live's read · Nov 11–30
What it means for BFCM LIVE
These are Get Live's suggestions, not TikTok guidance. They connect today's pages to the Nov 11 to Nov 30 Black Friday and Cyber Monday window TikTok announced on Oct 14.
- Get BFCM SKUs approved as Regular Listings now. Listings need review before they can be added to a LIVE, and temporary listings disappear after each show. A 20-day campaign with repeat LIVEs favors listings you can reuse.
- Decide auction vs fixed price per SKU. If you will auction and sell the same item, set it to “Fixed price and auction” once instead of keeping two listings.
- Check your SPS against the 3.5 line. Campaigns, affiliate marketing and TikTok Funded Promotions sit at 3.5 in the published tiers, and LIVE Price Cut requires SPS 3.5 or more (see our Oct 14 post).
- Clean up negative feedback early. Open VoC, sort by negative feedback orders, and fix the listing, size guidance or packaging behind the top theme before LIVE volume multiplies it. NRR now follows the latest review within 15 days of delivery, so after-sales follow-up has a defined window.
- File appeals in October. Product Satisfaction, Customer Service and SFCR appeals are open from 10/16, and Dispatch and Transit Time appeals reach all sellers by 10/26. Review takes days, and each order-metric gets three tries.
- Script hosts to the listing. On-camera claims that do not match the product details can drive negative reviews, and the “creator false promotion” appeal needs clip evidence.
More planning detail is in our TikTok Shop holiday prep guide and TikTok Shop LIVE selling guide.
Policy Center · checked Oct 16, 2026
Policies: no new dates today
The Latest policies list is unchanged from Oct 15. We opened each page to check its date:
- LIVE Auction: Requirements & Guidelines: listed as Updated Oct 13, 2026, and the page is dated 10/13/2026. We saw no Oct 16 update. Our Oct 14 post summarizes it.
- Jewelry Products Requirements: Oct 13, 2026 (summarized in our Oct 13 post).
- Pet Healthcare Product Requirements: Oct 9, 2026.
- Medical Devices and Medical Supplies Requirements: Oct 9, 2026.
Scope
What this post does and does not say
- It reports the Academy home and eight linked pages as Get Live opened them, signed out, on Oct 16, 2026.
- It does not claim the new SPS has launched for every shop; the pages are not consistent on that point.
- For pages without line-level update markers, it does not say which lines changed, except where we compared them with our Oct 15 copy.
- It does not say any shop qualifies for any benefit, tool or appeal outcome, and includes no client results or statistics.
- It is not legal, tax, or compliance advice.
Get Live
How Get Live helps
Get Live is a certified TikTok Shop Partner agency that runs TikTok Shop for brands, including LIVE, creator programs and the catalog. Get Live commits to a brand's first live-selling broadcast within 21 days from kickoff, with the booth built and hosts cast. That is the timeline for the first show, not a promise about what it will sell.
If you want listings, shop health and a first LIVE ready before BFCM opens on Nov 11, see the TikTok LIVE creators page or the TikTok Shop agency page, or get in touch at getlive.ai.
Primary links
Sources and disclosure
- TikTok Shop Academy, US: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university (watch Oct 16, 2026)
- [New] Introduction to Shop Performance Score New Version (US), page dated 10/16/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=7105568016090887&lang=en
- How to Appeal Your Shop Performance Score (SPS) Metrics, page dated 10/16/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=6567382587836173&lang=en
- [NEW] Guide to VoC (Voice of Customer), page dated 10/16/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=7078035965544213&lang=en
- LIVE Product Listing Guide, page dated 10/16/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=7732183957620500&lang=en
- LIVE Auction: Requirements & Guidelines, page dated 10/13/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=6110392477746958&lang=en
- Jewelry Products Requirements, 10/13/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=4769331301730049&lang=en
- Pet Healthcare Product Requirements, 10/09/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=8617713752950548&lang=en
- Medical Devices and Medical Supplies Requirements, 10/09/2026: https://seller-us.tiktok.com/university/essay?knowledge_id=5176332745885482&lang=en
- Earlier Get Live posts: Oct 15, Oct 14, Oct 13.
Disclosure: Get Live is a US TikTok Shop agency and a certified TikTok Shop Partner. This post is our independent summary; it was not written or reviewed by TikTok. Academy content can change without notice. Sections marked as Get Live's read are our suggestions, not TikTok policy. Figures and dates are TikTok's as published on Oct 16, 2026.