TikTok Shop grew U.S. small business sales by 66% last year. More than 215,000 small businesses now sell on the platform. And in July 2026, the rules for all of them are changing.
TikTok Shop is replacing its Violation Points system - the mechanism it has used to track policy infractions - with a new Account Health Rating (AHR). The change is rolling out now and will be fully effective next month.
If you sell on TikTok Shop, this is not optional reading.
The Old System vs. the New One
The Violation Points system worked roughly like a driver's license: rack up enough violations, and your account gets penalized or suspended. It was reactive - triggered by specific infractions.
The Account Health Rating is different. It's a continuous score from 0 to 1,000 that reflects everything you do on the platform: successful orders, policy violations, fulfillment timing, content compliance. It goes up and it goes down, and TikTok can see it all in real time.
You start at 200 points. Every seller does.
How Your Score Is Calculated
The formula is simple:
Score = 200 (base) + Points earned from completed orders (last 90 days) - Points deducted for violations (last 90 days)
The 90-day rolling window is important. A violation from 91 days ago no longer affects your score. But a cluster of violations or fulfillment misses in a single month can tank your number fast.
What the Numbers Mean
TikTok has set specific thresholds with real consequences:
| Score Range | Status | |---|---| | 200 - 1,000 | Healthy account | | 151 - 199 | Account needs improvement | | 1 - 150 | At risk of deactivation | | 0 | Account deactivated |
That 150 threshold is where enforcement gets real. Sellers who drop to 150, 100, 50, and 0 points each trigger what TikTok calls "milestone enforcement actions." Those range from 7-day restrictions (like being blocked from enrolling in new campaigns or affiliate programs) up to 28-day restrictions or permanent deactivation at zero.
TikTok does offer one escape valve: if you hit a milestone threshold, you can sometimes reduce the restriction by passing a policy quiz. It won't remove the penalty - but it can shorten it.
Your AHR score is private. Only you can see it in your seller dashboard.
What Changed With Store Ratings
The AHR is separate from your public Store Rating - the number customers see on your storefront. But TikTok is changing how Store Ratings are calculated at the same time.
The most significant shift: the Customer Complaint Rate metric is being removed and replaced by After-Sales Handling Time (AHT). This measures how fast you respond to after-sales requests - returns, refunds, complaints - over a rolling 60-day period. The target is under 20 hours average.
TikTok is also moving to category-level comparisons for your Negative Review Rate and Seller-Fault Return/Refund Rate. That means you'll be benchmarked against sellers in similar categories, not the entire platform. If you sell fragile items or apparel (categories with higher natural return rates), this is a meaningful fairness improvement.
The New Fulfillment Rules You Can't Afford to Ignore
Effective May 28, TikTok introduced two new metrics that directly affect your account health:
- Instant Late Dispatch Rate (LDR): Orders not marked ready for collection by the fulfillment deadline, tracked on a 7-day rolling window.
- Same-day Late Dispatch Rate (LDR): Same concept, same window.
The requirement for both: keep each below 5%. If you breach 5%, you risk service restrictions. That means if you're processing 100 orders a week, you can have no more than 4 or 5 late fulfillments before you're in trouble.
For sellers doing their own fulfillment from home, this is where the new system gets demanding. A busy weekend, a personal emergency, or a supply disruption can put you at or above that threshold faster than you think.
Other Policy Updates Worth Knowing
Brand Circumvention: TikTok updated its brand policy on May 28 to explicitly include text-based evasion tactics - things like misspelling brand names, inserting symbols, or adding spaces to sneak brand references past detection. If your listings include any creative spelling to reference brands you don't have authorization to sell, update them now.
Cross-Border Sellers: As of this year, sole proprietors and individual businesses are no longer supported for cross-border stores in the U.S. and UK. TikTok is moving toward established business entities only for cross-border selling.
High-Volume Sellers: If you've crossed 200 transactions and $5,000 in gross revenue over any 12-month period, the INFORM Consumers Act requires annual verification of your business information. Missing that verification can trigger payment delays or listing restrictions.
What to Do Right Now
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Check your current AHR score in your TikTok Shop seller dashboard. If you're below 200 - meaning you already had violations under the old system - you're starting the new system in the "needs improvement" zone.
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Audit your fulfillment speed. If your average dispatch time is pushing 24-48 hours, you're a busy period away from a compliance problem under the new Late Dispatch Rate rules.
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Review your after-sales response time. Your Store Rating will now be tied to how fast you handle returns and complaints, not just whether customers complained. Set up notifications so you're not letting requests sit unanswered.
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Read the policy updates. TikTok published a revised Content Policy on May 22 and a revised Product Listing Policy on June 2. These aren't suggestions.
TikTok Shop built the platform that helped 215,000 small businesses grow their sales 66% last year. The new compliance system is the price of that scale. Sellers who treat it like fine print will find out the hard way. Sellers who get ahead of it will be in good shape when July hits.
Jordan Park covers e-commerce and retail for The Useful Daily.