As TikTok Shop continues to expand in the global market, TikTok has fully transformed from an entertainment community to an e-commerce ecosystem driven by both “content + goods,” currently covering key markets in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. To attract quality sellers, it has also launched incentive policies such as commission reductions, making TikTok e-commerce the first choice for many cross-border players.

It’s common to see netizens asking, “Can TikTok e-commerce still be entered in 2025?” The answer is definitely yes. Some people open TikTok Small Shops with daily sales of tens of thousands, while others earn commissions through Window Accounts. As long as you choose the right track, cross-border is a blue ocean. Today, this article will explain in detail the differences between TikTok Small Shops and Window Accounts, helping new cross-border entrants clarify their ideas and better expand their cross-border business.

TikTok E-commerce Reputation

1. Traffic Monetization: 300 million monthly active users globally, conversion rate climbing

TikTok has a huge number of active users, playing a very important role in content dissemination and product conversion. In 2024, TikTok e-commerce sales were mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia and the US market, with the US region creating multiple achievements of single live broadcast GMV exceeding millions of dollars.

2. Closed-loop Ecosystem: From “watching videos” to “placing orders” in just 3 seconds

TikTok realizes the entire closed-loop process of “content seeding-ordering-payment” without the need to jump to external links, simplifying operations, promoting user consumption, and with the platform’s high interactivity and direct product display, it can effectively stimulate users’ purchasing motivation, so TikTok’s e-commerce conversion rate is still very high.

3. Platform Support: Traffic tilt + low commission policy

To quickly capture the e-commerce market, TikTok has launched support policies for new sellers/part of the POP model sellers:

• New Store Quick Start: For short videos and live broadcasts published by new stores, the platform will allocate an additional 300-500 basic exposure (20%-30% higher than old stores)
• Quick Entry Channel: TikTok Shop US cross-border POP qualified sellers (limited to mainland China or Hong Kong, China) can open UK overseas warehouse stores with one click
• Commission Reduction Support: After new sellers complete tasks, they can enjoy a commission reduction from 9% to 2% within 90 days

Image source: TikTok Shop Official Website

TikTok Small Shop VS Window Account: How to Choose?

1. TikTok Small Shop

A TikTok Small Shop is an independent merchant store registered on TikTok Shop, allowing merchants to directly display and sell their products on TikTok and earn profits. Merchants can manage products, orders, inventory, and customer service through the small shop, achieving complete e-commerce functionality.

Opening Conditions

• Qualification Requirements: Requires a business license (individual or enterprise), brand authorization (if selling branded products)
• Inventory and Logistics: Need to independently solve stocking, warehousing, and after-sales (can use third-party overseas warehouses)
• Deposit Payment: Required as a performance guarantee during store registration, with different amounts in different regions

Applicable Groups

• Factory/Supply Chain Owners: Own products and want to expand customers through TikTok at low cost
• Amazon/Independent Site Sellers: Already have mature product selection and need multi-channel layout
• Brand Owners: Hope to build brand voice and directly reach young users

In summary, suitable for cross-border players with “goods sources.”

Small Shop Advantages

• Can set prices independently, high profit, long-term accumulation of brand assets
• Platform traffic tilt, easy to start

2. TikTok Window Account

A Window Account is equivalent to enabling the small yellow car function for content creators’ accounts, allowing creators to display and recommend products through content, helping merchants promote products and achieve sales conversion, earning commissions in the process.

Opening Conditions

• Account Requirements: Must be at least 18 years old, with a relatively high level of account activity

• Fan Base: Different stations have different quantity requirements

• US accounts need to reach 5,000 fans

• Indonesian accounts need to reach 2,000 fans

• UK and other regions need to reach 1,000 fans

Applicable Groups

• TikTok Influencers/KOLs: Have a certain fan base, suitable for conversion
• Content Creators: Good at shooting videos or live streaming, with outstanding video data
• Ordinary Cross-border Players: Want to share and recommend TikTok products to earn income

In summary, suitable for content creators with “fans and traffic.”

Window Account Advantages

• Low-cost startup, no need for stocking, shipping, or after-sales
• Can test multiple product categories, quickly find bestsellers

By understanding the above about TikTok Small Shops and Window Accounts, cross-border players who want to enter can choose their track based on their own situation and develop cross-border business.

Some partners may wonder, can you open a TikTok Small Shop and then open a Window Account for exposure? How do Window Accounts connect with merchants to promote products?

The Relationship Between TikTok Small Shops and Window Accounts: How to Link?

In fact, TikTok Small Shops and Window Accounts are not two completely unrelated tracks, and TikTok Shop Affiliates is the bridge connecting them.

As TikTok’s official affiliate marketing system, TikTok Shop Affiliates connects merchants and Window Account influencers, helping them gain corresponding benefits on TK Shop.

Specifically, merchants add products to the affiliate plan and set commission ratios and promotion policies; Window Account influencers enter the affiliate plan through review, bind merchant products, and earn commissions by promoting these products.

The affiliate marketing plan also supports promotion forms such as short videos and live broadcasts, with core values mainly in several aspects:

For merchants, they can gain rich promotional resource support, achieve low-cost traffic acquisition, pay by results, quickly test bestsellers, and improve small shop conversion rates.

For Window Account influencers, they can conduct zero-cost product selection, avoid inventory risks, and flexibly change through data analysis.

Smart partners may have already thought of it. If you open a TK Small Shop and then use several Window Accounts to bring goods to yourself, you can achieve greater exposure and use diversified content to reach more potential customers. This is indeed a strategy for many merchants to optimize marketing, such as operating multiple accounts to disperse the risk of operating a single account and conducting A/B testing to analyze which content is more effective.

However, the small shop self-operated + window account distribution matrix requires a relatively high time and energy investment, with high requirements for the operator, not only needing to complete store decoration, product listing, order processing, and shipping, but also understanding content creation, more suitable for capable cross-border team players.

If cross-border players really want to use the matrix approach, how to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency is also very important. First, for the network issues of multiple accounts, you can use proxy IPs and other network solutions according to your needs, with different prices.

For account login devices, TikTok users mostly use Apple devices, but the cost is slightly higher, and batch operations are not convenient.

Partners in need can learn about DuoPlus Cloud Phone, which supports multi-opening, batch management, and one-click new devices, achieving the same smooth operation as real devices, and the price is also advantageous, effectively reducing operational costs and improving the efficiency of multi-account management.

In summary, players who want to seize the TikTok cross-border opportunity can first register a TikTok account. Those with goods can study the small shop policies of the target country; those who can create content and have a fan base can improve account interaction rates and activity, open window accounts, and study product selection.

In the cross-border industry, “speed” is more important than “perfection,” first running through the smallest closed loop, then optimizing and expanding advantages, accumulating experience while doing, to seize major cross-border opportunities.

Thank you all for watching this [DuoPlus Cloud Phone Cross-border Special]. Quality accounts and business development cannot be separated from operational skills, and more quality content and cross-border knowledge, information sharing will continue to be brought to everyone.

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