Key Points:

• After-sales handling involves one or two steps of review. After-Sales Handling Time is the average time sellers take to handle refund, return, cancellation, or replacement requests (Request Approval Time and Item Inspection Time).
• Sellers who respond within 24 hours are more likely to have repeat purchases from customers.
• After-Sales Handling Time will be evaluated on a daily basis and published on the Shop Performance Score page.
• Speed up your After-Sales Handling Time with auto-approval tools (log in required).

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Overview

Providing great customer service after a customer receives the order is important if you want to retain your customers. After-Sales Handling Time measures if customers' requests are addressed in a timely manner.
Only customer requests that are managed by you will be included in the After-Sales Handling Time calculation. These include:

• Requests that require your review to reject or approve
• Requests that are auto-approved according to rules set by you
• Time-out auto-approvals (missed SLAs)

📌 After-Sales Handling Time is included in your overall Seller Performance Score—alongside other measures of product satisfaction, logistics and fulfillment, and customer service.

Two-Step Review Process

After-Sales handling typically involves up to two steps of review, depending on the after-sales request type.

1. Review to approve requests: measured by the Request Approval Time. This is the initial time taken for the assessment of the after-sales request — such as a return, customer cancellation, or refund — to decide whether to approve it. If a return is approved, you will be asked to do an item inspection.
2. Review to inspect items: measured by the Item Inspection Time. This is the time taken to inspect the returned item and decide whether to approve the final refund. It begins when the product has been returned and delivered back to you.

Speed up the both reviews with auto-approval tools (log in required).

How After-Sales Handling Time is Calculated

After-Sales Handling Time is the average time sellers take to handle refund, return, cancellation, or replacement requests (Request Approval Time and Item Inspection Time) in the last 60 days. It only counts requests the seller looked at or set rules for, not ones the system approved by default.

• Formula: After-Sales Handling Time = Total handling time for seller-reviewed after-sales requests ÷ Total seller-handled review counts for request approvals and item inspections

For example, Shop ABC received 2 after-sales requests in the past 60 days:

1. A return and refund request: It had 2 review counts, with Request Approval Time and Item Inspection Time taking a total of 4 hours
2. A refund request: It had 1 review count, with Request Approval Time taking a total of 3 hours

The shop's average After-Sales Handling Time would be calculated as:

• (4 + 3) hours ÷ (2 + 1) review counts = 2.3 hours, rounded to the nearest one decimal place.

After-Sales Handling Time will be evaluated on a daily basis and is published in Seller Center. A healthy After-Sales Handling Time will be 12 hours or shorter.

Exceptions for After-Sales Handling Time

The following scenarios will not be included in your After-Sales Handling Time:

• Requests that do not require sellers to review (reviewed by the platform)
  • For more information, refer to our Guide to Managing Returns, Refunds and Replacements.
• Any after-sales request that has been raised to us for further investigation.
• Seller-initiated cancellations and exchanges

How After-Sales Handling Time Impacts Your Shop

A good After-Sales Handling Time is important to your shop's performance. Sellers who respond within 12 hours are more likely to retain customers.
For instructions on how to analyze your After-Sales Handling Time in Seller Center, please click here. After-Sales Handling Time will update daily to reflect how long the average handling time was for orders in the last 60 days.

• Example: If you were checking your After-Sales Handling Time on Monday, April 28, you are looking at your performance for the weeks of Feb 24 - April 27.

Appeals

We want to ensure that you are fairly evaluated. Our Seller Protection Features include filtering out feedback from customers identified as risky or abusive to maintain an accurate reflection of your performance. This ensures your Shop Performance Score reflects genuine customer satisfaction without the influence of problematic orders. If you believe an after-sales request was included in your After-Sales Handling Time in error, chat with support through the Help Center or contact your Account Manager.

How to See Your After-Sales Handling Time

To see your After-Sales Handling Time, follow these steps:

1. Head to Seller Center homepage
2. Use the sidebar to navigate to Shop Performance Score under Account Health
3. Click Preview at the top of the Shop Performance Score page
4. Scroll down to the Improve these metrics section
5. Under Customer Service, click on After-Sales Handling Time

6. Scroll down to the Problem Order Details section

The table displays all orders with an after-sales request in the past 60 days. All after-sales requests will need to be approved by you, up to two times.

How to Respond to After-Sales Requests

To see after-sales requests that require your attention, follow these steps:

1. Head to Seller Center homepage
2. Use the sidebar to navigate to Orders and go to Manage Returns
3. Scroll down to the Awaiting Your Action tab

4. Select Order ID in each request to view the order details and order history
5. Select after-sales request status—for example, Platform Processing—in each request to view the Return Order ID (if applicable), customer's reason for the request, initiation time, and completion time of each request.

Best Practices

1. Stay up-to-date on your after-sales requests
   • Monitor the status of return/refund orders consistently and follow up with your customers as needed
   • Check out our Guide to Managing Returns, Refunds and Replacements to learn about the return and refund process
2. Set up your return policies
   • Create auto-approval rules for eligible after-sales scenarios to resolve these requests automatically
   • Go to Orders > Fulfillment Settings > Returns and Refunds

Reduce the number of after-sales requests you receive by addressing customers' questions promptly and thoroughly.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

When will After-Sales Handling Time be added to Shop Performance Score?

After-Sales Handling Time is a new metric that will be added to Shop Performance Score on July 7.

Why is After-Sales Handling Time important?

This metric provides visibility into your efficiency in key after-sales services, and offers opportunities to improve your after-sales processes for a better customer experience and higher customer retention.

Are there enforcement actions for After-Sales Handling Time?

No, there are no violation enforcements for After-Sales Handling Time. This metric is only included in Shop Performance Score and will not impact your Account Health Rating.

Are automatic approvals included in After-Sales Handling Time?

Automatic approvals comprise of platform auto-approvals and seller-auto-approvals.

• Platform auto-approval
  • Not included in After-Sales Handling Time.
  • After-sales requests that are approved by TikTok Shop may be given when:
    • Eligible after-sales requests are routed to TikTok Shop for review by an agent handling the request
    • Eligible after-sales requests meet our Customer Order Cancellation, Return, and Refund Policy. For example, a customer's refund request was not responded to within 24 hours of an order status changing to Ready to Ship (RTS).
• Seller auto-approval
  • Included in After-Sales Handling Time. Each review count with a seller auto-approval will be given a default handling time of 1 minute.
  • Seller auto-approvals are triggered when eligible after-sales requests meet the approval rules set by the seller in in Seller Center.

How can I prevent abusive or risky customer behavior from affecting my After-Sales Handling Time?

• TikTok Shop prioritizes seller protection with automated systems to manage refunds, block risky customers, and ensure fair claim verification. Features like extended review periods for high-value and undelivered returns provide sellers with more time to assess requests thoroughly.
• If you believe an after-sales request was included in your After-Sales Handling Time in error, chat with support through the Help Center or contact your Account Manager.

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After-Sales Handling Time is one of six metrics contributing to your Shop Performance Score. Learn more about the other metrics in our 2025 Guide to Shop Performance Score.