Four fee layers, plus fulfillment and refunds
Referral commission is the platform fee on the sale. Affiliate commission is paid to the creator or affiliate who drove the order. Payment processing is a percentage plus a fixed fee. Some sellers also see a platform service fee.
Fulfillment and product cost sit outside those platform fees but are still cash out. The refund reserve is a planning provision for orders that come back.
Affiliate commission is variable
A 10% affiliate commission is not the same as a 10% platform referral fee. It may apply only to affiliate-driven orders, and it can be negotiated per creator or campaign.
This calculator applies the affiliate rate to every order for simplicity. If only part of your volume is affiliate-driven, lower the rate to the expected blended commission instead of assuming 100%.
Worked example
Item $30, free shipping, referral 6%, affiliate 10%, payment 2.9% + $0.30, fulfillment $6, COGS $8, refund rate 15% with a $16 loss per refund.
Referral is $1.80, affiliate $3.00, payment $1.17, fulfillment $6.00 and refund reserve $2.40. Total costs before COGS are $14.37; net profit is $7.63 and net margin is 25.4%.
Market presets are examples, not quotes
TikTok Shop rates vary by market, category, seller program and date. The US, UK and SEA presets are starting points; every field can be overwritten.
Do not mix a local-currency fee with USD revenue. If your seller center reports fees in another currency, convert the whole order consistently or keep the analysis in that currency.
The refund reserve is not a refund event
The reserve is refund rate × loss per refund. It spreads the expected cost across every order, which is useful for pricing. It does not model a specific refunded order or the exact fee reversal rules.
If refunds are concentrated in one SKU or campaign, run the model separately for that group instead of averaging it into the whole store.
Where the model stops
It excludes taxes, platform policy changes, currency conversion, multi-item allocation, ad spend and creator samples. It also assumes the affiliate rate applies to all orders.
Use the result as a planning baseline, then reconcile it with the TikTok Shop seller center and your bank payouts. For refund-specific cash impact, use the refund loss calculator.