# How to create an app in TikTok Shop Partner Center

The Apideck TikTok Shop connector reads shops, orders and products from the TikTok Shop Open API. This guide is for the application owner: it covers registering in TikTok Shop Partner Center, creating the app, passing TikTok Shop's compliance and legal review, and where the app's credentials go in Apideck.

> **Before you start**
>
> Apideck does not provide shared TikTok Shop credentials, so you register your own Partner Center app and use it for both testing and production. Two decisions are made at sign-up and shape everything after it: which Partner Center you register in, and which developer type you register as. Read sections 1 and 2 before you create an account.

## 1. Sign up in the Partner Center for your market

TikTok Shop runs two separate Partner Centers, and the one you register in determines which market your app serves:

| Market | Sign-up URL |
|--------|-------------|
| United States | [partner.us.tiktokshop.com](https://partner.us.tiktokshop.com/account/sign-up) |
| All other markets | [partner.tiktokshop.com](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/account/sign-up) |

Register in the Partner Center that matches the market your sellers trade in. The split runs through the rest of the platform: sellers authorise apps on `services.us.tiktokshop.com` in the US market and on `services.tiktokshop.com` in the rest of the world. The token endpoints (`auth.tiktok-shops.com`) are the same everywhere.

## 2. Register as an App developer (ISV), not a Seller developer

This is the most consequential choice in the whole setup. TikTok Shop asks new Partner Center accounts which kind of developer they are:

- **Seller (in-house) developer**: builds a custom app that reaches one shop's own data, for a seller integrating their own business.
- **App developer / ISV**: builds a public app that reaches the data of any seller who authorises it.

Register as an **App developer / ISV**. The Apideck connector is multi-tenant by design: each of your consumers authorises your app against their own shop. A Seller developer registration only ever reaches that single seller's shop, so it cannot serve your other consumers.

TikTok Shop's own [developer onboarding guide](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/docv2/page/developer-onboarding) walks through the registration form and the business details it asks for.

## 3. Create the app

1. In Partner Center, open **App & Service** in the left menu and click **Create app & service**.

![App and Service section in TikTok Shop Partner Center](https://res.cloudinary.com/apideck/image/upload/v1724413201/docs/connectors/tiktok/apideck-tiktok-create-app.png)

2. For **App & service type**, select **Public service**. A public service can be found and authorised by any seller through the TikTok Shop App and Service Store, which is what a multi-tenant integration needs. **Custom service** distributes to individual sellers or partners and is not listed publicly.

3. Pick a **service category**, then give the app a default name and logo. The category cannot be changed once it has been chosen. Add your category on the **My Account** page before you start this step, or the dropdown will be empty.

![App and service type, category and name](https://res.cloudinary.com/apideck/image/upload/v1724414807/docs/connectors/tiktok/apideck-tiktok-app-details.png)

4. Under **Market**, select the market and seller types your app targets (for example United States, cross-border sellers). You can add markets to the app later.

5. Turn the **Enable API** toggle on, and enter the Apideck callback in the **Redirect URL** field:

```
https://unify.apideck.com/vault/callback
```

![Enable API toggle and Redirect URL field](https://res.cloudinary.com/apideck/image/upload/v1724415115/docs/connectors/tiktok/apideck-tiktok-redirect-url.png)

6. Click **Create**.

The notices shown beside the **Enable API** toggle are the compliance requirement covered in section 6: TikTok Shop requires partners to complete its data security reviews before an app reads TikTok Shop data through the APIs.

## 4. Enable the APIs the connector uses

TikTok Shop does not use OAuth scope strings, so there is no scope list to configure on the Apideck side. Access is granted by the APIs you switch on for the app.

On the app page, open **Manage API** and enable these three, using the search box:

| API | What the connector uses it for |
|-----|-------------------------------|
| Shop Authorized Information | Listing the shops a seller has authorised, so the connection can select one |
| Product Basic | Reading products |
| Order Information | Reading orders |

If a name in your Partner Center reads slightly differently, match it by the data it grants rather than by the exact wording.

## 5. Find your App key, App secret and Service Id

Open your app from **App & Service**. All three values Apideck needs are on that page:

- **App key** and **App secret** sit in the **Credentials** block of the **Developing** section. The secret is masked; use **Manage app secret** to reveal or rotate it.
- **Service Id** is the **ID** shown in the app header, beside the app name.

![App key, App secret and the app ID in the header](https://res.cloudinary.com/apideck/image/upload/v1724416514/docs/connectors/tiktok/apideck-tiktok-app-key-secret.png)

A newly created app secret takes up to 10 minutes to come into effect, so if the first call straight after a rotation fails, wait and try again.

Treat the app secret as sensitive: Apideck uses it to sign every request it makes to TikTok Shop on your behalf.

## 6. Complete the compliance and legal review

Your app key and secret are issued as soon as the app is created, but TikTok Shop requires the reviews covering your market to be completed before the app can read TikTok Shop data through the APIs. Treat the review as a prerequisite rather than something that runs alongside a working integration.

TikTok Shop reviews partners before an app goes live:

- The review is **mandatory for US and UK partners**. Partners in other markets are assessed case by case.
- Expect a **due diligence questionnaire** and **business documentation** (company registration and similar certificates).
- TikTok Shop states that the review takes **more than three weeks** for US and UK partners. For your own market, ask your Partner Center contact for an expected timeline rather than planning against that figure.

The **Launch checklist** on the app page tracks each review and its status, including the data security reviews and the app review. Start it early: it is the step most likely to sit between a finished integration and a live one.

## 7. Add the credentials in Apideck

Enable the connector from the [Apideck TikTok Shop connector settings](https://platform.apideck.com/configuration/ecommerce/tiktok) in the Apideck Dashboard.

Today the three app values are entered **per connection in Vault**, rather than once at the integration level. Every connection asks for:

| Field | Value |
|-------|-------|
| Service Id | The **ID** from your app header |
| App key | The **App key** from your app's Credentials block |
| App Secret | The **App secret** from your app's Credentials block |

Two practical consequences:

- Whoever fills in the connection form supplies these values, so plan how they get there. The app secret is yours rather than the seller's, so teams typically complete or pre-fill the connection form themselves instead of asking a seller for credentials the seller does not have.
- The **Service Id** field can arrive pre-filled with a default value. Replace it with your own app's ID.

Once the seller has authorised, the connection asks for a **Shop**. A single authorisation can cover several shops, and the connection acts on the one selected there.

## Shipping option and customer details

TikTok Shop keeps customer name and address out of order responses while a shop uses the default TikTok shipping option. This is a setting in the seller's own Seller Center, not something you or Apideck can change for them, so the steps live in the [connection guide](consumer+connection) that the seller follows. Point sellers there when they report missing customer details, and note that orders placed before the change are not backfilled.

## Troubleshooting

**Authorisation fails or the callback is rejected.** Check that the app's **Redirect URL** is exactly `https://unify.apideck.com/vault/callback`, with no trailing slash and no extra path. It can be edited after the app is created.

**Calls return a permission or authorisation error.** Confirm that Shop Authorized Information, Product Basic and Order Information are all enabled under **Manage API**, and that the reviews covering your market have completed.

**Orders come back without customer name or address.** The shop is on TikTok shipping. The steps are in the [connection guide](consumer+connection), since they are performed by the seller in their own Seller Center.

**A connection that was working stops working.** TikTok Shop ties the refresh token's expiry to the authorisation period the seller granted, so a connection lapses when that grant does rather than on a fixed schedule. The seller reconnects to restore it.

**Sellers in more than one market.** An app serves the markets selected on it, and the two Partner Centers are separate accounts. If you need a market your app does not target, add that market to the app before investigating the connection itself.

## Further reading

- [Developer onboarding](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/docv2/page/developer-onboarding)
- [Authorisation overview](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/docv2/page/authorization-overview-202407)
- [Rate limits](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/docv2/page/rate-limits)
- [API versioning](https://partner.tiktokshop.com/docv2/page/api-versioning)

For more about using the TikTok Shop connector with Apideck, see the [connector documentation](https://developers.apideck.com/apis/ecommerce/tiktok). If something in this guide does not match what you see, contact [Apideck Support](https://help.apideck.com/en/articles/7774658).