What is LIVE Auction

Note: This feature is currently available to selected sellers only.This format is ideal for collectibles, luxury resale, sneakers, jewelry, and other non-standard or scarce products where market-driven pricing maximizes value.
⚠️ Key Principle: Auction products can only be sold through the auction method — they cannot be sold as regular products. You can toggle a product back to regular listing later if needed.
How does the overall Auction process look like?

1. Seller goes live → starts auction (set auction duration, starting price)
2. Viewers bid in real time → timer counts down
3. Last highest bid wins → auto checkout
   
   

Key Benefits

• 🔥 Increased Engagement

Real-time interaction helps in building a loyal customer base who feels personally connected to the seller. Build a community that returns to your livestream as loyal viewers and regular buyers.

• ⏰ Encourage Transactions

Countdown timers and limited inventory push shoppers to act fast, turning browsing into immediate purchases.

• 💰 Maximize Conversion

As multiple buyers bid at once, prices can get pushed above expectations. Let the market decide their buying price, while you enjoy a quicker inventory turnover.

• 📦 Simplified Fulfillment with Temporary Auction

Create auction product listings in under 2 minutes and streamline fulfillment with numbered picking that reduces errors and speeds up packing.

Eligibility Criteria

✅ Sellers with official and marketing accounts are eligible to use LIVE Auction.
❌ Affiliate creators cannot use LIVE Auction.
Seller Entry Criteria

• SPS ≥ 4.2
• SPS Product Score ≥ 4.2

Please review the Auction Requirements article before using LIVE Auction to understand eligibility, supported categories, and key order rules.

How To Create Auction Product Listings

Before you can start a LIVE Auction, sellers need to create auction product listings. Auction product listings can be seen and used during an auction in a LIVE session. Once your LIVE Auction has ended, shoppers cannot search or view these products in your shop or elsewhere. There are two methods to create auction product listings.

Important Guidelines

Method A: Product Listing via Seller Center PC

Auction product listings created via Seller Center PC will be synced to LIVE Manager and TikTok App for your convenient selection, enabling you to quickly add them to your shopping bag before/during your LIVE.

Method B: Temporary Auction

Accessible via LIVE Manager PC or TikTok App, Temporary Auction allows you to quickly create auction-only product listings before or during a LIVE. Product listings created via Temporary Auction will go through a quick moderation review before it can be used as an auction product (typically, less than 2 minutes).As the name suggests, this product listing is temporary and will not sync to your TikTok Shop once the LIVE has ended. If you wish to reuse it in your next LIVE, simply recreate the temporary auction for the same product once again.

Via LIVE Manager PC > LIVE Console

Via TikTok App

1. Step 1: At the LIVE tab, click on the Shop icon.
2. Step 2: Here, you can choose to "Add products", or "Create a temporary auction"
   1. Add products: Click this if you have already created auction product listings via Seller Center PC and wish to add these products to your LIVE shopping bag.
   2. Create a temporary auction: Click this if you wish to create new temporary auction product listings.
3. Step 3: Fill in the auction product listing details such as name, category, starting bid price, quantity, package weight, package size, and payment method
4. Step 4: Configure the auction settings such as time limit and auction format (Extended bidding or sudden end)
5. Step 5: Auction product listings that you have added to your LIVE shopping bag will be displayed in the "Auction" tab, which are separate from the regular "Buy now" product list.
   

Use Temporary Auctions to Simplify Fulfillment

When a temporary auction product listing is created, it is automatically assigned a dynamic sequential number (e.g. #1) in front of the product name. This dynamic sequential number will update in real-time once each item completes a successful bid.
Note:

• If you start a temporary auction (e.g., #5) but no one places a bid, the next time you run a temporary auction it will still be labelled as #5. This is because there was no successful bid.
• If someone wins #5 (regardless of whether payment is successful), the next auction you run will be labelled as #6.

This numbering system helps bidders easily identify which specific unit they're bidding on while providing sellers' clear visibility into how many items have already sold via temporary auction.

How To Start a LIVE Auction

After creating your auction product listings, you can start auctions via LIVE Manager (PC) or the TikTok App.
CRITICAL: Once an auction starts, it CANNOT be manually ended. The only way to stop an auction in progress is to end the entire livestream. You also cannot Pin another product, coupon, or auction card while an auction is active, nor can you unpin the current auction card. Starting an Auction Ensure auction products have been added to your shopping bag (Auction tab). Each auction will be based on an individual SKU item.
Editing Auction Settings Before the auction is started, auction product listings can be edited. Once auction has begun, auction product listings cannot be edited or deleted.

What Happens During an Auction

As a seller, it's important for you to monitor the status of your auction, check auction items sold and know how to verbally encourage your viewers to complete their payment in time.

Bidding Scenarios

Monitor ongoing auction activity, including bid volume and bidder profiles, to identify high-interest buyers and proactively engage audiences throughout the auction.

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Sold Items View

Once viewers successfully bid on an item, an order is automatically created for the winning bidder and sellers can view their sold auction items in the Sold items tab, by order level or by product level.

• The order-level view (sorted by most recently received orders) helps you to prioritize order processing, as you can quickly identify newly placed purchases that need immediate packing and shipment. This allows you to reduce the risk of delayed orders during peak traffic periods.
• The product level view (broken down into individual SKUs) helps you to track item-specific demand, inventory movement, or fulfillment status. This allows you to identify which SKUs are popular auction items, and quickly replenish high-performing items or optimize your auction strategy per item to maximize sales opportunities.

‼️ While reviewing sold auction items, pay attention to the payment status of each item as there is a 15-minute payment window for winners to complete the payment.
Inventory ManagementStock for a successfully won auction item will be reserved automatically. If additional inventory is available for the same product, sellers can create new auctions for the remaining stock.

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Block Disruptive Users

Sellers can block users to maintain a healthy auction environment and safeguard revenue, especially when they observe suspicious bidding behavior, repeated failed payments, or frequent order cancellations from the same users.
The blocked user will be immediately kicked out of the LIVE room and is restricted from re-entering. You can always unblock users later in your Settings by clicking the 'x' next to their username.

How Can Viewers Participate In An Auction

During an ongoing auction, the highest bidder wins and an order will automatically be created for the winner. Winners require to complete their payment within 15 minutes to ensure a successful order.
Ongoing auctions are displayed to viewers across various pathways:

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Viewer Bidding Process

Step 1: Agree to terms, add payment method & provide shipping address Step 2: Choose a bidding format. During an ongoing auction, viewers can bid in 2 ways - via a Fixed Price bid or a Custom Bid.
Step 3: Bid successful - Complete payment within 15 minutes

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Payment Methods

To enjoy a seamless bidding experience, viewers are encouraged to bind a payment card to their account so successful bids can be processed instantly with automatic payment deduction. This helps avoid failed payments after winning an auction, prevents the need to re-bid on the same item, and reduces the risk of missing out on a great deal or losing the item to another bidder.
Viewers can update their payment method in a few ways:

How to Fulfill Auction Orders

Sellers can fulfil and prepare LIVE auction orders in the same way as normal orders.

• Once an order has been placed, sellers will be able to see new LIVE auction orders with LIVE and Auction tags on the order card.
  
• Sellers can also click to view the video receipt from the LIVE Auction to check the item they need to pack, to ensure correct packing. They can then continue to prepare and ship the order just as they would for normal orders.

Video receipt visibility and availabilityThe video receipt is available to both seller and buyer, but each party views it from a different location.

• Seller: Seller Center > Manage Order tab
• Buyer: Order detail page, under the shipping address

The same availability conditions apply to both seller and buyer:

1. The order was created after Feb 4, 2026.
2. The order has reached Ready to Ship status.
3. The order is not yet Completed.

If the order is already Completed, the video receipt is no longer available for either party.

Identifying Auction Orders in Seller Center

To help sellers manage auction orders with ease, we have introduced several filters and tags so that sellers can quickly find the orders they need.

Cancellation / Return / Refund Policy

Check Auction Performance Data

Sellers can track GMV and items sold generated through Auctions across LIVE Manager PC and LIVE Dashboard PC, enabling them to better understand how auction sales contribute to overall livestream performance.

Auction Gameplay & Best Practices

These are strategies that different seller groups can adopt when using LIVE Auction.
Recommended categories: Collectibles, fashion (stock clearance, return, exchanges), personal care

New / Small Sellers (Low Traffic + Low Conversion)

Primary Play: Giveaway + Auction

Niche / Collectible Sellers (Low Traffic + Low Engagement)

Primary Play: Auction Top-Selling Products for Traffic Generation (Hook Products)

Multi-Category / Established Sellers (Mid Traffic + Mid Conversion)

Primary Play: Regular Livestream + LIVE Auction Hybrid

High-Volume / Inventory-Heavy Sellers (High Traffic + Low Conversion)

Primary Play A: Flash Sale + Auction
Primary Play B: Sudden Death Auction

Recurring / Growth-Stage Sellers (Low Traffic, Building Audience)

Primary Play: Post LIVE Highlights as Preheat Videos

High-Frequency / Ad-Hoc Sellers (Operational Efficiency Focus)

Primary Play: Use Temporary Listings for Auctions

FAQs

FAQs for Sellers

1. Can affiliate creators use Auction during their livestream?

No, Auction is currently available to sellers with official and marketing accounts only.

2. Can Auction items be searched and purchased once a livestream ends?

No, Auction items only exist within an ongoing livestream. Once the livestream ends, Auction items will not be displayed anywhere within the seller's shop and cannot be searched for.

3. How many Auction items can be added to my LIVE shopping bag?

• CB: You can add up to 100 SKU's into the Auction tab of your LIVE shopping bag, as auction product listings have a separate quota from your regular products within the "Buy now" tab.
• L2L: You can add up to 300 SKU's into the Auction tab of your LIVE shopping bag, as auction product listings have a separate quota from your regular products within the "Buy now" tab.

4. Can an auction product listing be edited or deleted after it's created?

Yes, an auction product listing can be edited or deleted before an auction starts or after an auction ends. Once the auction is ongoing, it cannot be edited or deleted. Sellers can edit the starting bid price, auction duration and auction format.

5. Can I end an auction before the timer countdown ends?

No, once an auction has begun, the auction cannot be canceled or withdrawn until the auction countdown has completed.

6. Can seller vouchers or platform vouchers be applied onto auction items?

Yes, any seller vouchers or platform vouchers are applicable to auction items, and the final bid price for the auction item excludes any applicable shipping fee, payment fees or tax charges.

7. What's the difference between an extended bidding auction and a sudden-end auction?

With extended bidding, any new bid placed within the last X seconds of the auction will automatically extend the auction by X seconds. Extensions continue until no new winning bids are placed before the timer expires. In a sudden-end auction, the auction ends exactly when the timer ends, without any further time extension.

8. Can auction products be sold directly as a regular-priced product without any user bidding process?

No, auction product listings can only be sold through a LIVE Auction.

9. Can I reuse a temporary auction product listing in my next livestream?

No, temporary auction product listings only last within the livestream it was created in. If you start a new livestream, simply create a new temporary auction product listing again.

10. How does the dynamic sequencing of temporary auctions work? What happens when a buyer wins the bid but payment fails?

The system will continue numbering automatically across auction sessions.

• If you start a temporary auction (e.g., #5) but no one places a bid, the next time you run a temporary auction it will still be labelled as #5. This is because there was no successful bid.
• If someone wins #5 (regardless of whether payment is successful), the next auction you run will be labelled as #6.

11. Once purchased, can auction items be cancelled, returned, or refunded?

Auction items follow the return and refund rules of TikTok Shop's Order Cancellation, Return and Refund Policy, as aligned with Auction Terms & Conditions.

12. Is there a maximum starting bid price that sellers can set?

Mexico：Sellers can set a maximum starting bid price of up to MXN 35,000 within each individual auction.

13. Is there a minimum starting bid price that sellers can set?

MX：Sellers can set a minimum starting bid price of up to MXN 1 within each individual auction.

FAQs for Viewers

1. How can a viewer change their shipping address or payment method?

2. Are there any requirements for viewers to place bids?

Yes, viewers must complete 3 requirements before they can place a bid:

• Agree to legal terms
• Fill in shipping address
• Set up a payment method

If any of the above are incomplete, viewers will be prompted to complete it before they can bid.

3. Is the final bid price what a viewer pays once the bidding ends?

The final order amount that a viewer pays depends on the applicable shipping fee, payment fees and tax charges if any, as the final bid price excludes these fees. These are added at the payment stage and may cause the final order amount to vary.

4. Is there a limit for auction bids?

MX：Viewers are allowed to bid up to a maximum of MXN 35,000 within each individual auction.

5. Can viewers customize the bid amount they wish to bid?
   • Fixed Price bid: With Fixed Price bid, viewers will directly bid the price shown on the bid button and cannot customize the bid amount.
   • Custom Bid: With Custom Bid, viewers can customize a maximum bid price and the platform auto-bids in increments on their behalf until their maximum bid is reached, or they are outbid.
6. For Fixed Price bid, how does the platform set the bid amount increments?

The bid increment amount is determined based on the current auction price range, and a fixed increment value will then be applied onto the bid amount. Please see the table below:
🇲🇽 Mexico (MXN) — Starting Bid Increment RulesMax Starting Bid: MXN 35,000