TikTok Shop in Belgium and the Netherlands: Should Your Small Business Sell on It?
Since the summer, someone has probably told you that you should be on TikTok Shop. A supplier, a younger member of staff, a webinar invitation in your inbox. Customers see a product in a video, tap it and buy it without leaving the app, and the people selling the idea say it is the next big sales channel.
TikTok Shop opened in Belgium and the Netherlands on 15 June 2026, and from 19 October sellers from the United Kingdom can start listing into both countries as well. If you run a small shop or a webshop, it is a fair moment to ask the question properly. This article explains what TikTok Shop in Belgium and the Netherlands involves, what it really costs, who it suits and who it does not.
What TikTok Shop is
TikTok Shop turns TikTok into a shop. You list products in the app, and they can be bought from your videos, from live streams, from a shop tab, and from videos made by other people, usually creators who earn a commission on what they sell for you. TikTok handles the checkout. You handle the stock, the shipping and the customers.
When it announced the launch, TikTok said it has 200 million monthly users in Europe and more than 100,000 European businesses already selling on TikTok Shop in the countries where it started earlier, such as France, Germany and Spain. Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland joined in June.
What you need before you can sell
TikTok Shop is for registered businesses, not for anyone with an account. In Belgium, local guides list the following:
- A registered business with a company number and a VAT number.
- A bank account in the EU.
- Products, not services. A hairdresser, an accountant or a cleaning company cannot sell their services on TikTok Shop.
- Products in an allowed category. Alcohol, fresh and frozen food, medicines and tobacco are among the restricted ones, and some other categories need extra documents.
- Stock you can ship quickly, with a clear return process.
Check the current requirements in TikTok’s Seller Center before you plan anything. They are new, and they change.
What it costs, beyond the commission
Opening a shop is free. TikTok takes a commission on each order, which Belgian guides cite at 9% in the EU, with lower rates for new sellers for a limited time under certain conditions. Rates and incentives have changed since launch, so read them in Seller Center rather than in an article, including this one.
The commission is the smallest part of the real cost. Add up the rest before you decide:
- Payment and transaction costs per order.
- Commission for creators, if you want other people to sell your products in their videos. That is how much of the selling on TikTok Shop happens, and it comes out of your margin.
- Shipping and returns. TikTok customers buy on impulse, and impulse purchases come back more often.
- Discounts. Much of what sells on TikTok Shop sells on a deal. Remember the 30-day rule: any “was” price must be your lowest price in the 30 days before the reduction, and that applies on TikTok as much as in your shop.
- Content. This is the cost most owners forget, and it is the biggest one.
Black Friday, Sinterklaas and Christmas: a Q4 social media plan, with the 30-day price rule
A shop without videos does not sell
On a marketplace such as Bol, a customer searches for a product and finds your listing. On TikTok Shop, most customers were not looking for anything. They were scrolling, saw a video, and bought. That means your products sell only as well as the videos about them, and only as often as you post them.
So the real question is not whether to open a TikTok Shop. It is whether you can make several short videos a week about your products, for months, before you know whether it works. If the answer is no, opening the shop changes nothing. If you are not yet posting consistently on any platform, start there.
Why consistent content works better than going viral
The advantage of a real local shop
Here is the part that works in your favour. In August 2026, the Belgian consumer organisation Test Aankoop looked at TikTok Shop and did not like much of what it found. Sellers with “Belgium” in their name turned out to be based in Spain or France. Some did not show a company number. A pair of headphones cost €33.99 on TikTok Shop and about half that elsewhere. Some products showed a five-star rating with no reviews behind it, and return information was often only in English.
A real Belgian or Dutch business can be everything those sellers are not, and can show it in every video:
- Your company number and address, visible in your shop.
- Your face, your shop, your workshop or your warehouse in the videos. People can see you exist.
- Delivery in a day or two from Belgium or the Netherlands, not a week from abroad, and more than one delivery option.
- Returns explained in Dutch or French, in plain words.
- Prices that match your own webshop.
From 19 October more sellers will arrive, as UK shops can list into Belgium and the Netherlands. The more crowded the shop gets, the more those plain signals of trust are worth.
Test Aankoop: the pitfalls to avoid when buying through TikTok Shop (Dutch)
Who TikTok Shop suits, and who it does not
Worth trying if
- You sell physical products that look good on video or are easy to demonstrate: cosmetics, packaged food where the category is allowed, home goods, accessories, toys, gadgets.
- Your products sell at a price people pay without thinking twice.
- Your margin still works after commission, creator commission, shipping and returns.
- You, or someone in your team, can make videos every week.
- You already sell online and can ship quickly.
Probably not for you if
- You sell services, or you sell to other businesses.
- Your products are made to order, expensive, or need advice before purchase.
- Your margin is already thin on your own webshop.
- You have no one to make the videos.
Not being on TikTok Shop does not mean not being on TikTok. Plenty of businesses use TikTok to be seen and send people to their own shop or to their door. That costs you nothing in commission.
If you want to try: an eight-week test
- Read the current rules, fees and restricted categories in TikTok’s Seller Center for your country.
- Pick three to five products that are easy to show and that keep a margin after all the costs above. Do the sum on paper first.
- Set up the shop with your company details, clear delivery options and return information in your customers’ language.
- Plan the videos before you open: at least three a week, for eight weeks. Show the product being used, answer the questions customers ask in your shop, show who you are.
- After eight weeks, look at what you sold, what came back and what you earned after every cost. Then decide whether to continue, adjust or stop.
Eight weeks is short, and a channel like this can take much longer to build. But eight weeks is long enough to find out whether you can keep up the videos, which is the question that decides everything else.
Sources
ChannelX: TikTok Shop Sell Across EU launches 19 October 2026
Clickforest: TikTok Shop in Belgium, costs and registration (Dutch)
If the videos are what stands between you and trying TikTok, that is the part we can take on. A dedicated team plans and edits your short videos and posts, and nothing goes out without your approval. Book a free intro call and we will tell you honestly whether TikTok Shop makes sense for your products, or start small with the €1 a day offer.
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