Facebook Shops vs TikTok Shop UK: checkout and VAT compared

What to take away

Where each storefront actually sits

Facebook Shops is a catalogue and tagging layer rather than a separate marketplace. Products attach to a Facebook Page or an Instagram profile, and in most UK setups the shopper finishes the purchase on your own website, so the payment method, the order record and the fees around the sale stay with your own checkout. Meta has opened and closed its own checkout in different markets, so for the UK, plan on the buyer leaving Facebook or Instagram to pay rather than waiting to see whether an in-app checkout appears for your account.

TikTok Shop keeps payment inside the app. A product link in a video or a live stream goes straight to a checkout, TikTok Shop collects the money and settles the balance to you, and the order record sits in the Seller Centre rather than in your own system. That removes the website visit where you would normally capture an email address. That is the trade: less friction for the buyer, less of your own customer data.

Fees, commission and the money that leaves the order

Neither platform publishes one universal rate. TikTok Shop charges a referral fee that varies by category and is revised through seller announcements. Meta charges a selling fee where its checkout operates and otherwise earns from advertising. Model margin on settled orders, not on the order value you see at checkout.

Neither platform publishes a rate card you can line up against the other, so take the current category rate from the platform's own seller documentation before you price — the TikTok Shop Seller Centre for its referral fee. Any percentage you have seen quoted belongs to a category and a date, and the number that matters is what is left after the deduction on a settled order.

Our guide to TikTok Shop fees UK separates referral commission, payment processing and fulfilment charges, which is the quickest way to see whether your price point survives the deduction.

Audience and buying behaviour

Facebook Shops suits sellers whose buyers already use groups, Marketplace or a long-standing Page. Intent usually arrives after a search, a recommendation or a retargeting ad, so being findable and credible matters more than being entertaining.

TikTok Shop suits products that demonstrate well on camera at a low price point. The shopper is not searching for you, so a creator's clip or a live stream does the selling. Your stock, delivery promise and support cover then have to hold when one video performs.

Matching the storefront to product type

High-consideration goods with a longer research cycle tend to suit Facebook Shops, where a saved post or catalogue link still works days later. Low-priced impulse items suit TikTok Shop, where the decision happens in seconds and a creator carries the persuasion.

Seller support and the duties that do not move

Platform help covers account health and disputes. It does not cover consumer law. A sale through either storefront is a distance contract, so the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give most UK buyers 14 days to cancel from delivery. Our social commerce returns policy UK guide sets out what to publish and where.

Quality duties sit with you, not the platform. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 goods must be of satisfactory quality, and a late or damaged parcel is your problem to resolve.

VAT registration follows turnover, not the storefront you use. The registration threshold has been £90,000 since 1 April 2024 (GOV.UK), so a strong run of live selling can move you from exempt to registered in one quarter.

Where checkout happens changes who owes VAT for overseas sellers

The checkout difference also decides who owes the VAT when the seller is based outside the UK. HMRC's guidance on VAT and overseas goods sold to customers in the UK using online marketplaces (online marketplace VAT rules) defines an online marketplace as a website or app that sets the terms on which goods are supplied, is involved in authorising or facilitating the customer's payment, and is involved in ordering or delivery. A business that only lists or advertises goods, or only redirects customers to other websites where the goods are sold, is not classed as an online marketplace.

Applied to these two routes, the answer is not the same for each. TikTok Shop takes the payment and the order inside the app, so it is the online marketplace for a sale made through it: where an overseas seller uses it, TikTok Shop is liable for the VAT on consignments of £135 or less sent from outside the UK to customers in Great Britain, and on goods of any value already in the UK when an overseas business sells them.

Facebook Shops in its UK form is the excluded case: it lists and advertises goods and sends the shopper to your own website to pay, so the VAT on that sale stays with you, the seller. An overseas brand comparing the two storefronts should settle this before pricing for UK buyers.

These marketplace rules cover overseas sellers and imported consignments. For a UK-based seller, the VAT position is the same on either storefront and turns on its own registration: once registered, it charges VAT on its sales at the rate that applies to the goods. The standard VAT rate is 20% for most goods and services, with a reduced rate of 5% for some, such as children's car seats, and a zero rate for others, such as most food and children's clothes, so check the rate for each product line before setting a price on either platform.

Two further points apply whichever storefront you use. The price a UK consumer sees has to be the total they pay, including VAT, so the figure on your product page must already contain the tax; the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 require that total price to be given before the sale, alongside the 14-day cancellation right. And where a platform charges VAT on its own commission, that is input tax on a business cost, which a VAT-registered seller can normally reclaim.

Keep the paperwork straight too. Where you are the seller, your own system holds the sale record on Facebook Shops and the TikTok Shop Seller Centre holds it on TikTok Shop, and either file has to be reconciled with your sales ledger. Where the marketplace rules above make the platform liable for the VAT instead, it is the platform that accounts for it.

A short launch checklist

Common questions

Which works out cheaper for a small UK seller?

Neither is cheap by default, and neither publishes a single UK rate you can compare side by side. TikTok Shop takes a category-based referral fee on each settled order, so the rate follows what you sell; Facebook Shops in most UK setups costs you advertising plus the fees on your own website checkout. Compare them on contribution per order — your price, the current category fee and your delivery cost — rather than on headline percentages.

Do I need both storefronts?

Not at the start. Run one route long enough to see settled orders and returns before adding a second catalogue, because each platform has its own listing rules and support queue.

Who handles refunds when the platform takes the payment?

You do. The platform may run the dispute process, but the contract is with your business, and the 14-day cancellation right applies to most distance sales.