List many products on TikTok Shop at once. Without typing each one again.

What the bulk upload template is

It is an Excel file you download from TikTok Shop's Seller Center, one for each category. You fill in one row for each product, or each size and color of it, and upload the file back in Seller Center.

The catch is the category. Which columns exist, which are mandatory and which values each dropdown accepts all depend on it - and they change when TikTok revises the template. A template for one category can run to a hundred columns, and some of them your category forbids: those must stay blank.

Doing it by hand

1. In Seller Center, open the bulk upload screen for products, choose your category and download its template.
2. Fill in a row for each product or variant: title, description, price, stock, SKU, the photos, and every field your category requires.
3. Upload the file in the same screen, and read the results.
4. Fix the rows TikTok rejected, and upload again.

Step 2 is the long one, and you repeat it for every category you sell in. If you already keep your products somewhere else - a spreadsheet, eBay, Etsy - you are typing them all again.

Why it fails without saying which field

One of my own TikTok Shop uploads came back with "fill out a field correctly" - not which field, not which row. That message can mean any of these:

• A required field is empty - and what is required changes from one category to the next.
• A dropdown value is spelled differently from TikTok's own list, even by one letter.
• A title is over the length limit.
• A column your category forbids was not left blank.
• A photo link TikTok could not fetch in time.

Doing it with ZoraLister

Add your products once - photos, sizes, colors and all - and ZoraLister writes TikTok Shop's file for you, from the template you downloaded. In ZoraLister Online:

1. Add your products. Type them in, bring in the spreadsheet you already keep, or bring in your eBay or Etsy listings, photos included.
2. Drop in TikTok Shop's template for your category, exactly as you downloaded it. ZoraLister reads which columns your category has, which are required and which values each dropdown takes.
3. Say where each column gets its value - once per category. Then every product you list in that category fills the same way.
4. Check, look and approve. Check says in plain words what each product still needs. Look shows exactly what goes in each column. Nothing goes into a file until you approve it.
5. Download the upload file and upload it in Seller Center. The columns your category forbids are left blank, as TikTok requires.

ZoraLister for Windows does the same on your own PC: drop in the template, build the listing profile, approve on Queue and write the file from Exports. The Windows guide shows those screens.

Photos: TikTok fetches an upload file's photos from a web address. In ZoraLister Online, each photo is published at a temporary address for TikTok to collect when the file is written, so there is nothing to paste - and you can take them all down when you are done. Under each photo, ZoraLister Online also says when it is not square, so you can fix it before you list.

The Online guide shows every screen, and the two-minute demo on the home page (recorded in ZoraLister for Windows) fills a real TikTok Shop row.

What it does not do

• You still upload the file yourself, in Seller Center. ZoraLister does not send to TikTok Shop directly today.
• You need your own TikTok Shop seller account. ZoraLister does not open one for you.
• It cannot promise TikTok will accept every row. It tells you what is wrong before you upload, from the template's own rules - TikTok can still have rules the template does not spell out.

Which version

ZoraLister Online runs in your browser - a Mac, an iPad or a Chromebook is all you need - for a low monthly fee, and also sends listings straight to eBay and Etsy. ZoraLister for Windows runs on your own PC: buy it once, no monthly fees, and it fills TikTok Shop's and eBay's upload files without connecting to any marketplace. Compare them.