If you sell on TikTok Shop in Malaysia, you have probably seen the headlines that commission rates are going up on 31 October 2026. That is true for most categories but it is only half the story. At the same time, TikTok Shop is running a cost-of-living relief programme with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) that puts a long list of everyday-essential sub-categories on 0% platform commission and cuts the rate on dozens more.
So before you blanket-raise your prices for the 31 October change, you need to answer one question: which direction is my category actually moving? For a lot of food, FMCG and household sellers, the answer is “down, or to zero” and raising prices anyway would be leaving money on the table and losing the demand the relief was designed to create.
Here is how to check where your products stand, and what to do about it.
Two things are happening at once don’t confuse them
There are two separate fee stories running in parallel right now, and most of the coverage blurs them together:
- The 31 October commission revision. From 00:00 on 31 October 2026 (MYT), TikTok Shop revises Marketplace and Mall commission rates. Most sub-categories go up, but some including feminine care, medical supplies, over-the-counter medications and nursing & feeding actually go down. Core food staples stay at 0%. Orders placed before the switch keep the old rate.
- The #JomLokal cost-of-living relief. Separately, TikTok Shop’s relief programme with KPDN has waived or reduced commission on a large group of essential sub-categories and added a per-order shipping rebate. This is the one that can put your category at 0%.
The point: a rising headline rate and a 0%-essentials waiver can both be true in the same shop, for different products. You have to check category by category.
How to check whether your category is 0% or reduced
The only authoritative source for your rate is your own Seller Center, because commission in Malaysia is set per sub-category and differs by Marketplace vs Mall and by whether the product is enrolled in Bonus Xtra Program (BXP). Here is the practical check:
- Open Seller Center → Finances / Fee Schedule (also surfaced via the Academy fee pages) and look up the commission rate for each product’s exact sub-category, not the broad top-level category.
- Note the rate shown for your setup (Marketplace or Mall, BXP or non-BXP), and whether it shows 0% or a reduced figure.
- Look for any #JomLokal / cost-of-living relief enrolment or eligibility prompt in Seller Center. The relief applies to specific essential sub-categories, and some of it is enrolment-based rather than automatic.
- Cross-check the effective date: the 31 October revision only applies to orders from 31 October onward.
If you manage more than a handful of SKUs, do this in a simple spreadsheet: SKU, sub-category, old rate, new rate, 0%/reduced flag. That one sheet tells you exactly where to reprice and where to leave prices alone.
Which kinds of products sit in the 0% or reduced bucket
TikTok Shop has stated that the relief covers daily essentials, and named examples publicly. The waived and reduced groups lean heavily toward:
- Dairy and basic groceries: milk, powdered milk, yogurt and fermented dairy were among the sub-categories added to the 0%-commission list, alongside core food staples like baking ingredients, fresh and frozen food, and cooking essentials that were already at 0%.
- Health and personal-care essentials: the 31 October revision moves feminine care, medical supplies, over-the-counter medications and nursing & feeding down, not up.
- A wider band of “essential” sub-categories got a partial reduction under the relief programme rather than a full waiver.
TikTok has not published the full named list in one public page it points sellers to the in-app fee schedule and seller course for the complete, current eligibility. So treat the examples above as a signal, not the definitive list: if you sell food, FMCG, baby/maternity, or health essentials, there is a real chance your rate is 0% or reduced, and it is worth the five-minute check.
The RM2 shipping rebate: use it, don’t ignore it
Alongside the commission relief, TikTok Shop has stated it is giving an RM2-per-order rebate on standard shipping, nationwide, to lower delivery cost for shoppers. For a low-ticket essentials seller, shipping is often the deal-breaker at checkout, so an RM2 rebate per order is a genuine conversion lever not an accounting footnote. Build it into how you present your offer (for example, a cleaner “free/low shipping” message where eligible) rather than letting it quietly disappear into the platform’s maths.
If your category is 0% or reduced: do more than pocket it
A 0% or reduced rate is not just margin you get to keep. It is a window TikTok created to move volume on essentials. The sellers who win it treat the saved commission as fuel:
- Reprice into demand, carefully. You can hold or sharpen your price to win the price-sensitive essentials shopper the relief is attracting without wrecking margin, because the platform is taking less.
- Fund the discovery engine. TikTok Shop is a discovery platform: sales come from content, creators, LIVE and ads. Put some of the saved commission into the thing that actually drives essentials volume (consistent short-form content and LIVE) during the subsidised window running into 11.11.
- Lead with the right SKUs. Push the products whose category is 0%/reduced in your content and creator briefs first; that is where your unit economics are strongest right now.
If your category went up instead: reprice from margin, SKU by SKU
If your check shows a rate increase on 31 October, don’t panic-raise every price by a flat percentage. Work backward from your target margin on the all-in cost, one SKU at a time, and remember the rest of the stack moves too:
- Transaction fee: 3.78% (SST inclusive) on standard payment methods.
- PayLater: 4.86% (SST inclusive) on PayLater orders since 16 October 2026.
- GMV Max auto-reinvestment: roughly 5% of GMV for most sellers (3% for electronics) is automatically converted into ads; that is a real line in your cost of sale.
- BXP campaign-day rates rise during selected Double Day and Payday windows (voluntary).
Commission in Malaysia is charged as (item price − seller discount) × category rate, is SST-inclusive, and excludes shipping fees and TikTok platform discounts. So model the number that actually gets deducted, not the headline percentage.
Want a personalised look at where your TikTok Shop stands? fees, store health and growth? Get your free TikTok Shop Health Checkup.