Updating to TikTok Shop 7-Level Categories (L7) – SHOPLINE Help Center

TikTok Shop is updating its product category structure from a 3-level hierarchy to an up to 7-level hierarchy to enhance the quality and accuracy of product listings. This is a mandatory change from TikTok Shop.

If you fail to adopt the new categories, you will be unable to:

Create or publish new products
Update existing product information (Note: This does not affect the synchronization of product price, inventory, and listing status).

This guide will walk you through the required actions for both new and existing products, depending on whether you use Multichannel Connect (MCC) or the TikTok Shop app.

Affected Regions

All merchants using Multichannel Connect (MCC) or the TikTok Shop app in:

SG (Singapore)
MY (Malaysia)
UK (United Kingdom)
JP (Japan)

What You Need to Do

The required actions differ slightly depending on whether you are using Multichannel Connect (MCC) or the TikTok Shop app.

For Multichannel Connect (MCC) Users

Area	Action Required	Important Notes
New Product Creation / Drafts	Delete and recreate historical unpublished channel product drafts.	Since publishing products with old 3-level categories is no longer supported, if you open a pre-existing L3 draft, you'll see a prompt instructing you to delete and recreate it.
Product Category Templates	Recreate your product mapping templates using the new 7-level (L7) categories.	Since publishing products with old 3-level categories is no longer supported, if you open an outdated L3 template, the system will prompt you to delete and recreate it.
Existing Published Products	No immediate action is required from you. Our system will automatically manage the category upgrade for your existing published products.	The automatic category upgrade will be run by our system every 2-3 hours using the update tool provided by TikTok. Notes: Only Active products qualify for the automatic upgrade. New products must be published for at least 24 hours before our system will include them in the auto-upgrade.

For TikTok Shop App Users

Note: The TikTok Shop app is sunsetting and will be discontinued by Dec 31, 2025. We strongly recommend transitioning to Multichannel Connect (MCC) for publishing and managing your TikTok Shop products.

Area	Action Required	Important Notes
New Product Mapping / Creation	Delete and recreate historical unpublished channel product drafts.	Since publishing products with old 3-level categories is no longer supported, please delete and then recreate any products that are currently in an unsynced or sync-failed status.
Product Mapping Templates	Recreate your product mapping templates using the new 7-level (L7) categories.	Since publishing products with old 3-level categories is no longer supported, if you open an outdated L3 template, the system will prompt you to delete and recreate it.
Existing Published Products	We will not actively upgrade the categories for published products via the TikTok Shop app.	Limitation: For L3-categorized products, you will no longer be able to edit product information (e.g., description, images) via the TikTok Shop app. You will see a prompt directing you to complete any necessary edits on the TikTok Shop Seller Center backend. Price, stock, and status (online/offline) synchronization will continue to function normally.