Selling on TikTok — Kenya
Start Selling on TikTok in Kenya
TikTok Shop has not launched in Kenya. There is no in-app checkout and no order feed to sync — which means everything after the tap is yours to run. sell.ke runs it: a tracked link per video, M-Pesa checkout, a desk for selling on a live, and the sale reported back to TikTok when it is done.
The question this answers is the one no dashboard in this market answers honestly: what is TikTok actually worth to my shop?
TikTok Shop is not available in Kenya — what that changes
In markets where TikTok Shop runs, the platform holds the catalogue, the checkout and the order, and a POS integration is mostly a sync job. None of that exists here. A Kenyan seller posts a video, puts a link somewhere, and everything from the tap onwards — the browsing, the payment, the stock, the delivery, the receipt and the proof that TikTok caused it — happens on their own system. These are the pieces sell.ke ships for it.
Shareable links: which video sold it
Every video gets its own short link — a /l/ code sitting at the root of the domain, short enough to read off a screen. The code is not decoration: it is the campaign tag carried onto every order that comes from the link, which is what makes matching a sale back to a video exact instead of a guess.
Clicks, orders, paid orders, revenue
Four numbers per link, and the gap between them is the point. Revenue counts money actually collected — an abandoned checkout is not a sale, and counting it as one makes every video look better than it was.
Point it anywhere
A link can open your home page, one product, a category or a custom path. Product and category links resolve through your shop's own routes at redirect time, so a link already printed in a caption keeps working after you move to a custom domain.
A printed link never dies
Archiving a link hides it from your list but never stops it resolving. A caption somewhere still has it, and a dead link is a lost customer rather than a tidy dashboard.
Built for TikTok, usable anywhere
Links default to a TikTok social tag because that is the case they exist for, and the tags are editable when you want a link's numbers to line up with a campaign you configured elsewhere.
Attribution: knowing TikTok sold it
Where a shopper came from only exists for one instant — the moment they arrive. By the time they check out, the referrer is your own page and the campaign tags have been navigated away from. So first touch is captured on the cart, copied onto the order, and classified once.
The hard case: a bio link with nothing on it
TikTok bio links get pasted bare, with no campaign tags, and TikTok's in-app browser often sends no referrer either. What is left is the click id TikTok appends to the URL itself — and because the network is the only thing that can add it, it is stronger evidence than any tag a shopper could be carrying in a stale bookmark. Read it, and the sale is TikTok's. Miss it, and the sale is recorded as direct, which is how a seller ends up believing TikTok does nothing for them.
One spelling, one number
"TikTok", "tiktok.com", "tik_tok" and a bare "tt" all fold into a single stored value. Traffic sources are a closed list — TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, X, Google, email, direct, other — rather than whatever a tag happened to say, because three spellings split one month's TikTok revenue into three totals that each look too small to matter.
Channel and traffic source are different questions
Channel is the mechanism the order was taken through — the web checkout, WhatsApp, a live, the counter. Traffic source is where the shopper came from. A TikTok viewer who messages you and orders over WhatsApp is channel WhatsApp, traffic source TikTok, and keeping the two apart is the only reason "what is TikTok worth to me" has an answer at all. Reports filter by either.
The live-selling desk: selling on a TikTok Live
You go live with items on a table and read out a code for each one. Viewers comment the code and their number. Somebody at a laptop types them in. What the desk adds is the part that always went wrong on paper: the stock coming off the shelf the second it is claimed, and going back on when nobody pays.
Claim codes and live-only prices
Each item on the table gets a short code a viewer can transcribe on a phone, and the price is snapshotted when you put it there — a special that exists only for the stream still bills what you announced on air.
A hold, not a promise
Every claim reserves the stock for a window you set per session — minutes for a pay-on-the-spot stream, hours for collect-numbers-and-reconcile. When the hold expires unpaid, the item goes back on the shelf on its own.
Paid before you move on
A claim texts the buyer what they claimed and what it costs, then either pushes an M-Pesa prompt to their handset or sends a pay link — while you are still talking about the next item.
The money decides, not the desk
Claims are settled from what landed on the order, so a buyer who paid at the till, through a card link or by a manual M-Pesa code is counted as paid — and never has their item released from under them.
When the stream ends: claimed is not collected
The post-live board shows both numbers side by side — the value of everything claimed on air, and the money that actually arrived — along with what was paid, what was released and what was cancelled. Reporting the first as the second is how a seller ends a two-hour live believing they made three times what they made.
Everything after the claim is deliberately not new. A live sale writes exactly the order a web checkout writes, so web orders, reports, delivery, receipts, credit and till reconciliation all handle live sales without knowing the desk exists. Taking claims is also its own permission: typing codes for two hours is not a manager's job, and the person doing it does not need the rights to start or end a stream.
Reporting the sale back to TikTok
If you ever put money behind a video, TikTok has to learn which clicks became sales. Add your pixel ID and the storefront renders it; add an Events API token and completed purchases are also sent from our server.
Server-side, because phones drop pixels
TikTok traffic arrives inside TikTok's own in-app browser, which is exactly where a browser pixel is least reliable. The order is a record we hold, so the purchase is sent from the server regardless.
Matched to the click
The click id captured when the shopper landed is sent back with the purchase, which is what ties the sale to the ad that caused it. Without it TikTok can only match on hashed contact details.
Counted once, in your currency
Server and browser events share an id so TikTok keeps one and discards the other, and totals are reported in your own currency rather than the platform's.
How to start selling on TikTok in Kenya — 6 steps
From a video to money collected, counted and credited to the right post.
Put the products from your videos in one catalogue
Your sell.ke store is where the TikTok viewer lands. Add the items you film with photos, prices and stock counts — the same catalogue your counter and your WhatsApp orders already sell from, so a live sale and a shop sale never fight over the last piece.
Create a tracked link for the video
One short link per video or per post, pointed at your home page, a product, a category or any path. Paste it in the bio or the caption. The link's own code is what later tells you this video sold eleven items and that one sold none.
Switch on M-Pesa checkout
TikTok viewers are on a phone, in TikTok's own browser, with no patience for a card form. M-Pesa STK push at checkout means they confirm on the handset and the order is marked paid automatically. Paystack card and manual M-Pesa codes are there for everyone else.
Add your TikTok Pixel and Events API token
Optional, and worth it if you ever run ads. The pixel renders on your storefront; the Events API sends the completed purchase from our server with the click id attached, so TikTok counts sales its browser pixel never saw.
Run a live and take claims at the desk
Open a live session, put items on the table with a short claim code each, and read the codes out. Whoever is at the laptop types the code and the viewer's number as the comments come in. Each claim holds the stock and sends the buyer a payment prompt.
Read what TikTok is actually worth to you
Filter reports by traffic source to see TikTok revenue against everything else, and open any tracked link to see clicks, orders, paid orders and the money actually collected — not the money claimed.
Selling on TikTok in Kenya — frequently asked questions
Is TikTok Shop available in Kenya?
No. TikTok Shop — the in-app checkout and seller centre — has not launched in Kenya, so there is no TikTok cart to list products in and no TikTok order feed to sync. Selling on TikTok in Kenya means sending viewers somewhere they can actually pay, or taking the order yourself during a live. sell.ke covers both, and reports the sale back to TikTok afterwards.
How do I sell on TikTok in Kenya?
Put your products on a store that takes M-Pesa, create a tracked link for each video, and paste it in the bio or caption. Viewers tap, pay by M-Pesa, and the order lands in the same place your counter and WhatsApp orders do. For a TikTok Live, use the live-selling desk: read out a claim code per item, type in the codes and numbers viewers comment, and each claim holds the stock and sends a payment prompt.
How do I know which TikTok video made the sale?
Give every video its own tracked link. The link's short code is also the utm_content carried on any order that comes from it, so matching an order back to a video is exact rather than a guess. Each link reports clicks, orders, paid orders, revenue collected and the conversion rate between them.
Can I take M-Pesa payments from TikTok viewers?
Yes. M-Pesa STK push is built into the storefront checkout and into the live-selling desk — the buyer confirms on their handset and the order is marked paid without anyone reconciling by hand. Paystack card links and manual M-Pesa code confirmation are available for buyers who need them.
What if a TikTok viewer messages me on WhatsApp instead of buying on the site?
That sale still counts as TikTok. Channel and traffic source are recorded separately: channel is the mechanism the order was taken through — web, WhatsApp, live or the counter — and traffic source is where the shopper came from. An order from a TikTok viewer placed over WhatsApp reads as channel WhatsApp, traffic source TikTok. Collapsing the two is what makes most dashboards unable to answer what TikTok is worth.
TikTok links do not carry UTM tags. Does attribution still work?
Yes, and this is the case the feature exists for. A bio link is usually pasted bare with no UTM parameters, and TikTok's in-app browser frequently sends no referrer at all. TikTok appends its own click id (ttclid) to the URL, and that is read as proof of source — without it the sale would be recorded as direct traffic and TikTok would look like it sells nothing.
Can I do TikTok live selling in Kenya?
Yes. Open a live session for a branch, add the items on your table with a short claim code each, and take claims as viewers comment. Every claim holds the stock for a window you set — minutes for a pay-now stream, hours for a collect-numbers-and-reconcile one — writes a real order, and texts the buyer a payment prompt or an M-Pesa STK push.
What happens when someone claims an item on a live and never pays?
The hold expires and the stock goes back on the shelf automatically, so you are not holding a dress for somebody who stopped replying. Claims are marked paid from the money on the order, which means a buyer who later paid at the till, through a Paystack link or by a manual M-Pesa code is never treated as a no-show.
Does the TikTok Pixel work with a sell.ke store?
Yes. Add your pixel ID in the storefront settings and it renders on every page. Add an Events API token as well and completed purchases are also sent server-side, with the TikTok click id attached and de-duplicated against the browser pixel — which matters because TikTok traffic arrives inside an in-app browser on a phone, where a browser-only pixel misses a large share of conversions.
Will my TikTok orders sync into sell.ke automatically?
There is nothing to sync: TikTok Shop does not operate in Kenya, so TikTok holds no orders of yours. Every sale is created in sell.ke at the moment it happens — by the shopper at checkout or by your desk during a live — which is why it carries full stock, delivery, receipt and reporting support from the first second rather than arriving hours later from a marketplace feed.
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Reports & Accounting
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