Connect your TikTok Shop (and fix link failures)

For brands and agencies connecting a TikTok Shop to Cruva for the first time, and anyone whose shop shows an error status.

The short answer

Cruva connects to your TikTok Shop by having you add a unique Affiliate Manager email (one Cruva generates for that specific shop) inside TikTok Shop Seller Center. When the email is added correctly and the region and language match, the shop flips to Linked and data starts syncing. Most "link failed" cases come from adding the wrong email, the wrong region, or a non-English language — or from a temporary TikTok-side outage.

Step by step: link a shop

1. Go to Dashboard → My Shops (bottom-left of the sidebar) and start Add Shop. Choose your region and give the shop a name.

2. On the Grant Access step, Step 1 shows your Affiliate Manager email. Click Copy. It looks like abc123de@cruva.com — this is unique to this shop.

3. In TikTok Shop Seller Center, go to My Account → Account Settings → User Management, then click Add User. (Cruva's Step 2 gives a direct link to this page for your region.) You must be the main admin on the TikTok Shop in order to access this page. If you are not the main admin, please send this link to the main admin on the brand to add your email.

4. Paste the exact email from Step 1. Set the role to Affiliate Manager. Set the language to English. Click Submit.

5. Back in Cruva, click to verify. The shop status becomes Linked when it works.

Use the exact email Cruva shows you. Do not paste TikTok's own address (for example …@tiktokconnect.com) — that is not your Affiliate Manager email and the link will fail.

The email is the part that matters most. When you click Verify, Cruva also automatically installs the official Cruva TikTok Shop app for your shop (shown as a "Required" step labeled "Installs the Cruva TikTok Shop app automatically") to speed up data sync — this is not a separate download you perform in Seller Center, and not an alternative to the Affiliate Manager email.

What each status means

• Linked — What it means: Connected and syncing. · What to do: Nothing — you're done. Check My Shops to confirm it says Linked.
• Linking — What it means: Setup started but not finished. · What to do: Click the badge to resume setup and finish adding the email.
• Logging in — What it means: Cruva is completing the login in the background. · What to do: Wait a moment; it resolves on its own.
• Link failed — What it means: The email/region/language check didn't pass. · What to do: See "Fix a link failure" below, then Try Again.
• Login failed — What it means: Auth broke after a working link (or a TikTok outage). · What to do: See "Login failed / re-auth loop" below.
• Paused — What it means: The shop has no active/paid plan slot. · What to do: This is billing, not a connection error. See "Paused" below.

Fix a link failure

When Cruva shows Link failed, open the status and check all of these:

• The exact manager email was added to the shop (copy it again from Step 1 — do not retype it).
• The user was added with the Affiliate Manager role.
• The region you picked in Cruva matches the shop's actual region.
• The Seller Center language was set to English.

Then click Try Again.

If everything looks right and it still fails, it is often a TikTok-wide outage affecting all connections. A known fix in that case: delete the shop in Cruva and add it again — this generates a fresh manager email to link with. Otherwise, wait and retry; connections usually recover once TikTok resolves the outage.

"Login failed" / re-authenticate loop

If a shop that was working shows Login failed, or Cruva keeps asking you to re-authenticate across several accounts at once, this is almost always a temporary TikTok platform issue, not something wrong with your setup. No action is needed — normal operation resumes automatically once TikTok recovers.

If only one shop is affected and it persists, open the status and use Retry / restart to re-run the connection.

"Paused" — is it broken? Is it still billing?

Paused means the shop isn't on an active/paid plan slot — it is not a linking error. If shops paused unexpectedly, check that your plan still covers the number of shops you have connected.

Separately, TikTok can pause a shop's campaigns on its own side (for example a low shop-performance score). That gate is controlled by TikTok, not Cruva.

Connected but shows no data yet

A freshly linked shop can take some time to pull affiliate data, creators, and sample requests on the first sync. Give it a little while after linking before the dashboard fills in.

Common problems

Which email do I add as Affiliate Manager? The unique one Cruva shows in Step 1 of the Add Shop flow, on the My Shops page. It is not your Cruva login email and not TikTok's address.

I added the exact email and it still says link failed. Re-check region and language (English), then Try Again. If multiple users report failures at once, it's likely a TikTok outage — delete and re-add the shop to get a fresh email, or wait it out.

"I don't have permission" when installing in Seller Center. You need to be an admin/owner on the TikTok Shop side to add a user. Ask whoever owns the Seller Center account to add the Affiliate Manager email, or grant you User Management rights.