Sample request statuses explained

This is for anyone reading the Sample Requests page (Dashboard → Affiliate CRM → Sample Requests) who's unsure what a status means.

Status glossary

• To Review — What it means: The creator requested a sample and is waiting on your decision. (TikTok and some tools call this "Requested" or "Pending".) A Repeat Request badge flags a creator who's requested before. · What to do: Approve or reject it.
• Ready to Ship — What it means: You approved it. It now needs fulfilling — shipping happens in TikTok Seller Center. · What to do: Ship the product (Seller Center → Orders → Free Samples).
• In Shipment — What it means: The product is on its way to the creator. (Stored internally as "Shipped".) · What to do: Wait for delivery.
• Content Pending — What it means: The sample has been delivered; you're waiting for the creator to post. · What to do: Nudge the creator if it drags.
• Posted — What it means: The creator posted a video or LIVE featuring the sample. · What to do: Track performance; follow up with top performers.
• Overdue — What it means: The creator received the sample but hasn't posted within 14 days. · What to do: Send a reminder; decide whether to keep sampling them.
• Expired — What it means: The request was never approved and the Target Collab invite's expiration date passed. · What to do: Nothing — it lapsed. Re-invite if you still want them.
• Cancelled — What it means: The request was pulled (by you or the creator) before fulfillment. Rejected and Expired are separate statuses (see their own rows) — a decline shows as Rejected, and a lapsed request shows as Expired. · What to do: See below.
• Rejected — What it means: You declined the request. · What to do: —
• Ignored — What it means: You chose to ignore the request (optionally all future requests from that creator). · What to do: Unignore from Manage Ignored Affiliates if needed.

Filter tabs that aren't statuses

• All shows everything.
• All Approved is a shortcut that combines Ready to Ship + In Shipment + Content Pending + Overdue + Posted — every request you've said yes to, at any fulfilment stage.
• Delivered appears in sample funnel / by-SKU reporting and means the product reached the creator (roughly the Content Pending stage onward).

Why an approved sample can show "Cancelled"

Two common reasons:

1. The creator has more than one request. A creator can have several sample requests, and a summary view (like My Affiliates) may surface a different one from the one you approved. For the accurate per-request picture, always check CRM → Sample Requests.

2. An approved request was cancelled downstream. A Ready to Ship request can flip to Cancelled if the creator cancels or the order is cancelled in Seller Center. (If it simply lapses unshipped, it shows as Expired — a separate status.)

Remember Cruva reads from Seller Center and syncs about every 2–5 hours, so a cancellation made in TikTok will appear in Cruva after the next sync.

Why a sample marked "Posted" might not have content

Posted means TikTok recorded that the creator published content tied to the sample. If you go looking and can't find it, one of these is usually why:

• It wasn't a video. Creators can fulfil a sample with a LIVE or a carousel (photo post) instead of a short video. Check the creator's lives and carousels in Cruva before assuming nothing was posted.
• The post was deleted. The creator published, TikTok flipped the sample to Posted, and the content was taken down afterwards. The status doesn't revert.
• It was marked manually. Content Pending samples can be marked as posted by hand in Affiliate Center (or with Complete in Cruva, see below), so a "Posted" sample may never have had a matching post.
• The post predates the sample. Less common, but a creator can have posted about your product before requesting a sample. If you're looking at older content, that may be what you're seeing.

If you've built a Content Pending group or automation and it seems to be messaging creators who did post, add a Number of Posts condition set to 0 alongside the status condition. The status alone trusts TikTok's bookkeeping; requiring zero posts for your shop as well is a belt-and-braces check that keeps anyone who actually posted out of the group.

Why a sample is still "Content Pending" even though there was a post

• TikTok is slow to attribute. It can take 24–48 hours after a post goes live for TikTok to link it to the sample and move the status to Posted. Give it two days before chasing.
• The shop requires manual confirmation. Some TikTok Shop accounts are configured so that every fulfilled sample has to be marked as posted by hand rather than automatically. If posts consistently never flip to Posted on their own, that setting is likely on for your shop. You can mark them in Affiliate Center, or in Cruva: go to Affiliate CRM → Sample Requests, open the Content Pending tab, tick the samples, and click Complete.
• The sample went Overdue first. A sample that sits in Content Pending for 14 days becomes Overdue, and Overdue is permanent. Once a sample crosses that line it stays Overdue even if the creator posts later, and it can no longer be marked as posted.

That last point is the other reason the Number of Posts = 0 condition matters for any "hasn't posted yet" group: it catches creators whose sample is stuck at Overdue but who have in fact posted, so they don't get a reminder they don't deserve.

Why requests show in TikTok but not in Cruva

This is a sync-timing thing, not a lost request. Cruva pulls sample data from TikTok Seller Center roughly every 2–5 hours, so a request made in TikTok a few minutes ago may not be in Cruva yet.

• Give it one sync cycle (up to ~2.5–3 hours) and refresh.
• Also check your date filter — the Sample Requests page can be scoped to a date range, which can hide older requests.