Fashion Accessories, the largest top-level category Cartura tracks, has 206,613 active listings; its median price in the week of 19 October 2026 was $14.72.
This guide explains how that distribution is built, how to read its median, middle 50% and price bands, what its history can and cannot tell you, and how to use it to position a price. Where each figure appears on screen is covered in How Category Insights works.
1. Know what a weekly distribution is
For each category and each week, Cartura takes every listing in the category, including its subcategories, that it read during that week. Weeks start on Monday (UTC). Each listing contributes its price in US dollars at its latest reading that week: the sale price when there is one, otherwise the original price. Cartura reads a product about once a week, so a week’s distribution is a snapshot of the category at that time, not a running average.
The listings are not counted equally. TikTok Shop shows each listing’s lifetime sold count, so Cartura compares that count with its previous reading of the listing, looking back up to four weeks, and the listing counts once for every unit sold in between. A listing with no earlier reading, or one that sold nothing, still counts once. The result is a distribution of units sold by price, with every listing present at least once.
2. Understand how the price bands are built
The price distribution chart has seven bands. Cartura first sets the category’s usual price range for the week: working on a logarithmic price scale, prices more than one and a half times the middle half’s spread beyond the quartiles count as outliers. Five bands divide the usual range, each the same multiple wider than the one before, so cheap bands are narrow in dollars and dear ones wide. An “Under” and an “Over” band hold the outliers at either end.
A band’s height and percentage are its share of the week’s weighted count: units sold, with every listing counted at least once. That is the key to reading the chart. A band crowded with listings that rarely sell can be short, and a band with a few listings that sell heavily can be tall. The band holding the median is marked.
3. Read the median and the middle 50%
The median is the price with half of the week’s weighted units below it and half above. The middle 50% runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, weighted the same way; the Categories list shows it beneath each category’s median. Together they answer two questions:
- Where do sales cluster? The median is the centre of buying in the category that week, not the centre of what is listed. Because each listing is weighted by what it sold, cheap listings that sell little pull it down less than a few listings that sell a lot.
- How wide is the accepted range? A narrow middle 50% suggests buyers converge on a tight price band; a wide one suggests the category holds several tiers, budget to premium, each with its own buyers.
A top-level category is broad. Its median mixes very different products, so it is a frame of reference rather than a price target for any one product.
4. Read the median history, and watch the range
The price history charts the weekly median, week by week; the 30d, 90d and 1y buttons show the last 5, 13 or 52 weeks, and how many weeks you can see depends on your plan. The Categories list also shows each category’s Price change (30d): the newest median against the median of a week four to six weeks earlier.
Read a moving median with care. Because the median follows units sold, it moves when buyers shift towards cheaper or dearer products, even if no listing changes its price. A rising median may mean prices are going up, or that higher-priced products are selling better; a falling one may mean discounting, or a cheap product taking off. Look at the bands and the top products before deciding which.
The chart tracks the median only; the middle 50% is shown for the newest week, so to follow the range, note it from week to week. A range that compresses can suggest sellers are converging on one price, which often comes with price competition. A range that widens can suggest new tiers opening up, such as a premium version finding buyers. Both are signals to investigate, not conclusions.
5. Position your price
- Find your product’s own competitors first. Run it through Product Analysis and note the prices of the closest similar listings: they show which band your product really competes in.
- Place that price against the category. Inside the middle 50% you compete where half of the units sell. Below the 25th percentile you compete on price against the cheapest sellers. Above the 75th percentile buyers need a reason to pay more: a better product, a bundle, or stronger reviews.
- Check the band’s height, not only its position. A price in a tall band meets existing demand and many competitors; a price in a short band may be an opening or a sign that buyers do not want that price.
- Test the margin. In the Product Analysis profit calculator, try the category median, your competitors’ price and your lowest acceptable price, and see which still reach your profit goal.
The guide How to research a TikTok Shop product before you sell it walks through those steps in order.
What this method misses
- US only, US dollars only. The distributions cover the US TikTok Shop.
- No ad spend. A band can be tall because its sellers buy traffic; Cartura cannot see advertising.
- No creator commission rates. Two listings at the same price can leave their sellers very different margins after paying creators; those rates are not public.
- Observations, not TikTok’s numbers. Prices and sold counts are read from public listings about once a week, and units sold are the change in a listing’s public sold count between readings. They are not sales reported by TikTok Shop.
How the dataset is built is described on Cartura’s dataset page, and opening a category’s full price data depends on your plan; see Pricing.