Fees checked November 2026 · Every figure on this page was produced by running CalcViso’s own marketplace fee engines — the same code behind the Marketplace Profit Comparator — on one reference product. Methodology and every assumption are listed at the bottom of the page.
One product, four marketplaces, four very different payslips
Marketplace fees are usually quoted as a single headline percentage: 15% here, 6% there. Nobody actually pays the headline. Amazon stacks a fulfillment fee, placement and storage on top of its referral fee; TikTok Shop’s gentle 6% grows an affiliate commission and a shipping bill; eBay charges its percentage on the shipping you charge the buyer; Etsy layers three small fees that are easy to under-count. So we took one reference product — the default product in our comparator: an item costing $8.00, landed at $9.20 with freight, in an 8 × 4 × 4 in parcel weighing 12 oz, sold with free shipping to the buyer — and ran it through all four fee engines at four price points, changing nothing but the price.
The headline result, at a $29.99 selling price: Etsy keeps $11.87, eBay $10.69, TikTok Shop $8.48 and Amazon FBA $6.85 — a $5.02 spread per unit between best and worst, or $502.02 per 100 units, on identical economics. The ranking held at every price we ran. What follows is the full data: net profit per unit, what each channel takes, where the money goes line by line, and the fee schedules underneath.
Net profit per unit, by selling price
Net profit after every channel charge and after the product’s own costs (product, inbound freight, prep and packaging — $10.00 per unit in this scenario; the TikTok engine counts $9.65 of it, see the methodology note). Negative numbers are losses.
| Selling price | Amazon FBA | TikTok Shop | Etsy | eBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | -$8.11 | -$6.86 | -$6.22 | -$6.48 |
| $25.00 | $3.12 | $4.65 | $7.36 | $6.38 |
| $50.00 | $21.83 | $23.83 | $29.98 | $27.98 |
| $100.00 | $58.21 | $62.20 | $75.23 | $71.18 |
And the same result as the share of the selling price the seller actually keeps:
| Selling price | Amazon FBA | TikTok Shop | Etsy | eBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | -81.1% | -68.6% | -62.2% | -64.8% |
| $25.00 | 12.5% | 18.6% | 29.4% | 25.5% |
| $50.00 | 43.7% | 47.7% | 60.0% | 56.0% |
| $100.00 | 58.2% | 62.2% | 75.2% | 71.2% |
What the channel takes
“Taken by the channel” means everything that comes out of the sale before your own product costs: platform fees, fulfillment or your shipping cost, affiliate/Offsite/Promoted attribution, advertising where the scenario assumes it, and the expected cost of returns. For every row on this page, channel take + your product costs + net profit = the selling price.
| Selling price | Amazon FBA | TikTok Shop | Etsy | eBay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $8.11 | $7.21 | $6.22 | $6.48 |
| $25.00 | $11.88 | $10.70 | $7.64 | $8.62 |
| $50.00 | $18.17 | $16.52 | $10.02 | $12.02 |
| $100.00 | $31.79 | $28.15 | $14.77 | $18.82 |
As a share of the price, the channel’s take falls as the price rises — fixed per-order fees and the flat fulfillment/shipping lines are diluted — but it never gets small: even at $100, Amazon’s channel take is 31.8% of the price and TikTok Shop’s is 28.2%, against 18.8% on eBay and 14.8% on Etsy.
Where the money goes at $29.99 — line by line
The full anatomy of one $29.99 sale on each channel, at the scenario’s default settings. Returns are expected values (return rate × the per-return cost), spread across all units — the same convention the comparator uses.
Amazon FBA — net $6.85
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Referral fee — 15%, “most categories”, on price + shipping charged | $4.50 |
| FBA fulfillment — large-standard tier, billed weight 0.92 lb (dimensional), incl. $0.32 holiday peak surcharge and the 3.5% fuel & logistics surcharge | $5.14 |
| Inbound placement service fee | $0.30 |
| Storage — one month at the Jan–Sep rate | $0.06 |
| Advertising — 10% of price (scenario assumption) | $3.00 |
| Expected returns cost — 5% return rate | $0.14 |
| Your product costs — product $8.00 + inbound freight $1.20 + prep $0.35 + packaging $0.45 | $10.00 |
| Net profit per unit | $6.85 |
Amazon’s own fees alone — referral, fulfillment, placement and storage — are $10.00 of the $29.99 before advertising or returns enter the picture. No other channel’s fee stack comes close, because no other channel is also the warehouse and the courier.
TikTok Shop — net $8.48
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Referral fee — 6% of the fee base (price, free shipping, no seller discount) | $1.80 |
| Affiliate commission — expected value: a 12% commission on the 60% of orders affiliates drive | $2.16 |
| Your shipping cost — you ship the order yourself | $4.50 |
| Advertising — 10% of price (scenario assumption) | $3.00 |
| Expected returns cost — 6% return rate | $0.40 |
| Your product costs — landed cost $9.20 + packaging $0.45 (see methodology note on prep) | $9.65 |
| Net profit per unit | $8.48 |
The famous 6% is $1.80 of an $11.86 channel take. The rest is the machinery around it — affiliates, ads and the postage you pay yourself. A seller whose TikTok traffic is organic, with no affiliates and no ad spend, keeps most of that $5.16 difference; a creator-led seller pays it in full.
Etsy — net $11.87
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Listing fee — per item | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee — 6.5% of price + shipping charged | $1.95 |
| Etsy Payments processing — 3% + $0.25 per order | $1.15 |
| Regulatory operating fee — United States | $0.00 |
| Offsite Ads — expected value at a 0% share of orders | $0.00 |
| Your shipping cost — you ship the order yourself | $4.50 |
| Expected returns cost — 5% return rate | $0.32 |
| Your product costs — product $8.00 + inbound freight $1.20 + prep $0.35 + packaging $0.45 | $10.00 |
| Net profit per unit | $11.87 |
Etsy’s whole fee stack is $3.30 on this sale — the lightest here. Two honest qualifiers: this scenario attributes no orders to Offsite Ads (an attributed order would add 15%, or 12% for shops over $10,000 a year, capped at $100 per order), and Etsy’s audience has to want the product — a per-unit table cannot price demand.
eBay — net $10.69
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Final value fee — 13.6% of the total amount of the sale, most categories | $4.08 |
| Per-order fee — orders over $10 | $0.40 |
| Promoted Listings — 0% in this scenario | $0.00 |
| Your shipping cost — you ship the order yourself | $4.50 |
| Expected returns cost — 5% return rate | $0.32 |
| Your product costs — product $8.00 + inbound freight $1.20 + prep $0.35 + packaging $0.45 | $10.00 |
| Net profit per unit | $10.69 |
eBay’s 13.6% looks steep next to TikTok’s 6%, but payment processing is inside it — there is no separate card fee — and with no affiliates or ads assumed, the total channel take ($9.30) undercuts TikTok Shop’s ($11.86). In reality eBay’s percentage also applies to any sales tax collected on the order, which the engine does not model; high-tax orders cost slightly more than shown.
The fee schedules behind the tables
The rates the engines apply, as published by each marketplace (sources at the foot of the page). Category is destiny: these are the “most categories” rates the scenario uses, and every one of them is editable in the comparator.
| Amazon FBA | TikTok Shop | Etsy | eBay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main percentage fee | 15% referral (most categories; 8% Consumer Electronics and Computers) | 6% referral | 6.5% transaction | 13.6% final value fee on the first $7,500 per item, 2.35% above |
| Charged on | Price + shipping charged to the buyer | Customer payment: price − seller discount + shipping charged − tax | Price + shipping and gift wrap charged | Total amount of the sale (price + shipping charged; plus sales tax in reality) |
| Fixed per-order / per-item fees | Fulfillment fee by size tier, plus inbound placement and storage | — | $0.20 listing per item; $0.25 processing per order | $0.30 per order at $10 or under; $0.40 above $10 |
| Payment processing | Included in the referral fee | Included in the referral fee | 3% + $0.25 per order, on top | Included in the final value fee |
| Who delivers | Amazon (FBA) | You — or FBT at its own rates | You | You |
| Attribution extras | — | Affiliate commission when a creator drives the sale | Offsite Ads: 15% (shops under $10,000/yr) or 12%, only on attributed orders, capped at $100 per order | Promoted Listings rate, only if you promote |
What changes the ranking
Low prices punish everyone. At a $10 price, the reference product loses money on all four channels — from -$6.22 on Etsy to -$8.11 on Amazon FBA — because its $10.00 cost stack and $4.50 self-shipping (or FBA’s fulfillment) leave nothing for any percentage fee to be paid out of. Fixed fees are why: at $10, the channel takes between 62.2% and 81.1% of the price before product costs.
The spread widens as prices rise. The Etsy-over-FBA advantage is $1.89 per unit at $10, $4.24 at $25, $5.02 at $29.99, $8.15 at $50 and $17.02 at $100 — $1,702.21 per 100 units at the top price point. Percentage-fee differences compound; fixed-fee differences dilute.
Size and weight are Amazon’s lever. FBA’s fulfillment line is charged per parcel, by size tier and billed weight — it does not shrink on a cheaper product, and it jumps on a bigger one. The reference parcel (large-standard, 0.92 lb billed) pays $5.14 including surcharges at the $10–$50 band; at $100 the engine’s over-$50 band adjustment takes the fulfillment line to $6.19. A product that tips into a bulky tier reprices the whole Amazon column.
TikTok’s answer depends on how sales arrive. Strip out the affiliate expectation and the 10% ad assumption and TikTok’s channel take at $29.99 falls from $11.86 to $6.70 — referral plus shipping plus expected returns. Keep them, and it is the second-most-expensive channel here. There is no honest single number for TikTok without stating how the traffic comes.
Returns quietly tax the self-ship channels. Expected returns cost is small in this scenario ($0.32–$0.40 per unit outside Amazon) because it is an expectation, not a per-order charge — but it scales with the return rate and with how much of the outbound shipping and product value a return destroys. Raise the return rate and the self-ship columns fall faster than FBA, whose returns machine is partly inside its fees.
Methodology & assumptions
Engines. Every number was generated by the exact fee engines that power CalcViso’s Marketplace Profit Comparator — themselves the same engines as the dedicated Amazon FBA, TikTok Shop, Etsy and eBay calculators — run at the comparator’s default inputs, with only the selling price varied ($10, $25, $50, $100; the $29.99 default scenario is shown line by line). Fee schedules are as published by each marketplace and were encoded and checked against the official pages listed below in October 2026; the tables were generated and re-verified in November 2026.
The reference product and scenario. One product, identical on all four channels: product cost $8.00; inbound freight $1.20 per unit; prep & labelling $0.35; packaging $0.45. Free shipping to the buyer ($0 charged) everywhere; the seller’s own shipping cost is $4.50 on TikTok Shop, Etsy and eBay; Amazon units ship through FBA. Advertising is assumed at 10% of price on Amazon and TikTok Shop only, matching the comparator’s defaults. Return rates: 5% Amazon, 6% TikTok Shop, 5% Etsy, 5% eBay, with 20% of returns unsellable.
Channel settings. Amazon: “most categories” referral tier; parcel 8 × 4 × 4 in, 12 oz actual weight, large-standard size tier at 0.92 lb billed (dimensional) weight; inbound placement $0.30 per unit; storage for one month at the Jan–Sep rate; the 3.5% fuel & logistics surcharge and the $0.32 holiday peak surcharge both switched on, as the comparator defaults leave them. TikTok Shop: 6% referral; affiliate commission 12% on 60% of orders, counted as an expected value; seller ships. Etsy: $0.20 listing, 6.5% transaction, 3% + $0.25 processing, 0% regulatory operating fee (the United States is not on Etsy’s list), Offsite Ads share 0% of orders. eBay: 13.6% final value fee for most categories, per-order fee $0.30 on totals of $10 or under and $0.40 above, Promoted Listings 0%.
Stated simplifications. (1) In the comparator’s engine, TikTok Shop’s product-cost line follows the TikTok calculator’s convention and excludes the $0.35 prep charge, so TikTok’s own costs are $9.65 where the other channels show $10.00 — disclosed here rather than silently adjusted. (2) Some mid-band FBA fulfillment figures in the engine are interpolated from Amazon’s published schedule anchors and are labelled estimates there. (3) Returns are expected values spread over all units, not charges on any single order. (4) eBay’s fee on buyer sales tax is not modelled. (5) Subscription and account fees are excluded. Change any of these inputs in the comparator and the ranking re-runs on your numbers instead of ours.
Every figure above came out of the free Marketplace Profit Comparator — enter your price, your costs and your package, and it ranks all four channels for your product, line by line.