Marketplace Fee Calculator
Compare seller fees across Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Shopify. See your true 'Take Home' payout after platform commissions.
Product Details
Profitability Waterfall
The Cost of Traffic
Is the platform fee worth the customer acquisition?
The 15% Standard
Amazon's ~15% fee is essentially a marketing cost. If your own Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) on Shopify is >15% of revenue, Amazon might actually be cheaper.
Net Payout
The Green bar represents your actual cash flow per unit. If this is too low on marketplaces, you are just moving boxes for Bezos without building a business.
Shipping Impact
High shipping costs disproportionately hurt marketplace margins because platforms take a cut of the shipping fee too.
Execution Steps
Enter your Item Selling Price.
Select the Product Category (fees vary wildly by category, e.g., Electronics vs Clothing).
Enter your estimated Shipping Cost (use FBM rates or FBA fulfillment estimate).
The chart visualizes the Payout (Green) vs Fees (Red) for each platform.
Pro Strategy
- Electronics usually have lower fee percentages (8%) than Clothing (15-17%) on Amazon due to lower margins in the category.
- Walmart often matches Amazon's fee structure but has less competition, allowing for potentially higher prices.
- Use this calculator to determine if you need to price higher on marketplaces to match your Shopify net margin (Channel Pricing).
Core Concepts
Referral Fee
The commission paid to the marketplace for bringing you the customer. Usually 8-15% of the gross transaction value.
Take Rate
The total percentage of the sale price that the platform keeps. (Referral Fees + Subscription Costs + Listing Fees).
Merchant of Record
On your own site (Shopify), you pay payment processing (2.9%) but no referral fee, resulting in higher margins.
What is Marketplace Fee Calculator?
This tool aggregates current fee schedules from major US marketplaces. It calculates the effective 'Take Rate' by combining variable percentage fees (Referral Fees) and fixed per-transaction fees. It contrasts 'Rented Land' (Marketplaces) vs 'Owned Land' (DTC) economics.
Best For
- • Deciding which channel to expand to next.
- • Setting channel-specific pricing (e.g. Price on Amazon = Price on Web + 15%).
- • Auditing profitability of low-margin SKUs.
Limitations
- • Does not account for monthly subscription costs ($39.99/mo for Amazon Pro).
- • Does not include ad spend (Amazon PPC), which is often required to get visibility.
- • Fee structures change frequently; verify with official platform documentation.
Alternative Methods
Channel Margin Waterfall
A more detailed view including marketing and returns costs.
Break-Even Analysis
To see volume requirements per channel.
Industry Applications
See how this methodology generates real revenue uplift in different sectors.
Apparel Brand Expansion
Brand selling on Shopify wanted to launch on Amazon.
Calculator showed that Amazon's 17% clothing fee + returns would wipe out profit at current pricing.
Electronics Reseller
Thin margins (10%) made Amazon impossible.
Moved to Walmart Marketplace which offered a temporary fee reduction to 5% for new electronics sellers.
DTC Supplement Brand
High CAC on Facebook Ads ($40).
Analyzed Amazon fees. 15% referral fee on a $60 bottle was $9.