Marketplaces
Five US selling channels, five different fee architectures. Each page below lists what the platform charges, what the published sources disagree about, and a worked example on a real price point.
Side by side
| Marketplace | Account | Commission | Fulfillment | Take |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | $39.99 / month | 6%–45% of sale price | From roughly $3.20 per unit | 40.7% of the sale price |
| Walmart | $0 / month | 6%–20% of sale price | From $3.45 per unit | 35.2% of the sale price |
| eBay | $0 without a Store | 13.6% for most categories | You fulfil it | 15.8% of the item price in eBay fees |
| TikTok Shop | $0 / month | 8% on most non-food US categories | Roughly $2.86–$4.28 per unit | 32.6% of the sale price |
| Etsy | $0 / month | 6.5% of the total | You fulfil it | 10.8% of the order total |
| AliExpress | No monthly subscription | — | You fulfil it | 9.0% of the sale price |
| Shopify | — | — | You fulfil it | 3.6% of the sale price |
The take column is not comparable across rows on its own — each comes from a different worked example at a different price point, listed on the marketplace page. It is there to show the order of magnitude, not to rank the platforms. Rates checked 8 August 2026.
The pages
Amazon
Highest fee stack, deepest demand. Nine separate charges before advertising.
Walmart
No subscription, simpler stack, thinner traffic. The under-$10 surcharge catches value sellers.
eBay
One fee covers commission and payment processing — but it is charged on shipping and tax too.
TikTok Shop
Lowest headline rate of the five, and the highest real one once creators are paid.
Etsy
Three small fees that look cheap until Offsite Ads becomes mandatory.
AliExpress
Among the lowest headline fees anywhere. Sources cannot agree whether the rate follows the category or the order value.
Shopify
Not a marketplace. No referral fee and no demand — you pay a subscription and buy every visitor yourself.
How to read any marketplace fee table, including this one
Three habits stop most fee mistakes, and none of them require a tool.
Check what the percentage is charged on
This is the single most common error. eBay applies its final value fee to the item price plus handling plus buyer-paid shipping plus sales tax. Etsy applies its transaction fee to the item plus shipping, but applies payment processing to the tax as well. Amazon applies the referral fee to the sale price. Three platforms, three different bases, one percentage sign.
Check the date on the rate
eBay raised its standard rate in February 2025 and guides written before that are still in circulation. Amazon changed its fulfillment fee structure in January 2026. Etsy moved its transaction fee from 5% to 6.5%. A rate card without a date on it is not a rate card.
Check who is publishing the number
A large share of marketplace fee content is published by companies selling calculators, repricers or recovery services. That does not make the figures wrong, but it does explain why the same fee appears at three different values across three articles from the same quarter. Where that happened during research for these pages, the disagreement is recorded on the marketplace page rather than quietly resolved.