Marketplace Fee Comparison 2026: Amazon vs eBay vs Walmart vs Shopify

The same product, sold at the same price, can generate wildly different profits depending on where you sell it. A $50 item might net you $35 on Shopify but only $28 on Amazon. Over thousands of orders per month, that $7 per-order gap determines whether your business scales profitably or bleeds margin while growing revenue.

Most ecommerce sellers know that marketplace fees exist. Fewer sellers have calculated the true per-order cost by channel. And almost no one compares all their fee structures side by side on a regular basis. This marketplace fee comparison breaks down the exact costs of selling on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, TikTok Shop, and Etsy in 2026 so you can make channel decisions based on data, not assumptions.

Why Fees Vary More Than You Think

Marketplace fees are not a single line item. They are a stack of charges: monthly subscriptions, referral commissions, payment processing, fulfillment costs, storage fees, and category-specific surcharges. Two platforms might both advertise a "15% fee," but when you add the full stack, one costs twice as much as the other per order.

Three factors make marketplace fee comparison difficult for sellers:

• Fee structures are not apples-to-apples. Amazon bundles payment processing into its referral fee. eBay charges a "final value fee" that includes payment processing. Shopify has no referral fee but charges payment processing separately. Walmart includes payment processing in its referral fee. Comparing headline percentages without normalizing for what is included leads to wrong conclusions.
• Fulfillment fees vary dramatically by product size and weight. A small, lightweight product might cost $3.22 to fulfill through FBA but $8.50 for an oversized item. These fulfillment fees are invisible if you only compare referral rates.
• Category matters. Amazon's referral fee ranges from 8% to 45% depending on category. eBay's final value fee ranges from 3% to 15%. A seller in consumer electronics faces a completely different fee landscape than a seller in beauty products.

The goal of this marketplace fee comparison is to give you a single, normalized view of total selling costs across all six platforms. Every fee component is broken out so you can calculate the exact cost for your specific products, categories, and fulfillment methods.

The Master Marketplace Fee Comparison Table (2026)

This table summarizes every major fee component across all six platforms. Use it as a quick reference, then read the detailed breakdowns below for category-specific rates and edge cases.

Two things stand out immediately. First, Shopify's total cost is 3-5% because there is no commission: your only per-transaction cost is payment processing. Second, Amazon's total cost with FBA can reach 40% because you are paying for referral fees, fulfillment, and storage. The gap between the cheapest and most expensive channel is enormous. Let us break down each platform in detail.

Amazon Fees Breakdown

Amazon remains the largest ecommerce marketplace in the US with over 60% of online product searches starting on the platform. That traffic comes at a price. Amazon's fee structure is the most complex of any marketplace, with multiple overlapping fee types that vary by category, product size, fulfillment method, and time of year.

Seller Account Subscription

Amazon offers two seller plans. The Individual plan charges $0.99 per item sold with no monthly fee, suitable only for sellers moving fewer than 40 units per month. The Professional plan costs $39.99 per month and eliminates the per-item fee. Any seller doing meaningful volume should be on the Professional plan. At 40 or more units per month, the Professional plan is cheaper than paying $0.99 per item.

Referral Fees by Category

Amazon charges a referral fee on every sale, calculated as a percentage of the total sale price (including shipping charged to the customer). Rates vary significantly by category:

Most categories fall in the 8-15% range. The 45% rate on Amazon Device Accessories is an outlier designed to discourage third-party sellers from competing in Amazon's own hardware ecosystem. There is also a minimum referral fee of $0.30 per item, which matters on very low-priced items.

FBA Fulfillment Fees

If you use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Amazon picks, packs, and ships your product. The fees depend on product size tier and weight:

• Small standard-size (up to 15 oz): $3.22
• Large standard-size (up to 3 lb): $4.75 - $5.40
• Small oversize (up to 70 lb): $9.73+
• Large oversize (up to 150 lb): $89.98+

FBA fees include picking, packing, shipping, and customer service for returns. For standard-size items, FBA fees are competitive with what most sellers would pay for third-party fulfillment. For oversized items, FBA costs escalate rapidly and often make self-fulfillment (FBM) more economical.

FBA Storage Fees

Amazon charges monthly storage fees for inventory stored in its fulfillment centers:

• Standard season (January - September): $0.87 per cubic foot
• Peak season (October - December): $2.40 per cubic foot

There is also an aged inventory surcharge for products stored longer than 181 days. At 181-270 days, the surcharge is $0.50 per cubic foot per month. At 271-365 days, it jumps to $1.00 per cubic foot. And inventory sitting over 365 days incurs a surcharge of $6.90 per cubic foot or $0.15 per unit, whichever is greater. These aged inventory penalties make FBA storage expensive for slow-moving products and are one of the most common sources of hidden fee leakage.

Additional Amazon Fees

Media products (books, DVDs, video games) incur a closing fee of $1.80 per item on top of the referral fee. High-volume listing fees apply to sellers with more than 100,000 active ASINs ($0.005 per eligible ASIN per month). Refund administration fees are $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee (whichever is less), meaning you do not get your full referral fee back when a customer returns a product.

Total typical cost on Amazon with FBA: 30-40% of sale price. Without FBA (Fulfilled by Merchant), total fees drop to roughly 15-18% because you eliminate fulfillment and storage fees but absorb your own shipping costs.

eBay Fees Breakdown

eBay's fee structure has simplified significantly since the transition to managed payments. The final value fee now includes payment processing, so there is no longer a separate PayPal fee on top. This makes eBay's fees more transparent, though the total cost still varies substantially by category.

Store Subscriptions

eBay offers five store tiers with different monthly costs and free listing allotments:

Listings beyond the free allotment cost $0.35 each. Sellers without a store subscription get 250 free fixed-price listings per month. For sellers with large catalogs, the Anchor or Enterprise tiers are cost-effective because the per-listing cost drops dramatically with the higher free allotment.

Final Value Fees

eBay's primary selling fee is the final value fee, charged as a percentage of the total sale amount (item price plus shipping). This fee includes payment processing, no additional fees for managed payments.

Most categories carry a final value fee of 12.9% + $0.30 per order. Select categories have different rates:

• Books & Magazines: 14.6% + $0.30
• Musical Instruments & Gear: 6.35% + $0.30
• Heavy Equipment: 3% + $0.30
• Sneakers (authenticated): 8% - 12% (tiered by price)
• Watches (over $1,000): 8.5% + $0.30
• Trading Cards (over $750): 5.25% + $0.30

The $0.30 per-order component matters more on low-priced items. On a $10 item, the $0.30 adds an effective 3% on top of the percentage. On a $100 item, it adds only 0.3%.

Promoted Listings

Promoted Listings Standard charges an ad rate of 2-20% of the sale price, payable only when a buyer clicks your promoted listing and purchases within 30 days. This is optional, but on competitive categories it is increasingly necessary for visibility. Promoted Listings Advanced uses a cost-per-click model similar to Amazon Sponsored Products. Many eBay sellers now spend 5-10% on advertising through promoted listings, which should be factored into your total cost calculation.

Total typical cost on eBay: 15-20% (including final value fee and moderate promoted listings spend). Without advertising, the cost drops to 13-15% for most categories.

Walmart Marketplace Fees Breakdown

Walmart Marketplace has the simplest and, for many categories, the lowest fee structure among the major US marketplaces. There is no monthly subscription fee. There is no separate payment processing fee. You pay a referral fee on each sale, and that is the core cost.

Referral Fees by Category

Walmart's referral fees are calculated on the total sale price and vary by category:

Most common categories fall in the 8-15% range. Walmart's rates are broadly comparable to Amazon's referral fees, but the key difference is that Walmart includes payment processing in the referral fee and charges no monthly subscription. This makes Walmart's effective rate 2-5 percentage points lower than Amazon's once you factor in those additional Amazon costs.

Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)

Walmart offers its own fulfillment program, WFS, as an alternative to sellers shipping their own orders. WFS fees are competitive with FBA:

• Items up to 1 lb: $3.45
• Items 1-2 lb: $4.95
• Items 2-3 lb: $5.45
• Oversize items: Variable, starting around $8.00

WFS storage fees are $0.75 per cubic foot per month: lower than Amazon's standard-season rate of $0.87. More importantly, Walmart does not charge the same aggressive aged inventory surcharges that Amazon does. There is no separate peak-season storage rate increase, making WFS storage costs more predictable.

WFS sellers receive priority placement in the Walmart Buy Box and eligibility for Walmart+ two-day shipping tags, which can significantly increase conversion rates.

Total typical cost on Walmart: 8-18%. Sellers who fulfill their own orders pay only the referral fee (8-15% for most categories). Sellers using WFS add fulfillment and storage costs, pushing the total to 15-18% for most products.

Shopify Fees Breakdown

Shopify is fundamentally different from the other platforms in this marketplace fee comparison because it is not a marketplace. It is a commerce platform where you build your own store. Shopify does not charge any commission on your sales. Your customers are your customers. This difference makes Shopify the lowest-cost channel per transaction but comes with the tradeoff that you must drive all your own traffic.

Monthly Subscription Plans

Shopify Payments is the built-in payment processor. If you use it, there is no additional transaction fee beyond the credit card rate. If you use a third-party payment gateway (such as PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net), Shopify charges an additional transaction fee of 0.5-2.0% on top of whatever your gateway charges. This is important: always use Shopify Payments unless you have a specific reason not to.

No Sales Commission

This is the critical distinction. Shopify takes zero percent of your sales. On a $50 sale using Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, your total Shopify fee is $1.75 (2.9% of $50 = $1.45, plus $0.30). That is 3.5% of revenue. Compare that to Amazon's $7-8+ in referral fees alone on the same product.

Apps and Additional Costs

While Shopify's base fees are low, many sellers require paid apps for functionality that marketplaces include natively: email marketing, reviews, loyalty programs, upselling, advanced analytics, and inventory management. App costs can add $50-300 per month depending on your stack. Even with app expenses, the per-transaction cost on Shopify remains far below marketplace fees.

Total typical cost on Shopify: 3-5% per transaction (payment processing only, no commission). Monthly subscription is a fixed cost that becomes negligible at volume, $39 per month spread across 1,000 orders is less than $0.04 per order.

TikTok Shop Fees Breakdown

TikTok Shop is the newest entrant in this marketplace fee comparison and currently offers the lowest marketplace commission rates. The platform is aggressively investing in ecommerce and subsidizing fees to attract sellers. These introductory rates will almost certainly increase as TikTok Shop matures, but for 2026 they represent a significant cost advantage.

Commission Structure

TikTok Shop charges a commission on each sale that varies by category:

• Most categories: 5% (standard rate)
• Select categories (electronics, fashion): 2 - 4% (introductory promotional rates)
• Higher-commission categories (luxury, collectibles): 6 - 8%

Payment processing is included in the commission, there is no additional payment processing fee. There is no monthly subscription fee. There is no listing fee. The simplicity of TikTok Shop's fee structure is intentional: remove friction so sellers onboard quickly.

Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT)

TikTok Shop offers a fulfillment service called Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) in select markets. FBT fees are not yet standardized across all regions and product categories, but early pricing is competitive with FBA and WFS for standard-size items. Sellers using FBT get priority placement in TikTok Shop search results and are eligible for faster shipping badges.

Affiliate Commission

One unique cost on TikTok Shop is the affiliate commission paid to creators who promote your products. When a creator makes a video featuring your product and drives a sale, you pay them a commission, typically 10-20% of the sale price, set by you. This is optional but represents a significant portion of TikTok Shop's sales volume. Factor affiliate commissions into your total cost calculation if you plan to use the affiliate program.

Total typical cost on TikTok Shop: 2-8% (commission only, no subscription or payment processing fees). If using the affiliate program, add 10-20% in creator commissions on attributed sales, which significantly changes the economics.

Etsy Fees Breakdown

Etsy's fee structure is layered: a listing fee, a transaction fee, payment processing, and optional (but sometimes mandatory) offsite advertising fees. The individual fees look small, but they stack up to make Etsy one of the more expensive platforms per transaction.

Listing Fee

Every listing on Etsy costs $0.20. This fee is charged when you create the listing, when the listing renews (every four months if unsold), and when the item sells (the listing is immediately renewed for $0.20). For sellers with large catalogs of slow-moving items, listing fees accumulate quickly. A seller with 500 listings pays $100 just to keep them active for four months, regardless of whether anything sells.

Transaction Fee

Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee on the total sale amount, including the item price and any shipping charged to the buyer. This fee was increased from 5% to 6.5% in 2022 and has remained at that level through 2026. It applies to every sale with no volume discounts.

Payment Processing

Etsy Payments charges 3% + $0.25 per transaction for US sellers. This is separate from and in addition to the 6.5% transaction fee. International sellers pay slightly different rates depending on their country. Combined, the transaction fee and payment processing cost 9.5% + $0.25 before you even account for other fees.

Offsite Ads

Etsy runs advertising on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms on behalf of sellers. When a buyer clicks an offsite ad and purchases from your shop within 30 days, Etsy charges an offsite ads fee:

• Sellers earning under $10,000/year: 15% on attributed sales (opt-out available)
• Sellers earning $10,000+/year: 12% on attributed sales (cannot opt out)

The mandatory offsite ads fee for sellers over $10,000 is significant. If 20% of your sales come through offsite ads, that adds an effective 2.4% (12% x 20%) to your overall fee rate. For sellers with higher offsite ad attribution, the cost is even greater.

Etsy Plus

Etsy Plus is an optional subscription at $10 per month that provides shop customization features, credits for listings and advertising, and restock alerts. It does not reduce any of the fees listed above.

Total typical cost on Etsy: 15-25%. At the low end (no offsite ads, no advertising): listing fee + 6.5% transaction fee + 3% payment processing + $0.25 = roughly 10-12%. With offsite ads and Etsy Ads spending, the total reaches 20-25% of revenue.

Worked Example: $50 Product Across All 6 Platforms

Theory is useful. Numbers are better. Here is what happens when you sell a $50 product with $15 COGS across each platform. This example uses the most common category rates and assumes platform fulfillment where available (FBA for Amazon, WFS for Walmart, self-fulfillment for others).

What the Numbers Tell You

On a $50 product with $15 COGS, the difference between the most profitable channel (Shopify at $28.12 net) and the least profitable (Amazon FBA at $21.47 net) is $6.65 per order. Sell 1,000 units per month and that gap is $6,650 in monthly profit, $79,800 per year.

But this comparison does not tell the full story. Amazon might generate 3,000 units per month in sales volume while your Shopify store generates 500. The total profit from Amazon ($21.47 x 3,000 = $64,410) would exceed Shopify ($28.12 x 500 = $14,060) by a wide margin despite the lower per-unit margin. Channel profitability is the product of margin and volume, not margin alone.

Also note that the self-shipping estimate of $5.00 for eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop, and Etsy is a variable. If your actual shipping cost is $3.00 (because you negotiated carrier rates or ship lightweight items), those channels become even more profitable. If your shipping cost is $7.00, the gap narrows.

Which Channel to Prioritize Based on Margin

The marketplace fee comparison above is a tool for decision-making, not a ranking. The "best" channel depends on your product economics, growth goals, and operational capabilities. Here is a framework for deciding where to invest.

High-Margin Products (50%+ Gross Margin Before Fees)

If your gross margin before fees is 50% or higher, you can afford Amazon's and Etsy's fee structures and should prioritize them for volume. A product with a $25 gross margin on a $50 sale can absorb $13.53 in Amazon fees and still deliver $11.47 (22.9%) in net profit per unit. At Amazon's traffic levels, the volume makes up for the margin compression. Use Shopify as your high-margin direct channel alongside marketplaces.

Recommended channel mix: Amazon (volume) + Shopify (margin) + one additional marketplace (Walmart or eBay for diversification).

Medium-Margin Products (30-50% Gross Margin Before Fees)

Products in this range need to be selective about channels. Amazon FBA may not be viable if your gross margin is below 40% because total fees consume too much of the margin. Prioritize Walmart and Shopify, where lower fees preserve more of your gross margin. Use eBay selectively for categories where eBay has strong buyer demand (collectibles, refurbished electronics, vintage items, auto parts).

Recommended channel mix: Shopify (primary) + Walmart (marketplace volume) + eBay (category-dependent).

Low-Margin Products (Under 30% Gross Margin Before Fees)

Low-margin products cannot survive Amazon's or Etsy's fee structures. A product with a $12 gross margin on a $50 sale would lose money on Amazon after $13.53 in fees. Focus on Shopify and TikTok Shop where total fees are 3-8%. Walmart is viable in categories with 8-10% referral rates (electronics, computers) but not in 15% categories.

Recommended channel mix: Shopify (primary) + TikTok Shop (growth) + Walmart (only in low-fee categories).

The Multi-Channel Math

Smart sellers do not pick one channel. They use different channels for different purposes:

Managing Fees Across Multiple Channels

When you sell on three or more channels simultaneously, fee management becomes an operational challenge. Each channel has different fee structures, different payment timelines, and different reporting formats. Common mistakes include:

• Pricing the same on every channel. If your fees are 35% on Amazon and 5% on Shopify, you should not charge the same price on both. Either raise prices on Amazon to protect margin or accept lower margin for the volume. Many sellers default to identical pricing and end up subsidizing marketplace fees from Shopify profits.
• Ignoring category-specific fee changes. Marketplaces adjust category referral rates regularly. Amazon changed fees in several categories in early 2025 and again in 2026. If you are not reviewing fee schedules quarterly, you may be using outdated assumptions in your pricing models.
• Not accounting for return costs by channel. Amazon's return rate is typically higher than Shopify's because Amazon makes returns frictionless for buyers. A 15% return rate on Amazon versus 5% on Shopify changes the effective per-unit cost significantly when you factor in return shipping, restocking, and lost inventory.

The operational solution is a channel-level P&L that calculates contribution margin per SKU per channel. Track every fee component, referral, fulfillment, storage, returns, advertising, at the transaction level. When you see a SKU that delivers 25% margin on Shopify but -2% on Amazon, you have a data-driven reason to delist it from Amazon or raise the price. Without this granularity, you are managing your fee exposure blind.

Channel-Specific Fee Optimization Tactics

Once you know your fees by channel, you can take specific actions to reduce them:

• Amazon: Reduce FBA fees by optimizing packaging dimensions. A 1-inch reduction in any dimension can change your size tier and save $1-3 per unit. Move slow-selling SKUs to FBM to eliminate storage fees. Use Subscribe & Save to increase velocity and reduce aged inventory surcharges.
• eBay: Upgrade to the right store tier for your catalog size. If you have 1,200 listings on a Starter store, you are paying $0.35 per excess listing. A Basic store at $21.95 per month gives you 1,000 free listings and saves money at scale. Optimize promoted listings by testing ad rates at 2-3% before increasing.
• Walmart: Use WFS strategically for products where the Buy Box advantage and shipping speed tags justify the fulfillment cost. For products where you already have fast shipping capabilities, self-fulfillment saves the WFS fee entirely.
• Shopify: If you process more than $10,000 per month, evaluate upgrading to the Shopify plan ($105/mo) for the lower credit card rate of 2.7%. The breakeven point where the lower rate covers the higher subscription is approximately $33,000 in monthly sales.
• TikTok Shop: Lock in current low commission rates by establishing your seller account and sales history now. As TikTok Shop raises rates (which they will), established sellers with strong metrics may retain preferential rates longer.
• Etsy: If you are under $10,000 in annual revenue, opt out of offsite ads to eliminate the 15% attribution fee on those sales. Renew listings strategically, do not let 500 listings auto-renew if only 200 are actively selling.

How to Build Your Own Marketplace Fee Comparison Model

The worked example above uses a single product at a single price point. Your business has dozens or hundreds of SKUs across multiple categories. To make this marketplace fee comparison actionable, build a spreadsheet or use your OMS platform to calculate per-SKU, per-channel profitability.

Step 1: List Every Fee Component Per Channel

For each channel you sell on, document every fee: subscription (prorated per unit), referral/commission rate for your specific category, payment processing, fulfillment fees (by size and weight tier), storage costs, listing fees, advertising spend, and return processing costs. Do not estimate, pull actual numbers from your last 90 days of seller statements.

Step 2: Calculate Total Fee Per SKU Per Channel

For each SKU, apply the channel-specific fees to calculate total cost. A product in the "Home & Kitchen" category pays 15% on both Amazon and Walmart, but the total cost differs because Amazon adds FBA fees and storage. Use actual shipping costs if you self-fulfill. Include advertising spend as a per-unit cost based on your ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) for that product.

Step 3: Calculate Contribution Margin

Subtract COGS and total fees from the sale price. This gives you contribution margin per unit per channel. Sort the results. You will find that some SKUs are profitable on all channels, some are profitable on only one or two, and some are unprofitable everywhere (which means you have a pricing or cost problem, not a channel problem).

Step 4: Make Channel Decisions

Use the contribution margin data to decide:

• Which SKUs to list on which channels
• Where to invest in advertising (only on channels where the post-ad margin is positive)
• Whether to use platform fulfillment or self-fulfill on each channel
• Which SKUs need price adjustments to maintain target margins
• Which SKUs to discontinue if they are unprofitable across all channels

Step 5: Review Quarterly

Marketplace fee structures change. Amazon updated FBA fees in January 2026. eBay adjusted final value fees in select categories. TikTok Shop's introductory rates have an expiration date. Review your marketplace fee comparison model every quarter and update the inputs. A 1% fee increase on a channel where you sell $100,000 per month costs you $12,000 per year. That is not a rounding error.

The Bottom Line on Marketplace Fees in 2026

Every marketplace charges fees. The question is not whether to pay them but whether the fees on each channel are justified by the volume, traffic, and customer access that channel provides. Amazon takes 30-40% with FBA, but it delivers the largest ecommerce audience in the US. Shopify takes 3-5%, but you bring your own audience. Walmart sits in the middle with competitive fees and growing traffic. TikTok Shop offers the lowest marketplace rates today, with the uncertainty of future increases. eBay and Etsy serve specific buyer segments where their fee structures are the cost of reaching those buyers.

The sellers who win are not the ones on the cheapest platform. They are the ones who know their exact fees per SKU per channel, price accordingly, and allocate inventory to the channels where total profit (margin times volume) is highest. Build your marketplace fee comparison model, update it quarterly, and let the data drive your channel strategy.