The sticker price isn't what you keep. Between referral fees, payment processing and fulfilment, marketplaces take a meaningful slice of every sale — and it's easy to price an item that actually loses money. Here's what each platform charges and how to work out your real profit.
Amazon
- Referral fee — a percentage of the sale price, usually 15%, but it ranges roughly 8–17% by category (electronics ~8%, clothing ~17%). There's a €0.30 minimum per item.
- Fulfilment — if you use FBA, Amazon charges a per-unit fee based on size and weight (often a few euros). With FBM you pay your own shipping instead.
- Other — an optional monthly Professional-seller subscription, and storage fees for FBA stock.
eBay
- Final value fee — ~13.25% for most categories (some lower), charged on the item price plus the shipping you charge the buyer — a detail sellers often miss.
- Per-order fee — a small fixed amount (around €0.30) on top.
- Other — listing/insertion fees beyond your free monthly allotment, and extras for store subscriptions or promoted listings.
Etsy
- Transaction fee — 6.5% of the item price and shipping.
- Payment processing — roughly 3% + €0.25 (varies by country).
- Listing fee — €0.20 per listing (and again on renewal/sale).
- Other — Offsite Ads can add 12–15% on sales they attribute, which surprises people.
The hidden costs that actually decide your margin
- Payment processing — easy to forget; it's a few percent on every order.
- Shipping you eat — "free shipping" isn't free; it comes straight out of profit.
- Returns and refunds — fees aren't always fully returned.
- Ad fees — promoted/offsite ads can quietly become your biggest line item.
Work out your real profit
The quick version: profit = sale price + shipping charged − marketplace fees − payment processing − your item cost − your shipping cost. Rather than do that by hand for every SKU, drop your numbers into the calculator — pick the marketplace, tweak the fee % to your category, and it shows net profit, margin % and ROI % instantly.
Calculate your profit for free →
Already selling? Make sure your listing images aren't getting suppressed either — see the Amazon main image checklist.
Fees change and vary by region, plan and category. Treat these as estimates and confirm the current rates in your seller dashboard.