← Guides · November 8, 2026
The Same $40 Product on Four Marketplaces: What You Actually Keep
Take a $40 item that costs $12 to make, charge the buyer $5 shipping, pay $6 to ship it, and spend 5% of the price on ads. Using approximate public fee rates (check your own, they change):
| Platform | Fees | Net profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etsy (9.5% + $0.45) | $4.73 | $20.28 | 50.7% |
| eBay (13.25% + $0.40) | $6.36 | $18.64 | 46.6% |
| Amazon (15%) | $6.75 | $18.25 | 45.6% |
| Shopify (2.9% + $0.30) | $1.61 | $23.40 | 58.5% |
What to notice
- Fees apply to shipping too. The buyer pays $45, so percentage fees are charged on $45, not $40.
- Shopify keeps the most per sale, but you also have to bring your own traffic. If ads are really 15% instead of 5%, the gap narrows fast.
- The spread is about $5 per sale. At 200 sales a month, that is roughly $1,000 of profit depending on channel.
How to use this
Change the numbers to your own and compare net profit, not the headline fee. A marketplace with higher fees can still win if it brings sales you would not get otherwise.
Run your product through the calculator.