Multi-channel
What each marketplace actually takes: a fee breakdown
Sellers compare marketplaces on headline commission and then wonder why the margins do not match the spreadsheet. The headline rate is one of five things that determine what you keep.
The five layers
- Commission on the sale, which varies by category
- Payment processing, sometimes bundled into commission and sometimes not
- Fixed per-order charges, which dominate on low-value items
- Advertising, if you use it - and on some channels you effectively must
- The cost of money, set by how long they hold it
Fixed fees decide low-value viability
A per-order fixed charge is trivial on a fifty pound item and brutal on a five pound one. Two marketplaces with identical percentage rates can be completely different businesses at the bottom of the price range.
If you sell cheap items, model the fixed component first. It is usually what decides whether the category works at all.
Advertising is not optional everywhere
On some channels organic visibility is achievable. On others, new listings are effectively invisible without paid promotion, which makes advertising a cost of doing business rather than a growth choice.
Leaving it out of the comparison makes a channel look better than it is. Include a realistic promotion rate for the channel, not zero.
Payment timing is a real cost
A marketplace that pays in three days and one that pays in three weeks are charging you differently even at identical rates, because you are funding your supplier purchases from your own cash in the meantime.
At any scale, that float has a cost - the interest on it if you borrow, the opportunity cost if you do not. Sellers routinely ignore it and then wonder why growth feels like it is squeezing them.
Comparing honestly
Take one real product you actually sell. Work out, per channel: the sale price, every fee layer, your supplier cost, and the days between paying the supplier and being paid.
Do that for three products at different price points and the ranking often changes between them. There is rarely one cheapest marketplace - there is a cheapest marketplace for a given kind of product.
Check it against settlement
Whatever model you build, validate it against what actually landed in your account. Fee schedules change, categories get reclassified, and promotions apply that you did not notice.
The model is a planning tool. The settlement is the truth, and the gap between them is worth knowing.