Marketplace fee comparison with your real profit per sale
Every marketplace charges differently: listing fees, referral percentages, payment processing, ads and fulfillment. This prompt has your agent read each marketplace's current fee pages, run the numbers for your actual product, and show what you keep per sale on each one, with sources so you can double-check.
The prompt
- Do a marketplace fee comparison for my product: [PRODUCT DETAILS]. Selling price [SELLING PRICE], product cost [UNIT COST], my shipping cost [SHIPPING COST]. Compare [MARKETPLACES] plus my own store on [OWN STORE PLATFORM]. For each, use the official fee pages to list every fee that applies (listing, referral or transaction, payment processing, fulfillment if used, monthly subscription, currency conversion) and calculate profit per sale and margin. Also note things that affect profit but vary: typical ad spend, return rules, payout timing. Show it as a table in an Excel file with a column per marketplace and a link to every fee page, plus a short summary of where I keep the most.
What to change
- [PRODUCT DETAILS]: What you sell, with size and weight, e.g. "ceramic mug, 0.5 kg boxed, home and kitchen category".
- [SELLING PRICE]: Your price per item, e.g. "$32".
- [UNIT COST]: What one unit costs you, e.g. "$9".
- [SHIPPING COST]: What you pay to ship one order, e.g. "$6.50", or "use FBA".
- [MARKETPLACES]: Which ones, e.g. "Amazon (FBA and self-fulfilled), Etsy, eBay, Walmart Marketplace".
- [OWN STORE PLATFORM]: e.g. "Shopify Basic" or "WooCommerce with Stripe". Write "none" to skip.
Example result
- Example: ceramic mug, $32, cost $9, shipping $6.50 (US)
- Illustrative calculation. Fees change often and depend on category, size and account type, so the links in your file show the current numbers.
- Etsy
- • Listing fee per item, transaction fee on item price plus shipping, payment processing fee
- • Offsite Ads fee applies only to sales from Etsy's offsite ads
- • Example profit: about $11.80 per sale
- Amazon (self-fulfilled)
- • Referral fee for Home & Kitchen as a percentage of the total price
- • Professional plan monthly fee (spread across your monthly sales)
- • Example profit: about $11.40 per sale at 100 sales a month
- Amazon FBA
- • Referral fee plus FBA fulfillment fee by size tier, plus monthly storage
- • Example profit: about $9.90 per sale, but Prime shipping can raise conversion
- eBay
- • Final value fee on the total amount, plus a per-order fee; insertion fees after your free listings
- • Example profit: about $11.60 per sale
- Own Shopify store
- • Plan fee plus card processing
- • Example profit: about $14.10 per sale before marketing
- • But you pay for all traffic yourself; at a $5 ad cost per sale, it drops to about $9.10
- What the fees don't show
- • Ad spend: marketplaces have built-in buyers; your own store needs paid or organic traffic
- • Returns: Amazon's return policy is more generous to buyers, so expect more returns
- • Payout timing: some marketplaces hold funds for days or weeks for new sellers
- Summary
- • Highest margin per sale: your own store, if you have traffic
- • Best balance for a new brand: Etsy for handmade-style products, Amazon for search volume
- • Recheck every quarter: fee changes are common, especially in Q1
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and add your product, price, cost, shipping and the marketplaces you're considering.
- Paste it into todo.is, or send it to your agent on Slack, Telegram or WhatsApp.
- Your agent reads the official fee pages and sends an Excel table with links and a summary.
- Ask "what price do I need on eBay to match my Shopify margin?" or set a quarterly re-check.
Tips for a better result
- Compare profit per sale, not fee percentages. A lower fee can still leave less money if shipping or ads cost more.
- Include your own time and returns. Marketplaces with easy returns can cost more than their fee table shows.
- Spread monthly fees across your real sales volume. A subscription fee hurts at 10 sales a month and barely matters at 500.
- Make it a quarterly to-do so your agent re-reads the fee pages and tells you what changed.
marketplace fee comparison: FAQ
- Which marketplace has the lowest fees? It depends on your price, category, size and volume. A cheap, light item can do well on one platform while a heavy item is better on another, so calculate profit for your own product.
- Are Etsy fees lower than Amazon fees? Often the percentage is lower on Etsy, but it adds listing and payment fees, and Amazon brings more search traffic. Compare the profit per sale and how many sales you can expect.
- Are the fees in the example current? No, the example uses illustrative numbers. Your agent reads the current official fee pages when you run the prompt and links each one so you can check.
- Should I sell on several marketplaces? Many sellers start on one, learn what works, then add a second. Selling on many at once means more stock syncing and customer service.
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