“Which channel should I sell on?” is one of the most common questions in ecommerce — and it's almost always answered with incomplete information. Sellers compare platform commission rates without accounting for payment processing, subscription fees, advertising costs, fulfillment expenses, and the very different customer acquisition dynamics of each channel.
This guide puts real numbers to each platform so you can make an informed decision for your specific business.
Platform Fee Structures: A Complete Breakdown
Shopify
Shopify is a platform, not a marketplace — you own your store, your customer relationships, and your brand. The fee structure reflects this:
- Basic plan: $39/month
- Shopify plan: $105/month
- Advanced plan: $399/month
- Shopify Payments processing: 2.9% + $0.30 (Basic), 2.6% + $0.30 (Shopify), 2.4% + $0.30 (Advanced)
- Third-party payment processor fee: 2% (Basic), 1% (Shopify), 0.5% (Advanced) — charged in addition to processor fees if you don't use Shopify Payments
- Referral/commission fee: $0
- Listing fee: $0
For a $25 order on Basic with Shopify Payments: processing fee = $0.725 + $0.30 = $1.025 (4.1% effective rate). Your plan cost is fixed overhead, not per-transaction.
The catch: Shopify doesn't bring you customers. You pay for every visitor through ads (Google, Meta, TikTok), email marketing, SEO, and influencer partnerships. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) for a new DTC brand typically runs $15–$60 per customer, which can make Shopify's “low fees” story much more expensive in practice.
Amazon
Amazon is the world's largest product search engine with 300+ million active customers. The trade-off: you pay for that access, and you compete on a level playing field where Amazon can see all your data.
- Individual plan: $0.99 per item sold (no monthly fee) — for sellers under 40 units/month
- Professional plan: $39.99/month
- Referral fees: 8–20% depending on category (most categories: 15%)
- FBA fulfillment fees: $3.06–$7.06 per unit (standard size)
- FBA storage: $0.78–$2.40 per cubic foot/month
- Advertising (PPC): Effectively required; average ACoS runs 25–40% for most categories
For a $25 product in the home goods category, fulfilled by Amazon: referral fee (15%) = $3.75, FBA fee = $4.25, storage = $0.35, ad spend at 30% ACoS = $2.50. Total platform cost: $10.85 (43.4% of sale price).
Payment processing is included in the FBA fee structure — Amazon pays you every 14 days net of all fees.
Etsy
Etsy is a marketplace for handmade, vintage, and craft items with 90+ million active buyers. Its fee structure has become significantly more expensive since 2022:
- Listing fee: $0.20 per item (auto-renews every 4 months)
- Transaction fee: 6.5% of sale price (including shipping)
- Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 per transaction (US sellers; varies by country)
- Offsite ads fee: 15% of sales driven by Etsy's off-platform advertising — mandatory if your shop earns over $10,000/year
- Etsy Plus: Optional $10/month for enhanced features
For a $25 sale on Etsy (assuming offsite ads): transaction (6.5%) = $1.63, payment processing = $1.00, offsite ads (15% on attributed sales; assume 30% of orders) = $1.13, listing amortized = $0.05.Total: $3.81 per order (15.2% average take rate) — but if the offsite ad attributed that specific order, it's $5.13 (20.5%).
Side-by-Side Comparison: $25 Product
All figures per $25 sale, self-fulfilled (own warehouse) for Shopify and Etsy, FBA for Amazon:
| Fee Type | Shopify Basic | Amazon FBA | Etsy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform/subscription | $1.30* | $1.33* | — |
| Referral/commission | — | $3.75 | $1.63 |
| Payment processing | $1.03 | Included | $1.00 |
| Fulfillment/shipping | $4.50† | $4.25 | $4.50† |
| Storage | $0.10† | $0.35 | $0.10† |
| Advertising | $6.00‡ | $2.50 | $1.13§ |
| Listing fee | — | — | $0.05 |
| Total cost | $12.93 | $12.18 | $8.41 |
| Effective take rate | 51.7% | 48.7% | 33.6% |
* Subscription cost amortized across estimated monthly order volume (30 orders/month). † Estimated self-fulfillment costs. ‡ CAC of $18 for new DTC customer, repeat purchase rate 40% gives blended per-order ad spend. § Etsy offsite ads at 15% × 30% attribution rate.
Break-Even Volume Analysis
When Does Shopify Become Worth It?
Shopify's subscription fee ($39–$399/month) is a fixed cost. Below roughly 100 orders/month, that fixed cost makes Shopify expensive per-order. The math improves significantly at scale — and more importantly, Shopify customers you retain have zero acquisition cost for repeat purchases.
Shopify makes sense when: You're doing 100+ orders/month, have a repeat purchase product (consumables, subscription boxes), or have strong organic/social traffic. At 300+ orders/month, the economics are compelling.
When Does Amazon FBA Pay Off?
Amazon's power is organic discovery — customers actively searching for products. If you can rank organically for your key search terms, your effective advertising ACoS drops dramatically. New products almost always require heavy PPC investment to rank; established products with reviews can reduce ad spend to 10–15% of revenue.
Amazon makes sense when: You have a product with clear search demand, can rank competitively, and have margins wide enough to absorb 40–50% total costs. Works best for consumables, branded goods, and high-volume commodity products.
When Does Etsy Make Sense?
Etsy brings the lowest effective take rate for products that fit the marketplace. The platform has strong organic discovery for handmade, personalized, and niche products. If your CAC on other channels is high (common for artisan products), Etsy's built-in audience is extremely valuable.
Etsy makes sense when: Your product fits the handmade/craft/vintage niche, you benefit from Etsy's SEO and organic traffic, and you can price to account for the 15–25% total take rate.
The Channel That's Right for Your Product
The honest answer is: it depends on your product, your margins, and your operational capabilities. The wrong answer is making this decision based on commission rates alone.
What you actually need is per-product, per-channel profitability data. That means knowing not just what Amazon charges, but what your specific products cost you on Amazon after every fee, your ad spend, your return rate, and your storage velocity. The same product may be profitable on Etsy and unprofitable on Amazon — or vice versa — and you can't know until you measure it.
OmniCogs was built specifically for this: connecting your Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and other channels to give you a unified view of true per-product profitability across all platforms. Instead of guessing which channel is working, you see the exact margin breakdown for every SKU on every channel.
Key Takeaways
- No platform is universally cheapest — total cost depends on volume, product type, and advertising spend
- Amazon's built-in traffic is valuable but expensive; effective take rates of 40–50% are common
- Shopify's low fees become advantageous only once you have traffic and repeat customers
- Etsy has the lowest take rate for products that fit — but the offsite ads fee at scale adds up
- Multi-channel diversification reduces risk but requires per-channel profitability tracking to manage effectively
The sellers who win aren't necessarily on the cheapest platform — they're the ones who understand their true unit economics and make decisions based on data, not assumptions.