Amazon vs eBay vs Walmart vs Etsy: what a $25 sale leaves you

For the same $25 home product, the marketplace fees range from $2.83 on Etsy to $3.80 on eBay. The difference looks small per order, but across a few hundred orders a month it decides which channel earns more. The fees below come from each marketplace’s own page, checked on 25 October 2026.

The setup

A home product sells for $25 with free shipping. It costs $8, and shipping plus packaging costs $5.50 per order. No sales tax, no returns, no ads — just the selling fees.

Marketplace	Fee used	Fees per order	Profit	Margin	Break-even price
Etsy	6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 payment + $0.20 listing	$2.83	$8.68	34.7%	$15.42
Amazon.com	15% referral (Home and Kitchen)	$3.75	$7.75	31.0%	$15.89
Walmart	15% referral (Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden)	$3.75	$7.75	31.0%	$15.89
eBay	13.6% + $0.40 per order	$3.80	$7.70	30.8%	$16.09

What the table leaves out

The per-sale fees are only part of the picture:

• Plans and subscriptions. Amazon’s Professional plan costs $39.99 a month; eBay and Etsy have optional store subscriptions. Spread a monthly fee over your orders before comparing.
• Advertising. Etsy’s Offsite Ads (12–15% of an attributed order) and paid ads on any marketplace change the result per order.
• Fulfilment. FBA or Walmart Fulfillment Services replace your own shipping cost with theirs.
• Sales tax. eBay and Etsy’s payment fee include sales tax in their base, which raises the fee when tax applies.
• Demand. A lower fee is worth little on a channel where the product doesn’t sell.

Compare with your own numbers

Open each marketplace page — Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Etsy — and enter the same price and costs. Use Copy link under the results to keep each scenario. Fees change; check the source pages before relying on them.