As of September 2026, the headline referral rate is 15 percent on Amazon for most categories, 6 to 15 percent on Walmart with no monthly fee, 13.6 percent on eBay plus a per-order fee, and a subscription plus card processing on Shopify with no percentage referral at all. Those four numbers are the ones sellers quote. The figures below, each pulled from the platform’s own published schedule during this check, show why the headline rate is the least useful number on the page.
Every figure carries its source and a date. Fee schedules change, and Amazon’s in particular changes more than once a year, so treat this as a snapshot and confirm your own category before you reprice anything.
Amazon
Amazon’s selling fees page, checked September 2026, lists two selling plans: Individual at $0.99 per item sold and Professional at $39.99 a month. Referral fees are described as a percentage of the total sales price or a minimum amount, whichever is greater, with the minimum at $0.30 per item for most categories.
The 15 percent figure applies to the bulk of the category table on that page, but the exceptions are large. Consumer electronics sit at 8 percent. Jewelry is 20 percent on the portion of the price up to $250 and 5 percent above. Watches are 16 percent up to $1,500 and 3 percent above. Amazon device accessories carry 45 percent. Veterinary diets are 22 percent against 15 percent for other pet supplies. Several categories split at a price point, with beauty, health and personal care and baby products at 8 percent on items of $10 or less and 15 percent above.
None of that includes FBA fulfillment or storage, which are separate schedules by size tier and season, and which the same page directs sellers to model with Amazon’s revenue calculator. A seller comparing Amazon to another channel on the 15 percent alone is comparing half a fee.
Shopify
Shopify’s pricing page, checked September 2026, lists Basic at $39 a month billed monthly or $29 billed yearly, Grow at $105 or $79, Advanced at $399 or $299, and Plus from $2,300 a month. Online credit card rates through Shopify Payments run from 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic to 2.7 percent plus 30 cents on Grow, 2.5 percent plus 30 cents on Advanced, and 2.25 percent plus 30 cents on Plus.
The number sellers miss is the third-party payment provider fee: 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Grow and 0.6 percent on Advanced, charged on top of whatever the outside processor takes if you do not use Shopify Payments. A Basic store running PayPal as its only gateway pays PayPal’s rate plus 2 percent to Shopify.
Shopify has no referral fee, which is the structural difference from every marketplace on this list. The seller brings the traffic and keeps the margin, or does not bring the traffic and keeps nothing.
Walmart Marketplace
Walmart’s Marketplace pricing page, last updated October 2025 and checked September 2026, states there are zero setup, monthly or hidden fees, and the Marketplace homepage FAQ gives the referral range as 6 to 15 percent by category and total sales price.
From the category table: personal computers 6 percent, consumer electronics and camera and photo 8 percent, automotive 12 percent, and 15 percent for home, kitchen, decor and garden, toys and games, pet supplies, books, and the everything-else bucket. The splits mirror Amazon’s: beauty, health and personal care is 8 percent on items of $10 or less and 15 percent above; apparel is 5 percent up to $15, 10 percent from $15 to $20 and 15 percent above $20; jewelry is 20 percent up to $250 and 5 percent above; watches 15 percent up to $1,500 and 3 percent above.
Walmart also publishes a New-Seller Savings program for 2026 on its Marketplace site offering 20 percent off base referral fees on the first $50,000 in GMV, 30 percent between $50,000 and $500,000, and 40 percent above that, for sellers who opt in after going live. A 15 percent category at 30 percent off is 10.5 percent, which changes the channel math for a new seller’s first year.
eBay
eBay’s selling fees help page, checked September 2026, sets the final value fee for most categories at 13.6 percent on the total amount of the sale up to $7,500 per item, and 2.35 percent on the portion above $7,500, plus a per-order fee of $0.30 for orders of $10 or less and $0.40 for orders above $10.
The base matters more than the rate. eBay defines the total amount of the sale as the item price, any handling charges, any shipping costs collected from the buyer, sales tax, and any other applicable fees. A $40 item with $8 shipping and $3.84 in sales tax is a $51.84 fee base, so the 13.6 percent comes to $7.05, not the $5.44 a seller expecting item-price-only would compute. On a seller doing 2,000 orders a month that is a four-figure monthly gap between expected and actual fees.
Etsy and TikTok Shop, for comparison
Two channels outside the title’s four are worth a line because sellers often run them alongside. Etsy’s fees policy, checked September 2026, lists a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5 percent transaction fee on item price plus shipping and gift wrap, US payment processing of 3 percent plus $0.25 per its Etsy Payments policy, and Offsite Ads at 15 percent of attributed orders, or 12 percent for shops past $10,000 in trailing twelve-month sales, capped at $100 per order.
TikTok Shop’s US Seller Center published a referral fee update in 2024 setting the rate at 6 percent per qualified order from April 1, 2024, with a refund fee of 20 percent of the referral fee capped at $5 per SKU. That page could not be re-fetched during this check, so confirm the current figure inside Seller Center.
Putting the four side by side
Take a $50 home goods item with $0 buyer-paid shipping and $4 sales tax collected, sold once on each channel.
Amazon: 15 percent of $50 is $7.50 referral, before FBA fees and the Professional subscription.
Walmart: 15 percent of $50 is $7.50 referral, no subscription, and 10.5 percent or $5.25 if the new-seller discount applies.
eBay: 13.6 percent of $54 (item plus tax) is $7.34, plus $0.40, for $7.74.
Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments: 2.9 percent of $54 plus 30 cents is $1.87, plus a share of $39 a month, plus whatever you spent to get the customer there.
Three of the four cluster within 40 cents of each other on the referral line, which is why the referral rate is a poor basis for choosing a channel. The real differences live in fulfillment fees, advertising cost per order, return rates and payout timing, none of which appear on a fee schedule.
The bookkeeping consequence
Each of these fees lands in a different place and a different report. Amazon nets them inside a biweekly settlement. Walmart nets them in its payout. eBay charges them against a monthly invoice or deducts from managed payments. Shopify deducts processing from each payout and bills the subscription to a card. A ledger that records net deposits as revenue will understate sales by the full fee load on the three marketplaces and get Shopify roughly right, which is a mismatch that shows up when the 1099-K forms arrive at year end.
This is the work that fee-mapping tools exist to do. ConnectBooks, for one, maps referral, fulfillment, storage, advertising and shipping fees from Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, TikTok Shop and eBay into their own expense accounts in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise or Xero, so gross sales stay gross and each channel’s fee load is visible as a line rather than buried in a net deposit. A2X and Link My Books do the summary version of the same job. Whichever you use, the test is simple: does your income statement show the $7.50 Walmart took, or does it show a $42.50 sale?