Every marketplace advertises its fees differently — one quotes a single percentage, another splits it into three charges, a third won't publish its rate at all. So let's do the only comparison that matters: the same $30 item, sold on each platform, and what the seller actually keeps.
The worked example: a $30 item in Home & Kitchen, sold by a U.S. seller who ships it themselves (no FBA, no WFS). Fee rates are taken from each platform's official fee pages as of October 2026. One simplification, flagged up front: percentages are applied to the $30 item price, while Amazon, Walmart and eBay actually calculate their percentage on the price plus buyer-paid shipping — so if your buyer pays $5.99 shipping, add roughly another $0.90 of fees at a 15% rate. The ranking doesn't change.
The table
| Platform | Fees on a $30 sale | % of the sale | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temu (U.S. local sellers) | $0 commission | 0% | $30.00 (before shipping costs — read the Temu section) |
| TikTok Shop | $1.80 | 6.0% | $28.20 |
| eBay (no Store subscription) | $4.48 | 14.9% | $25.52 |
| Amazon (Professional plan) | $4.50 | 15.0% | $25.50 |
| Walmart Marketplace | $4.50 | 15.0% | $25.50 |
Yes, the first row really is zero — and the Temu section below explains why "0% commission" still doesn't mean "selling there costs nothing."
TikTok Shop: the cheapest headline rate — 6%
TikTok Shop's published category table puts the referral fee for most categories, including Home & Kitchen equivalents, at 6%, and — unlike eBay and Amazon — that percentage bundles payment processing; there is no separate processing line. There are no monthly or listing fees. Two honest caveats: TikTok's detailed fee policy lives inside Seller Center rather than on a public page, and seller-industry sources report a rise toward 8% during 2026 that TikTok's published table does not yet reflect (at 8%, the same sale costs $2.40 and you keep $27.60 — still the cheapest of the five). TikTok also charges a refund administration fee of 20% of the referral fee (capped at $5 per SKU) on refunded orders, which the other platforms handle differently.
eBay: 13.6% + 40 cents, and the small print matters
For most categories, eBay's final value fee is 13.6% plus a $0.40 per-order fee (orders over $10) — $4.08 + $0.40 = $4.48 on our $30 item. Payment processing is included. You get 250 free listings a month, then insertion fees of $0.35 kick in. A Basic Store subscription lowers the percentage (to 12.7% in most categories) for sellers with volume. Two eBay-specific traps: the percentage is calculated on the total including shipping and sales tax, and if a payment dispute is filed against you, there's a $20 dispute fee. Of the four published rates, eBay's is the one with the most asterisks.
Amazon: 15%, plus the plan decision
Amazon's referral fee for Home & Kitchen is 15% (with a $0.30 minimum) — $4.50 on the example item. Media categories add a closing fee; Home & Kitchen doesn't. The real Amazon decision sits outside the per-sale math: the Professional plan at $39.99/month (the table assumes you're on it) versus the Individual plan at $0.99 per item sold, which turns the same $30 sale into $5.49 of fees and $24.51 kept. Below roughly 40 sales a month, Individual is cheaper; above it, Professional wins and unlocks advertising and the Featured Offer tooling most sellers need. Also remember the fee-base note: Amazon's 15% applies to the total including shipping charges.
Walmart: the same 15%, the cleanest structure
Walmart's referral fee for "Home, Kitchen, Decor & Garden" is also 15% — $4.50, keep $25.50. What differs is everything around it: no setup fee, no monthly fee, no per-item fee, and fee refund mechanics are comparatively simple. Walmart's catch isn't the fee table — it's getting approved in the first place and keeping your Listing Quality score healthy once you're in.
Temu: 0% commission is real — and it's not the whole bill
Let's settle the internet argument first: yes, Temu's commission for sellers is 0%. Temu states it in its own seller recruitment, and there is no referral-fee percentage waiting in the fine print — on commission alone, a $30 sale keeps $30. That is genuinely different from every other platform in this table, and it's the core of Temu's pitch to sellers.
But "0% commission" answers only one line of the cost sheet. The costs live elsewhere in Temu's model:
- Semi-managed (U.S. local sellers): you set your price and ship from your own stock. The cost sellers consistently identify isn't a commission — it's shipping economics: buyers expect free or near-free shipping on Temu, and that cost largely lands on the seller's side of the ledger. On a $30 item, a $4–6 shipping cost you absorb is the equivalent of a 13–20% fee — it just never gets called one.
- Fully-managed: there is no commission line because you don't set the retail price. You agree a supply price with Temu, Temu sells the item, and your margin is whatever you negotiated into that supply price. Comparing "0%" here to Amazon's 15% is comparing a wholesale contract to a retail fee — accurate, and incomplete.
- Price pressure instead of fee pressure. With no commission to collect, Temu's model pushes on your price — through its price-review and promotion mechanics — rather than on a percentage. Your margin gets negotiated at the price line instead of the fee line.
The honest conclusion: on platform fees as published, Temu is the cheapest place to sell — full stop. On total cost of a sale, it depends on your shipping costs and your negotiated prices, which is why your real Temu fee audit is your own settlement reports: everything deducted or absorbed, divided by sales.
What the table doesn't show (and where each platform takes its second bite)
- Advertising. On Amazon especially, the 15% is the floor, not the bill — most competitive categories require ad spend to get visibility at all. TikTok's model pushes costs toward affiliate commissions and content instead.
- Returns. eBay's fee is calculated including tax and rarely fully refunds on returns; TikTok takes its refund admin fee; Amazon and Walmart have their own return-fee treatments by category.
- Fulfillment programs. FBA and WFS change the math completely (storage, fulfillment, returns handling) — excluded here by design, because they're optional programs, not the cost of selling.
- Your time. Temu's fully-managed model prices your involvement near zero; eBay's model prices in listing-by-listing effort forever.
Quick answers
Which marketplace has the lowest fees? On platform fees for a $30 Home & Kitchen item: Temu at 0% commission, then TikTok Shop at 6% ($1.80), eBay at ~14.9% effective, and Amazon and Walmart tied at 15%. Total cost of a sale is a different ranking once shipping, ads and returns are counted.
Is Temu really 0% commission? Yes — Temu charges sellers 0% commission. What it doesn't mean is "free to sell": in the semi-managed model the main cost is shipping you absorb to offer buyers free shipping, and in the fully-managed model you're paid an agreed supply price while Temu sets the retail price.
Why do Amazon and Walmart both show 15% but feel different? Because the percentage is only part of the bill: Amazon layers a monthly plan fee (or per-item fee) and, for most sellers, necessary ad spend; Walmart layers nothing — but gates entry with an approval process.
Do the percentages apply to shipping too? On Amazon, Walmart and eBay, yes — the referral/final-value percentage is calculated on the total including buyer-paid shipping (eBay includes sales tax as well). The table above applies rates to the $30 item price only, for a clean comparison.
The bottom line
On a pure fee basis, the five marketplaces sort into three stories: Temu takes no commission at all and puts its pressure on price and shipping instead; TikTok Shop is buying growth with a 6% rate; eBay, Amazon and Walmart cluster around 15% with different fine print. Pick your platform on the full bill (fees + shipping + ads + returns + fulfillment + your time), and audit your own settlement reports quarterly: the only fee table that never lies is yours.
Ask Goofie before you pick a platform
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