What's the real margin when selling on Shopee and TikTok Shop?
Commissions, admin fees, subsidized shipping, and the costs people forget to count — a worked net-margin example per product on the two biggest marketplaces.
Many sellers know their revenue but not their true margin per product. The difference usually hides in costs that only sting when the payout arrives: commissions, admin fees, subsidized shipping, and returns.
The costs that quietly leak
- Commissions & service fees — different per category and program (Mall, affiliate, coins).
- Subsidized shipping — the shipping discount you absorb when you join free-shipping programs.
- Payout admin fees — small, but frequent withdrawals add up.
- Returns & cancellations — returned products are not always sellable again.
- Packaging — often treated as “already included”, yet it eats 2–5% of the selling price.
A simple example
A product selling at Rp 89,000:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Selling price | Rp 89,000 |
| Cost + packaging | Rp 52,000 |
| Commission + service fees (±6%) | Rp 5,300 |
| Seller-absorbed shipping subsidy | Rp 3,600 |
| Net margin | Rp 28,100 (±31%) |
That is one product, one promo scenario. During flash sales, affiliate discounts, or coin programs, the margin can shift significantly — which is why prices need rechecking per scenario, not set once and forgotten.
Do the math yourself in seconds
We built Marginly precisely for this: enter your cost and target profit, and the ideal selling price comes out with the fee breakdown for each marketplace — Shopee and TikTok Shop kept separate.
If you need more than a calculator — say, margin per category over time, or trends in which products absorb the costs — that is the territory of Marketplace Business Analytics, currently in development. Join the waitlist to be the first to know when it launches.