E-commerce marketing
Marketplace,
or your own store?
A marketplace rents you its shoppers. Your own store lets you keep them. Australians spent $18.9 billion on pure online marketplaces in 2025, 23% of all online spend, so they're hard to ignore, but the reach is paid for on every order: Amazon Australia's referral fees run from 5% to 15%, depending on the category and price, and eBay's Pro Starter plan takes 13.4% of the sale up to $4,000, plus 30 cents an order. For most stores the answer is both: a marketplace for reach, your own store for the customers who come back.
Written by Dan Picken, a marketer who checks the sources. Last checked 2 November 2026.What each one
actually charges.
Amazon Australia has two plans. Individual costs $0.99 per item sold, and Professional $49.95 a month, both excluding GST. On top of either, a referral fee is charged by category on the total sales price, including delivery and gift wrapping, with no minimum. Home and Kitchen is 13%, Toys and Games 12%, Consumer Electronics 8%, and anything not listed 15%. Amazon's own fulfilment service is optional, with its own fees on top.
eBay changed its Australian fees in 2026. Sellers registered in Australia with up to $25,000 in sales over the past 12 months now sell without final value fees, while buyers pay a buyer protection fee instead. Above that, sellers move to Pro Starter: no monthly cost, 13.4% of the sale up to $4,000, 2.5% above it, and $0.30 an order, all including GST. From 1 May 2026, eBay labels became compulsory for most non-Pro sellers, and multi-quantity listings and variations became Pro-only.
Kogan doesn't publish a fee table that I could find. Sellers apply, and the commission is set out in the registration form. Catch is no longer an option: Wesfarmers closed it, with the site ceasing to operate from 30 April 2025.
| Channel | Published selling fees | Monthly cost | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Australia, Professional | Referral fee by category, about 5% to 15%, on the total including delivery | $49.95 excl. GST | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Amazon Australia, Individual | Referral fee plus $0.99 per item sold | None | 2 Nov 2026 |
| eBay, free selling | No final value fee up to $25,000 in sales a year; the buyer pays a protection fee | None | 2 Nov 2026 |
| eBay, Pro Starter | 13.4% up to $4,000, 2.5% above, plus $0.30 an order (incl. GST) | None | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Kogan Marketplace | Not published; set when you apply | Not published | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Catch | Closed: stopped operating 30 April 2025 | n/a | 2 Nov 2026 |
| Google free listings | No fee to list; the click goes to your store | None | 2 Nov 2026 |
Put one product
through each one.
Percentages are hard to compare in your head, especially when one fee is charged on the delivery cost and another isn't. Enter one real product and see what's left on each channel, on the first order and over a year.
Marketplace margin
What do you keep
on each order?
Enter one product and your costs. The marketplace rates start at the published figures, checked 2 November 2026. The own-store numbers are made up: replace them with yours.
The product
Amazon Australia (Professional plan)
eBay Australia
Kogan Marketplace
Your own store
Kept per first order, after fees and costs
-
Amazon publishes its fees excluding GST and eBay including GST, so compare like with like for your tax set-up and check with your accountant. Amazon charges its referral fee on the total price including delivery. Fulfilment services, advertising on the marketplace, returns and refunds are not included.
Who owns
the customer?
This is the part fee tables leave out. On Amazon, the rules ban unsolicited emails to buyers beyond what the order and its customer service need, and any attempt to send Amazon shoppers to another website. eBay's policy says sellers can't use contact details from an eBay sale to offer to sell outside eBay. On Kogan, customers pay Kogan.
So a customer won on a marketplace is the marketplace's customer. If they buy from you again, they'll probably do it there, and you'll pay the fee again. On your own store, a customer who ticks the box can hear from you next month for the cost of an email. That's why the calculator has a line for a year, not just one order.
Owning the customer comes with its own rules. Marketing emails and SMS need consent, and a record of who gave it, when and how. The 30-day plan covers setting that up properly.
The platform can
change the rules.
Catch was a big name, backed by Wesfarmers, and it still closed. Wesfarmers pointed to the recent increase in competitive intensity in Australian e-commerce, and 190 staff lost their roles. Sellers who relied on it had to find somewhere else to sell.
eBay's 2026 changes are a milder example. Fees, payouts and listing tools all moved within a few months. Nothing wrong with that, it's their platform, but it shows who sets the terms.
There's also the question of who you're competing with. When the ACCC looked at Australian marketplaces in 2022, its chair said hybrid marketplaces face conflicts of interest and may act in ways that advantage their own products. On some marketplaces, the platform also sells its own stock next to yours.
Google's free listings:
the middle path.
Google made it free for Australian merchants to list products on the Shopping tab from October 2020. The shopper finds you on Google, but the click goes to your store, so the customer, the email address and the next order are yours. There's no commission.
It isn't effortless. You need a Merchant Center account and a clean feed, and in Australia shipping costs are required for free listings as well as for Shopping ads. But it's work you need anyway for paid Shopping ads, which the Google Ads page covers.
When a marketplace
makes sense.
A marketplace earns its fee when it brings buyers you couldn't reach as cheaply yourself. That's often true early on, for products people search for by name or model number, and for clearing stock. It's less true for a brand with good repeat business, where every repeat order on a marketplace pays the fee again.
- Makes sense: a new store with no traffic yet, testing whether a product sells at all
- Makes sense: branded or model-numbered products people search for on Amazon first
- Makes sense: clearing old stock without discounting on your own site
- Think twice: products where most of the profit comes from the second and third order
- Think twice: thin margins, where a 13% fee plus postage leaves nothing
- Never: the whole business on one platform you don't control
What I see most often
What I'd check first
before a store lists on a marketplace.
- 1
Margin worked out on the item price only
The fee is charged on the delivered total on Amazon, so the real cost is higher than the spreadsheet says.
- 2
No idea which customers come back
Without a repeat rate from the store's own orders, there's no way to tell whether a marketplace sale is cheap or expensive in the long run.
- 3
One price everywhere, different costs everywhere
The same product at the same price on every channel, when the fees, postage and ad costs behind each sale are quite different.
The honest bit. A marketplace won't build your brand, and your own store won't bring you shoppers by itself. The fees are real, but so is the cost of finding customers on your own. Run the numbers on your own products before you decide.
Questions
people ask.
How much does it cost to sell on Amazon Australia?
On the Professional plan, $49.95 a month plus a referral fee by category, charged on the total including delivery. Rates on Amazon's published fee page run from 5% to 15% depending on the category and price, excluding GST. The Individual plan has no monthly fee but adds $0.99 per item sold.
What are eBay's fees in Australia in 2026?
Australian-registered sellers with up to $25,000 in sales a year sell without final value fees. Above that, Pro Starter charges 13.4% up to $4,000, 2.5% above, and $0.30 an order, including GST, with no monthly fee.
Is Catch still open for sellers?
No. Wesfarmers closed Catch, and it ceased operating from 30 April 2025.
Can I email customers who bought from me on Amazon or eBay?
Not for marketing. Amazon limits seller messages to what the order and its customer service need, and eBay doesn't allow sellers to use contact details from a sale to sell outside eBay.
Are Google free listings really free?
Yes, there's no fee to list. Google made Shopping tab listings free for Australian merchants in October 2020. You need a Merchant Center account, a product feed and shipping costs set.
Related
Keep
going.
Get a free
Google Ads audit.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
- 1I'll ask for read-only access, or just your website for a search audit.
- 2I go through it and write up the 3 biggest fixes.
- 3A 20-minute call to walk you through it. No pitch unless you ask.