Short answer: at a $40 item with $8 shipping, eBay costs about $6.93 per order in the US, while a Shopify store costs about $1.69 per order plus $39/month. Above 8 orders a month, the Shopify store is cheaper on fees alone.
| Platform | Fee per order | Fees at 50 orders/month |
|---|---|---|
| eBay | $6.93 | $346.40 |
| Shopify (Basic, monthly) | $1.69 + $39/mo | $123.60 |
Monthly Shopify figure = 50 × $1.69 + $39 subscription.
Final value fee 13.6% of $48 = $6.53, plus the per-order fee of $0.40 for orders over $10. Total $6.93 per order. Category tiers and the lower rate above $7,500 are not modelled — this is the most-common-category rate.
Online card rate 2.9% of $48 + 30¢ = $1.69 per order, plus the Basic plan at $39/month on monthly billing. At 50 orders that is $123.60 a month, or $2.47 per order including the subscription.
Because eBay's percentage fee is much higher than a card rate, the crossover comes early: above 8 orders a month, the Shopify store wins on fees alone. But eBay brings its own buyers, while a Shopify store needs its own marketing — fees alone never decide the channel. Run your own prices in the Platform Crossover tool.
Fee-only comparison: it does not include discovery, traffic, refunds, apps, fulfilment, packaging, or taxes. Subscription is spread over the month's orders in the monthly figure. Confirm with your seller dashboard before pricing decisions.
Sources (official pages, checked 4 Nov 2026): Etsy fees, Etsy Payments, eBay US fees, Shopify US pricing.
On fees alone, above 8 orders a month at a $48 order total, yes. Below that, eBay's lack of a subscription can make it cheaper — and eBay brings marketplace traffic a new store does not have.
eBay charges a final value fee of 13.6% of the total sale for most categories, versus a card-processing rate of about 2.9% on a Shopify store. That percentage gap is what drives the early crossover.
Discovery and traffic, refunds, apps, fulfilment, packaging, and taxes. This is a fee-only comparison, not a profit forecast.
Amazon referral fees vary by category and its Seller Central schedule is login-gated, so no Amazon figure could be verified from an official page. No Amazon numbers are shown rather than guessed ones.
These pages use one fixed scenario so the comparison is fair. Your prices and order volume change the answer — run them through the free tools: Breakeven Planner, Platform Crossover, Product Pricing & Profit. Every figure and its official source is on the Fee Index, and the method is on the Methodology page.