The online retailers take care of all the website maintenance activities that ensure that their products are visible and accessible to the target customers. The customers can view all the product details, pictures, and videos that you want them to see to make an informed decision to buy your product. In return for providing you all these facilities, the online retailers charge you a fee known as the Listing Fee.

This fee is calculated on many parameters such as the selling price of the product, the quantity or size of the product, the duration for which you want to showcase your product on their platform, etc. Different eCommerce platforms have different calculation methods to determine the listing fee you need to pay.

For instance, Amazon charges you fulfillment fees to handle various functions of your business. On your behalf, Amazon will pick up the item from your business location, they will pack it, and then they will ensure that it gets shipped and delivered to the buyer’s address. Amazon also handles the interactions with the customer and the product return formalities on your behalf. The fee charged by Amazon is broken up into two components:

• If you keep your products stored in any of Amazon’s storage facilities, you will need to pay a storage fee based on your product's size or volume and how much space it is taking up.
• For every product that gets sold through Amazon’s portal, you will be charged a referral fee, which is as per an agreed percentage of the product's selling price.

eBay is a very popular online portal that you can use to sell your products. It will provide you with a huge customer base so that your products have the maximum possibility of finding many buyers. To fully utilize the services of eBay and increase your share of profits, it is pertinent that you know what the costs involved to list your products on eBay and sell them are.

eBay’s charges are mainly categorized into 2 types - one is the listing fee (also referred to as Insertion fees), and the other is a final value fee. The final value fee is calculated based upon the final selling price of your product. On the other hand, the insertion fee is calculated on the various aspects of product cataloging, such as how many categories the product has been listed, the type of product categories the seller has listed them on, etc.

On eBay, you are also given a certain number of free listings based on the seller profile you maintain with them. Apart from this, if your product is not selling and you want to re-list the product on their portal, then you will be charged a duplicate listing fee. Again, if you meet certain criteria, then this duplicate listing fee could get waived off for you.

Disclosure statements are made mandatory by the Government to ensure the protection of consumer and investor rights. The disclosure statement intends to inform the customers or investors about certain data so that they don’t end up making a misguided decision.

It is always advisable to check with any online marketplace’s official website to know the current fee structure since it may vary depending on the country or any other factors that might influence their operations. Let’s take a look at the fee structure followed by eBay, which will help you understand this subject better.

To begin with, eBay charges its insertion fee either on a fixed or variable basis. Fixed or firm prices are straightforward. If your final selling price is more than $0.99, you will be charged $0.50 per listing. The variable pricing structure, on the other hand, depends on the auction value.

Let us take an example. Suppose you put up an item for auction, it will have a minimum starting value that you have set and a reserve value below which you will not sell it. The variable insertion fee is calculated based on the higher value of these two. Depending on what is the higher of these two values, you will be charged a different variable insertion fee. If the value is:

• Below $0.99, then you will not be charged any fee by eBay.
• Between $1 and below $10, then you will be charged $0.25 per listing.
• Between $10 and below $25, then you will be charged $0.50 per listing.
• Between $25 and below $50, then you will be charged $1.00 per listing.
• Between $50 and below $200, then you will be charged $2.00 per listing.
• Above $200, then you will be charged $2.00 per listing

eBay will also charge you other listing fees depending on the following factors:

• Depending on the number of days you want to list your product and the various features you subscribe to for different listing features, you will be charged a listing option fee.
• Depending on the categories (Electronics, Clothing, Books, etc.) you enlist your product in, you will be charged a category listing fee.

Again, these two fees are also charged on a fixed or variable basis, similar to the example shown above. Hence, you must do proper calculations to find out which model suits you best. Whenever you run a business to earn a profit, it is important to consider all the costs involved in running the business. So, in this case, for selling a product on any online retailer website you need to be aware of the costs that you have to bear. Most importantly, the fact to be considered is that these listing fees are non-refundable.

Hence, it is most important to take the most benefit out of spending the listing fee to showcase our products to the customers. You should focus on the marketing aspects like creating the product profile so that it attracts the customers. You must use marketing analytics to find out which products are more in demand. All these steps can help you offset the listing fee that you incur as a cost to sell your product online.