The headline commission is the tip of the iceberg. Stack every cut — commission, service fees, ads, forced discounts, per-order fees — into one effective take-rate, and see what it drains from your margin each month.
Shopee fashion (Category A): 10% admin + per-order processing fee. Adjust to your category.
Every seller knows their headline commission. Almost none track the full stack — the mandatory service fees, the ads you must run to stay visible, the campaign discounts you’re pushed into, the per-order processing fee. One by one each looks reasonable. Added together, they’re why margin never improves even as revenue grows.
The fix isn’t to leave the marketplace — it’s strong at discovery. It’s to stop paying the full take-rate on every order. Let the marketplace find a buyer once, then move the relationship to a channel you own, where the second order and beyond don’t pay the cut again. See how that works on a channel you own, and estimate the WhatsApp side with the cost calculator.
It is the share of every sale a marketplace actually keeps once you add up everything — category commission, mandatory service fees, ads you must run to stay visible, forced campaign discounts, per-order processing fees, paylater costs, and returns. The headline commission is only one line. The effective take-rate is the honest number, and it is usually far higher than the commission alone.
Because on most marketplaces they are not optional. Visibility is pay-to-play, so ad spend is the price of continuing to sell, not a one-time acquisition cost. Campaign discounts are often required to join the traffic events that drive sales. If a cost is effectively mandatory to keep selling, it belongs in your take-rate.
No — and that is not the point. Marketplaces are strong at discovery. The fix is to separate discovery from ownership: let the marketplace find a buyer once, then move the relationship to a channel you own (like WhatsApp) so repeat orders do not pay the full take-rate again. The calculator shows what those repeat orders are costing you today.
On a channel you own, a repeat order carries no marketplace take-rate — only Meta’s per-message fee, which is a few hundred rupiah for a utility or marketing message, and free inside a customer-initiated service window. Compare that with a 10–25% effective take-rate on every repeat order. Estimate the messaging side with the WhatsApp cost calculator.
Let the marketplace find the buyer; keep the relationship. bitbybit captures the customer, builds the record, and re-sells on WhatsApp where repeat orders skip the take-rate. Start free, no credit card.