Ecommerce Platform Fees Explained
The Cost Parts of Running an Online Store
Ecommerce platform fees are the charges a business pays to run its store on a platform. The headline figure is often a monthly plan fee, but the full cost is made up of several separate parts, and some of them grow as sales grow.
Typical cost parts include:
- Platform subscription: a recurring fee for the software or hosted service, which may depend on the plan tier and features.
- Transaction fees: a percentage of each sale that some hosted platforms charge, separate from the payment fees.
- Payment processing fees: charged by the payment provider, usually a percentage of each payment plus a fixed amount per transaction. The roles behind these charges are explained in payment gateway vs processor vs merchant account.
- Apps and extensions: monthly or yearly fees for add-ons such as shipping calculators, reviews or subscription tools.
- Hosting, themes and domains: server costs and maintenance for self-hosted platforms, or theme and domain costs on hosted ones.
- Services: design, development, integration and ongoing maintenance.
Working Out the Total Cost of Ownership
A simple way to estimate the yearly cost is to add the fixed costs to the variable costs:
Total cost = fixed costs + (orders x cost per order) + (revenue x percentage fees)
Fixed costs include the platform plan, apps, hosting and maintenance. Variable costs include payment fees and any transaction fees. Because percentage and per-order fees rise with sales, a plan that looks cheap for a small shop can become expensive for a large one, and the reverse can also be true. Compare options at the same order volume. The hosting model you choose changes which of these costs you carry, as explained in hosted vs self-hosted ecommerce.
Example: Two Platforms at Two Sales Levels
Consider two shops with the same product range. One pays a low monthly plan but needs several paid apps and a developer for custom checkout work. The other pays a higher plan that already includes those features. At a low order count, the first shop may be the cheaper option. At a high order count, per-order and percentage-based charges can dominate the total, and the comparison may reverse.
Frequently asked questions
Are payment processing fees part of the platform fee?
Usually not. Payment processing fees are charged by the payment provider on each transaction and are separate from the platform's own subscription. Some all-in-one platforms bundle payments into one invoice, so the lines can look combined, but the business should still read each fee separately to compare costs.
Which costs do shops often forget when budgeting?
Shops often forget staff time, refund and chargeback fees, currency conversion charges, theme and app changes, security scanning for card handling, and the cost of moving to another platform later. Including these in the budget gives a more realistic total. Check the refund and dispute fees with the payment provider before launch.