Amazon FBA vs Shopify: which keeps more?
Shopify's processing fee is a tenth of Amazon's stack. The catch is that Amazon's stack includes the customers. This comparison holds ad spend equal at 10% — read the verdict, then ask what your real Shopify ad cost is.
Who wins at each price?
| Price | Amazon FBA keeps | Shopify keeps | Winner |
|---|
Canonical profile: product cost 35% of price, inbound $1.20, packaging $0.30, self-shipping $4.80 where relevant, ads 10% of price, returns 5%, 300 units/month, TikTok affiliate 10%. Change the real inputs on each platform's own calculator page.
Renting demand vs owning it
Amazon's fees are rent on demand that already exists. Shopify's low fees assume you manufacture demand yourself — with ads, content, or an audience. At the canonical 10% ad rate Shopify wins almost everywhere; at the 25–40% blended ad cost many new stores actually pay, the gap narrows or inverts. The Shopify calculator lets you raise the ad line until it's honest.
The fee that compounds
A Shopify customer is yours — email, retargeting, repeat orders at ~3%. An Amazon customer is Amazon's. Over a product line's life, that difference routinely outweighs the per-sale fee gap shown above.