eBay vs Shopify: which keeps more?
eBay's percentage against Shopify's subscription — the widest fee gap of any pair on this site, and the clearest volume story.
Who wins at each price?
| Price | eBay 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.
Shopify wins on fees at every price
At the canonical 300 units a month, Shopify keeps more than eBay at $10, $25, $50, $100 and $250 — by about $0.84 at the bottom and about $26.60 at the top. The mechanism is simple: $39 a month spread over 300 sales is $0.13 a sale, and 2.9% + $0.30 is far below eBay's 13.6% plus $0.40. But the same subscription at 30 units a month costs $1.30 a sale and narrows the gap fast — run your own volume in the Shopify calculator before believing any headline.
The fee gap is not the decision
eBay's 13.6% buys placement in front of buyers already looking for exactly your kind of item, including used and rare goods no store can source reliably. Shopify keeps more per sale and brings zero visitors. Sellers who leave eBay for Shopify and keep their sales usually had traffic of their own all along — an audience, a channel, a brand. If your traffic is eBay search, the fee gap is the price of the room.