Lazada/Shopee Seller Fees: 15% Commission + 2% Payment = 17% of Revenue Gone
Seller on Lazada Malaysia: selling product at SGD 100, COGS SGD 60 (40% gross margin). Lazada commission 15% = SGD 15. Payment processor fee 2% = SGD 2. Shipping cost (seller-paid on deals) SGD 10. Net profit: SGD 100 - SGD 60 - SGD 15 - SGD 2 - SGD 10 = SGD 13 (13% margin). vs Own website: SGD 100 - SGD 60 - SGD 3 (payment processor) - SGD 8 (shipping) = SGD 29 (29% margin). Lazada margin is 44% lower than own channel.
- Marketplace Fee Structure (ASEAN)
- The Margin Erosion Problem
- When Marketplaces Make Sense
- AskBiz Channel Profitability
- The Seller Who Priced the Same on Every Channel and Lost Money on the Cheapest One
Marketplace Fee Structure (ASEAN)#
Lazada Thailand: 12-15% commission depending on category (electronics higher). Shopee Malaysia: 8-12% commission. Commission + payment processor (2-3%) + shipping subsidy (0-5%) = total cost 15-25% of revenue. Most sellers ignore these hidden costs.
The Margin Erosion Problem#
Product 40% gross margin looks good. After marketplace fees (17%) = 23% margin left. Need 10% operating cost (staff, rent, utilities) = only 13% net profit. Compare: own website, same 40% gross margin, 5% cost of sales (payment + fulfillment) = 35% net profit. Marketplace is 2.7x less profitable.
When Marketplaces Make Sense#
(1) New product testing (low upfront cost, test market fit). (2) Clearance inventory (better to get 13% margin than 0%). (3) Brand building (exposure/reviews worth margin sacrifice). (4) Low-touch operations (marketplace handles some customer service). Avoid: as primary sales channel if net margin <15%.
AskBiz Channel Profitability#
Tracks profit by channel. "Your revenue: 60% Lazada (SGD 600K), 30% own website (SGD 300K), 10% Shopee (SGD 100K). Net margin: Lazada 13%, website 28%, Shopee 15%. Blended margin: 17%. If you moved 20% Lazada volume to own website: new blended margin 19.5% (+ SGD 15K annual profit). Investment: website ads SGD 5K/month. Payback: 2 months."
The Seller Who Priced the Same on Every Channel and Lost Money on the Cheapest One#
A Penang home fragrance brand selling reed diffusers and candles priced identically across Shopee, Lazada, and its own storefront, reasoning that a single consistent retail price was simpler to manage and fairer to customers regardless of where they shopped. What that single price didn't account for was that each channel carried a different total cost to serve: the own website cost roughly 5% of revenue in payment processing and fulfillment, Shopee took 10% commission plus payment fees, and Lazada, where the brand's bestselling gift sets sat in a higher-commission category, took closer to 16%. At the identical retail price, the brand's calculated 38% gross margin held up fine on its own website (33% net after channel costs) but shrank to roughly 20% net on Lazada once commission, payment fees, and the platform's mandatory free-shipping subsidy on orders over a threshold were deducted. The brand had been running paid social ads driving traffic indiscriminately to whichever channel had inventory, unknowingly spending equally to acquire a 33%-margin sale and a 20%-margin sale as if they were worth the same. Once the owner built a simple margin-by-channel view, the fix was straightforward: shift a meaningful share of paid ad spend toward driving traffic to the own-website storefront specifically, and treat Lazada increasingly as an organic-discovery channel rather than a paid-traffic destination, since paid acquisition cost eats a much larger share of an already-thinner Lazada margin. Within two quarters, blended net margin rose by roughly four percentage points purely from reallocating ad spend toward the channel where each dollar of margin actually stretched furthest, with no pricing change and no new product.
Negotiating Commission Tiers as Volume Grows#
Marketplace commission rates are rarely as fixed as the public fee schedule suggests once a seller crosses certain volume thresholds, but most SMB sellers never ask because they assume the published rate card is non-negotiable. A Jakarta fashion accessories seller doing roughly IDR 450 million a month on Shopee had been paying the standard published commission rate for eighteen months before a category account manager, during a routine promotional planning call, mentioned that sellers at the brand's volume tier typically qualified for a reduced commission bracket if they applied through the seller growth program rather than waiting for it to be offered automatically. The seller applied, was approved within three weeks, and saw commission drop by roughly 2.5 percentage points on qualifying transactions, worth approximately IDR 11 million a month in direct margin improvement with no change to pricing, product, or operations. The broader pattern across ASEAN marketplaces is similar: reduced commission tiers, dedicated account management, and better promotional placement usually exist for sellers above certain monthly gross merchandise value thresholds, but the seller typically has to identify and apply for these programs rather than being defaulted into them. It is worth checking directly with each platform's seller support once monthly revenue on that platform crosses roughly SGD 30-50K equivalent, because the standard commission schedule most sellers plan their margins around is often not the rate a seller at real volume is actually required to pay. AskBiz's channel profitability tracking flags when a channel's effective margin looks out of line with what the seller's volume tier should support, prompting exactly this kind of commission renegotiation conversation before months of avoidable margin leakage pass unnoticed.
People also ask
Should I sell on multiple marketplaces?
Yes for reach, but not equally. Primary: own website (best margin). Secondary: marketplace with highest demand in your category (usually Lazada or Shopee, varies by country).
How do I improve marketplace profitability?
Negotiate: commit to high volume, ask for reduced commission (5-10% vs 15%). Most platforms negotiate for sellers >SGD 50K monthly.
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