The same product, sourced from 1688 at the same landed cost, leaves a different amount in your pocket depending on which platform you sell it on. Not because the price changes. Because each platform has its own fee structure, and when you add up every layer, the final number per order is different on each.
Platform fees are not one number
Most sellers treat platform fees as a single fixed rate. Something like "TikTok Shop takes x percent, Shopee takes y percent." The reality is more layered. Each platform stacks several distinct charges on top of each other, with conditions, exceptions, and policies that shift over time. To calculate correctly, you need to understand the structure, not just one headline figure.
Three core layers appear across all three platforms:
- Commission fee: a percentage of the sale price, charged when the order completes. This is the most visible layer.
- Payment processing fee: cost of handling card payments, e-wallets, and cash on delivery. Sometimes bundled into the commission, sometimes charged separately.
- Shipping subsidy or fee: platforms either subsidize shipping for the buyer (with the seller absorbing part of the cost) or charge a logistics service fee, depending on the program in place at the time.
Beyond these three, there are campaign fees when joining flash sales or using platform-issued vouchers, in-platform ad spend if you run paid placements, and fulfillment fees if you use the platform's warehouse service. Not all of these are mandatory, but most shops running ads and participating in promotions will encounter at least two or three of these additional layers on a regular basis.
TikTok Shop: commission plus the affiliate layer
TikTok Shop in its growth phase often runs flexible fee policies to attract sellers. The base commission rate varies by category and changes over time, generally landing somewhere between 2 and 8 percent of the sale price, with some categories higher. Check the current TikTok Shop seller policy directly for the most accurate figure at the time you are reading this.
What makes TikTok Shop distinct from Shopee and Lazada is the affiliate and creator system. If you sell through affiliate channels, you pay the platform commission plus a creator commission on top. Creator rates typically range from 10 to 20 percent of the sale price, depending on the agreement. This layer does not appear in the official fee tables but is often one of the largest single costs if your sales depend on creators to drive orders.
A realistic per-order cost breakdown on TikTok Shop includes:
- Platform commission (see current rate table)
- Affiliate commission if the order came through a creator link
- Shipping cost absorbed by the seller (varies by program)
- In-platform ad spend if you run paid promotions
For products that rely heavily on affiliate-driven sales, the combined distribution cost (platform commission plus creator cut) can take a significant slice of revenue. This needs to be in the price calculation before you set the selling price, not after you look at the monthly payout report.
Shopee: more layers, more variables
Shopee has a more detailed fee structure, with clear separation between service types. Commission rates vary by category and account type (regular shop, Shopee Mall, or brand-registered shop), and tend to run slightly higher than TikTok Shop in some categories.
Beyond the commission, Shopee adds:
- Payment service fee: applied when an order processes through Shopee's payment gateway.
- Promotion participation cost: when a shop joins a flash sale or uses platform-issued vouchers, Shopee typically requires an additional discount or shares the voucher cost between the platform and the seller.
- Shopee Ads spend: keyword and product placement ads are a variable cost tied to bid levels.
Shopee Mall carries its own commission tier, generally higher than a regular shop, but the trade-off is the Mall badge, priority placement, and a higher conversion rate. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on your category's margin structure and whether you can realistically price higher on the strength of the Mall credential.
One thing to watch specifically: during Shopee's big sale campaigns such as 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, and 12.12, the discount given to buyers is not entirely funded by Shopee. The cost is split between Shopee and the seller at some ratio. Orders during a sale event may show higher volume but lower per-unit margin than normal days, because the seller is absorbing part of the voucher. This cost is easy to miss in the accounting.
Lazada: cleaner structure, smaller volume
Lazada operates on a more straightforward commission-plus-shipping fee model compared to TikTok Shop and Shopee. Commissions vary by category, and LazMall runs at its own rate similar to Shopee Mall.
A notable feature of Lazada is its warehouse and fulfillment integration. Fulfilled by Lazada (FBL) adds storage fees and order-handling fees on top of the commission, but the benefit is faster processing and prioritized visibility. The fulfillment cost becomes part of your real landed cost per unit.
Lazada also has an affiliate network, but the scale and commission rates tend to be smaller than TikTok Shop's creator ecosystem. For sellers moving 1688-sourced goods, Lazada often fits better for categories with a higher average order value, because the fixed overhead and return rates tend to be lower than TikTok Shop.
The same SKU, three different take-home figures
To make this concrete: picture a household accessory imported from 1688, with a fully-loaded landed cost (product price, freight, customs, agent fee) of around 120,000 VND per unit. The planned selling price is 280,000 VND. Gross headroom is 160,000 VND before platform fees and ad spend.
On TikTok Shop with affiliate sales at 15 percent creator commission and a platform fee around 4 percent, the deductions from the sale price alone are already close to 53,000 VND, before counting seller-absorbed shipping.
On Shopee, without affiliate but participating in a sale-day voucher, commission plus the seller's share of the voucher discount might account for 8 to 12 percent of the sale price depending on the day.
On Lazada, category commission plus payment fee tends to run lower if you skip major promotions, but order volume typically runs lower than the other two platforms as well.
The result is that the real margin (after platform fees, before ad spend) on the same SKU can differ noticeably across three platforms, not because the selling price changes but because the deduction structure is different. This is why comparing margin by platform, not total blended margin, gives you an honest picture of which platform is actually generating profit and which is generating revenue that looks good on paper.
Common errors when estimating per-platform margin
Stopping at the commission rate. Commission is one layer. If you do not add in the voucher cost, affiliate fee, ad spend, and return-processing cost (TikTok Shop return rates tend to run higher than Shopee for some categories), the profit figure you are looking at is incomplete.
Using the same selling price across all three platforms. Buyers on Lazada and Shopee tend to accept a slightly higher price for the same product compared to TikTok Shop. The purchase intent is different. TikTok Shop leans toward impulse purchases during video viewing, where price sensitivity is higher. Shopee and Lazada lean toward more deliberate shopping. If you list at the same price everywhere, you are likely leaving margin on the table on Shopee and Lazada, or putting unnecessary pressure on conversion on TikTok.
Not accounting for returns in the real cost. TikTok Shop's return policy is generally easier for buyers, which shows up in higher return rates for certain categories. Each return is two-way shipping cost plus potential product damage. If your product returns at a rate of 5 percent, that cost needs to be loaded into the per-unit economics.
Ignoring differences in payout timing. Shopee and TikTok Shop typically settle after an order completes and passes a return window. Lazada may run on a different cycle. The timing difference affects cash flow, particularly when you are importing in batches and depend on quick capital turnover.
A simple per-order comparison method
For each platform you sell on or are evaluating, lay out one typical order like this:
- Actual price collected (after the buyer confirms receipt and the return window closes)
- Minus: landed cost into your warehouse (product, freight, customs, agent fee)
- Minus: platform commission on that order
- Minus: seller's share of any voucher or promotion
- Minus: affiliate or creator commission if the order came through that channel
- Minus: seller-absorbed shipping cost
- Minus: per-unit share of packaging cost if tracked separately
- Minus: estimated return rate multiplied by the cost of processing a return
What remains is real gross profit per order before income tax. If you run ads, subtract the allocated ad cost per order to get net profit.
Run this calculation for the same SKU across all three platforms and you will see where you are actually making money and where you are producing volume. The platform with the most orders is not always the platform generating the most cash.
Bottom line
Platform fees are not a single percentage. They are several layers stacked together, and the sum of those layers determines what you keep per order. The same SKU sourced from 1688 produces different outcomes on TikTok Shop, Shopee, and Lazada because the deduction structure is different on each. Calculate the full stack before you choose where to sell and before you set your price, not after you look at the bank account at month end and wonder why revenue was up but cash was flat.