Same item, four Canadian channels

What this comparison actually measures

The calculator above takes one item -- one price, one cost, one set of dimensions -- and runs it through four Canadian fee schedules at once: Walmart.ca with Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), Amazon.ca with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), eBay.ca and a Shopify store using Shopify Payments. For each channel it shows every fee line, the profit per unit after your item cost, and which channel leaves the most money. Every rate it uses is the figure published on the channel's own Canadian fee page, and the sources list on this page shows where each one came from and when it was checked. The results are estimates only: they are as good as the inputs you give and the rates as of their verified date (2026-10-17 for the Walmart referral table).

The number it answers is narrow on purpose: "if this unit sells once at this price, what is left after the channel takes its cut?" It does not answer "where will this item sell fastest?" That second question usually matters more, and the sections below explain where the two pull apart.

Warehouse channels and self-ship channels are not apples-to-apples

WFS and FBA store your stock, pick it, pack it and ship it. Their fulfillment fee replaces the postage, box and labour you would otherwise pay. eBay and Shopify do none of that: you ship from your own shelf, so the comparison uses two inputs for them -- the shipping you charge the buyer and what the label actually costs you. If you charge $12.00 and the label costs $11.00, the self-ship channels gain a dollar on shipping; if you offer free shipping, they eat the whole label.

That one setting decides a lot. Because the warehouse channels include delivery in the fee, a cheap item with free shipping often comes out best on WFS or FBA, while the same item with buyer-paid shipping often comes out best on eBay or Shopify. Before you trust a winner, make sure the shipping you entered is what you would really charge on that channel and what your carrier really bills for that box from your postal code.

The warehouse fees also hide costs that self-ship sellers carry themselves: your time packing, boxes and tape, the shelf space in your garage, and the trips to the post office. If you value your packing time at zero, eBay and Shopify will look better than they are. Add a per-unit amount for packaging and labour to the shipping cost field if you want a fair fight.

How each channel's fees are built

Walmart.ca with WFS

Walmart charges a referral fee on the sale price (15% for Kitchen, 15% for Everything Else), plus a WFS fulfillment fee set by shipping weight. Shipping weight is the greater of the unit weight and its volumetric weight (volumetric is ignored for units under 1 lb), plus a 0.25 lb packaging allowance, rounded up to the next whole pound. A 1.8 lb unit becomes 2.05 lb and bills as 3 lb, which is the $6.50 tier. A 3.8 lb unit becomes 4.05 lb, rounds to 5 lb, and jumps to the $8.50 tier. Weigh the packed unit on a scale before you decide; a tenth of a pound near a tier edge changes the result. Storage is per cubic foot per month: $0.80 normally, with a $1.70 add-on in peak months for stock held over 30 days, and $7.00 once a unit has sat for more than a year. This comparison uses the normal rate; the Walmart calculator on this site adds the peak and long-term rates.

Walmart also runs seasonal referral discounts. During its published holiday window, Toys and Games referral fees are discounted by 100% and Beauty by 50%. The calculator applies these automatically when today's date falls inside the window, which is why a toy can show a much better Walmart result in the fall than the same toy in February.

Amazon.ca with FBA

Amazon charges a referral fee by category (15% for Home and Kitchen, 8% for Consumer Electronics), with a per-item minimum of $0.40 in categories that have one. The FBA fulfilment fee depends on size tier and shipping weight in grams: a standard-size unit up to 900 g is $8.25. Storage is charged per cubic metre per month: $40.00 for standard-size units from January to September and $77.00 from October to December. This comparison picks the rate from today's date, so a unit modelled in October uses the higher rate even if it will sell in January; the Amazon calculator lets you choose the season. Units priced under $14.00 get a Low-Price FBA discount of $0.80 per unit, and during the holiday peak Amazon adds a published average of $0.39 per unit. Tick or untick the peak box to see both.

The Professional plan is $29.99 a month. Enter your monthly unit count in "Amazon units per month" to spread it; leave it at zero if the plan is already paid for by your other sales and you only want the marginal cost of this item.

eBay.ca

eBay's final value fee is charged on the whole order total: item price, the shipping you charge, and the sales tax eBay collects for the buyer's province. For most categories without a store it is 13.6% of that total, plus a per-order fee of $0.40 (or $0.30 on orders of $10.00 or less). A $34.99 item with $12.00 shipping to an Ontario buyer carries $6.11 of HST at 13%, so the fee is calculated on $53.10, not $34.99. That is why the buyer's province input matters for eBay: the same sale costs more in fees to a buyer in an HST province than to one in Alberta.

Promoted Listings general campaigns charge your chosen ad rate (from 2% up) on the same total, but only when the sale follows an ad click within 30 days. If most of your eBay sales come through promoted placements, enter your typical rate; it is often the input that moves eBay from first to second. If your account falls to Below Standard, final value fees rise by 6%, which this comparison does not apply unless you use the eBay calculator directly.

Shopify

Shopify's per-sale cost is card processing plus a share of the monthly plan. On Basic, Shopify Payments charges 2.8% plus $0.30 per online Canadian card transaction, and that rate applies to the full charge including the sales tax you collect. The plan is $37.00 a month billed yearly or $49.00 billed monthly. The calculator divides the plan by your "Shopify orders per month": at 5 orders each order carries one fifth of the plan; at 40 orders, one fortieth. Low order counts are the most common reason Shopify drops from first place.

Inputs that flip the winner

• Shipping charged versus shipping cost. Free shipping on a low-priced item usually hands the win to WFS or FBA. Buyer-paid shipping that covers the label usually hands it to eBay or Shopify.
• Weight near a tier edge. The WFS packaging allowance and whole-pound rounding mean a unit just under a tier on your scale can bill in the next one. Amazon bands are in grams and step every 100 g in the standard tier.
• Price under the Low-Price FBA threshold. Below $14.00, FBA gets cheaper per unit while the percentage fees on eBay and Shopify are already small in dollars, so Amazon can move up.
• Months in storage. A small item barely notices storage. A bulky item that sits for six months, especially through October to December on Amazon, can lose its whole margin to storage, and Amazon's October to December rate is almost double its January to September rate. Enter the months you honestly expect it to sit, not one.
• Category. Electronics carry lower referral rates on both Walmart and Amazon than home goods, which narrows the gap with eBay and Shopify.
• eBay ad rate. A few percentage points of Promoted Listings on the full total is often the difference between eBay and the next channel.
• Shopify orders per month. The plan fee is fixed, so a store doing a handful of orders pays several dollars of plan per sale.

Why Shopify often shows the lowest fees, and why that is not the whole story

On fees alone, Shopify regularly comes out ahead, because the only costs the calculator can count are card processing and the plan. A marketplace fee buys you buyers: people searching Walmart.ca, Amazon.ca or eBay.ca for that exact product. A Shopify store has no built-in traffic. The ads, social posts, apps and email tools that bring visitors are real costs per sale, and they are not in this comparison because they vary too much from store to store to model honestly. If you have no audience yet, treat a Shopify win as "cheapest if the sale happens", not "best place to list".

When Shopify is the computed best channel, this page may show a Shopify referral link. It appears only in that case, it is labelled with a disclosure line, and it does not change the calculation. No other channel has a referral or affiliate link on this site.

What the comparison leaves out

• Traffic and sell-through speed. A higher profit per unit on a channel where the item sells once a month can be worth less than a smaller profit on a channel where it sells daily.
• Returns. Amazon keeps a refund administration fee on refunded orders (the lesser of $5.00 or 20% of the referral fee), and returned units on any warehouse channel may come back unsellable. eBay and Shopify returns cost you return postage and the time to inspect and relist. Use a lower price or a higher item cost to allow for your return rate.
• Account health and listing rules. Walmart.ca listings generally need a valid UPC or GTIN; an Amazon FNSKU (the X00 label code) is not a barcode Walmart will accept. Some brands and categories are gated on Amazon. A channel you cannot list on is not a choice, whatever the fee.
• Inbound freight and prep. The inbound freight field covers getting the unit into a warehouse. Labelling, bagging and boxing for FBA or WFS take time that eBay listings of loose items do not.
• Payout timing. Each channel pays out on its own schedule and may hold funds for new accounts. Money you are waiting for is money you cannot spend on the next buy.
• Sales tax on fees. Marketplaces charge GST/HST on their own fees. This comparison leaves it out because registrants recover it as input tax credits; if you are not registered, it is a real cost, and the Amazon calculator can add it.

A practical way to use it

1. Weigh and measure the packed unit, not the product listing's dimensions.
2. Enter the price you can actually get on the lowest of the four channels, then try the price each one really supports.
3. Set shipping charged to what you would really charge on eBay and Shopify, and shipping cost to a quote for that box.
4. Set storage months to how long similar units have taken to sell for you.
5. Look at the gap between first and second. A gap of a few cents is a tie; pick the channel with the faster sale or the one where you already have stock and reviews.

Frequently asked questions

Are these the same fees I will see in Seller Central or on my Walmart statement?

They are the published Canadian rates as of the verified date. Your statement can differ because of promotions you are enrolled in, size tier decisions the warehouse makes after measuring your unit, account-level surcharges and fees this page does not model. Treat the result as an estimate and check one real order against it.

Why does eBay charge a fee on the sales tax?

eBay calculates its final value fee on the total amount the buyer pays, and eBay collects the provincial sales tax as part of that total. The calculator follows the same rule, which is why the buyer's province changes the eBay fee.

Why did the Walmart result change between months?

Walmart's seasonal referral discounts for some categories apply only inside their published window, and the calculator applies them based on today's date. On the Amazon side, the holiday peak fee depends on the peak checkbox, which you can untick to see the off-peak cost.

Should I always sell where the profit is highest?

Not on this number alone. The comparison ignores traffic, return rates, payout timing and how long the unit will sit. Use it to rule out channels that lose money on an item, then choose among the rest on sell-through.

Does the Shopify result include apps or advertising?

No. It includes the Shopify Payments rate, the fixed per-transaction fee and your share of the plan. Apps, a theme, a domain and any ads you run are extra and depend on your store.