True Profit Per Order on Amazon, Walmart and eBay

True profit on one order is the same formula on every marketplace: what the buyer paid you, minus the marketplace's fees, minus what the label really cost, minus what you paid for the item, minus any refund. What changes between Amazon, Walmart and eBay is where each number comes from and when it becomes final. Take fees from the payout, not from the fee table; take shipping from the carrier's final bill, not the label quote; and take item cost from the purchase order that unit came in on.

What is the formula for profit per order?

Profit = item price + shipping the buyer paid − marketplace fees − label cost − item cost − refunds.

Leave sales tax out of both sides. On all three marketplaces the marketplace collects and pays the tax, so it was never your money. eBay is the exception that catches people: the tax still isn't yours, but eBay charges its fee on it anyway (more below).

Costs that don't belong to one order, like storage, subscriptions, software and most advertising, go in a monthly line under your order profits, not spread across orders by guesswork. Your per-order number tells you which products and channels earn; the monthly line tells you whether the business does.

How is each marketplace different?

Fee percentages change and differ by category, so read your own rate off the marketplace's current fee page, or better, off a real payout. The point of the table is the shape: three different fee bases, three different payout clocks.

Why can the same item earn less on eBay at the same price?

Because eBay's fee is charged on the buyer's total, sales tax included. eBay's own fee page defines the total as the item price, handling, shipping, sales tax and other fees. Here is one $40 item sold once on each marketplace, free shipping, $14 item cost, $6.50 label. The figures are an invented example; the shape is real.

Twenty-eight cents looks like nothing. Across a few thousand eBay orders a month it's a line item, and it's invisible if you work out eBay profit from the fee table instead of the payout.

Which numbers are usually wrong?

• The label. The price you saw when you bought the label is a quote. Carriers re-weigh and re-measure, and the adjustment lands days or weeks later. We walked through one in the order that showed a 23.6% margin and lost money.
• Item cost. An average cost across every purchase hides that this month's batch cost more. Use the cost from the purchase order the unit actually came in on.
• Fees. The fee you estimated at order time and the fee the marketplace took aren't always the same: promotions, category changes, refunds of part of the fee on a return. The payout is the final word.
• Refunds. A refunded order isn't profit zero. You usually keep paying for the label, and some fees don't come back in full. If the item goes back on the shelf, its cost comes back to inventory; if it doesn't, it's a loss at what you paid.

How do I do it by hand?

1. Export orders from each marketplace for the period, one sheet per channel.
2. Pull each marketplace's payout report for the same orders and copy the actual fee per order next to the sale. Orders still on hold won't be there yet; mark them open.
3. Add the final label cost per order from your carrier invoices, not the label receipt.
4. Add item cost per order from your purchase orders.
5. Subtract refunds, then total by SKU and by channel.
6. Put storage, subscriptions and ads underneath as monthly lines.

It works. With three channels it's three report formats, three payout clocks and a carrier invoice, every month. Most sellers do it once, see the numbers, and then stop doing it, which is exactly when estimated profit starts lying. For Amazon's side in detail, see what an Amazon order really costs and why your Amazon payout never matches your sales.

How Rilk shows it

Rilk pulls your Amazon, Walmart and eBay orders into one list, and every order has a Financial tab: sale, marketplace fees, label and item cost on one screen. Item cost comes from the purchase order the stock was received on. On those three marketplaces Rilk matches each order to the marketplace's payout automatically, so the fee on the order is the fee you were actually charged.

True per-order profit, carrier-bill reconciliation and the profit reports are on Pro and Ultimate. Every account gets one 14-day Pro trial to run them on your own orders.

Start free at rilk.ai — no credit card required. See plans.