A ₹499 t-shirt on all three marketplaces, line by line

Every marketplace comparison you'll read online works from percentages. Percentages hide the thing that actually decides these questions, which is that the three marketplaces don't share a fee shape — they have genuinely different business models, and the winner changes depending on your product.

So let's cost one real product completely.

The product

First, the part that applies everywhere: ₹499 is not your revenue. Backing out 18% GST gives a taxable value of ₹422.88. That is what every fee below is subtracted from. If you're unclear why, our GST guide covers it.

Every fee, side by side

Three things this reveals

1. Commission is not the story any more

Every commission line above is ₹0. Since March 2026 all three charge nothing on products at or below ₹1,000. Any guide that compares "Amazon's 17% vs Flipkart's 15%" on a ₹499 product is describing a world that ended over a year ago.

2. The gap is small — smaller than your execution

₹7.90 an order separates best from worst. That is real at volume — about ₹3,950 a month at 500 orders — but it is smaller than the swing from a 5% change in your return rate, and far smaller than the effect of a slab-crossing packaging decision. Choosing the "right" marketplace is worth less than running any of them well.

3. Shipping is now the dominant fee

Look at the fee stack: shipping is 55–62% of total fees on all three. It is the largest controllable cost in the business, which is why we wrote a whole guide on weight slabs.

Four changes that flip the answer

Change 1: sell locally instead of nationally

Everyone gains, Meesho still leads, and the spread widens slightly. But note the headline: ₹35 more profit per order from geography alone — over four times the entire gap between marketplaces.

Change 2: raise the price to ₹1,001

This is where the models separate violently.

Meesho is unaffected, because 0% commission means 0% at every price. Above ₹1,000 the three marketplaces stop being close competitors and become different propositions entirely — and Meesho's advantage goes from ₹8 an order to ₹283.

Change 3: a 25% return rate

Returns cost more than four times what the marketplace choice is worth. On Amazon a single return costs ₹150 against a kept order earning ₹116.88 — it takes 1.3 sales to pay for one return. Details in our returns guide.

Change 4: 60g more packaging

Crossing the 500g slab boundary costs ₹32 an order — four times the gap between the best and worst marketplace. Your packaging decision matters more than your platform decision.

Where these numbers are soft

We would rather you know this than trust the table more than it deserves:

• Amazon referral fees are verified from Amazon's published schedule — including that ₹230.23 at ₹1,001.
• Closing fees and shipping slabs are estimates. Amazon publishes those grids as images; Flipkart and Meesho don't publish slabs at all.
• Flipkart commission above ₹1,000 is an estimate, because Flipkart's real rate card is per-seller and login-gated. Yours is in Seller Hub → Reports → My Commission Structure, and the calculator lets you type it in.
• Meesho's ₹27 platform fee is third-party sourced, not from Meesho's own page.

Roughly half of what goes into this comparison is officially verified. We label which half in the interface and in our methodology, rather than presenting the whole table with equal confidence.

The short version

• At ₹499, Meesho earns you ₹123.88 an order, Flipkart ₹119.90, Amazon ₹116.88. The gap is ₹7.90.
• Commission is ₹0 on all three below ₹1,000. Shipping is now the fee that decides the comparison.
• Above ₹1,000 the models diverge hard — Meesho's lead grows from ₹8 to ₹283.
• Your return rate, your packed weight and your delivery zone each move profit more than your choice of marketplace does.
• Pick the marketplace where your customers are, then go and fix your packaging.