Shopee, Lazada or Your Own Shop? What Marketplace Fees Really Cost a Thai Seller in 2026

Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop have done something remarkable for Thai sellers. A bakery in Chiang Mai or a fashion label in Bangkok can reach buyers across the country without a website, a warehouse or an advertising budget. Millions of shoppers open these apps every day, and a good product with good photos can sell from day one.

That reach has a price, and in 2026 the price went up. Both Shopee and Lazada raised their commission rates in August 2026, and for many categories the total cost of a sale now comes close to a fifth of the selling price.

This article works out what marketplace fees really cost per order and per month, what the marketplace gives you in return, and when it makes sense to also run your own shop. It is not an argument for leaving the marketplaces. For most sellers, the answer is to use both, each for what it does best.

How Marketplace Fees Add Up

Marketplace fees are not one number. They are a stack of separate charges, and each one is easy to underestimate on its own.

The figures below are the rates published in August 2026, as summarised by FlowAccount in its Thai-language fee update. All of them include 7% VAT. Rates change often and vary by category and seller type, so check the current figures in each platform’s Seller Centre before you set prices.

Shopee (regular shops, not Mall)

• Commission: 7.49% to 17.12% of the price after your own discounts, depending on the category. Fashion is at the top of the range at 17.12%, everyday consumer goods at 16.05%, and phones and laptops at the bottom at 7.49%.
• Transaction fee: 3.21% of the order total, including the shipping the buyer pays.
• Platform fee: ฿1.07 per completed order.
• Optional programme fee: 5.35% to 8.56% if you join the free-shipping and discount programmes.

Lazada (regular shops, not LazMall)

• Marketplace fee: 6.96% to 17.12% depending on the category, with fashion at 17.12% and health, beauty, household and food at 16.05%.
• Payment fee: 3.21% of the order total, including shipping.

TikTok Shop

• Commission: 5.35% to 6.42%.
• Transaction fee: 3.21%.
• Growth fee: 5.35% to 6.42%, capped at ฿199 per item, linked to free-shipping benefits.

Mall shops on Shopee and LazMall pay higher commission rates again, up to around 19% in fashion and consumer goods.

A Worked Example: One ฿500 Order

Take a fashion item sold for ฿500, with no discount and no shipping charged to the buyer.

On Shopee:

• Commission at 17.12%: ฿85.60
• Transaction fee at 3.21%: ฿16.05
• Platform fee: ฿1.07
• Total: ฿102.72, or about 20.5% of the price

If the shop is in the free-shipping or discount programme, add another 5.35% to 8.56%, which brings the total to roughly ฿130 to ฿145.

On Lazada:

• Marketplace fee at 17.12%: ฿85.60
• Payment fee at 3.21%: ฿16.05
• Total: ฿101.65, or about 20.3% of the price

In the lowest commission category on Shopee, phones, tablets and laptops at 7.49%, the same ฿500 sale costs ฿54.57, or about 11%. The category you sell in matters more than which platform you choose.

A Worked Example: One Month

Now take a fashion shop that sells 300 orders a month at an average of ฿500. That is ฿150,000 in sales.

At about 20% in fees, the shop pays around ฿30,000 a month to the marketplace, before advertising and before any programme fees. Over a year, that is roughly ฿360,000.

Whether that is expensive depends entirely on where those 300 orders came from.

What the Marketplace Gives You in Return

A marketplace fee is not money for nothing. It pays for things that are genuinely hard to build yourself:

• Buyers who are already looking. Someone who searches “linen dress” on Shopee is ready to buy today. Finding that buyer on your own costs time and advertising money.
• Trust. A first-time buyer trusts the platform’s payment protection and returns policy more than an unknown shop.
• Payments and logistics handled in one flow, with tracking for the buyer.
• Campaigns like 11.11 and 12.12, which bring traffic no single shop can create.

For a new product or a new customer, this is often worth every baht. The fee is the cost of being found.

Where the Fee Stops Making Sense

The calculation changes for customers who already know you.

Think about who your 300 monthly orders really come from. For many Thai businesses, a large share are repeat customers: the regular who buys every new collection, the office that orders cakes every Friday, the family that books the same massage therapist every month. Many of them first contacted you on LINE or Facebook, or met you at your stall or salon.

When a repeat customer orders through a marketplace, you pay the full commission on a customer you found yourself, and the platform shows them your competitors’ products on the same page. When the same customer orders directly from you, there is no commission, and the relationship stays yours.

The same applies to customers who reach you through chat. If a customer finds you on Facebook, asks a question on LINE and then pays by PromptPay, the marketplace was never involved. Those orders need a proper home, not a notebook.

A Two-Channel Setup That Works

Many successful Thai sellers end up with the same structure:

1. The marketplace for discovery. New buyers find you through search and campaigns. You accept the fee as the cost of acquiring a customer.
2. Your own shop for everyone else. Repeat customers, chat customers, local customers and tourists who found you in person order from your own shop, at your own address, and pay you directly.
3. A gentle bridge between the two. A small card in the parcel, a QR on the counter or a link in your LINE profile tells existing customers where to order next time.

Over time, the share of orders that carries a 20% fee falls, without giving up the reach of the marketplace.

What to Check Before You Decide

• Your category’s commission rate. Fashion and consumer goods pay the most; electronics the least.
• Your repeat rate. If most of your orders come from returning customers, your own shop will save the most.
• How your customers pay. If they already pay by PromptPay, your own shop can take payment without a gateway.
• Your time. Your own shop only brings orders if you share the link. A marketplace brings traffic without that effort.

Where ShopSmart Fits

ShopSmart gives your business its own online shop at its own web address, built for the customers you already have. Every product has a Thai and an English name and description, so tourists and locals shop in the same store, each in their own language. Customers pay you directly with your own PromptPay or bank QR, and every order arrives in one dashboard with its number and payment status.

There is no commission on what you sell. The Free plan covers up to 20 products or services, which is enough to put your best sellers and your repeat items in front of your regular customers.

Keep the marketplace for being found. Give the customers who already know you a place to order where the fee is zero.