How EcomCalcTools formulas work, what assumptions are made, and how taxes and fees are treated.
We distinguish between two fundamentally different types of deductions:
Platform fees are charges deducted by the marketplace or platform from your sale proceeds. These reduce your gross revenue to calculate net proceeds. Examples: referral fees, fulfillment fees, payment processing fees.
Tax obligations are regulatory charges (VAT, GST, sales tax) that you collect on behalf of a tax authority. These are not platform fees — they are legal obligations that flow through your account. We handle them separately so you can model your actual cash net of taxes.
All calculators treat VAT as follows:
Referral fees: Calculated on the sale price (excluding shipping and gift wrap). Amazon deducts these automatically.
FBA fulfillment fees: Based on the standard FBA fee table (as of 2026). We use the dimensional weight formula where applicable. Oversize surcharges apply for items exceeding standard size limits.
Storage fees: Monthly storage fees are estimated separately. Long-term storage fees (for items sitting 181–365 days) are not included in standard calculations.
Inbound shipping to Amazon: Not included in standard fee calculations — enter this cost manually if relevant.
Volumetric weight: DirectShip uses max(actual weight, L×W×H cm ÷ 5000). This divisor applies to both UAE and KSA. Egypt may differ — verify in the Noon Partners portal.
FBN fulfillment: Noon categorizes items into size tiers (Standard, Large, Oversize). Each tier has a different per-unit picking fee. Final tier assignment is determined by Noon's warehouse — our estimates use the published tier boundaries.
Commission (referral fee): Charged on the sale price. Category-specific rates range from 5% (Electronics) to 20% (Fashion). Always calculate on the pre-VAT selling price.
Commission: MELI charges category-based commission on the sale price (pre-VAT). Ranges from 10% to 17.5% depending on product category.
Fixed per-sale fee: Approximately MXN $13–18 per transaction for standard listings. Gold/Preferred listings may have no fixed fee but higher commission rates.
Shipping: When sellers offer free shipping, MELI deducts a shipping contribution from their payout. This amount is weight-based and zone-dependent. We treat it as a seller cost.
16% Mexican VAT: Applies to all domestic Mexican sales. We separate this from platform fees so you can model the tax impact independently.
Commission: Category-based, typically 5–14% of sale price. Electronics on the lower end; Fashion on the higher end.
Kaspi Pay: 0.95% payment processing fee. This is a separate deduction from commission.
VAT (16%): Kazakhstan's standard VAT rate. This is a regulatory tax obligation, not a platform fee. We show it as a separate line so you can distinguish your platform cost from your tax cost.
Delivery: Kaspi Logistics rates vary by origin/destination city and package weight. Our estimates use Almaty-to-Astana as the reference route. For other routes, use the Kaspi Delivery Calculator.
One-time products: Commission = Sale Price × Commission Rate
Recurring/SaaS products: We calculate two separate values:
Ad revenue: Monthly Revenue = (Monthly Pageviews ÷ 1,000) × RPM
RPM (Revenue Per Mille): Revenue per 1,000 pageviews. This varies by niche, ad network, page type, and season. Our benchmark data uses 2026 estimates from publicly available network data.
RPM benchmarks: Finance/B2B sites earn the highest ($20–65 RPM on premium networks). Lifestyle/general sites earn the lowest ($5–28). AdSense typically earns 30–50% of premium network rates.
Fill rate: Not explicitly modeled in standard calculators. Premium networks (Mediavine, Raptive) effectively have 100% fill rate. AdSense fill rate varies by niche and traffic volume.
Platform fees change frequently. Our policy:
See our full Sources page for links to official rate documentation.