How to Calculate Your Real Profit on TikTok Shop and Shopee (Malaysia, 2026)
Short answer: Your real net profit is what's left after you subtract every cost from your sale price:
Net profit = Revenue − Platform fees − COGS − Ad spend − Affiliate commission − Returns − (samples / live / vouchers)
Your GMV is not your profit. Most Malaysian sellers look healthy on revenue and go broke on margin — because they never add up all seven layers of cost per order.
Why "revenue looks good but my bank account doesn't"
A RM 100,000 GMV month feels like a win. But once platform fees, product cost, ads, and creator commissions come out, a seller doing "RM 100k" can be taking home RM 8k — or losing money on their best-selling SKU without knowing it. The problem isn't sales. It's that profit is invisible until every fee is counted.
The full Malaysian fee stack
TikTok Shop Malaysia charges three things on top of your product cost:
- A category-based commission (varies by product category)
- A transaction fee on the order value (~3.78% at time of writing — confirm current rate)
- A per-order platform support fee (~RM 0.54 — confirm current rate)
Shopee Malaysia charges a commission plus a transaction fee, with a higher rate on SPayLater instalment orders, plus activity/service fees during campaigns. Confirm your exact rates — they change and differ by category and program.
The trap: most calculators use estimated rate-card fees. Your actual settlement can differ (promotions, instalments, adjustments). Real profit uses actual settlement, not estimates.
The 4-layer profit model
- Revenue = merchandise subtotal (your GMV)
- Net Revenue = Revenue − platform fees
- Gross Profit = Net Revenue − COGS (product cost)
- Net Profit = Gross Profit − ads − affiliate − live − samples − vouchers
Worked example (one RM 80 order)
| Step | Amount (RM) |
|---|---|
| Sale price (Revenue) | 80.00 |
| − Commission (example 5%) | 4.00 |
| − Transaction fee (3.78%) | 3.02 |
| − Platform support fee | 0.54 |
| = Net Revenue | 72.44 |
| − COGS | 25.00 |
| = Gross Profit | 47.44 (looks great: 59%) |
| − Ad spend (allocated) | 8.00 |
| − Affiliate commission (10%) | 8.00 |
| = Net Profit | 31.44 (real margin 39%) |
Now add a 12% return rate and one refunded order, and that 39% shrinks fast. That's why the number you feel and the number you earn are different. (Figures illustrative — confirm your own category rates.)
The four things sellers get wrong
- Using estimated fees instead of actual settlement
- Not allocating ad spend per order (only looking at total ad spend)
- Mispricing bundles/discounts, which corrupts COGS
- Ignoring returns — refunded fees don't always come back
Doing this by hand vs automatically
You can do this in Excel — per order, per SKU, across two platforms, reconciled against actual settlement. Most sellers can't sustain it. That's exactly what Inseller does automatically: it connects Shopee and TikTok Shop and shows real net profit per order and per SKU, using actual fees — no Excel exports. Built by a seller who needed to know their own true margin.
FAQ
What fees does TikTok Shop Malaysia charge? Category commission + transaction fee + per-order support fee. Confirm current rates.
Is the transaction fee the only fee? No — commission and per-order fees apply on top, plus ads and affiliate if you use them.
How do I know my real margin? Subtract all seven cost layers per order and reconcile against actual settlement, not estimates.