Social commerce pricing models compared on one equation, with a worked UK example

What to take away

Define the models

A subscription charges for access over a period, sometimes with usage bands. On Shopify's UK pricing page, Basic is £25 a month, Grow £65 and Advanced £344 when billed monthly. Annual billing lowers these to £19, £49 and £259 a month. Online card rates are 2% + 25p, 1.7% + 25p and 1.5% + 25p respectively.

A retainer reserves recurring supplier capacity or deliverables. Agencies quote a monthly fee and often a one-off setup charge, and quotes vary widely with scope. This article publishes no typical range. Use written quotes, and treat the figures below as illustrative inputs, not market rates.

A revenue share links payment to a defined sales value. TikTok Shop charges sellers a referral fee on completed orders, set as a percentage that varies by category and changes over time. Read the current rate in TikTok Shop Seller Centre before you model it.

Unit pricing attaches cost to an order, creator, asset or message. Pinterest ads are priced by auction, so the spend you set becomes the unit charge. YouTube Shopping pays creators affiliate commission.

Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shops in the UK usually send shoppers to the retailer's own checkout, so Meta earns from ads rather than a platform commission.

A hybrid combines fixed and variable elements. Shopify combines a subscription with payment processing, app fees and ad spend. Depop and Vinted are peer-to-peer marketplaces that charge by transaction. Depop is reported to charge UK sellers no selling fee, only payment processing. Vinted charges sellers no selling fee, so the buyer pays the Vinted fee (formerly the Buyer Protection fee) instead.

Check current rates on each platform's own help pages, because they change. Do not infer inclusions. Record implementation, support, media, payment processing and creator compensation separately. Also record usage rights, refunds, tax and exit assistance.

Why these routes can sit in one comparison

These routes only compare where a retailer could sell the same item through each one. Shopify is your own store, TikTok Shop and Pinterest are discovery channels, and Depop and Vinted are second-hand and vintage marketplaces. Depop and Vinted therefore belong in the comparison only for pre-owned or vintage stock. An agency is not a channel at all. It is a service cost that sits on top of whichever channel you choose.

Use one comparison equation

For each candidate calculate:

Scenario total = setup cash + fixed commitment + variable unit charges + internal labour + expected event costs + exit provision

Apply the same period, currency and VAT basis. Show setup cash separately from any accounting allocation. HMRC's business-expense VAT guidance makes recovery dependent on registration, business use and other conditions. The finance reviewer must decide whether comparisons should be gross or net of recoverable VAT.

Run the equation for low, expected and stress cases using the retailer's documented inputs. Do not use a supplier's preferred sales forecast for one model and the retailer's cautious case for another.

Worked example: 200 orders at a £30 basket

These inputs are illustrative, not a forecast. A small retailer sells pre-owned fashion at a £30 average basket. Expected demand is 200 orders a month, or £6,000 of sales. The low case is 100 orders and the high case is 400. All amounts are monthly and before VAT.

Changing demand shows why the label misleads. At 100 orders Shopify Basic costs £110 (£1.10 an order), the 8% share £240 and the agency £28.33 an order. At 400 orders Shopify costs £365 (91p an order), the share £960 and the agency £7.08 an order. Fixed costs fall per order as volume rises. Percentage fees do not.

Calculate a crossover point only where model scope is truly equal. For a fixed offer and a unit-priced alternative:

Crossover units = (fixed model cost - alternative fixed cost) / (alternative unit rate - fixed model unit rate)

Shopify Basic against the 8% share: £25 ÷ (£2.40 − £0.85) = 16 orders. Above about 16 orders a month, Shopify's subscription is cheaper. Against Depop's £1.17 an order, the crossover is £25 ÷ (£1.17 − £0.85), about 78 orders.

The expression is undefined when the unit rates are equal. Its answer is irrelevant if service, commitment or risk differs, because Depop brings a marketplace audience that a Shopify store does not. Do not present the crossover as predicted volume. It shows where the two stated cost equations produce the same total.

Compare risk allocation

A fixed model makes invoice timing more predictable, but leaves the retailer paying when volume falls. Shopify Basic's £25 a month is predictable. A percentage referral fee moves with completed orders.

A variable model moves with its charging unit, though that unit may not reflect profitable sales. A fee on the item price follows revenue, not the margin after returns. Vinted's buyer-side fee sits with the buyer, so seller economics differ.

Revenue share can still apply to orders later refunded unless the contract defines reversals and settlement.

Ask exactly what 'revenue' means: order value, amount excluding VAT, amount after discounts, paid order or settled sale.

Define currency conversion, cancellation, refund and chargeback. Add duplicate attribution and reporting disputes. Avoid calling a percentage performance-based when payment is triggered before contribution is known.

Test scope and service

Use the same schedule for TikTok Shop, Shopify, Depop and Vinted. Add Pinterest, Meta and agency responses to the same schedule.

Internal workload belongs in the comparison. Time catalogue errors, creator changes, reconciliation and support during a controlled trial. A lower invoice can cost more if employees must repair every hand-off.

The NCSC's supply-chain guidance recommends setting minimum supplier security requirements and checking arrangements over time. Add the cost of required access controls, assurance and recovery rather than treating security as free wording in a contract.

Keep customer price compliance outside the quote

The CMA's price-transparency guidance concerns what customers are shown, including mandatory charges and taxes. A supplier fee model does not decide whether or how a merchant cost appears in the customer price. Route any proposed surcharge through qualified legal and tax review.

Choose the model with the strongest evidenced fit across the approved scenarios, not the smallest headline. Preserve quotations and assumptions with their dates. Recompare before 2027 use if activity, checkout, tax treatment, refund behaviour or contract scope changes.

Record renewal and termination as separate cases. A favourable first period can conceal a later minimum commitment, lost allowance or migration charge. Procurement should compare the cost of continuing, scaling down and leaving at each decision date, using the same evidence standard.

Before you act

Common questions

Why does the worked example use a Shopify subscription and a percentage share together?

They show the two ends of the scale. A subscription has a high fixed cost and a low unit cost, while a revenue share has no fixed cost and a higher unit cost. At 200 orders of £30, Shopify Basic costs £195 against £480 for an illustrative 8% share.

Are the platform rates in the example current?

The Shopify figures come from Shopify's UK pricing page. The Depop processing rate is an illustrative input taken from third-party reports, and the TikTok Shop and agency figures are illustrative too. Platforms revise fees often, so check each platform's own help page and date your inputs before you decide.

Can I add an agency to the same equation?

Yes, as a fixed monthly cost with setup spread over the term. It adds a service on top of a channel, so compare the channel alone first. Then compare the agency's per-order cost at low, expected and high volume.