The Economics of the eBrands Model: What You Actually Pay (and Earn)

Let's talk about money.
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If you're evaluating eBrands, the question that matters most isn't "what do you do?" It's "what does it cost, what do I keep, and how does that compare to doing it myself?"

Fair enough. Here's the full picture.

Three Fee Components

eBrands runs on a transparent model with three components. No hidden fees, no surprise line items six months in.

Setup fee. A one-time charge when we launch a new channel or market for your brand. This covers technical integration, listing creation, channel configuration, and compliance setup. You pay it once per channel per market.

Monthly management fee. A fixed monthly retainer for ongoing account management, channel operations, advertising management, customer service, and reporting. This funds a real team actively working on your brand every day, not a passive setup-and-forget arrangement.

Performance commission. ~10% on net sales (total order value excluding VAT). This is the alignment mechanism. eBrands earns more when you sell more. The commission covers eBrands acting as Merchant of Record, Importer of Record, tax compliance, payment processing, fraud prevention, and full operational execution.

Direct Costs Pass Through at Cost

On top of eBrands fees, there are direct costs that exist whether you work with us or handle things yourself. Logistics and storage (warehousing, pick and pack, shipping, returns), platform fees (Amazon referral fees, Walmart fees, etc.), advertising spend, and customs duties.

eBrands passes all of these through at cost. Zero markup. What we pay is what you pay. Every cost is itemised on your monthly statement. This matters because many agencies add 15-20% on ad spend as management fees, and distributors bake all costs into their margin so you never see the breakdown.

The Monthly Statement

Every month, within 30 days of month-end, you get a detailed sales statement. Gross sales across all channels and markets. Returns and refunds. Net sales (the base for commission). eBrands commission at 10%. The fixed retainer. Direct costs, fully itemised, logistics, platform fees, advertising, duties.

At the bottom: your net payout. One number, one deposit, covering everything.

You never have to chase five invoices from five partners or reconcile spreadsheets from different agencies to figure out what you actually earned.

Running the Numbers: eBrands vs. DIY

This is where the comparison gets interesting. Take a brand doing €1M in annual international revenue across the US and EU.

If you build it yourself, you start with €1M in revenue. After COGS at 24% (€240K), platform fees at roughly 6-15% (€60-150K), and logistics at 13% (€130K), you're left with about €570K in gross profit after direct costs.

Then you pay for the team. A channel or marketplace manager costs about €65K. A part-time logistics coordinator, €30K. Tech stack (ERP, analytics, tools), €15K. Customer service, €12K. Tax management and reporting, €15K. Compliance, €3K. Other overhead, €65K.

Total fixed operational cost: about €205K. That leaves an EBITDA contribution of roughly €365K, or 36.5% of revenue.

And that's the optimistic version. It assumes you hire the right people on the first try, don't overspend on tools, and don't get hit with a compliance issue that costs €50K or more to fix. It also doesn't account for the four to six months of setup before you generate a single euro of international revenue.

With eBrands, the same €1M in revenue, the same direct costs, the same €570K in gross profit.

eBrands fees: management retainer at about €30K per year, performance commission at 10% (€100K). Total eBrands fees: roughly €130K.

EBITDA contribution: about €440K, or 44% of revenue.

That's €75K more in your pocket at €1M. And the gap widens as you scale. At €3M, the DIY model needs more hires (that €205K in fixed costs probably doubles). The eBrands model scales linearly, the commission grows with revenue, but fixed fees stay manageable.

Why Paying a Commission Costs Less Than Doing It Yourself

The counterintuitive part is that paying a ~10% commission plus a retainer actually works out cheaper than building it in-house.

You don't hire a marketplace manager, a logistics coordinator, a compliance specialist, and a customer service team. Those roles exist at eBrands, but they're spread across 100+ brand partnerships. Your share of that cost is a fraction of hiring directly.

You don't spend four to six months burning cash on legal entities, tax registrations, and warehouse contracts before selling anything. eBrands infrastructure is already running. You plug in and sell.

You don't carry compliance risk. A single VAT audit can cost €50K to €200K in back taxes and penalties. An FDA issue can shut down your US import pipeline. eBrands absorbs that liability as MoR and IoR.

You get better rates on logistics and advertising. We fulfil millions of orders across dozens of brands. Per-unit logistics costs are lower than what a single brand can negotiate. Same goes for advertising, where we have preferred partner rates and institutional knowledge.

And you get speed. The DIY brand spends six months setting up before generating any international revenue. eBrands brands go live in two to four weeks. That head start on revenue generation is worth more than the commission.

The Hidden Cost Nobody Talks About

What the spreadsheet doesn't show is opportunity cost.

If your founder spends 30% of their time managing international operations, that's 30% not spent on fundraising, product development, or brand building. If your Head of Marketing is coordinating with three agencies across three time zones, they're not developing the creative strategy that drives growth.

With eBrands, one email to your account team replaces a dozen calls across multiple partners. One dashboard replaces five. One monthly statement replaces a forensic accounting exercise.

The time you get back doesn't show up on the P&L, but every founder we work with says it's one of the biggest benefits.

Does the Model Hold at €10M?

Yes, and it actually works better at scale.

At €10M in revenue, the DIY model needs a real team: marketplace managers per region, a logistics lead, compliance staff, a customer service department, a finance team for multi-currency settlements, and a tech team to maintain everything. That's easily €1-2M in operational overhead, plus management time.

The eBrands model at €10M: commission is €1M, the retainer is still a relatively modest number (adding a few extra markets at €300/month doesn't break the bank). Total fees come in around €1.1-1.2M. But you have zero internal overhead for international operations and zero infrastructure to maintain.

There's also the flexibility factor. The eBrands model is variable cost. If revenue drops 20% in a bad quarter, your eBrands commission fees drop 20%. In the DIY model, your team still gets paid. Your warehouse lease still runs. Fixed costs don't flex with revenue.

Who This Doesn't Work For

We'll be straightforward. The eBrands model isn't right for every brand.

If you're a large company with an existing international team and infrastructure already built, the commission model may not make economic sense. You've already absorbed the fixed costs, so marginal operations are cheaper in-house.

If your products have razor-thin margins where a ~10% commission makes the unit economics unworkable, we need to have an honest conversation about whether the model fits your category.

For everyone else, brands doing €2M to €50M with healthy margins, growth targets, and a preference for spending energy on product and brand rather than operations, this is the most capital-efficient way to scale globally.

Where This Leaves Us

We designed this model to align incentives. If you sell more, we earn more. If a market underperforms, we're motivated to fix it because our revenue depends on it. The commission isn't a tax on your growth, it's the mechanism that keeps eBrands focused on the same metric you care about: sales.

No hidden fees. No markups on costs. One statement. One payout. Full visibility into every euro.

That's the economics. If the numbers work for your brand, let's talk.