A marketplace fee audit service compares what a marketplace deducted from your settlements with what your seller agreement and rate card allow. It covers commission, fixed and shipping fees, return charges, penalties and missing payouts. The output is a list of mismatches with order-level evidence, which your team can raise with the marketplace as claims.
What a marketplace fee audit covers
A marketplace fee audit checks whether the deductions in your settlements match the commercial terms you signed. Settlements arrive as a net figure, and unless someone reads the line items against the contract, small errors repeat month after month without anyone noticing.
A proper audit usually looks at:
- Commission charged per order versus the rate agreed for that category or price band.
- Fixed, closing and shipping fees versus your rate card.
- Return-related charges, including whether a returned order was reversed correctly.
- Penalties, chargebacks and adjustments, and whether each has a valid reason.
- Tax components shown on settlements, matched to your books (confirm treatment with your tax adviser).
- Missing or short payouts, where an order was delivered but the money never arrived.
Why fee errors slip through
Most errors are not dramatic. They come from the way marketplace data is structured, and they are hard to spot by eye.
- Sales, returns, fees and payouts sit in separate reports that rarely match one-to-one.
- Rate cards change, and the new rate may be applied from the wrong date.
- A product can be mapped to a different category from the one in your agreement.
- Returns settle in a later cycle than the original sale, so the two entries are hard to pair.
- Teams reconcile in Excel, which breaks down at thousands of orders a month.
None of this means a marketplace is careless. It means a brand needs its own independent check.
What the audit should compare against
An audit is only as good as its reference points. Before engaging anyone, gather these documents:
- Your signed seller agreement and commercial annexures.
- The current rate card, plus any emails or circulars that revised it.
- Settlement reports, order reports and return reports for the period.
- Your own invoices and credit notes.
Do not rely on remembered rates. Commission slabs, fee structures and tax collection rules (GST, TCS, TDS) change, so confirm the latest figures in your agreement, the marketplace seller panel and with your tax adviser. A good auditor will ask you for the document behind every rate they use.
Audit service, in-house team or software
There are three realistic ways to run fee audits. The right one depends on your order volume and how many marketplaces you sell on.
| Option | Works well when | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| In-house, using Excel | Order volume is low and one person owns reconciliation | Slow, hard to repeat, and depends on one person's knowledge |
| One-time audit by an external firm | You suspect past leakage and want a look-back | Errors can recur once the engagement ends |
| Ongoing software with expert review | You want continuous checks and tracked claims | Needs clean access to reports and agreed terms |
MarketplaceMetrics by Fundle sits in the third category. It reconciles marketplace sales and settlements, checks commissions and fees against agreed terms, and tracks returns and recovery cases. Pricing is a tailored quote based on your setup.
Questions to ask before you hire
Use these to separate a genuine audit service from a generic reporting tool:
- Which marketplaces and report formats do you support today? Myntra Excel reports are reviewed by MarketplaceMetrics; other marketplaces are discussed case by case.
- How do you get the rules? They should check against your contract and rate card, not a generic assumption.
- What does the output look like? You want order-level mismatches with the expected value, the charged value and the reason.
- Who raises the claim? Clarify whether you or the provider files it, and how follow-up is tracked.
- How are returns handled? Ask how they pair returns with the original sale across settlement cycles.
- How is pricing structured? Ask what is fixed and what varies, and get it in writing.
- What access do they need? Reports only, or seller panel access? Check this against your data policies.
How to get started
You do not need a perfect data setup. A practical first pass looks like this:
- Pick one marketplace and one or two recent months.
- Collect the agreement, rate card and settlement and return reports for that window.
- List your top categories and note the agreed commission for each.
- Run the comparison and sort mismatches by value, not count.
- Raise the largest, best-evidenced items first, and keep a log of every claim and its outcome.
If this feels heavy for your team, share your marketplace mix and monthly order volume with Fundle and ask for a scoped quote. MarketplaceMetrics can then confirm which of your reports it can review.
Worked example
Illustrative example only. These figures are assumed for explanation and are not actual marketplace rates.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Selling price per order | ₹1,000 |
| Commission agreed in your contract (assumed 15%) | ₹150 |
| Commission actually deducted (assumed 18%) | ₹180 |
| Difference per order | ₹30 |
| Orders affected in the month | 400 |
| Total over-deduction | ₹12,000 |
This is simplified and ignores taxes on fees. The point is the method: expected fee from the contract, charged fee from the settlement, and the gap multiplied across affected orders. A claim backed by that order-level list is much easier for a marketplace to review than a general complaint.
Questions and answers
What does a marketplace fee audit service do for a D2C brand?
It compares the commissions, fees, penalties and payouts in your marketplace settlements with your seller agreement and rate card. The result is a list of mismatches with order-level evidence that your team can raise as claims with the marketplace.
How often should a brand audit marketplace fees?
Monthly is a sensible rhythm, aligned with settlement cycles, so errors are caught while evidence is fresh. Claim windows differ by marketplace, so check the time limits in your seller agreement and raise issues well before they lapse.
Can I do a marketplace fee audit in Excel myself?
Yes, at low volumes. It becomes hard when sales, returns and settlements span multiple reports and cycles. Excel works best for a one-off check of a single category; recurring audits across channels usually need a more structured process.
Does MarketplaceMetrics support marketplaces other than Myntra?
Myntra Excel reports are currently reviewed. Other marketplaces are in scope discussion, so share your channel mix and report formats with Fundle. Pricing is a tailored quote based on your setup, volumes and the marketplaces involved.