The difference that counts: a channel that only costs when it sells

Comparing a five per cent commission with a seven per cent marketplace fee leads to the wrong conclusion, because it sets two things side by side that behave differently.

The difference is not the percentage: it is what happens when you do not sell.

An agent carries a cost that exists regardless. The minimum annual contribution is due even against negligible commissions, the end-of-relationship fund accrues, the customer indemnity builds up. In a slow quarter, those items remain.

A commission on sales, in a slow quarter, is worth nothing. That is not a small matter for a business with seasonality, because the cost moves with revenue instead of preceding it.

Then there is the difference in commitment. An agency mandate ends with notice and with a settlement to pay, often at the very moment you are already looking for a replacement. An online channel ends by not renewing.

This does not make the agent a poor choice: it makes the two suited to different situations.

An agent pays off where volume is predictable and advice is needed. A fixed cost is justified if the return is steady.

A variable-cost channel pays off where volume is uncertain, sporadic or unknown: a new region, a foreign country, a category you are not sure will work.

The right way to read the comparison, then, is not which costs less, but which cost you are willing to carry before knowing whether it works.

On Oralzon the arithmetic is two hundred euros a year plus seven per cent on sales, with no setup fee and no minimum term. Six months are free, so finding out costs nothing.

The calculation that matters is this one: what would it cost you to discover that a new region does not work? With an agent, a year of minimum contributions and a settlement. With a commission-based channel, nothing.

Which is why the two coexist in most companies that use both: one holds what is known, the other explores what is not.

In summary: the difference is not the percentage but how the cost behaves, an agent costs in empty months while a commission does not, ending a mandate involves a settlement, fixed cost is justified where volume is predictable, and variable cost belongs where volume is still unknown.