Is our pricing power growing?
№ 032 · Gross take rate trend
Definition
MetricGross take rate: marketplace revenue as % of GMV, before incentives
Unit% of GMV
Line of (revenue / GMV) over time. Rising means pricing power growing; plateau is the ceiling buyers and sellers accept. Build by dividing revenue (your cut) by total GMV per period. Example: 9.2% Q1 24 to 11.8% Q3 25 (gained 2.6 points of take rate).
- GMV
- Gross merchandise value. Total value of goods sold through the platform before returns, discounts and take rate.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| low single digits to approx 8%, typical of B2B, high-ticket physical goods and listings-only models; also any trend line drifting down without a deliberate mix decision | 10-20% for consumer marketplaces; roughly 15% as a common midpoint across the approx 40 platforms in the Lenny dataset | high teens to 25%+ sustained, typical of managed service marketplaces and digital goods platforms that own payments, trust and demand generation |
consumer and B2B marketplaces, public fee schedules and filings, 2021-2026; take rate defined as platform revenue divided by GMV in the same period, before payment-fee treatment differences · Definitions diverge on payment processing: some report before processor fees, some after, which alone can move a thin take rate by 2-3 points. B2B runs 3-8% vs consumer 10-20%, so the trend must be read within model. The right rate is capped by seller economics, not by comps.
| Category | Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B goods marketplaces | below 3% | 3-8% | 8%+ |
| Consumer goods marketplaces | below 10% | 10-20% | 20%+ |
| Services and managed marketplaces | below 15% without a payments or SaaS attach | 15-25% | 25-30%+ |
When it looks bad
A slow downward drift of 30-80bps per quarter with no offsetting line item, usually explained after the fact by mix shift into low-take categories or by fee concessions to large sellers.
Take rate slides 14.2% to 12.6% over four quarters while GMV mix in the lowest-take category rises from 22% to 41%.
What to do about it
- Decompose the trend into mix vs rate: recompute take rate holding category mix constant each quarter; if constant-mix take is flat, the fix is merchandising, not pricing.
- Raise effective take through attach rather than headline commission: payments, promoted listings and seller subscriptions; public comps consistently added take via services, and Grab's margin expansion in 2025 came largely from advertising attach.
- Test commission changes on new-supplier cohorts only, with a 90-day sell-through guardrail, before touching incumbent sellers; the ceiling is seller economics, and breaching it shows up first in listing withdrawal.
- Formalize key-account fee concessions with volume commitments and expiry dates, so negotiated rates cannot silently become the new base.
Sources
- Lenny's Newsletter take rates of approx 40 marketplaces and platforms compiled from public data; guidance that the sustainable rate depends on value provided and alternatives available to each side lennysnewsletter.com ↗
- Reforge take rate typically falls between 10% and 30%; high rates track exclusivity of access to demand reforge.com ↗
- Tidemark Capital wide dispersion of net take rates by platform type once pass-through revenue is removed; log-scale relationship between GMV and take rate tidemarkcap.com ↗
- Mostly Metrics (CJ Gustafson) public comps across Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, Shopify; managed models sustain higher rates; rate increases arrive via add-on services mostlymetrics.com ↗
- Everything Marketplaces (Marketplace Capital) B2B marketplaces typically 3-8% take rate vs consumer 10-20%; GMV must always be presented alongside take rate everythingmarketplaces.com ↗
- Grab Holdings public trend reference: mobility revenue as % of mobility GMV stable at 16% across 2024-2025 grab.com ↗
- Origami Marketplace vendor-side corroboration: average take rates range approx 5% (industrial) to 25% (services) origami-marketplace.com ↗