Selling on Galaxus and Ricardo — Fees and Marketplace Integration

In Switzerland, a store weighing a marketplace channel will look at two platforms in particular: Galaxus, an online retailer that also runs a partner programme for other sellers, and Ricardo, a marketplace open to private and business sellers alike. This article sets out what each publishes about its fees, what it doesn't, and how marketplace integration works whichever channel you choose.

Switzerland's online market, in two independent sources

According to Handelsverband.swiss, working with NIQ/GfK and Swiss Post, Swiss consumers spent CHF 15.8 billion on goods bought online in 2025, up from CHF 14.9 billion — growth of 6%, with domestic purchases up 6% and foreign purchases up 8% (after an 18% jump in 2024). The same report names Digitec Galaxus as the market's "big winner" for the year.

Separately, Eurostat's figures for Switzerland (sourced from the Federal Statistical Office, BFS) show 85.5% of people aged 16–74 bought something online in the previous 12 months (2025 survey), up from 83.42% in 2023; among internet users specifically, the figure is 86.26%. Two different sources, pointing the same direction: online retail in Switzerland is both large and still growing.

Ricardo: a published success fee, the same for everyone

Ricardo's help centre (in German) sets out its fee model plainly: a success fee of 8–12% of the sale price, depending on product type, up to a maximum of CHF 290, with a minimum fee of CHF 0.10. Listing an item is generally free, except for vehicles priced from CHF 3,000. Ricardo states that its fee model makes no distinction between private and business sellers — the same percentage applies whether you're clearing out a garage or running a shop.

Category examples from Ricardo's own help pages: pet supplies at 8%, books at 9%, smartphones and accessories at 10%.

Galaxus: two partner models, no public commission

Galaxus offers two routes for brands and retailers: a "Merchant programme" and a "Supplier" model. Dropshipping is possible, but only with proven logistics. Galaxus does not publish its commission rate, so if you're evaluating it as a channel, you'll need to request current terms directly.

What one order actually costs: Ricardo versus your own store

To show how the two channels compare, we worked through one order — a book, to use one of Ricardo's own stated category rates — at three price points. This is an illustrative calculation, not a recommendation: your own product category and payment provider will change the real numbers.

Assumptions: Ricardo's books category at 9% (within its stated 8–12% range, cap CHF 290 not reached at these values), success fee only; own store with payment via Stripe Switzerland at its standard Swiss-card rate, 2.9% + CHF 0.30. Shipping is left out of both channels: the parcel has to be sent whichever channel the order comes from — with Swiss Post's PostPac Economy up to 2 kg, that's CHF 9.00 either way (see ecommerce shipping in Switzerland for the full price list).

• CHF 60 order. Ricardo: 9% = CHF 5.40. Own store: 2.9% × CHF 60 + CHF 0.30 = CHF 2.04.
• CHF 150 order. Ricardo: 9% = CHF 13.50. Own store: 2.9% × CHF 150 + CHF 0.30 = CHF 4.65.
• CHF 500 order. Ricardo: 9% = CHF 45.00. Own store: 2.9% × CHF 500 + CHF 0.30 = CHF 14.80.

At CHF 60 the gap is CHF 3.36; at CHF 500 it is CHF 30.20, because Ricardo's fee is a larger percentage of the price than the card fee. What this calculation leaves out — deliberately — is customer acquisition: on Ricardo, the buyer is already browsing; in your own store, you have to bring them there, and that cost depends entirely on your category.

How marketplace integration generally works

This article does not cover the APIs of Galaxus or Ricardo, so what follows is the general pattern of a marketplace API integration, not a description of either company's interface:

• Authorisation usually runs through OAuth: an app is registered with the marketplace, gets an access token valid for a limited window, and renews it with a refresh token; once the refresh period runs out, the seller has to log in again.
• Rate limits cap how many requests an integration can send per minute, to protect the marketplace's own systems; exceeding the limit typically returns an error and a short block rather than silently failing.
• A sandbox environment, where one is offered, usually lets you test an integration against fake listings and orders before it touches anything real.

If you're evaluating a Galaxus or Ricardo integration, treat this as the shape to expect, and confirm the actual numbers — token lifetimes, rate limits, available endpoints — directly with each marketplace before building against them.

Stock sync and the overselling risk

Overselling happens when the last unit of a product sells in two channels at once, before an integration has had time to reduce the stock count in the other. The risk scales with one number: the interval between syncs — the longer it is, the longer a marketplace listing keeps showing stock you no longer have.

Even integrations advertised as syncing "in real time" aren't instantaneous; the connector documentation we checked describes updates landing within minutes rather than seconds. Three ways to cut the risk without necessarily paying for a faster plan:

• keep a buffer on the marketplace — list fewer units than you actually hold, especially for the last few;
• sell single-unit products through one channel only;
• confirm every listing is linked to an inventory record, since no sync frequency helps a listing that was never tied to stock in the first place.

When to build your own integration

For most stores, a ready-made connector or a direct manual listing process is the right default. Building a custom integration against a marketplace's own interface makes sense when you run your own system that no connector supports, need logic a connector doesn't offer (custom pricing, multi-warehouse stock splitting), or a per-order integration fee would grow faster than your margin as volume rises. On the other side of that decision sit ongoing costs: handling authentication, working within rate limits, testing safely, and keeping up with changes the marketplace makes to its own interface over time — a cost to plan for continuously, not a one-off project. Our ecommerce TCO calculator can help you weigh that against everything else running a store costs.

Five steps to deciding on marketplace integration

1. Check the fee for your own category — Ricardo's rate depends on product type, and Galaxus terms have to be requested directly.
2. Run one order through both channels using your own numbers for commission, payment fees and shipping.
3. Decide whether Galaxus, Ricardo, or both fit your assortment, given their different partner and fee models.
4. Choose your integration method based on order volume and how fast you need stock to sync.
5. Set your stock-sync rules — a buffer on the marketplace, single-channel listing for last units, and every listing tied to an inventory record.

The remaining cost of a single order — payment, shipping and returns — is covered in payments and logistics; the cost of running a store overall in how much an ecommerce website costs.