The money that leaves before it reaches you

Most store owners audit their ad spend every week.

Almost nobody audits the other side.

Between 20% and 30% of revenue on a typical marketplace store leaves through platform fees, checkout friction, payment holds, and account restrictions. On a store doing $15,000 a month, that is $3,000 to $4,000 gone.

Not one of those has a line item called "the leak."

Why it hides

Fees are deducted before the money lands. Checkout friction shows up as a conversion rate, not a cost. Holds look like timing. Restrictions look like bad luck.

Each one is small enough to explain away on its own. Together they are the single largest expense in the business.

The part that matters

You did not set it up wrong.

The platform changed what it takes, quietly, over time. That happens to everyone renting the same digital real estate. Most people just do not catch it until the numbers stop making sense.

That is not a traffic problem. More visitors through the same structure means more money through the same holes.

It is a structure problem. And structure is fixable.