In your Payment account, you may see a shipping transaction fee under Recent activities if you charge shipping for items in your shop. The shipping transaction fee is a 5% transaction fee on the cost of shipping, which we introduced on July 1, 2018. This is similar to the 5% transaction fee on the item price.
Applying the transaction fee to shipping is a standard practice in e-commerce marketplaces. The shipping transaction fee ensures that the standard 5% transaction fee applies to the entire price that you charge to the buyer. It also helps to remove any incentive to have disproportionate shipping prices.
For example: You sell an item on Etsy that costs $30, and $5 for shipping. You’ll pay 5% of the transaction cost and 5% of the shipping transaction cost. This is the same as the 5% transaction fee on a $35 item with free shipping.