A Tmall Partner (TP) usually charges a monthly retainer plus a commission on sales. The extras decide the real bill: store setup, design and content, any fee on ad spend, warehousing and fulfillment. So compare Tmall agency quotes on total cost at the sales you expect, not on the retainer.
A TP is the agency that runs a brand’s store on Tmall Global, Alibaba’s cross-border marketplace, and on Tmall. It handles the storefront, the campaign calendar, the ad accounts and customer service. Our guide to finding a Tmall Partner covers the choice itself; this piece covers the bill. The table lists every line a TP quote can carry. The figures are the defaults in our Tmall Global cost calculator, a yardstick for real quotes, not a market average. Every rule cited below was checked on October 29, 2026.
| Fee line | How it is usually charged | Figure in our model | What to negotiate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainer | Flat monthly fee | 35,000 RMB a month | The named team and hours it buys |
| Sales commission | Share of sales on top of the retainer | 10% of sales | A base net of refunds, after the return window |
| Performance bonus | Extra share or lump sum above a target | Not modeled | Paid on net sales above a target you set |
| Store setup | One-time fee at launch | 25,000 RMB | Who owns the files and templates |
| Design and content | Inside the retainer, or billed per shoot | Inside setup and retainer | What the retainer already covers |
| Media management fee | Share of ad spend, or a fixed fee | No markup; ads paid by you | Ad account in your name, any fee fixed |
| Warehousing and fulfillment | Bonded warehouse, per unit and per order | 0.8 RMB per unit a month, 4 RMB pick and pack, 11 RMB last mile | Warehouse invoices passed through at cost |
TheChinaPath calculator data, October 2026. At our planning rate of 7.10 RMB to the dollar, the retainer is about US$4,900 a month.
How Tmall Partners charge
The retainer plus commission is the default shape, and the one our calculator uses. A commission-only quote drops the retainer and raises the rate, which moves risk to the agency. A flat fee with no commission suits a fixed scope, like a launch or a store rebuild.
Court records show the shape in practice. In a Shanghai case, a seller paid a fixed fee plus a commission that rose with sales.
A July 2020 agreement set an operating service fee of 180,000 RMB to July 2021 plus a commission on sales at tiered rates. When sales fell short of the estimate, the court found the shortfall came from product quality, price, awareness and competition, not directly from the agency. It dismissed the seller’s refund claim and ordered it to pay the commission. Source: Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court (上海浦东法院), platform economy service contract white paper, case 6, carried by IP Economy (知产财经), October 2024. https://www.ipeconomy.cn/dianxing/8890.html
That store was on Taobao, not Tmall Global. The lesson travels, though. A sales estimate in a proposal is not a promise, and the commission is owed on what sold.
The opposite of an estimate is a promise of sales. Tmall Global treats that as a red line for its own partners.
Tmall Global’s 2026 star rating rule for its operating partners lists “unkeepable service promises” to merchants or consumers, such as guaranteeing a set amount of sales, as a red line. Source: Tmall Global service provider market (天猫国际服务市场), 2026 service provider star rating rule, March 2026. https://globaltp.tmall.com/import_tp/TP/informationDetail?id=815
A performance bonus is the honest version of that promise. The agency earns more only when net sales clear a target you set, and it carries no penalty for you if they don’t. A refund clause tied to a target is the mirror image. It can work, but read how the refund is sized.
In Xiamen cases over agency-run online stores, the service fee was 90,000 RMB a quarter, and the agency could still keep half of it when the sales target was missed. Source: People’s Court Daily (人民法院报), carried by Sina Finance (新浪财经), November 2021. https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/2090512390/7c9ab00602001r0t1
The platform charges its own fees on top of the TP’s. They go to Tmall Global, not the agency, but they belong in the same budget.
Tmall Global charges an annual technical service fee of 30,000 or 60,000 RMB by first-level category, plus a technical service fee on each sale. The rate for snacks and packaged food is 2%; the table runs from 0.5% to 5%. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), category annual fee and technical service fee table, September 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=11005909&cId=625
Tmall agency cost in year one, at three sales levels
We ran the calculator at three first-year sales targets, with a 250 RMB average order. Everything else stays at the defaults: a packaged-food store, 60% of sales from paid ads at a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 2, and 20% from creators at a 20% commission. No client’s numbers are in it.
| Year one, RMB | 1 million in sales | 3.5 million | 10 million |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders | 4,000 | 14,000 | 40,000 |
| TP retainer | 420,000 | 420,000 | 420,000 |
| TP commission at 10% | 100,000 | 350,000 | 1,000,000 |
| TP cost | 520,000 | 770,000 | 1,420,000 |
| TP cost as share of sales | 52% | 22% | 14.2% |
| TP cost per order | 130 | 55 | 35.50 |
| Whole running bill | 989,400 | 2,337,900 | 5,844,000 |
| TP share of the bill | 52.6% | 32.9% | 24.3% |
TheChinaPath calculator data, October 2026. The running bill adds paid ads, creator commission, platform fees and warehousing to the TP line, and leaves out the one-time setup.
The retainer is what hurts a small store. At 1 million RMB of sales it takes 42% on its own. At 10 million it’s down to 4.2%, and the commission has become the bigger line.
That is why two quotes can swap places. Take our default, 35,000 RMB a month plus 10%, against an illustrative rival quote of 15,000 RMB a month plus 15%. The rival is cheaper at 1 million RMB (330,000 against 520,000) and at 3.5 million (705,000 against 770,000). At 10 million it costs 1.68 million, or 260,000 more. The two cross at 4.8 million RMB of sales.
So run every quote at your own target before you compare them.
Then there’s the cash that leaves before the first order. In our model a food brand on Tmall Global commits 475,000 RMB at launch: a 50,000 RMB platform deposit, a 100,000 RMB bonded warehouse deposit, a 300,000 RMB tax prepayment and 25,000 RMB of store setup. The model counts 450,000 of that as working capital (the deposits come back on exit, and the prepayment is drawn down as goods clear customs).
A Tmall Global flagship or specialty store in food pays a 50,000 RMB deposit; a multi-brand store pays 100,000 RMB. New merchants pay it in one go once their application is approved. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), platform deposit rule, May 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=8942&cId=625
What to negotiate, and what not to
Start with the commission base. A rate on gross sales pays the agency on goods that came back; a rate on net sales, settled after the return window, doesn’t. Our guide to Tmall Partner contract terms has the clause wording.
Next, the pass-through lines. Warehouse bills and shoots should reach you at cost, with the supplier’s invoice attached, and ad spend should go straight into an account in your company’s name. If a proposal adds a fee on ad spend, ask for it as a fixed monthly amount. A percentage of spend pays the agency more when ads get less efficient.
Put a price on the exit, too. When a contract ends, the extras are what the two sides fight over.
When a Hong Kong health company and its Hong Kong e-commerce agency parted ways in May 2022, the agency deleted several promotion links the day before the handover. It then sued for sales receipts, stock losses, promotion fees and software usage fees. The case ended in a court-mediated settlement, with the agency paying for the brand’s goods in installments. Source: Beijing International Commercial Court (北京国际商事法庭), foreign-related commercial trial white paper cases, part three, January 2026. http://regional.chinadaily.com.cn/Bicc/2026-01/09/c_1153825.htm
Write down which extras are still billed after notice, and at what rate. Then list what the agency hands back on the last day.
What not to squeeze is the retainer, at least not blindly. It pays for the people who run the store. Cut it below the team your plan needs and you get the junior shift. A lower retainer with a higher commission makes sense only if you expect sales below the crossover. Above it, the bigger retainer costs less.
Running Douyin as well? Our breakdown of Douyin agency cost prices that channel the same way, so the two quotes can sit side by side. The TPs we’ve watched run stores are filed in Compass.
FAQ
How much does a Tmall agency cost per month? Our calculator’s yardstick is a 35,000 RMB retainer, about US$4,900, plus 10% of sales. At 3.5 million RMB of yearly sales that averages about 64,000 RMB a month. Real quotes vary with the category, the store’s size and the work in scope. Ask whether the figure includes VAT; our model assumes it does.
Is a commission-only Tmall Partner cheaper? At low sales, often yes, because there’s no retainer to cover. As sales grow, the higher rate catches up. In our example a 15,000 RMB plus 15% quote beats 35,000 RMB plus 10% until sales reach 4.8 million RMB. Above that, the quote with the higher retainer is cheaper.
Does the TP pay for Tmall Global’s own fees? No. The deposit, the annual fee of 30,000 or 60,000 RMB and the per-sale technical service fee are charged to the store, which should be registered to your company. Budget them next to the TP’s fees, not inside them, and check that no quote bills them to you a second time as an agency line.
Get a Compass shortlist of Tmall Partners and price their quotes at your sales target
Updated October 30, 2026
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