How to pay live selling hosts

Commission

A percentage of the revenue the host sells. It aligns pay with output and costs nothing on a dead show, which is why most teams start here.

The risk is that commission on gross revenue rewards volume regardless of margin. A host can maximise their pay by pushing cheap, low-margin items quickly. Paying commission on gross profit instead of gross revenue fixes the incentive.

Hourly

Predictable for the host and simple to schedule around. It suits new hosts, training shows and formats where the inventory rather than the personality drives sales.

The cost is fixed whether the show performs or not, so hourly rates need to be measured against net profit per hour rather than against revenue.

Hybrid

A base hourly rate plus commission above a revenue or margin threshold. This is the model most established teams settle on: the host is covered for showing up and prepared, and rewarded for performance beyond the baseline.

Keep the threshold tied to a number the host can influence. Thresholds based on things outside their control read as a pay cut.

What to measure

Net profit per hour is the fairest comparison across hosts, because it normalises for show length and for the item mix they were given.

Track consistency as well as peaks. A host who reliably returns a solid margin every week is usually worth more than one with a single outstanding show and a poor average.

Run payroll from logged sales

Whatever model you choose, calculate pay from the same per-item sales data your reporting uses. When payroll is a separate spreadsheet, the two numbers drift and every disagreement becomes a manual reconciliation.