AMAZON / FEES & PROFITABILITY
Amazon fees and margin: what each unit leaves after Amazon's costs.
Amazon charges a referral fee on every sale and, with FBA, fees for fulfilment, storage, removals and some returns. Together with advertising, they set the margin each product really earns.
WHAT THIS TOPIC COVERS
Sales can grow while the margin on each unit shrinks.
Amazon fees change with the category, the size and weight of the product, the season and how long stock sits in the warehouse. Advertising and returns sit in other reports, so a product can sell more every month and still earn less per unit without the sales report showing it.
- Referral fees by category
- FBA fulfilment fees by size and weight tier
- Monthly storage, aged-stock surcharges and removals
- Returns, advertising and VAT in the margin calculation
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Amazon fees questions.
How do Amazon referral fees work?
A referral fee is charged on each sale as a percentage of the total price the buyer pays, which includes shipping and gift-wrap charges. The rate depends on the product category, and many categories also have a minimum fee per item. Amazon publishes the current rates for each marketplace.
What fees does FBA add?
FBA adds a fulfilment fee per unit, set by the product's size and weight tier, and monthly storage based on volume, with higher rates in the last months of the year. Stock held for a long time can carry an aged-inventory surcharge, and removals, disposals and some returns have fees of their own. Rates differ between marketplaces.
How do you calculate margin per unit on Amazon?
Take the sale price without VAT and subtract the product cost, the referral fee, the FBA fee, storage per unit, the cost of returns and the advertising spent per unit sold. What remains is the margin that unit produces. Calculated product by product, it shows which products carry the rest of the catalogue.
When does a product stop being profitable on Amazon?
When its margin per unit, after fees, returns and the advertising needed to keep it selling, no longer covers the cost of keeping it listed and in stock. Some products recover with a new price, a smaller box or a different fulfilment option. Others sell better through another channel.
GUIDES
Guides on Amazon fees and margin.
Fees and margin, worked through
Referral and FBA fees, margin and when a product stops paying off are set out above; stock and advertising costs have their own topics.
RELATED TOPICS
Costs covered in other topics.
Operations & inventory
Stock levels and replenishment, which decide storage and aged-stock fees.
PPC & advertising
Advertising spend per unit sold, the cost that changes week to week.
Analytics & intelligence
The reports that bring sales, advertising and fees into one view.
NEXT STEP
Not sure which products still pay off on Amazon?
A margin table for your catalogue, built from the fees, storage, returns and advertising in Seller Central, is drawn from a prepaid bag of hours. When one product needs a decision on price, packaging or channel, a consulting session by the hour settles it.
Ask about a margin review