Ever asked yourself “How much does Amazon take from sellers?” We make it our business to keep you informed. So, we’ll put a figure on it in this year’s edition of our “Amazon Seller Fees Explained” series. Let’s take a look at Amazon selling fees in 2022; all of them.
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So much has changed since the last edition of our annual “Amazon Seller Fees Explained” series. But just how much does Amazon take from sellers today?
Let’s look at Amazon selling fees in 2022. We have plenty of visuals, tips, and explanations for anyone who sells on Amazon.
How Much Does Amazon Take From Sellers?
Amazon operates 19 marketplaces (a.k.a. venues) across the world. The fee schedule is very similar from one venue to the other.
But the fees are based on historical currency exchange rates (e.g. $4=€3=£3). So, now that the USD is stronger than the EUR, sellers in the USA pay more relative to European sellers. But let’s focus solely on Amazon.com fees for now.
Selling Plan
There are two selling plans on Amazon with two separate sets of selling fees:
- Individual Plan – a pay-as-you-go system where you pay Amazon a per-unit fee of $0.99 / £0.75 / €0.99 / ¥100, etc.
- Professional Plan – a subscription with a monthly fee of $39.99/ £30/ €39/ ¥4,900, etc.
Because the Professional Plan pays for itself if you sell more than 40 items per month ($0.99 x 40 = $39.6), most committed sellers opt for this plan. Depending on the venue, it may even be the default option when you set up your selling account.
Both types of selling plans grant you access to FBA. And you can toggle between selling plans if your sales volume changes. But when you opt for the Professional plan, you also gain access to a variety of extra perks like Buy Box eligibility.
As a Pro merchant, you can add users to the account, sell in more than one category, list in bulk, advertise, and offer free shipping or other promos. You can also use API integration to exchange data with Amazon and streamline sales.
Also, if you have Pro accounts on several venues, you can merge them into a unified account. Let’s say you set up an Amazon JP seller account and link it to your US seller account. You’ll then port your listings with BIL, and save on subscription fees too.
Referral Fees
Aside from your subscription fees, Amazon will charge you a sort of finder’s fee for each sale you make. It’s called a referral fee (RF).
It’s charged at the point of sale and it’s based on the total sale price (item price + shipping cost + gift-wrapping charge).
Referral fees depend on the category and the venue you sell your item in. Different venues feature different categories and pricing.
So, these fees don’t match across marketplaces. But they usually range from 6% to 46%.
Most categories on Amazon.com attract a fixed referral fee of 15%, but some come with tiered pricing.
For most, there’s also a minimum referral fee of $0.30 on Amazon US. Books, media, video, and DVD (BMVD) items also carry a closing fee of $1.80, as seen below.
Fulfillment Fees
Fulfilled by Seller (MFN) Fees
Sellers who fulfill their own orders don’t pay fulfillment fees, per se. Amazon charges the buyer a standard shipping rate and then credits the seller’s account with this amount.
But shipping credits don’t always cover the seller’s shipping expenses, so it becomes an extra cost.
For instance, Amazon US charges a book buyer $3.99 for standard shipping to the USA. But using the cheapest service available, USPS Media Mail, it will cost an Individual seller more than that to ship any BMVD item above 3lbs.
However, Pro merchants have several advantages. For one thing, they usually spend less per shipment due to negotiated courier discounts.
Then there’s also the fact that they can set their own shipping rates (except for BMVD items).
That said, Amazon is a very competitive marketplace. Many professional sellers offer free shipping to one-up their competitors.
So, even as a Pro, it’s hard to compete. Especially without a clever repricing tool like Sellery that takes your shipping costs into account.
To make matters worse, new Amazon FBA fee changes were introduced in April. These were due to a 5% “fuel and inflation surcharge” that aims to offset Amazon’s losses due to inflation and rising fuel prices. Below is a breakdown of the new fees, surcharge included.
Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) Fees
You might rely on Amazon to fulfill your orders. If so, you’re charged inventory storage and fulfillment fees. Amazon calculates your storage fees based on the time of year and the daily average volume (in cubic feet) for the items you store in its fulfillment centers.
Amazon’s standard fulfillment fees are a commission. It’s for picking, packing, shipping, processing returns, and offering customer support for your orders.
It’s based on the size and weight of your unpackaged item. And it’s the same for every category, except apparel.
Removal Order Fees
There are three situations where you need to remove or dispose of your FBA inventory:
- old, slow-moving inventory nearing its 365-day cleanup deadline.
- unfulfillable inventory (e.g. damaged, mislabeled or misplaced).
- stranded inventory (e.g. with incomplete, missing, or inactive listing).
If you don’t remove these units, you might end up paying not just monthly storage fees, but also LTSF and overage fees. Here’s a breakdown of removal and disposal order fees.
Other FBA Fulfillment Fees
Aside from storage, fulfillment, and removal, Amazon FBA charges for a variety of other services.
- FBA Manual Processing Fee of $0.15/unit for shipments received from Jan. to Oct., o/w $0.3/unit.
- Planned Prep Service Fee of $0.55 to $2.15 per item, depending on size.
- Unplanned Prep Service of up to 7 times what planned services cost.
- Repackaging Service of up to 3 times what planned prep costs.
- MCF Branding of $0.70 per box.
- Label Service Fee of $0.55 per item.
- FBA Return Fee of $2.12 to $75.08 and $0.25 extra for every lb above the first 90lb.
- MCF and Pan-European Oversize Surcharge
Additional Amazon Selling Fees in 2022
Aged Inventory Surcharge (fmly LTSF)
It used to be that Amazon had twice yearly inventory clean-ups to check for items stored for more than 365 days. But the dead-line for slow-movers is now 9 months.
Any such item will attract a $1.5/CFT surcharge on the 15th of every month. Items stored for longer than 1 year will incur a surcharge of $6.9/CFT or $0.15/unit, whichever greater. There’s usually a notice some weeks prior.
Overage Fees
FBA inventory storage overage fees are charged on any inventory you may have that exceeds your storage limit. This limit is determined by an evaluation of your IPI score.
The IPI threshold is currently 400. Sellers pay $10/CFT for any item over the allocated storage limit, if they did not reach this threshold at either one of the two IPI reviews.
Refund Administration Fee
When you issue a refund for non-BMVD items, Amazon takes back all the money from you, but credits part of your fees. You receive your referral fee minus the refund administration fee, which is the lesser of $5.00 and 20% of the referral fee. So, you get either RF – $5 or 80% of RF.
As you can tell from this graph, when your total price grows, your refund credit becomes a smaller and smaller proportion of it.
So, it’s in your best interest to charge the buyer more. You could try to maximize your selling price and shipping charge, or offer gift-wrapping.
High-Volume Listing Fees
Amazon doesn’t like an overcrowded catalog. If over 1.5 million of your SKUs had no sales in a year, Amazon may charge you $0.001 per unsold listing. The fee applies to every product category, but only to active listings.
Currency Converter Fees
If your bank account isn’t based in the same country as the venue you sell on, you can opt for the Amazon Currency Converter to have your disbursements discharged in your own currency.
These are calculated based on sales volume, at rates between 0.75% and 1.50%, except for the Chinese Yuan (CNY).
Miscellaneous Amazon Selling Fees
- Rental book service fees of $5 per rental.
- Advertising fees of $0.97/click for CPC campaigns, on average.
- Inventory placement service fee from $0.30 (Standard Size) or $1.30 (Oversize)
- Amazon-partnered carrier program fee, currently on promotion in the EU.
- Premium account services.
So, how much does Amazon take from sellers? A pretty penny. But don’t be intimidated by this large list of Amazon selling fees in 2022. As we’ve said before in our annual series, Amazon Seller Fees Explained, only a fraction of these fees will apply to you.
Please follow our blog for our upcoming posts on high-volume listing fees, gated categories, overage fees, and much more.
Melanie takes an active interest in all things Amazon. She keeps an eye on the latest developments and keeps Amazon sellers up to speed.