Selling on Amazon is becoming ever so popular, because of the many advantages this marketplace can bring to your business. Some of those advantages include more than 300 million active customer accounts, 20 distinct product categories that require no approval and 10 more categories available for professional sellers. As of the 2nd quarter of 2018 third-party sellers are responsible for over 40% of Amazon’s total unit sales. However, Amazon doesn’t offer their services for free, so we have prepared a simple guide of Amazon seller fees.
Amazon selling plans
Every seller who wants to reach Amazon’s massive customer base, has a choice of two different selling plans. Both these plans have their own benefits to a particular category of seller.
Individual selling plan:
- Add new products to the Amazon catalog
- Choice of 20 product categories
- No monthly subscription
- Charged per item sold
Professional selling plan:
- Add new products to the Amazon catalog
- Fixed monthly subscription
- Bulk listing
- Customizable shipping rates
- Offer special promotions and gift wrap options for your products
If you plan to sell less than 40 items every month, then you should choose the individual plan, because the charge per sale costs less than the monthly subscription for professional sellers. However, both of these plans include additional Amazon seller fees that depend on the category you want to list your products in and the price of your items. These additional fees are referral, closing and the refund administration fee. Not all of them apply to every seller and every sale so we will take a closer look at each one separately.
Amazon seller fees
Referral fees
These apply to every item sold. Referral fees depend on the total sale price, which includes any shipping and gift wrap charges together with the price of the item sold. These fees vary by category and consist of either a minimum fee or a percentage of the total sale amount. You can find the full list of categories and their respected fees here.
Closing fees
Sellers must pay a closing fee despite of their chosen seller plan for every item of digital media and video game console (including video game accessories) sold. This fee is fixed to $1.80 per item.
Refund administration fee
Whenever you refund a customer on a product that you have already received payment for, Amazon will refund you the referral fee they have charged on that particular item. However, there is a catch – you will be charged a refund administration fee for that refund. It will cost you either a fixed $5.00 or 20% of the applicable referral fee. Whichever is less will be subtracted from the total amount and then refunded to you.
