23 Jul Commissions on Amazon. How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?

It is a very common question in any business environment and at Amazon it was not going to be less. Who hasn’t wondered if they were going to make a profit with the business of their life?
To begin with, you have to keep in mind that in order to sell on Amazon it is essential to decide what you want to sell and after this, open your seller account. Depending on the number of items you sell, this registration will give you the role of professional seller (if you have more than 40 products) to sell your items throughout Europe for the payment of a fixed monthly fee of €39 (excluding VAT) or individual seller (if you have less than 40 products) which does not entail the payment of a monthly fee but you make the payment of €0.99 per item sold.
After this, Amazon tells you the steps you need to follow with your account: publish your inventory, sell your products, ship your orders, and get paid.

Sounds easy, right?

In this first part, Amazon talks about additional fees for both sellers, but doesn’t specify much about these. We don’t want to scare you, we just want you to have as much information as possible about the different fees and commissions you can be charged if you want to start selling on Amazon and not get surprises.
Selling on Amazon is not for everyone, if it is true that it is a more profitable business and this is something that is confirmed by the millions of success stories around the world. But let’s get to the important part, how much does it really cost to sell on Amazon? We’ll tell you!

Referral fees

Today, Amazon’s platform has more than 400 million products from around the world. This extensive product catalogue is differentiated by category. But do all categories “cost” the same? The answer is no.
Simply selling your product on Amazon comes at an additional cost, and each product category requires an individual commission percentage ranging from 7% to 45%.
This percentage is applied to the total price, i.e. the customer’s total payment which includes the price of the product, shipping costs and other possible requests. In the following download link you can see all the categories along with their commission percentage, if your product is associated with any category it is something you can take into account if you want to sell on Amazon.

[download id=”17195″ template=”tabla_tarifas_referencia_amazon_2020″]

*The information is usually updated over time, we recommend going to their website to see possible changes.

Commissions for each sale

As we said before, professional sellers do not pay commissions per item sold but pay a monthly fee and individual sellers pay €0.99 for each item sold.
There are exceptions for some categories of multimedia products , such as Books, Music, Video and DVD, and Software and Video Games: commissions of €1.01 for books and €0.81 for the rest of the categories mentioned.

High listing fees

Here, the Books, Music, Video, and DVD categories are exempt. The high listing fee will only kick in when you reach your active listing limit, which is two million SKUs. The fee will only be triggered if you exceed this limit.
The cost is 0.0004 for each active SKU that passes the two million line and will be applied to each country you sell in.
For example, if you spend 200,000 SKUs in Spain, Italy and France one month, the commission would be multiplied by 3 (200,000 x 0.0004 = 80; 80 x 3 = €240).

Refund Handling Fees

In case you make a sale and then the customer requests a refund of the product, you will have to know that Amazon will refund you the proportional part of the referral fee minus the fees for the refund management, i.e. 20% of the referral fee or the amount of €5 (whichever is lower).

Storage Fees

If you don’t have space to store your products, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) will be your best option. This fee is charged monthly and varies depending on the dimensions; what they call standard size and large size, depending on the season and the space you need for storage.
In addition to storage fees, it can also increase the cost if your product is stored in an Amazon fulfillment center for more than 365 days, this is called a long-term storage fee.

Removal fees

It is possible that for different reasons the time may come to remove your items from Amazon’s warehouses. Removal from inventory has a cost that must be paid per unit. This cost varies depending on the size, weight and the country where you request the withdrawal (they may have higher costs).

Fees for optional services

These types of commissions are charged per unit and vary depending on the size of the product. Optional services include:
-Labeling.
– Bagged packaging.
– Bubble packaging.
– Bubble wrap.

As you can see, there are several commissions that your product may suffer at the end of your sale, but this does not mean that your sale carries with each and every one of the existing commissions, since these will occur in different cases. That’s why we always recommend a profit margin according to your product and the possible commissions you may be charged.
You can find more information about commissions in our post Commissions on Amazon.

Contact us

From Nozama Solutions we offer fully customized plans for those who want to open their businesses within Amazon, for those existing accounts whether they are Seller or Vendor who want to manage their listing, marketing campaigns or study their competition. Do not hesitate to contact us, we will be happy to help you with your project.

Keep reading: Is it the best time to sell in Amazon?