How much does it cost to sell on Amazon? An expert guide to Amazon selling fees

Understanding the various marketplace commissions is one of the most critical steps to ensuring your sales strategy succeeds. Because these fees vary wildly depending on your product category, getting a clear breakdown early on is essential to avoid unexpected hits to your bottom line. Beyond standard commissions, you must account for ecosystem costs like warehousing fees within the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) programme, alongside other subscription expenses tied to your chosen selling plan. It is also important to remember advertising spend, which can significantly boost product visibility and help you acquire new customers. From my experience, calculating these variables with precision is the only way for sellers to accurately safeguard their profit margins and build an effective sales strategy.

This article breaks down the essential information regarding commissions, account fees, and operational costs on Amazon that you need to master to manage your business effectively on this platform. I will explore how commissions are calculated, what additional expenses might arise, and what costs are involved in shipping and storing your inventory. You will also learn how these fees impact your net returns and how to optimise your expenses to drive profitability. If you want to leverage proven strategies and avoid unwelcome financial surprises, this guide will fully prepare you for selling on Amazon.

Understanding Amazon selling fees: What you need to know

Selling on Amazon involves several distinct fee layers that you should map out before starting your operations. A clear understanding of this cost structure allows you to build a highly competitive pricing strategy and protect your bottom line from unexpected charges. Below are the core components you need to consider:

1. Amazon referral fees (commissions)

Amazon charges a commission on every single item sold, with the exact percentage depending heavily on the product category. These commissions generally range from 7% to 45% based on specific category requirements, meaning higher-value product groups may be subject to entirely different fee scales.

2. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees

If you choose to use FBA, Amazon handles storage, packing, and courier delivery. Your inventory storage fees will cover the cost of holding your products within Amazon’s fulfillment centres. Meanwhile, fulfillment fees cover the operational costs of picking, packing, labelling, and shipping orders directly to the end consumer.

3. Advertising costs

To increase your products’ visibility, many sellers leverage Amazon Sponsored Products. These advertising costs depend on your chosen budget and campaign efficiency. Sellers operate on a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, meaning you only pay when a customer actually clicks on your ad.

4. Monthly subscription plans

If you opt for the Professional Plan, the subscription costs £25.00 per month on Amazon.co.uk and €39.00 per month for the rest of Europe. The Individual Plan does not charge a monthly fee, but adds a fixed charge of €0.99 on top of standard referral fees for every single item sold. Consequently, choosing the right selling plan is critical to the profitability and efficiency of your e-commerce business.

Using the Professional Plan, you can sell your products across multiple European stores – including Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es, Amazon.nl, Amazon.se, and Amazon.pl – gaining seamless access to millions of new buyers. You do not need to pay multiple subscription fees; once you register and create listings on your primary European marketplace, Amazon enables you to expand your offers across the continent.

5. Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) shipping costs

If you handle fulfillment independently via the Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN), you take full responsibility for shipping products to customers. The shipping costs are borne entirely by the seller and depend on the package dimensions, weight, and the customer’s geographic location. While sellers can select their preferred delivery options and set their own shipping rates, they must strictly comply with Amazon’s delivery policies.

6. Customer returns and processing fees

If a buyer decides to return a product on Amazon, the platform may apply a return processing fee. When the return address is located within the same country where the product was purchased, the cost of the return shipping is usually covered by the customer. However, in cross-border e-commerce, if a customer returns an item from another country, the seller must cover the international return shipping costs.

How much is the Amazon commission on sales?

The referral fee is one of the primary transactional costs that marketplace sellers must factor into their financial models. Amazon charges this commission on every item sold, calculating the amount as a percentage of the total gross selling price. This total price is the entire sum paid by the buyer, which includes the base product price as well as any shipping or delivery charges. For the vast majority of categories, the standard Amazon commission rate sits at 15%.

The exact commission varies by product type, typically falling between 7% and 15%. For most standard categories – such as books, music, educational supplies, science products, video games, and furniture – the rate remains a flat 15%. Conversely, highly competitive or high-volume categories like personal computers, consumer electronics, and car tyres benefit from a much lower referral fee of just 7%.

Interestingly, Amazon applies tiered structures to specific categories like furniture. For the portion of the total sales price up to €200, the commission is 15% per item. For any portion of the price above €200, the fee drops to 10%. The only exception within this space is mattresses, which face a flat 15% fee regardless of the price threshold. As a result, for higher-ticket furniture items exceeding €200, the effective average commission percentage is lower because the premium portion of the price is charged at a reduced rate.

Similarly, low-priced everyday items in categories like grocery, health & personal care, and baby products have their own incentives. If the total selling price does not exceed €10 (or £10 on Amazon.co.uk), the Amazon commission drops to 8% for health and baby products, and to 5% for grocery items. If the product sells for more than €10, the fee steps up to the standard 15%.

Keep in mind that Amazon enforces a minimum referral fee of €0.30 across most product categories. Furthermore, if you are utilising the Individual (Basic) selling account, Amazon will apply an additional fixed charge of €0.99 (or £0.75) for each unit sold. Because Amazon regularly adjusts these thresholds to reflect shifting macroeconomic trends and marketplace strategies, tracking these changes quarterly is highly recommended to monitor your exact costs per item.

Shipping and logistics: Choosing between the FBA and FBM models

Logistics and distribution form a massive pillar of your Amazon operations, directly influencing your net profitability. Deciding on the right fulfillment method – whether you delegate operations to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or handle them via the Merchant Fulfilled Network (FBM) – determines your operational costs and delivery speeds. Mastering these elements is vital to maintaining excellent logistics performance and keeping your listings competitive.

The cost of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

FBA is a comprehensive service where Amazon manages storage, picking, packing, shipping, customer support, and reverse logistics. While this model simplifies cross-border scaling and significantly improves your chances of winning the Buy Box, it introduces several specific structured fees:

• Fulfillment fees: Flat fees per unit shipped, determined strictly by the size and weight tiers of your product.
• Monthly inventory storage fees: Calculated based on the physical volume (cubic metres or cubic feet) your stock occupies. These rates spike drastically during the fourth quarter of the year (October to December) due to peak holiday demand.
• Aged inventory surcharges: Penalties applied to individual units of stock that sit in fulfillment centres for more than 365 days.
• Prep and inbound costs: Preparing your cargo for sale is an additional expense. Under FBA, your packaging, palletising, and barcoding must align perfectly with Amazon’s strict inbound guidelines, which may require extra manual spend.
• Optional add-on fees: Charges for processing specific returns, manual labelling services, or unplanned prep work.

To successfully optimise your FBA expenses, you must routinely monitor your stock levels, clear slow-moving inventory, and leverage Amazon’s built-in inventory tools to forecast demand accurately.

The cost of Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)

In the FBM model, you retain complete ownership of warehousing, packaging, and dispatching orders. This setup can be highly cost-effective for established businesses with robust third-party logistics (3PL) infrastructure or for items with narrower margins. The primary costs include:

• Warehousing overheads: Expenses tied directly to your own warehouse facilities or your contracts with external 3PL providers.
• Packaging and carriage costs: Courier tracking rates, shipping labels, packing materials, and warehouse staff labour.
• Return management: Under FBM, the seller typically shoulders the full logistical and financial burden of processing customer returns and handling complaints.

FBM stands out as an excellent option if you sell oversized, heavy cargo or hold heavily discounted shipping rates with national couriers. However, keep in mind that FBM products face a steeper climb to win the Buy Box when competing directly against Prime-eligible FBA sellers, which can negatively impact your organic search rankings and sales velocity.

Other hidden Amazon merchant fees: Long-term storage, returns, and advertisements

Managing aged inventory

Leaving slow-moving products in an Amazon warehouse for more than 365 days triggers aggressive aged inventory surcharges. These penalties are substantially higher than standard monthly storage rates, forcing brands to strictly manage their stock health. You can easily clear these items and avoid extra fees by running promotions, lowering retail prices, or submitting a removal order to pull the stock out of Amazon’s network.

The true cost of returns

Amazon’s consumer-centric return policy means buyers enjoy seamless returns, but sellers often bear the financial brunt. Under FBA, Amazon processes the package, but you may face specific return processing fees. Under FBM, you must independently organise the reverse logistics and cover the courier costs.

Advertising efficiency (PPC)

To cut through the noise, most brands rely on Amazon’s native advertising suite, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display. These ad costs operate on a competitive Pay-Per-Click auction framework. The key to maintaining a profitable campaign is consistently auditing your data and tuning your cost-per-click (CPC) bids to match your product’s underlying profit margins.

Taxes and duties: Staying compliant across borders

Expanding your brand internationally via Amazon introduces complex fiscal and customs challenges. Navigating these compliance steps correctly protects your company from severe structural penalties and keeps your cross-border margins healthy.

VAT rules and selling internationally

For European sales, the VAT OSS (One-Stop-Shop) scheme simplifies distance selling to consumers across borders, allowing you to declare all EU B2C sales via a single quarterly submission in your home country.

However, your chosen Amazon fulfillment model completely changes your VAT registration requirements:

• European Fulfillment Network (EFN): Your stock stays in one country (e.g., Germany) and is shipped cross-border to buyers. No immediate foreign VAT registrations are required if using OSS.
• Pan-European FBA (Pan-EU): Amazon automatically distributes your inventory across multiple European fulfillment centres (e.g., Germany, France, Italy, Spain). Storing stock in a country immediately triggers an absolute legal obligation to register for a local VAT number in that specific country, regardless of turnover.

When exporting goods outside the EU, your domestic VAT rate drops to 0%, provided you hold official customs documentation confirming that the consignment has left the European Union.

Amazon customs duties and their impact on profit margins

Importing inventory from outside the EU or the UK requires you to account for customs duties. These duties are calculated based on the total customs value, which factors in the factory purchase cost, international freight, and insurance. Consignments under €150 can take advantage of simplified import mechanisms, but still require handling fees.

Maintaining flawless documentation for customs clearance is vital. Exporting goods out of the EU requires a valid registration within the ECS framework alongside an active EORI number. Because Amazon frequently moves inventory across international borders within the FBA ecosystem, these logistic shifts require meticulous tax tracking and customs alignment. Every fee paid for Amazon’s international logistics must be factored into your landed cost equations.

Expert tips to optimise your Amazon seller rates

• Refine your PPC bids: Routinely monitor your ad accounts, adjust your daily budgets, and tune your bids to maximise your overall return on investment (ROI). Test fresh keywords to identify top-converting terms and prune negative keywords that drain your budget without yielding sales.
• Audit with the Amazon Revenue Calculator: Before sending a product to FBA, plug its exact data into Amazon’s official cost calculator to compare FBA vs FBM net margins accurately.
• Optimise product listings organically: Invest in clean titles, informative bullet points, and optimised descriptions to lower your dependency on paid ads and drive organic traffic. High-quality keywords capture consumer intent and boost conversion rates.
• Maintain healthy inventory levels: Avoid overstocking items to completely eliminate high FBA storage fees. Use predictive demand software to keep your stock levels perfectly aligned with sales velocity.
• Negotiate with suppliers on packaging size: Since FBA tiers are heavily dependent on size and weight, reducing your packaging by even a few millimetres can drop your product into a lower fulfillment fee tier, saving you thousands over time.
• Review performance data regularly: Consistently run sales and margin reports to discover operational gaps and actively trim overhead expenses.

Summary

Scaling your brand on Amazon grants you unparalleled access to a global consumer base, but sustaining profitability requires a granular understanding of your operational costs. From category-specific referral commissions to dynamic FBA inventory storage charges, every expense must be factored directly into your unit economics.

Beyond standard commissions and account plans, marketplace sellers must master international shipping routes, local tax compliance, and multi-country VAT setups. To protect your capital, it is crucial to audit all fees regularly, optimise your promotional budgets, and track your margins. A clear, metrics-driven view of your cost structure allows you to make strategic business choices, safeguard your profit margins, and eliminate unexpected financial hits.

Navigating international logistics, complex marketplace algorithms, and European VAT setups can feel overwhelming – but you don’t have to scale alone. At Raise Your Sales, we help brands master Western marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Kaufland, Bol, and Cdiscount, while seamlessly managing high-growth CEE channels like Allegro and eMAG.

Ready to launch your international expansion without risking your profit margins?

Book a free consultation with our marketplace experts today.