Undeniably, Amazon is known to have the most complex fee structures, which might often confuse you if you aren’t aware of them.
If you are a seller, it is important for you to learn about Amazon Seller Repayment and other charges it imposes on its sellers.
Quick Guide:
Selling your products on Amazon is certainly one of the most effective ways to boost your sales and develop your business. But this feature doesn’t come free. Sellers often forget this fact and which might lead to impractical profit expectations.
Considering this, here is a detailed guide to help you understand Amazon’s fee structure even better.
So, let’s get started.
Once you register for a seller account, you will be asked to sign or read through Amazon’s seller agreement and its associated Amazon terms and guidelines.
Even though you might have selling experiences with other services, once you become a seller on Amazon, know that things aren’t the same.
You may think that you don’t have to pay attention to the information mentioned in the seller agreement or its policies. However, it doesn’t work that way. You can even skip the details for now but later you will end up saying that “Oh, I did not know this,” or “I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to…”
To avoid such situations, here are some important things that new sellers most often tend to overlook.
Things to know about your seller account:
Note: Maintaining and operating multiple seller accounts on Amazon is strictly prohibited.
What to do:
What not to do:
Keep in mind that Amazon collects the applicable fee and any other associated fee timely. This could also include promotional charges or any modification in fee structure, which Amazon will bring to your notice from time to time.
However, this doesn’t apply to specific sellers, like warranty providers or any other service provider, who continue to pay their selling fee in agreement with the charges mentioned in their agreements.
Amazon features 2 types of seller accounts:
Monthly Fee For Subscription
| Plan Name | Subscription Fee |
|---|---|
| Professional selling plan | $39.99 per month |
| Individual selling plan | No fee |
Selling Fee
Whenever your product generates a sale, Amazon will collect the amount that the buyer pays (including the shipping price, gift wrap charges, or any other rate involved). Amazon’s shipping rates might apply to all the media products (music, book, DVD, and video items) that a Professional seller & Individual seller sells on its marketplace.
Note: Only a “Professional seller” can offer the option of gift wrap.
1. Per-Item Fees
| Seller Type | Fee |
|---|---|
| Professional seller | No fee |
| Individual seller | $0.99 for every item that it sold |
2. Referral Fees
A seller pays a specific referral fee for every item that is sold. Items in certain
categories feature a minimum referral fees.
For all items, Amazon will deduct an appropriate referral fee (calculated in percentage) on the total sales price, excluding the tax calculated via Amazon’s tax calculation service.
Note: The total sales price refers to the total amount the buyer has paid, which includes the item price as well as delivery/gift wrap charges.
The referral fee varies by product category. Here are a few to make a note of:
| Personal computers | $0.30 | 6% |
|---|---|---|
| Computer, Software, and Video games | - | 15% |
| Sports (excludes Sports Collectibles) | $0.30 | 15% |
| Tools and Home improvement | $0.30 | 15% |
| Toys and games | $0.30 | 15% |
| Cell phones (unlocked) | $0.30 | 8% |
| Videos & DVDs | - | 15% |
| Video game console | $0.30 | 8% |
| 3D-printers and its products | $0.30 | 12% |
| Automotive and Power sports | $0.30 | 12% |
| Beauty | $0.30 | •8% for items with total sales price of •15% for items with total sales price higher than $10 |
| Clothing and accessories | $0.30 | 17% |
| Collectible books | - | 15% |
| Gift cards | - | 20% |
| Grocery and Gourmet Food | - | •8% for items with total sales price of •15% for items with total sales price higher than $15 |
| Personal and Health care | $0.30 | •8% for items with total sales price of •15% for items with total sales price higher than $10 |
| Scientific and Industrial | $0.30 | 12% |
| Jewellery | $0.30 | 15% |
| Handbags, sunglasses, and shoes | $0.30 | •15% for total sales price up to $75 •18% for for total sales price higher than $75 |
| Watches | $0.30 | •16% for total sales price up to $1500 •3% for for total sales price higher than $1500 |
| Service contracts, Protection plans, and Extended warranties | - | 51% |
3. Closing Fees
A seller also pays a closing fee of $1.80 for every media item, which is sold. Some of the media categories include DVD, Books, Software, Music, Computer or Video Games, Video Game Console, Video Gaming Accessories, and Video.
Recommended Guide: How Does Amazon Seller Payment Schedule Work?
4. High-volume Listing Fees
Amazon charges a high-volume listing fee (monthly basis) of $0.005 for eligible ASINs in order to cover the system cost associated with your cataloging as well as maintaining greater numbers of ASINs. The eligibility criteria for High-Volume Listing Fees for an ASIN, in any given month are as follows:
5. Refund Administration Fees
If you happen to refund your consumer for any order that you have received the payment already, Amazon refunds you the referral fee amount that you paid for the product(s), minus the appropriate Refund Administration Fees, which is 20% of your referral fee.
Say, for instance, if you refund a consumer $10 for a product that has a referral fee of 15%, then the Refund Administration Fees will be $0.30 (10$ x 15% of the referral fee = 1.50$).
Difference Between Individual and Professional Seller Accounts
| Category | Professional | Individual |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | $39.99 | Not Applicable |
| Closing fee per sale | Not Applicable | $0.99 |
| Use of spreadsheets, feeds, and tools for lading inventory | Yes | No |
| Access to order-related feeds and order reports | Yes | No |
| Earn top placements on the product detail pages | Yes | No |
| Sell in more than 20 product categories | Yes | Yes |
| Apply for selling in more than 10 additional product categories | Yes | No |
| Customizing the shipping rates | Yes | No |
The $39.99 is the recurrent amount that is charged for every “Professional Seller account.” Whether you sell nothing or sell 10,000 products per month, this fee will still be charged.
However, if you don’t want this fee to be charged on a monthly basis, you can go to your seller account and just downgrade the plan to “Individual Seller Account,” which charges only when you generate a sale.
Rather than paying $39.99 per month, you only pay an additional 99 cents for item that you sell + the commission as well as the variable closing fee updated in the fee chart of Seller Help.
If you would like to downgrade your selling plan, click here. Got to Account Settings > Tasks & Tools > Switch your selling plan / close your selling account.
It is also worth noting that if a charge appears on your seller account in the Payments section as “Seller Repayment”, it is mainly because there weren’t adequate funds in your earlier disbursement to balance that fee. Amazon attempts to take its fee from your account’s existing balance first, and charges your credit card on-file if the first option isn’t possible.
In short, the “Amazon Seller Repayment” is the charge attempted after it failed initially. Review the “Payments” section to be aware how much were you charged. You will probably see this charge and the repayment for the same on your credit card. Usually, this happens when you are a professional seller but haven’t sold anything item.
For more information on receiving payments, read through their Payment Policies here.
Though you will be able to get answers to most doubts and questions from Amazon’s help pages, there might be times when you would want to talk to the customer support.
After proper research, here’s what we found:
For questions regarding signing up for a new account or existing Associate Account, contact the Support at:
International:
1-206-922-0880 (charges for long distance call will apply)
Sunday to Saturday 5 AM – 7 PM Pacific time
Canada & US:
1-800-372-8066
Sunday to Saturday 5 AM – 7 PM Pacific time
Read about Amazon’s seller support details here.
At any time, you can cancel your Amazon seller account but there is a huge drawback if you do this.
Note: Never cancel your seller account on Amazon because you will never be able to sell again. It is more like a lifetime ban. Rather we suggest you to downgrade your selling account and remove all the products for sale by doing the steps given below:
Step 1: Login to your seller central account.
Step 2: From the top right corner, click on the settings button.
Step 3: Choose the option Account.
Step 4: Downgrade your seller account to an Individual.
Step 5: Go to the bottom of the page and click contact seller support team. Request for a callback or chat. Ask them to assist you in closing the account.
Once you downgrade the plan to “individual seller”, you will not be charged any fee if you are not selling.
Additional Read:
Is Amazon Pay Good For Sellers?
Boost Amazon Sales with SellerApp Insights!
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The real complete guide for sellers
Thank you.
Fantastic article!
Thank you SellerApp.
Thank you.