Commisions Explanation

#1

So, I’ve been selling for a few years on here and I know there’s always been a commission on each item you sell, but I was wondering about the rundown on them.

I’ve got items at about 2.00 and up and some of the commissions are more than the item.

What i’d like to know is

1-What is a "Referral fee?
2-What is a Variable Closing Fee?
3- Is there a way to get these fees changed? because if this keeps up, I won’t be able to sell on here for much longer or will have to completely revamp my entire inventory which I hate to do again.

#2

The only change that has been made to the commissions model was implementing the Minimum Referral Fee earlier this year. You can read about all the fees by sales category from the link below:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-2?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161240&qid=1407252884&sr=1-2

Referral Fee:

  • Sellers pay a referral fee on each item sold. Items in several categories have a per-item minimum referral fee as listed below (i.e., sellers pay the greater of the referral fee percentage or the per-item minimum referral fee). Anywhere from 8% to 15% depending on category.

Variable Closing Fee:

  • Sellers pay a Variable Closing fee of $1.35 on Media products (per item) and $0.45 + $0.05/lb. for Non-Media products (per item).
#3

>
> If you sell more than 40 items per month, a pro account makes more sense. With a pro account the referral fee is waived.
>
I sure wish this was true! It’s the variable fee thats waived with a pro account.

Bob

#4

You’ve been selling here for a few years, and maybe now is a good time to review the seller guidelines.

The referral fee is paid by individual (not pro) sellers per item. It’s 15%, but can be more or less for some categories, and has a minimum of a dollar for most categories.

The variable fee is the commission to Amazon. As its name indicates, it varies, but for books it’s $1.35.

If you sell more than 40 items per month, a pro account makes more sense. With a pro account the referral fee is waived.

More information here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-2?ie=UTF8&nodeId=1161240&qid=1407253315&sr=1-2

#5

Hello SuperCCmerchant,

Thank you for posting to the Seller Forums.

Please see [Selling on Amazon Fee Schedule|https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help-page.html/ref=ag_200336920_cont_scsearch?ie=UTF8&itemID=200336920] in the seller help pages. Basically, for each item sold, we collect a variable commission of 6-15% of the item price and a variable closing fee based on the product category. We also collect a fixed closing fee of $0.99 per item sold for Individual Merchant sales–this fixed closing fee is waived for sellers who pay the $39.99 Pro Merchant subscription fee each month. In addition, items in several categories have a per-item minimum referral fee as shown in the help pages (i.e., sellers pay the greater of the referral fee or the per-item minimum referral fee).

If you review the information following the schedules at the link above, you will see several examples. If you would like to confirm the breakdown of any one of your sales transactions into item price, shipping and fees, please [contact seller support|https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon-form.html/ref=su_contactus_foot_xx?ie=UTF8&urlStr=%2Fgp] .

I hope this helps!

-Susan

#6

+“Is there a way to get these fees changed?”+

Yes. Pay Amazon $39.99 a month, and sell a minimum of 40 items every 30 days.

It honestly is not worth the trouble to sell items for less than $10 on here unless you are a Pro Merchant.

Would having a garage sale or selling at a local flea market or swap meet be more profitable??

#7
  1. Referral fee is % of sales (comission for Amazon) 6-15% Minimum of $1
  2. Variable fee is fees that are charged depending on category and weight. Usually it isn’t much, but if you are selling low priced items, it can be crucial.
  3. per item fee $1, charged on each item. waived for pro account subscriber ($40/month)

no, there is no way to get around the fees.
Unlike ebay, there are no volume/ top rated seller discounts.

#8

No sir, the referral fee is not waived on a Pro account. I have a Pro account and my referral fee is exactly 15% of my sales price. I also utilize FBA which adds a pick and pack fee of about $1.00 per item. Plus there is a weight fee. that for me averages about 55 cents per item (even though I sell supplements that weight onlly about 4 oz).

If you are selling Pro and you item is only $2 or so you are getting slaughtered if you use FBA. The pick and pack fee plus the weight fee alone would eat up $1.50 of that and throw in a minimum referral fee oif $1 in some categories and you’re selling at a loss on every item! Even without using FBA, a $2 sales price is gonna get sliced into substantially.

In fact, for me it breaks down as such:

Item sales price = $14.97
Referral Fee = $ 2.25
Pick and pack = $ 1.02
Order Handling = $ 1.00
Weight Handling = $ 0.55
______-
Total Fees = $4.82 or 32% of my sales price

Geez, I didn’t even know I had an Order Handling fee :slight_smile:

Edited by: D&L Industries on Aug 5, 2014 3:27 PM

#9

This is important if you sell things less than $8 (including shipping)

Referral Fees

Sellers pay a referral fee on each item sold. Items in several categories have a per-item minimum referral fee as listed below (i.e., sellers pay the greater of the referral fee or the per-item minimum referral fee).

#10

if you have a medical problem do you call a talk show.You need to check out the Amazon page after page on your questions and not look for the easy way out

closed #11