There are many people out there who are trying out entrepreneurship, and with the economic climate being what it is, it is no surprise that so many people seek the ability to be their own employers, and manage their own careers.
More people want to work from home, manage themselves, and get a greater income from doing something they enjoy, instead of working a minimum wage, and tiring themselves out to just scrape by.
Many people will then turn to entrepreneurship and e-commerce. These are new areas in retail discovered in recent years that are becoming increasingly popular all the time.
One of the most popular areas in which to start these ventures is to start selling on Amazon, which is probably the world’s largest e-commerce platform to this day.
Sellers using Amazon will have questions, you want to know that you will be able to profit from this, and hence you need to know how much Amazon’s FBA fees are!
One of the biggest issues is shipping, whether you are a buyer or a seller on any platform, shipping fees are always a concern.
Hence, today we will talk about Amazon FBA fees, and if these fees will include shipping.
Selling With Amazon
As you are probably an FBA seller, or an aspiring seller, we will get straight to the point. You will not have to pay for shipping, handing or the packaging for your goods to be shipped with Amazon.
The Amazon fulfillment centers will do this for you. However, you will be charged an FBA fee, this fee is determined by the weight and size of the item. Much like when you go to post something at the postal office.
It is the same as this. You have to pay fees based on weight and size, but you do not have to pay these yourself like you would at the postal office, instead you pay the FBA fee.
FBA Common Fees
So, what are these fees? Well, Amazon will charge around 15% of the selling price of your product to you, no matter the fulfillment method. However, this 15% can vary in some situations.
Aside from this there will be some other FBA fees, these include fees such as storage fees and fulfillment fees.
The fulfillment fee is the one we want to focus on most as this is the fee that covers all the shipping costs from picking, to shipping, and packing.
Storage is the fee you pay if you are storing your products inside a fulfillment center.
Let’s dive into the facts about fulfillment fees – shipping costs.
Fulfillment Fees
These FBA fees with Amazon will include every step of the process from your item being purchased to the customer receiving the item.
There are some other fulfillment models which will charge for all the aspects of this process individually, however, if you sell with Amazon, it is all included as one FBA fee.
This fee varies depending on what the weight and size of the item is, much like it would with a postal office. With Amazon there are usually two different ways an item can be classified, these are; oversized, and standard sized.
A product that is considered to be ‘standard’ in size is anything that weighs 20lbs or below, and is measured below 18”x14”x8”.
If your item is considered to be oversized then this just means that it is more than 20lbs and larger than 18”x14”x8”.
There are other categories inside these two categories as well. Remember when you sell that the weight and size of your items will matter as Amazon considers the density of a shipment when they determine the costs of shipping.
For a standard size product you will find that these can cost around $2.41 if it weighs 1lb or less, for 2lbs it would be $4.71, and then an extra $0.38 over this. With oversized products you will find that the fees start higher.
For an oversize product that is over 70lbs or longer than 60” then it will be around $8.13 and adding on £0.38 for every lb over.
For the largest products you could be looking at $137.32 for something bigger than 108” or over 150lbs.
When you are selling clothing items, or jewelry then you will receive an additional fee of $0.40.
As you can see, what you will pay for your FBA fees in shipping largely depends on what you sell. There is no all-round fee that you pay for shipping. FBA is dictated by what you sell, and its overall size.
It is also worthwhile remembering that while Amazon does include packaging in the FBA fees, your items will be packed in Amazon’s own boxes, so their logo is highlighted, and if you are trying to create a brand, this can eclipse you.
It is not necessarily a huge problem, as selling on Amazon opens you up to many more customers, but it can make creating a unique brand harder.
Are There Any Other FBA Fees I Should Know?
There are many other FBA fees you could expect to encounter, however, they do depend on your needs as a business.
Return fees
You can also expect return fees if your product is selected for free returns through Prime deals.
Alternatively, processing returns is covered in FBA returns.
Inventory Removal Fees
If you were to decide you did not want to use FBA then it could be expensive for you to remove your inventory. If this is what you want to do, they can remove your inventory for you, which will cost you $0.50 or more per item, depending on how big your item is.
If you want them to dispose of your item this can cost $0.15 or more per item.
Penalty Fees
You can also get penalties as you can be penalized if you do not follow their rules. Amazon will also charge labeling fees if you do not follow strict barcoding specifications.
Prep Fees
You can decide to have Amazon prep your items for you, this is different from fulfillment, and while it can cost, it can prevent annoying additional costs for you otherwise.
Long Storage Fees
If your products have been at a fulfillment center for more than a year you are likely to be charged for long-term storage costs. This can cost around $6.90 for a cubic foot, at least.
What You Should Know
Let’s just go over this quickly, FBA is a form of outsourced shipping and product handling that is used by Amazon sellers.
Many people use this program, and it can save you quite a lot of cash in the long run. It covers everything you need to sell your products.
To Conclude – Is Shipping Included?
To wrap up we would like to reiterate that yes, Amazon does include shipping in their FBA fees, specifically in their fulfillment fees.
This can cover packaging, shipping and so on. So, you do not need to worry about paying extra on shipping, as this is covered by FBA costs instead.
The FBA fees you will pay vary depending on the size of your item.
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