How are Amazon Egypt's fees calculated? Every fee, in detail

What fees does Amazon take on each sale?

• Referral fee: on every sale, whatever the shipping method.
• Fulfilment fees: depend on how you ship: a fee per unit with Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), a handling fee with Easy Ship, and nothing with self-ship.
• Monthly storage: only if your stock is in Amazon's warehouses.
• 14% VAT: on top of each of these fees.
• Monthly subscription: none for now. Amazon says the Professional selling account is available with no monthly subscription fee for a limited time.

The referral fee: a percentage of the price, or the minimum

The referral fee is a percentage of the total price the customer pays, including any shipping they pay, or the minimum — whichever is higher. The rate depends on the category, from 4% to 15% in most categories: for example 4.5% for Mobile Phones, 7% for Books and 13% for Home.

When the percentage comes to less than the minimum, Amazon takes the minimum: E£5 in most categories. So the referral fee takes a bigger share of a cheap product's price.

Some categories have tiers instead of one rate:

• Electronics Accessories: 15% on the first E£1,000 of the price, and 8% above it.
• Grocery: 4% if the price is E£250 or less, and 10% on the whole price if it's more, with no minimum.
• Jewelry: 19% on the first E£5,000 of the price, and 5% above it.
• Portable Audio: 15% on the first E£1,000 of the price, and 8% above it.
• Wireless: 15% on the first E£1,000 of the price, and 8% above it.

A few categories have a temporary promotional rate on Fulfilled by Amazon. The full referral fee table shows every category's rate and minimum.

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) fees

With Fulfilled by Amazon, Amazon stores your product in its warehouses, then packs it and ships it to the customer. It charges a flat fee per unit for this, based on three things:

• Size after packing: Small Envelope, Standard Envelope, Large Envelope, Standard Parcel, Oversize.
• Weight after packing: each weight band has its own fee.
• Price: products priced under E£350 have lower fees than products priced at E£350 or more.

For example, a Standard Parcel weighing 0.5 kg costs E£20.50 if it's priced under E£350, and E£25.50 at E£350 or more. A product is standard-size if it weighs 12 kg or less after packing and measures no more than 45 × 34 × 26 cm. The FBA fee table has every size and weight.

Easy Ship and self-ship

With Easy Ship, the product stays with you; Amazon collects it and delivers it to the customer, for a handling fee by the parcel's weight: E£45.50 for a standard parcel up to 0.25 kg, rising with weight to E£57.50 at 1.5 kg, then E£2 for every extra 500 g up to 22 kg. An oversize parcel is E£55.50 for the first kg and E£2 for each kg after that.

You can charge the customer up to E£26 for shipping, but the referral fee is charged on the price including it.

With self-ship, you ship with the courier you choose and pay them directly; Amazon takes no shipping fee. The referral fee and its VAT still apply.

Storage in Amazon's warehouses

If your stock is in Amazon's warehouses, you pay E£4 per cubic foot per month, based on the average space your stock takes up each day. To get cubic feet, multiply length × width × height in centimetres, then divide by 28,316.84.

Amazon usually charges each month's storage between the 7th and the 15th of the following month, so September's storage shows in your October report. There are extra fees for long-term storage (over 365 days) and for dangerous goods.

VAT: 14% on top of every fee

Amazon Egypt publishes its fees without VAT, then adds 14% to each one: the referral, fulfilment and storage fees. A fee of E£100 in the table costs you E£114.

If you're VAT-registered, the VAT inside your sale price is owed by you, and the VAT you pay on Amazon's fees can be deducted from it. The calculator shows both cases; check your own position with your accountant.

Fees you won't find in the fee table

• Cash-on-delivery collection fee: shows in your report on orders the customer pays for on delivery. Amazon doesn't publish its amount on the fee page.
• Returns: when a customer is refunded, Amazon returns the referral fee minus an administration fee it keeps, and the fulfilment fee may not come back with it. What does a return cost you?
• Ads: the cost of your Amazon ads may be deducted from your payout, so it shows in the same report.

A full example: a product priced at E£500

A product in Home, a Standard Parcel weighing 0.5 kg, Fulfilled by Amazon:

Where to find each fee in your Date Range report

Download the report from Seller Central:

1. Open Reports, then Payments.
2. Choose Date Range Reports, with the report type Transaction.
3. Pick the month, then download the file.

Each row in the report is one transaction: an order, a refund or an account-level fee. The fee columns:

• selling fees: the referral fee.
• fba fees: the FBA fulfilment fee.
• other: includes the cash-on-delivery collection fee.
• other transaction fees: includes your ads.
• total: what reaches you from the row, after every deduction.

Note that the fees in the report include VAT, while Amazon's fee table doesn't, so the referral fee in your report only matches the table after adding 14%. Storage shows as its own account-level row, not on any order.