Fees for selling on Amazon? Please explain... :(

[The Hack]

All, I’m thinking of buying/ selling stuff on Amazon (in relatively large quantities) as a little side-earner. However I can’t get clarity on the fee structure. Would someone who has any experience of this please let me know how it works?

Many thanks! :)

[ordo]

If I'm not mistaken you pay some fees to them whenever you sell something. It was something like 10-15% I think...

If you want to sell you have to make some sort of a seller account on their website which costs some money but grants you various advantages.

The main amazon scheme is sending your merchandise into their warehouses so that you can use the Prime service. This way you just have to buy the merchandise and send it to them (along with a couple of other bureaucracy-related stuff) and they take care of everything else, storage, packaging, shipping, returns, etc.

[kevkojak]

Fulfilled By Amazon can be a great earner but it's not really much good unless you chuck a lot of time and money at it.

I've a few friends who have done it as a hobby for some beer money. Most recent was a mate buying phone cases and chargers from Alibaba and selling on amazon, he bought the cases for about 50p a unit and listed them at a decent mark up (I think it was £4). After FbA storage fees, postage and sales commission he was left with next to no margin. To be fair the £300 or so he invested wasn't missed but it came back in such small amounts it hardly made any difference.

Here's a link to the fee calculator - it all depends on the size and value of whatever you're selling. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...9SASfIiV0Tp1fe

[squashy1]

Be careful they can return anything back to you so if the customer doesn't like the product for any reason you get it back they don't tell you why its been returned it could have been used and abused you don't get refunded and communicating with Amazon as a supplier is a nightmare its all email and slowwwwww.I know this because I had to set up the dispatch and returns department for my old company.Dispatching to them is hard work i.e. carton size weights and labelling and delivery time bookings if you get it wrong you get fined.
Oh i forgot they also look for larger percentage of your takings once your established and have a habit of sourcing your good sellers for themselves they can be ruthless.Good luck
Squashy1