At a glance
The total Fulfilment by Amazon fees you paid in the period. This is the pick-pack-ship cost Amazon charges per unit for storing your stock, picking it, packing it, and shipping it to the buyer, summed across all FBA orders. It is the single biggest controllable cost in most FBA businesses after cost of goods, and it is sized by product dimensions and weight, so it is a direct lever for packaging and product design. This card is the fulfilment-fee line; it sits alongside referral fees and storage fees to make up your total Amazon cost.
| What it counts | The sum of FBA fulfilment fees (the per-unit pick-pack-ship charge) on orders in the window. It is the fulfilment component of your Amazon costs, distinct from referral fees and storage fees. |
| What sets the fee | FBA fulfilment fees are driven primarily by the unit’s size tier and weight. A larger or heavier item costs more to fulfil. This makes packaging optimisation (smaller, lighter, right-sized) a direct way to cut the fee. |
| What this is NOT | This card is fulfilment fees only. It excludes the referral fee (the percentage Amazon takes per sale, see Referral Fees) and storage fees (monthly and long-term, see FBA Storage Fees). |
| FBA vs FBM | This is an FBA-only cost. FBM (self-fulfilled) orders carry your own shipping cost instead and do not appear here. |
| Surcharges | Peak-season fulfilment surcharges, oversize and low-inventory-level fees can be folded into the fulfilment cost depending on how Amazon itemises them in the settlement data. Watch for step-changes around peak season. |
| Per-ASIN outliers | A blended total hides ASINs whose fee is disproportionate to their price. Pair with Per-ASIN Fee Outliers to find repackaging candidates. |
| Reading the value | Track the trend and the ratio to revenue, not the absolute number. Fees rising faster than revenue means mix is shifting toward heavier or larger items, or a fee schedule changed. |
| Currency / unit | currency |
| Time window | 30D (rolling 30 days) |
| Alert trigger | none (reference cost card; see Fees % of Revenue for the alerting ratio) |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Amazon Seller Central data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A kitchenware brand on Amazon UK, FBA, 30-day window ending 01 May 26. All numbers illustrative.| ASIN | Units | FBA fee per unit | Selling price | FBA fee total | Fee as % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silicone spatula | 1,200 | £2.40 | £7.99 | £2,880 | 30% |
| Chopping board, large | 380 | £5.60 | £19.99 | £2,128 | 28% |
| Knife block set | 140 | £9.20 | £59.99 | £1,288 | 15% |
| Measuring jug | 900 | £2.90 | £9.99 | £2,610 | 29% |
| Total FBA Fees | £8,906 |
- The cheap, light items are the fee problem, not the expensive ones. The spatula and measuring jug both burn nearly 30% of their price in fulfilment fees. The knife block, at 15%, is far healthier despite a bigger absolute fee. Low-price, awkwardly-sized items are where FBA economics break.
- This is fulfilment only, so it understates total Amazon cost. On top of the £8,906 here, the same orders carry referral fees (commonly 8 to 15% of price) and storage fees. To judge profitability, add all three; this card alone is not the full cost.
- Packaging is a direct lever. Because the fee is sized by dimensions and weight, shrinking the spatula’s packaging to drop a size tier can cut its per-unit fee meaningfully. That is real margin recovered without touching price.
- Watch for peak-season step-changes. Fulfilment surcharges around peak periods can lift the total even with flat volume. A sudden rise that lines up with the calendar is usually a surcharge, not a mix shift.
- Use the ratio card to know if this is a problem. The absolute number grows with sales, which is fine. What matters is whether fees are rising as a share of revenue, which is what Fees % of Revenue tracks and alerts on.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
FBA Fees is one slice of your Amazon cost stack; read it with:| Card | Why pair it with FBA Fees |
|---|---|
| Referral Fees | The percentage-of-sale fee. Add it to FBA fees for the per-order cost picture. |
| FBA Storage Fees | The third cost component. Slow-moving stock turns storage fees into a hidden tax. |
| Fees % of Revenue | The ratio version that alerts when total fees outpace revenue. |
| Per-ASIN Fee Outliers | Finds the specific ASINs whose fee is out of line, the repackaging candidates. |
| Net Revenue (after fees + refunds) | The bottom line this fee feeds into. |
| Total Revenue | The denominator for judging whether fees are proportionate. |
Reconciling against Amazon Seller Central
Where to look in Amazon Seller Central:Seller Central → Reports → Payments → Transaction view (filter to FBA fulfilment fees), or the Fee Preview / FBA Inventory fee columns for per-unit estimates. The Date Range Reports (Summary) under Payments break out fulfilment fees from referral and storage fees for the period.For per-ASIN fee detail, the FBA Fulfillment Fee column in inventory reports shows the estimated fee per unit. Timing, settlement, and reporting-lag table:
| Topic | Detail |
|---|---|
| Timezone | Payments reports use your marketplace account timezone; Vortex IQ aligns to your configured reporting timezone. Fees on boundary-day orders can fall on different sides. |
| Accrual vs settlement | Amazon charges fulfilment fees as orders ship, but they appear in settlement reports on the settlement cycle. The card aligns to the order / charge date, so a recent order’s fee may settle in the next cycle. |
| Fee schedule changes | Amazon updates FBA fee schedules periodically, and adds peak surcharges seasonally. A step-change in the total can reflect a rate change rather than a volume or mix change. |
| Estimates vs actuals | Per-unit fee previews are estimates; the actual charged fee at settlement can differ slightly if dimensions or weight were re-measured by Amazon. |
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Accrual vs settlement timing | Either | The card aligns fees to the order/charge date; a settlement-based report buckets them by payout cycle. Near a period edge the totals differ. |
| Fee categorisation | Either | Whether a surcharge is counted as fulfilment or a separate line affects which card it lands on. The card follows Amazon’s itemisation. |
| Re-measured dimensions | Small | Amazon can re-measure a unit and adjust the fee; estimates and actuals then differ for those units. |
| Refund-related fee reversals | Ours may differ | Fulfilment-fee handling on returns and reversals can shift the net total depending on timing. |
| Card | Expected relationship | What causes legitimate divergence |
|---|---|---|
ebay.marketplace-fees | Different fee model. eBay charges a final-value fee (a percentage), not a separate per-unit fulfilment fee, because eBay sellers ship themselves. Not directly comparable. | Use as a marketplace cost peer, not a line-for-line reconciliation. |
shopify.total_revenue | Independent channel. Your DTC fulfilment cost is your own carrier spend, not an Amazon fee. | No reconciliation; compare blended fulfilment cost per order across channels for a fairer view. |