Amazon FBA UK Fees – Ultimate Guide [Complete Breakdown]

There are a few different FBA programmes in the UK with varying fee structures:

• Individual FBA: For selling in just the UK marketplace. All fulfilment is from UK warehouses.

   

• Pan-European FBA: This lets you store inventory in the UK but sell across Europe. Amazon handles shipping.

   

• European Fulfilment Network: Store in one country and sell across Europe using Amazon’s logistics network.

   

• Multi-Channel fulfilment: Use FBA to ship orders from other sales channels like Shopify or your own website.

Most fees are tiered based on product size, weight and category. Larger and heavier items cost more to fulfil, so the fees are higher.

Let’s look at the key FBA UK fees:

FBA Referral Fee

The referral fee is a percentage fee Amazon charges on each item sold.

The percentages vary by product category:

• Books, Music, Video, DVD – 15%

   

• Baby Products – 8.16% for items £10 or under, 15.3% for items over £10

   

• Beauty & Health – 8.16% for items £10 or under, 15.3% for items over £10

   

• Automotive – 15.3% for items £45 or under, 9.18% for items over £45

   

• Clothing & Accessories – 15.3% for items £40 or under, 7.14% for items over £40

   

• Computers – 7.14%

   

• Consumer Electronics – 7.14%

   

• Major Appliances – 7.14%

   

• Cycling Accessories – 8.16%

   

• Electronic Accessories – 8.16% for items £100 or more, 15.3% for items under £100

   

• Food & Beverages – 8.16% for items £10 or under, 15.3% for items over £10

   

• Furniture – 15.3% for items £175 or under, 10.2% for items over £175

   

• Jewellery – 20.4% for items £225 or under, 5.1% for items over £225

   

• Kitchen & Dining – 15%

   

• Lawn & Garden – 15%

   

• Office Products – 15%

   

• Pet Supplies – 15.3%

   

• Software, Computer Games – 15.3%

   

• Sports & Outdoors – 15%

   

• Tools – 13.26%

   

• Toys & Games – 15.3%

   

• Watches – 15.3% for items £225 or under, 5.1% for items over £225

   

• All Other Categories – 15.3%

Key things to note:

• The referral fee percentage is based on the item’s sales price.

   

• It’s deducted from your total sales proceeds.

   

• The minimum referral fee per item is £0.25.

   

• Additional closing fees per unit apply for media items like books, DVDs, etc.

For example, if you sell a £100 electronics item, the 8.16% referral fee would be £8.16 deducted from your sales price.

Referral fees are a major cost component, so make sure to factor them into your revenue projections. The percentages can have a big impact on your profit margins.

You can find Amazon’s full referral fee table for the UK here.

Now, let’s look at FBA fulfilment fees.

Fulfilment Fees

Fulfilment fees represent the bulk of your variable FBA costs.

They are also charged each time an order is placed and vary based on:

• Size Tier – Products are categorised into size tiers based on dimensions. Smaller products have lower fees. The main size tiers are:
  • Small Envelope – Max dimensions 20 x 15 x 1 cm
  • Standard Envelope – Max dimensions 33 x 23 x 2.5 cm
  • Large Envelope – Max dimensions 33 x 23 x 4 cm
  • Extra Large Envelope – Max dimensions 33 x 23 x 6 cm
  • Small Parcel – Max dimensions 35 x 25 x 12 cm
  • Standard Parcel – Max dimensions 45 x 34 x 26 cm
  • Oversize – Any item exceeding small or standard parcel dimensions

     

• Weight Tier – Heavier items within a size tier incur higher fulfilment fees. Weight tiers for standard-size parcels are in increments of 150g, 400g, 900g, 1.4kg, 1.9kg, etc.

   

• Fulfilment Program – Additional fees apply for Pan-EU and EFN compared to domestic FBA.

Here is an example of the tiered FBA fulfilment fee structure for standard-size products in the UK:

Smaller and lighter products have the lowest fees. Bulky or heavy items can run over £40 per order. View Amazon’s detailed FBA UK fee table.

Monthly Storage Fees

Amazon charges monthly storage fees to store your unsold inventory in their fulfilment centres. This covers their overhead and fixed costs.

The fees are based on:

• The volume of inventory measured in cubic feet

   

• Which fulfilment centre it’s stored in

   

• Time of year – higher from October to December

The monthly storage fees are:

For January-September:

• Standard size items in Clothing, Shoes and Bags:
  • £0.52 per cubic foot

     

• Oversize items, excluding dangerous goods:
  • £0.51 per cubic foot

     

• Standard-size items in all other categories remain at £0.78 per cubic foot

For October-December:

• Standard size items in Clothing, Shoes, and Bags:
  • £0.66 per cubic foot

     

• Standard size items in all other categories:
  • £1.21 per cubic foot

     

• Oversize items, excluding dangerous goods:
  • £0.70 per cubic foot

These new rates took effect starting April 2024.

Storage Utilisation Surcharge

In addition to the monthly storage fees, Amazon will apply a storage utilisation surcharge for sellers that keep high inventory volumes relative to sales.

This surcharge will take effect on June 1, 2024, and applies specifically if you meet these criteria:

• Have a Professional Selling account

   

• Sent your first FBA shipment more than 365 days ago

   

• Have an average daily inventory volume of at least 25 cubic feet

   

• Have a storage utilisation ratio higher than 22 weeks

The storage utilisation ratio is calculated as follows:

(Average Daily Inventory Volume) / (Average Daily Units Shipped) over the Past 13 Weeks

It is calculated separately for standard-size and oversized products and separately for inventory stored in the UK vs Germany/France/Italy/Spain.

If you meet the criteria above, the storage utilisation surcharge is added to the regular monthly storage fee. This results in a higher total monthly storage cost.

Here are the storage utilisation surcharge rates per cubic foot that will apply:

January-September

October-December

New sellers with under 52 weeks of sales history and sellers with individual accounts are exempt from the surcharge.

To avoid this additional cost, improve inventory turnover and reduce storage utilisation where possible.

FBA Aged Inventory Surcharge (Long-Term Storage Fees)

Amazon also charges an aged inventory surcharge for products stored in FBA for an extended period without being sold. This surcharge takes effect on the 15th day of each month.

The rates are:

• 271-300 days – £2.32 per cubic foot

   

• 301-330 days – £2.40 per cubic foot

   

• 331-365 days – £2.48 per cubic foot

   

• Over 365 days – £5.71 per cubic foot

The 271-330 day surcharge tiers apply specifically to items in the Clothing, Shoes, Bags, Luggage, Jewelry, and Watches categories.

For all other items, the surcharge kicks in at 331 days.

An important distinction is that the aged inventory surcharge is based on the total time the inventory has been stored in FBA, not the time since the specific unit was received. This incentivises sellers like you to manage and rotate older inventory actively.

Strategies to avoid aged inventory fees:

• Set ageing alerts and monitor for slow-moving SKUs.

   

• Run promotions or markdowns to clear older inventory.

   

• Set up a removal order to return or dispose of items not selling.

   

• Improve demand forecasting to optimise inventory levels.

Keeping products moving and minimising aged stock will help you significantly reduce costs.

Other Amazon FBA Fees

There are a few other optional fees to be aware of:

FBA Return-to-Seller, Disposal and Liquidation

When inventory is returned by customers or removed from FBA centres, additional fees apply:

• Return-to-Seller Fee – Charged per unit returned from Amazon to the seller. Ranges from £0.45 to £10+ based on size/weight.

   

• Disposal Fee – Charged per unit disposed of/destroyed by Amazon. Ranges from £0.61 to £13.23+ based on size/weight.

   

• Liquidation Fee – 15% referral fee on gross recovery value + liquidation processing fee per unit based on size/weight, ranging from £0.30 to £3.97+.

Return-to-seller and disposal fees vary by size tiers:

As you can see, larger and heavier inventory incurs much higher return and disposal fees.

FBA Prep Services

If using FBA prep services for labelling, bagging, etc., per unit fees apply:

Optional prep services can help you optimise packaging for FBA.

Manual Processing Fee

A manual processing fee will be charged per unit if you do not provide box content information with your shipments to Amazon.

This covers the additional labour costs for Amazon to process boxes with unknown contents manually.

The manual processing fee is £0.15 per unit.

The fee is charged 14 days after receiving the first shipment unit or at month-end, whichever comes first.

High-Return-Rate Return Processing Fees

A return processing fee applies for items with return rates exceeding pre-set thresholds (except clothing & shoes).

This fee ranges from £1.71 to £36.87 per returned unit based on size tier and is charged monthly:

Monitoring return rates closely and optimising packaging can help minimise added fees.