Referral fee
The referral fee is Amazon's commission on each sale, charged as a percentage of the total sale price, with the rate set by product category.
Every sale on Amazon pays a referral fee whether you fulfil with FBA or FBM. The percentage depends on the category, 15% in many of them, with some categories charging more and a few notably less. Amazon publishes the current schedule in Seller Central.
Because it comes off the top of the sale price, the referral fee often rivals the cost of the product itself as your biggest single cost per unit. Sellers who skip it in their margin maths routinely overestimate profit.
Why it matters
The referral fee is unavoidable and category-dependent, so checking the rate for your category is one of the first steps in working out whether a product can be profitable.
Related terms
See Referral fee on real products
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