WorldFirst Home > blog > Global Business Tips > How much does it cost to sell on Amazon UK? Fees explained

How much does it cost to sell on Amazon UK? Fees explained

Last update: August 19, 2026

You’ve priced your product, ordered stock, and you’re ready to list on Amazon UK. Then the fee schedule arrives: a selling plan charge, a referral fee that varies by category, FBA fulfilment costs, storage charges, and if you’re selling across Amazon’s European or US marketplaces, a currency conversion deduction on every payout that you never budgeted for.

If you’re already juggling ad spend in multiple currencies and watching your bank take a cut on each transfer, the real cost of selling on Amazon can feel harder to pin down than the fee page suggests.

Amazon’s own figures show the scale of what’s at stake: around 100,000 UK SMEs currently sell on the platform, and independent selling partners now account for more than half of all physical product sales on the Amazon UK store. With that much competition and margin pressure, understanding exactly where your revenue goes, and where you can claw some of it back, matters more than ever.

This article breaks down every layer of Amazon UK’s fee structure, from selling plans and referral fees through to FBA costs and the often-overlooked currency conversion charges on multi-currency payouts, so you can calculate your true margin before you list.

Key takeaways:

Amazon selling costs build in layers: plan fees, referral fees, fulfilment and storage charges all need to be included before you know your real margin
Referral fees vary by category: most products fall within the 8% to 15% range, but some categories sit well outside it
FBA adds fulfilment and storage costs: fees depend on product size, weight and how long stock remains in Amazon warehouses
New seller incentives can reduce early costs: eligible Professional sellers may be able to offset part of their first-year spend through Amazon credits and fee waivers
International payouts add another cost layer: sellers receiving EUR, USD or other currencies need to account for FX conversion as well as Amazon’s own fees
WorldFirst can reduce friction around international payouts: sellers can receive supported Amazon earnings in multiple currencies, hold balances and choose when to convert or use them for supplier payments

Open a World Account to receive your Amazon payouts in multiple currencies with visible FX rates before you confirm.

Amazon UK at a glance

The table below pulls together the core cost components so you can see how they stack up before diving into the detail:

Cost component	Typical rate	Who it applies to
Individual plan	£0.75 per item sold (excl. VAT)	Sellers doing fewer than ~35 items/month
Professional plan	£25 per month (excl. VAT)	Sellers doing more than ~35 items/month
Referral fee	8% to 15% for most categories (7% to 45% range)	All sellers, on every sale
FBA fulfilment fee	Flat fee per unit by size/weight tier	Sellers using Fulfilment by Amazon
FBA storage fee	£0.55 to £1.51 per cubic foot/month depending on season and category	FBA sellers holding stock in Amazon warehouses
Refund administration fee	Lesser of £5.00 or 20% of the referral fee	Sellers processing refunds
Amazon Advertising	Cost-per-click, auction-based	Sellers running Sponsored Products or similar

Figures checked against Amazon’s UK pricing page on the date of research; Amazon periodically revises rates, so confirm current figures at Amazon’s pricing page before setting your prices.

The two Amazon selling plans: individual vs professional

Every seller on Amazon UK starts by choosing between two selling plans, and the right choice depends almost entirely on your sales volume:

1. Individual plan

The Individual plan costs £0.75 (excluding VAT) per item sold, with no monthly subscription fee. Amazon designs this plan for sellers moving fewer than 40 items a month, though the pricing page itself frames the threshold closer to 35 items. There’s no access to advertising tools, bulk listing, or Amazon’s API, and you’re restricted from selling in certain gated categories.

2. Professional plan

The Professional plan costs £25 per month (excluding VAT), regardless of how many items you sell, plus the same additional selling fees that apply to every seller. This unlocks Amazon Advertising, bulk listing and inventory tools, API access, and eligibility for restricted categories. It’s the plan almost every serious marketplace seller ends up choosing once volume grows.

When the Professional plan becomes cheaper

The break-even point is straightforward arithmetic: at £0.75 per item, you’d need to sell roughly 33 to 34 items a month before the Individual plan’s per-item fees exceed the Professional plan’s flat £25 charge. Below that volume, Individual is cheaper. Above it, Professional wins on cost alone, before you even factor in the advertising and tooling access you’d otherwise miss.

Amazon referral fees explained

Referral fees are the percentage Amazon takes from the total sales price, meaning the item price plus shipping and any gift wrapping charges, on every single sale regardless of which selling plan you’re on.

Most categories fall between 8% and 15%, but the exact rate depends heavily on what you sell. Here’s how the referral fee schedule breaks down:

7% categories carry the lowest rate: Computers, Consumer Electronics, Full-Size Appliances and Tyres all sit at the bottom of the scale, reflecting typically higher price points and thinner margins in electronics
8% applies to Video Game Consoles and low-priced essentials: Baby Products, Beauty, and Health & Personal Care items priced at £10 or below also fall into this bracket, rising to 15% above £10
10% covers Beer, Wine, and Spirits: a mid-range rate for a category with its own regulatory considerations
12% to 13% applies to home improvement and specialist categories: Tools and Home Improvement, Furniture Accessories, Musical Instruments and Commercial Electrical Supplies sit in this middle band
15% is the default for most categories: Books, Clothing (above certain thresholds), Kitchen, Toys and Games, Sports and Outdoors, and the general “everything else” bucket all fall here
45% applies to Amazon Device Accessories: the highest referral fee on the schedule, reflecting Amazon’s tight control over its own device ecosystem

Several categories use tiered pricing rather than a flat rate. From 15 December 2025, clothing referral fees will shift to 5% for items priced at £15 or below, 10% for £15 to £20, and 15% above £20 (with a reduced 7% rate above £40 for FBA and Seller Fulfilled Prime items). From 5 January 2026, Home Products will move to 8% for items up to £20 and 15% above that, and Grocery, Pet Supplies and Vitamins will use 5% up to £10 and 15% above it.

There’s also a per-item minimum referral fee of £0.25 for most categories, which matters if you’re selling low-priced items where a percentage fee would otherwise round down to almost nothing. This minimum doesn’t apply to Books, Music, Video, DVD, Software, or Grocery.

Build your margins carefully here, because referral fees compound with every other cost layer. A product with a 15% referral fee and thin manufacturing margins can look profitable on paper and lose money once fulfilment costs are added.

Fulfilment costs: FBA vs FBM

Whether you fulfil orders yourself or let Amazon handle it changes your cost structure substantially, and the right answer depends on your product size, storage needs, and how much operational capacity you have in-house.

What does FBA cost?

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) charges a flat fulfilment fee per unit, calculated by product size and weight tier, with no subscription fees, contracts, or minimum inventory requirements. As an illustration from Amazon’s own rate card, a Small Parcel under 460g costs around £3.45 at standard speed for the first unit, while a Standard Parcel under 960g runs to roughly £5.61, based on the FBA rate card.

On top of fulfilment fees, FBA charges monthly storage fees per cubic foot, and these rates roughly double during the October to December peak season to reflect warehouse capacity pressure:

Standard-size items (most categories): £0.76 per cubic foot from January to September, rising to £1.51 from October to December
Clothing, Accessories, Eyewear, Footwear, and Bags: £0.62 from January to September, rising to £0.82 from October to December
Oversize items: £0.55 from January to September, rising to £0.87 from October to December

Two additional surcharges are worth knowing about. A storage utilisation surcharge applies to Professional sellers whose storage utilisation ratio (average daily inventory volume divided by average daily shipped volume over a trailing 13 weeks) exceeds 22 weeks, excluding Clothing, Eyewear, Shoes and Bags. An aged inventory surcharge applies to stock sitting in Amazon’s warehouses for more than 241 days. Both are designed to discourage sellers from using FBA warehouses as long-term storage rather than active fulfilment infrastructure.

From 17 April 2026, Amazon will also introduce a 1.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA fulfilment fees across the UK and other European stores.

Balancing that, Amazon has also announced 2026 fee reductions: FBA parcel fees drop by an average of £0.26 from 15 December 2025, and Low-Price FBA rates extend to products priced at £20 or below from 5 January 2026, cutting fees by an average of £0.40 per unit for newly eligible items.

What does FBM cost?

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) removes all FBA fulfilment and storage fees, but you still pay the same referral fee on the total sale price including shipping. On the Individual plan, you’re locked into Amazon’s set shipping rate table. On the Professional plan, you can set your own shipping rates, giving you more control over how you price delivery relative to your actual courier costs.

For sellers with slow-moving or bulky stock, FBM can protect margin that would otherwise disappear into storage surcharges. For sellers who want Prime eligibility and Amazon’s fulfilment speed without building their own logistics, FBA remains the more scalable option, particularly given that 3 out of 4 FBA orders in the UK are delivered in a day or less.

Other and optional costs

Beyond the core selling plan, referral fees, and fulfilment charges, a handful of situational costs can affect your total bill.

Refund administration fee: charged at the lesser of £5.00 or 20% of the applicable referral fee whenever a customer refund is processed, so factor this into your returns rate assumptions
High-volume listing fee: £0.0003 applies per active non-media SKU above 2 million in a given month, relevant only to sellers with very large catalogues
Amazon Advertising: priced on a cost-per-click, auction basis, where you set your own maximum bid, making this entirely optional and scalable to your ad budget
Amazon Lending: offers prequalified sellers access to flexible loans with no origination or application fees, though as with any borrowing, terms and eligibility should be checked directly with Amazon
None of these are mandatory costs of simply listing and selling, but they can materially affect your monthly outgoings depending on your business model and returns profile.

New seller incentives worth claiming

Amazon UK currently offers over £42,000 in potential incentives for new Professional sellers, according to its seller incentives page, which can meaningfully offset the costs outlined above in your first year.

The headline incentives include:

Brand Registry cashback: 10% back on your first £40,000 in branded sales, dropping to 5% back through your first year, up to an £800,000 cap
FBA credits: £80 in Amazon Partnered Carrier credit and £160 in Amazon Global Logistics credit, alongside automatic enrolment in FBA New Selection, which offers free storage, removals, and returns for eligible new-to-FBA products
First-year fee exemptions: exemption from the Pan-EU low inventory cost coverage fee and storage utilisation surcharges during your first year
Advertising credits: up to £750 in Sponsored Products credits across matched spend tiers, plus a £40 voucher credit
Vine credit: £160 towards Amazon’s Vine review programme

These incentives don’t remove the underlying fee structure, but they can buy new sellers a meaningful runway while you validate demand and refine your margins.

Manage Amazon payouts and supplier payments with WorldFirst

Selling across Amazon’s international marketplaces adds another cost beyond referral fees, FBA and storage: currency conversion. If EUR or USD payouts arrive in a GBP-only account, they may be converted immediately, giving you less control over the rate and when the conversion happens.

Take a UK seller earning €20,000 a month from Amazon Europe while paying a Chinese supplier in CNH. Converting the EUR payout straight into GBP and then converting GBP again for the supplier payment creates two separate FX events. Each conversion can reduce the margin left after Amazon’s own fees.

A World Account gives sellers local receiving details in 20+ currencies, including USD, GBP and EUR, so supported Amazon payouts can arrive without being automatically converted into sterling. You can hold the balance, choose when to convert it or use available currency directly for another business payment. WorldFirst also participates in Amazon’s Payment Service Provider Program and supports collections from multiple Amazon marketplaces.

The same account can support the rest of the seller workflow. World Card can be used for business spend such as advertising, with no FX fee when sufficient funds are held in a supported currency. Sellers sourcing from China can also use WorldFirst to make supplier payments in CNH, bringing marketplace collections, FX and supplier payments into the same payment setup.

WorldFirst isn’t a bank. World First UK Limited is authorised by the FCA as an Electronic Money Institution under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, firm reference number 900508. Client funds are safeguarded rather than protected by the FSCS, so WorldFirst can sit alongside your existing business bank account for the cross-border side of your Amazon operation.

Open a World Account to collect Amazon payouts in multiple currencies, see your FX rate before you confirm, and manage ad spend and supplier payments from one place.

FAQs

1. Is it still worth it to sell on Amazon?

For most UK marketplace sellers, yes, provided you go in with realistic margin expectations. Around 100,000 UK SMEs currently sell on Amazon, generating over £3.8 billion in export sales in 2024, and independent sellers now account for more than half of all physical product sales on the UK store.

FBA sellers have historically seen sales uplifts of up to 35% in Amazon’s own analysis, and the platform’s Prime badge and delivery speed (three out of four FBA orders arrive in a day or less) genuinely drive conversion. New Seller Incentives worth over £42,000 also lower the barrier to entry for new Professional sellers.

2. Is it free to sell on Amazon UK?

No, but it’s cheaper to start than many sellers expect. The Individual plan has no monthly subscription fee at all, just £0.75 (excluding VAT) per item sold plus the standard referral fee that applies to every sale. Unlike some marketplaces, Amazon doesn’t charge a separate listing fee just to have a product live. The Professional plan introduces the £25 monthly fee, and if you use FBA, you’ll also pay per-unit fulfilment and monthly storage charges on top. So there’s no cost to simply create a seller account, but every sale and every fulfilment choice carries its own fee.

3. How much money does it cost to sell things on Amazon?

It depends on your account type and volume. On the Individual plan, selling 20 items a month at £0.75 each costs £15 in plan fees, plus referral fees on each sale. On the Professional plan, you pay a flat £25 a month regardless of volume, which becomes cheaper once you’re selling more than roughly 33 to 34 items monthly. Layer on referral fees (typically 8% to 15% of the sale price) and, if you use FBA, a per-unit fulfilment fee plus monthly storage charges, and total costs commonly land between 20% and 30% of your sale price once everything is combined.

4. Is it better to sell on Amazon or Etsy?

It depends on what you’re selling and how you want to fulfil it. Amazon’s referral fees typically sit at 15% for most general categories, and total costs including FBA fulfilment and storage commonly reach 20% to 30% of the sale price. Etsy’s fee structure is built differently, with a small per-listing fee, a transaction fee, and separate payment processing charges that together often total somewhere around 10% to 12% before any optional advertising, though Etsy’s Offsite Ads can push costs meaningfully higher for shops above certain revenue thresholds; UK sellers should verify Etsy’s current UK-specific fee schedule directly, as published comparisons often cite US dollar figures.

Sources: