How Product Size and Weight Affect Amazon FBA Fees

Do you feel as if Amazon is overcharging you for FBA fees? You wouldn’t be alone. While Amazon FBA is set up to keep things running as smoothly as possible for sellers and consumers alike, mistakes do happen. Sometimes your products may be measured incorrectly—causing you to overpay for FBA fees.

Unfortunately, Amazon will not catch these mistakes and will not alert you if you are being overcharged, so most sellers probably won’t even know they’re being overcharged and just accept the fees that appear in Seller Central. You could potentially be overpaying FBA fees for months — or even years.

Fortunately for sellers, though, there is a way for you to get reimbursed for every potential overcharge. If you suspect that Amazon is overcharging you for fees, you can have them re-measure and re-weigh your products through what’s called a cubiscan. We’ll explain how.

 

Amazon FBA Fees Explained 

First of, whether you sell on Amazon through Fulfillment by Merchant or Fulfillment by Amazon (FBM or FBA), you’ll need to pay referral fees. A referral fee is the “commission” paid to Amazon everytime a sale is made on their platform. Typically, this fee is a flat percentage, often 15% or less. 

Otherwise, FBA and FBM have slight fee differences. We’ll cover the high-level differences below, and you can learn more here about all Amazon fees.

FBA Fees

If you are selling on Amazon using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), then you will need to pay fees to cover the costs of fulfillment — the picking, packaging, and shipping of all your orders.

FBA fees are based on the weight and dimensions of your product (and are 100% worth the cost, in our opinion — when you are being correctly charged, that is). 

Here are examples Amazon’s current FBA fulfillment fees for both non-apparel and apparel items:

 

As you can see, Amazon has various sizing tiers that your products may fall under. Note, the dimensions and weight will include the packaging that Amazon uses to ship your product.

Side note: This is why your product’s packaging is so important! You want your product to fall under the smallest sizing tier as possible. 

 

Why you may be overcharged for FBA fees

When you start selling a brand new product on Amazon and send your inventory to an FBA warehouse, Amazon will measure your product (including the packaging) to determine what your FBA fees will be. While these measurements are accurate the majority of the time, there’s a chance Amazon will mismeasure your product. 

Even if your product is not brand new (and you have been using FBA for quite some time), there is still a chance Amazon will re-measure or re-weigh your product during receiving and change the dimensions or weight. 

Why does this happen? Amazon is handling the storage, picking, packing, and shipping of millions and millions of products so human error and mistakes may happen.

The good news is that Amazon knows this, and they’ll correct the mistakes. But it’s important that you stay on top of everything involving your Amazon business. 

How to find out what you’re being charged for FBA fees

There are a few ways you can figure out what you are being charged for FBA fees. The fastest and easiest way is to check in your Manage Inventory section in Seller Central.

In Seller Central, go to Inventory > Manage Inventory.

 

Find your product and you will see the “Estimated fee per unit sold” column. Click the dropdown menu to see a breakdown of all the fees you’re being charged.

 

If for some reason you do not see this column, above your inventory on the right hand side, you will see a Preferences button. Click Preferences to choose which columns you would want visible. Then check off “Estimated fee per unit sold.”

 

To find out the dimensions and the sizing tier your product falls under, follow these steps:

In Seller Central, go to Reports > Fulfillment. On the left hand side, go to the Payments section and then click on “Fee Preview.”

Download a report as a .csv file and upload the file in Google Sheets or Excel. In the spreadsheet, you will see the dimensions of your product, the sizing tier your product falls under, as well as the fees you are being charged.

If you have one of your products on hand, measure each side and compare to the dimensions that Amazon has listed. If the measurement is off, you need to request a  re-measurement and/or order fees reimbursement for that product.

 

How to get Amazon to reimburse you by requesting a re-measurement

If you determine that you’re being overcharged for FBA, how can you get reimbursed from Amazon? Your first step is to request that Amazon re-measure and re-weigh your products. 

In the top right corner in Seller Central, click on “Help.” Under the “Recommended for you” section you will see “Need more help?” at the bottom.

 

Click “Get Support” and then “Selling on Amazon.” Don’t describe your issue here, but instead click on “Or, browse for your issue in the menu.”

 

Click “Fulfillment by Amazon” and then “Investigate Other FBA Issues.”

You will then select “Confirm/Request Reimbursement for Product Weights and Dimensions.”

Enter in your FNSKU or ASIN and select “Request product re-measurement or order fees reimbursement” as your issue and click “Next.”

Then request your re-measurement!

After submitting the ASIN in question, Amazon will show you the current weight and measurements and state that it will be reviewing your request to re-measure your product. This may take a fews days to do.

If it turns out that your product was mismeasured, you will then be able to request reimbursement for every order that you were overcharged FBA fees!

 

Go get the money you deserve back from Amazon

We FBA sellers are fortunate to have Amazon as a fulfillment method to take care of our storage and order fulfillment — but no one wants to be overcharged. 

These steps should help to figure out if you are overpaying for FBA fees on Amazon, so let us know below if you were able to get reimbursed by Amazon or if you have any other questions!