Author Archives: salecalc.com

Amazon Marketplace: Referral and Variable Closing Fees for Media vs Non-media Products

Amazon fees formula

Formerly, the calculations we had been using for a product’s Referral and Variable Closing Fees were based on the information provided in Amazon’s publicly available fee schedule.  According to this page, a Referral Fee is charged for the sale price of an item, though the page doesn’t specify whether the sale price includes the shipping price charged to the buyer.  Furthermore, non-media products (products excluding Books, Music, DVDs, Software, Video Games, and Video Game Consoles) are shown to have a Variable Closing Fee that is based on weight and shipping method, while media products have a Variable Closing Fee that depends solely on shipping method.

However, from recent experience on Amazon Marketplace and correspondence with Amazon Seller Support, we learned to revise our calculations.  The first revision involves the Referral Fee.  For media products, the Referral Fee excludes the shipping price from the sale price.  In contrast, the Referral Fee for non-media products includes the shipping price as part of the sale price.  Secondly, the Variable Closing Fee for non-media products is not based on weight or shipping method as described in the public fee schedule page mentioned above.  Instead, the Variable Closing Fee for non-media products is the Referral Fee charged on shipping paid by the buyer, and thus is not charged separately.  This information is detailed in the fee schedule found in Amazon’s Seller Central, which requires sellers to log in to access.

The Amazon Calculator has been updated in light of this information.  Non-media products will no longer produce a Variable Closing Fee and instead will have a Referral Fee that includes the shipping credit as part of the sale price.  Calculations for media products are not affected by this change.

March 9, 2013 Update: Amazon’s fee schedule appears to have been updated since this post was first published and is now consistent with what we’ve described.

eBay Fee Update: Pictures Now Free

Per eBay’s 2012 Spring Seller Update, eBay now offers free pictures on all listings (excluding eBay Motors) effective July 2, 2012.  Our eBay Calculators (both new and original versions) have been updated to reflect this change.  Specifically, the Picture Count drop-downs and Picture Pack upgrade options have been removed from the calculators since pictures no longer incur fees.  This completes the last of the two fee updates slated for Spring (the first occurred on May 1st and involved raising the maximum final value fee for Auctions from $100 to $250).  eBay’s fees page contains this information as well.

Before this update, eBay allowed one picture for free and charged 15¢ for each additional image. The now retired Picture Pack upgrade allowed sellers to include between 1-6 pictures for 75¢, or 7-12 pictures for $1:

Picture Hosting Fees Retired

The Gallery Plus feature, which enhances pictures in eBay’s search results, hasn’t changed and is still charged a fee of 35¢ for listings that last up to ten days, or $1 for thirty-day fixed price listings (excluding listings in the Collectibles, Art, Pottery & Glass, and Antiques categories).

eBay UK Calculator

As we eagerly await the upcoming London 2012 Games, we made an interesting observation about the country that will host the next Olympics.  The United Kingdom is where we receive the second most visitors from–after the United States–making up almost 5% of our visits.  However, most visitors from the UK leave immediately (bounce) probably because they don’t find our primarily US-based tools useful.  We hope to change that with the newest addition to our eBay Calculator family, the eBay United Kingdom Fee and Profit Calculator.

eBay UK Calculator Screenshot

This calculator is designed to work specifically with eBay UK’s fee schedule.  It works just like our eBay US Calculator, supporting the common listing inputs as well as its own settings including Private or Business seller types, PayPal rates, and Top-rated seller tiers specific to eBay UK.

Let the eBay UK fee calculations begin!