Amazon has become a goldmine for sellers with millions of potential buyers on the platform. It brings essential tools and useful features that help e-commerce businesses grow. However, this most lucrative platform comes with a price that sellers pay, along with Amazon seller repay.
Amazon charges different types of fees for its services and campaigns and failing to pay them can lead to unpleasant experiences for the sellers. For instance, Amazon seller repay applies to the sellers with unpaid dues. But if you are a newbie and don't know about these charges, this is what we will help you understand. We will explain the Amazon-associated fees and share tips to avoid unexpected charges. So, let's get started!
- What is Amazon Seller Repay?
- Amazon Fee Structure: How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Amazon?
- How Do Amazon Seller Repay Charges Apply?
- How Can You Avoid Amazon Seller Repayment Fees?
- Can You Get a Refund on Amazon Seller Fees?
- How to Contact Amazon Seller Repay Customer Service?
- How Can I Cancel My Amazon Seller Account?
- Final Words
What is Amazon Seller Repay?
If your Amazon account balance is insufficient and you have unpaid dues, Amazon tries to cover these charges by deducting fees from your credit card registered with the account. This is known as Amazon seller repay.
Amazon deducts fixed charges such as your account fees every billing cycle by default. However, if the funds in your account are insufficient, Amazon charges your credit card in the second attempt to collect that amount. This fee would be mentioned under the seller repayment section on the credit card statement.
In case you have insufficient balance on your credit card to pay the seller repay amount, Amazon will keep trying every 24 hours to deduct the remaining amount until you clear the payment completely.
Amazon Fee Structure: How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Amazon?
Amazon offers a high-end marketplace for sellers worldwide charging different types of fees on the platform. Sellers need to pay these dues to expand their services and sell successfully. If they fail to make these payments on time, it might land them in trouble. Therefore, knowing about these charges is important for a smooth selling experience on the platform.
Here's the list of fees that apply to different Amazon seller accounts:
1. Monthly Selling Account Fee
Amazon professional account holders have to pay a monthly selling fee, whereas it doesn’t apply to the individual sellers on the platform. Since professional account users have access to ads, promotions, and seller reports, a monthly selling fee of $39.99 is charged from them regardless of their monthly sales and revenue.
2. Per Item Fee
Amazon charges a per-item fee of $0.99 on every product sold by individual sellers on the platform. You only pay this fixed fee when you make a sale.
3. Referral Fee
For every product you sell on the platform, you have to pay a referral fee to Amazon. It is like a commission charged by Amazon on each of your sales. This referral fee is deducted from the total sales price ranging between 3% to 45% depending on the type of product.
4. FBA Fees
When sellers enroll in the Fulfillment by Amazon program, it offers services like picking, packaging, warehousing, and shipping products. The charge sellers pay for these services is the FBA fee which varies between the sellers based on their selling volume, stock availability, and size, and weight of the items.
5. Closing Fees
If you sell media-related items in the DVD, software, video games, books, music, video gaming accessories category, you will have to pay $1.80 for every item as a closing fee. Also, it is charged to both individual and professional account holders.
6. Refund Administration Fee
If your customer requests a refund on a product for which you have received the payment, Amazon returns the referral fee it charged on that item by taking out an applicable administration fee. which is 20% of your referral fee.
7. High-Volume Listing Fees
High-volume listing fees are the amount Amazon charges on certain products to cover cataloging and maintenance costs. You don't need to pay this cataloging or high-volume listing fees for your first 100,000 listings.
If you meet the following eligibility criteria for ASINs, you will pay the high-volume listing fees:
- The ASIN falls under a non-media category
- The ASIN has not been sold in the past 12 months
- The ASIN must have been created a year ago
- ASINs with over 100,000 listings
How Do Amazon Seller Repay Charges Apply
If you own a professional selling account on Amazon and you couldn’t make any sales, you will still have to pay a $39.99 monthly fee.
Amazon seller repay charges are normally imposed on professional account holders with inadequate sales. Since these sellers haven’t generated sufficient revenue, they fail to pay their monthly subscription fee.
When Amazon is unable to collect the service charges from your account due to a low balance, it will make another attempt and deduct the amount from your registered credit card. In case, your credit card lacks the funds, Amazon makes attempts after every 24 hours until it receives the amount.
Therefore, it is important to go above your selling fees to effectively grow your business on this platform.
How Can You Avoid Amazon Seller Repayment Fees?
Having a negative account balance on Amazon can be overwhelming. Fortunately, you can avoid Amazon seller repayment fees by thoroughly learning about Amazon accounts and the associated fees.
Here are some of the tips that you can follow to avoid Amazon seller repayment fees:
1. Record your Cash Flow
If you are a newbie and selling on Amazon for the first time, you must keep track of all the charges by organizing a list and maintaining payment updates to stay informed. Additionally, you should try to make the payments ready beforehand and even pay them in advance to avoid any unexpected charges.
2. Automate Payments
Set reminders for your payments or link your account to deduct the payments automatically each month. In this way, you would stay on track of your payments.
3. Understand Amazon's Fee Structure
Amazon has set different types of fees on seller accounts. If you don't have complete knowledge of these charges, you might end up missing the payment deadlines and experiencing unexpected repayments. Therefore, we highly recommend you understand all costs associated with your seller account and services.
4. Select the Right Account
If you sign up for several different features, Amazon receives more of your profits even when you don't have sufficient sales. So you should either select an appropriate plan or pick the necessary features. This is helpful when you have low sales with your professional seller account and you can cut down the expense by downgrading to an individual seller account.
Can You Get a Refund on Amazon Seller Fees?
Normally, Amazon doesn't refund seller fees because it is mentioned and agreed upon before creating an account on the platform. But if a seller happens to open up a professional account by mistake, Amazon reimburses the seller fees. However, the seller must provide as many details as possible to the Amazon support team.
An important thing to note is that the refunds don't happen immediately after you request a reimbursement. Even after trying to downgrade your professional account to an individual account, your professional account would remain active for the 30-day subscription fee you had paid already.
We recommend going through the complete policy details before you start selling on the platform.
How to Contact Amazon Seller Repay Customer Service?
Although Amazon covers most of the common questions on the help page, there might be things that need expert guidance. Therefore, if you want to talk about your accounts or discuss anything related to your experience on the platform, you must contact the Amazon customer service team.
Remember that your International call will apply charges for the long distances. You can call the team at 1-206-922-0880 from Sunday to Saturday between 5 am to 7 pm. However, if you are staying in Canada or US, you can call the support team at 1-800-372-8066 in the same timings.
How Can I Cancel My Amazon Seller Account?
The only permanent method to prevent Amazon seller repay when you are not making enough sales is to cancel your Amazon seller account. You can cancel your account at any time through a simple set of steps but this comes with a huge catch.
Once you cancel your account, Amazon never reinstates accounts to let you sell on the platform again. This is almost like a lifetime ban restricting all your activities completely in the future. Therefore, if you want to cancel the Amazon seller repay charges, we suggest downgrading the seller account plan.
To downgrade to an Individual seller account on Amazon, follow the instructions given below:
- Login to your Amazon seller central account.
- Navigate to the Settings button.
- Select Account from options.
- Finally, downgrade your seller account to Individual.
- If you need further assistance, click the Contact Seller Support.
In this way, you will have to pay no charges with your individual seller account if you don't make any sales.
However, if you have decided to quit the platform forever and want to cancel your Amazon seller account, use the following steps:
- Navigate to your Amazon Seller Central account.
- Click on the Contact Us tab.
- Select the Close Your Account option.
- Enter all details in the form and submit your request to cancel the account. This request will be reviewed by an Amazon associate and an email will be sent to you notifying the account closure.
Final Words
Whether you are a multi-figure seller or a complete novice on Amazon, you can't escape the charges bundle that come with your professional seller account. If you want to stay ahead of your payments and build a positive reputation as a seller, make sure you clear your charges timely. Alternatively, you can downgrade to an individual seller account to avoid Amazon seller repay charges in the future.
