At a glance
The share of your Amazon revenue that Amazon keeps in fees. It divides total Amazon fees (referral plus FBA fulfilment plus storage) by ordered product sales, giving one ratio that tells you how much of every pound of revenue is gone before cost of goods. It is the single most useful FBA-economics number because it normalises away volume: rising sales hide rising fees, but this ratio does not. When it creeps up, your mix has shifted toward higher-fee products, a fee schedule changed, or storage on slow stock is mounting.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Amazon Seller Central data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A health-and-beauty brand on Amazon UK, FBA, 30-day window ending 01 May 26 vs the prior 30 days. All numbers illustrative.- Revenue fell but fees rose, so the ratio jumped 3.5 points. Sales dipped slightly while total fees climbed. That is the worst combination for the ratio and exactly why it is more informative than the absolute fee total, which barely moved.
- Storage fees nearly doubled and drove most of the increase. Storage went from 2% to 3.6% of revenue. That points at slow-moving stock ageing in the fulfilment centre. The fix is inventory action (markdown, removal), not a packaging or pricing change. Check FBA Storage Fees and ASINs Approaching Long-Term Storage.
- 34.5% is approaching the alert line. It is just under the
>35%threshold. One more point, from another storage cycle or a mix shift, tips it over. This is the moment to act, before the alert, not after. - The ratio excludes advertising and cost of goods. A 34.5% fee ratio is not your total cost; add ACOS / TACOS and cost of goods to understand true profitability. This card isolates the Amazon-platform slice on purpose.
- Decompose before you act. The ratio rose, but the action depends on which component drove it. Referral was flat, fulfilment rose a little (mix or a fee change), storage spiked (slow stock). Always break the ratio into its three parts before deciding what to fix.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
The ratio is the headline; these are its components and consequences:Reconciling against Amazon Seller Central
Where to look in Amazon Seller Central:Seller Central → Reports → Payments → Date Range Reports (Summary). This breaks the period into ordered product sales, referral fees, FBA fees, and storage fees. Dividing total fees by product sales reproduces this card.The Payments → Transaction view gives the order-level detail behind each fee line. Timing, settlement, and reporting-lag table:
Why our number may legitimately differ from the Date Range Report:
Cross-connector reconciliation against other connectors the same seller may run:
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Is 35% a lot? It depends entirely on your category and price points. Some categories carry a 30% blended fee load as normal; others run lower. The>35% alert is a sensible default, but the real signal is your ratio drifting up from its own baseline, not the absolute level.
My fees barely changed but the ratio jumped. How?
The ratio has a denominator. If revenue fell while fees held flat (or rose slightly), the ratio climbs. That is the point of using a ratio rather than an absolute, it catches margin erosion that the fee total hides.
Does this include my advertising spend?
No. This ratio is Amazon platform fees only (referral, fulfilment, storage). Advertising cost is tracked separately via ACOS / TACOS, and cost of goods is not on Amazon’s side at all. For the after-everything figure, use Net Revenue (after fees + refunds).
Why did the ratio step up in one specific month?
Most often a monthly or long-term storage fee landed inside that window. Storage fees arrive in lumps, so the ratio can jump in the month they hit even though the underlying stock was held earlier. Read the trend across several periods.
Can I change the alert threshold?
Yes. The >35% default is configurable per profile in the Alert Rules tab. Set it just above your normal baseline so the alert fires on genuine drift rather than on your steady-state fee load.