The Cost of Selling on Amazon’s Seller Central - Episode 87

SOLOCAST WITH BOBSLED FOUNDER & CEO KIRI MASTERS

 

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Are you familiar with the basics of Amazon's Seller Central? Do you understand how it works, and how the fees are calculated? Today, Kiri talks about the cost of selling on Seller Central, so if you're a smaller vendor or a brand that's not currently selling on Amazon, today's show is definitely for you!

There have recently been rumors circulating about Amazon culling a number of vendors from their Vendor Central platform. Although Amazon has denied this, Kiri still believes that about a thousand smaller vendors are going to be cut from Vendor Central, and they will have to either move over to Seller Central or onto a singular, self-serve platform. In today's episode, she compares the general differences between Seller Central and Vendor Central at a higher level, specifically with regards to the different fees on Vendor Central and Seller Central. Tune in now, to find out more!

“Many brands want to move to Seller Central just for the luxury of being able to price their products how they want to so that they can avoid channel conflict.”
— Kiri Masters

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • How to tell the difference between Seller Central and Vendor central when you're looking at a product listing.

  • The main difference between Seller Central and Vendor central is around fulfillment.

  • Vendor Central is very similar to the traditional wholesale model.

  • With Seller Central, the brand makes a lot more decisions around the fulfillment of orders.

  • The benefits of selling on Seller Central.

  • It's not possible to control pricing if you're a vendor.

  • A big difference between Seller Central and Vendor Central is around fees and margins.

  • The most common fees that you will encounter as a third-party seller on Seller Central.

  • Using Amazon's fulfillment network benefits you with immediate prime eligibility. Kiri explains why this is important.

  • How Amazon calculates the FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) fee of a product.

  • Looking at how Amazon calculates storage fees.

  • How to avoid long-term storage fees.

  • How the fees on Vendor Central compare to those on Seller Central.

  • Some of the additional fees that Amazon charges to cover their costs for managing their marketplace platform.

  • Kiri explains what Amazon's charge-back fees are all about.

  • Ways to assess the fees that Amazon will charge.

  • The Amazon revenue calculator for that Jordan Ripley, of Bobsled marketing,  developed.

  • Amazon changes their fees periodically throughout the year, so you should do a fee audit every six months, using Bobsled's fee calculator to make sure that you're not overpaying for your Seller Central fees.

  • Reassessing the Amazon channel you're selling on to make sure that it's really serving your brand and your objectives.

Credit for today's episode goes to Jordan Ripley, one of the Project Managers at Bobsled Marketing, who wrote a really great blog post about Amazon Seller Central fees. And, together with Sergey Flid, Finance Specialist at Bobsled, Jordan has put together a fantastic fee calculator into which you can add your SKUs along with the retail price, the dimensions, and weight of the product, to calculate what your Amazon fees are going to be, line item by line item. This detailed and accurate fee calculator has been in high demand for a very long time and it is a critical part of thinking about what your selling fees and your fulfillment fees are going to be if you start selling through Seller Central.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Season 2Kiri MastersComment