Amazon unveiled a new “Fee Explainer” tool to help sellers better understand the fees that it charges to their selling accounts. It explained the Fee Explainer in a post on the Amazon Seller Announcement board.
“For each fee type, the tool provides a definition, the relevant attributes or variables, and the calculation,” according to the announcement. “Collectively, these details explain why you were charged a certain amount.”
The Fee Explainer tool covers the following fee types:
Subscription
Referral
Variable closing
Fixed closing
Refund administration
Customer return
High-return rate processing
Removal
Disposal
Amazon said it would add explainers for more fee types this year, and told sellers they could access the Fee Explainer tool by going to the Transaction view of the Payments dashboard and selecting a transaction, and then clicking the fee amount.
Sellers left seven comments in response to the announcement. One seller said they found an “explanation” of four charges on a single transaction all for “other chargeback” and indicated the breakdown was not helpful:
Other chargeback
-$80.00
Other chargeback
-$27.38
Other chargeback
-$69.56
Other chargeback
-$8.30
On a Fee Explainers help page, Amazon has more information, including a list of benefits of the tool:
A Fee Explainer offers several key advantages to help you manage your business:
- Clear fee transparency: Get detailed explanations of how fees are calculated and applied to your transactions
- Better business planning: Understand fees while listing products using our preview tools
- Comprehensive fee information: Access complete fee breakdowns with relevant examples and calculations
- Real-time fee understanding: View detailed explanations directly within your transaction details