Marketplace fee glossary for Indian sellers

Two sellers can use the same word for different things, and two marketplaces routinely do. "Closing fee" on Amazon and "fixed fee" on Flipkart are roughly the same idea under different names; "commission" means something different on Meesho than anywhere else, because there isn't one.

Terms are grouped by where they appear rather than alphabetically, since that is how you'll meet them.

Fees the marketplace charges you

Referral fee (Amazon) / Commission (Flipkart)

A percentage of the item price, taken for the sale itself. The headline fee, and the one everybody quotes.

On Amazon it depends on category and price band — 234 categories, most price-banded. Since March 2026 it is 0% at or below ₹1,000, and 2–38% above. Flipkart is also 0% below ₹1,000, but above that its rate depends on your seller tier as well as category, and is not published publicly. Meesho charges 0% at every price, in every category.

Closing fee (Amazon) / Fixed fee (Flipkart)

A flat rupee charge per order, by price slab. Unlike commission it does not shrink with your price, which makes it proportionally brutal on cheap products.

Amazon's March 2026 update cut these: under ₹300 fell from ₹45 to ₹20, and ₹300–500 from ₹35 to ₹26. Above ₹1,000 it is ₹72. Flipkart's fixed fee varies by slab and tier — Bronze sellers pay meaningfully more than Platinum for the same order.

Platform fee (Meesho)

A flat per-order charge, reported at around ₹27. Meesho's substitute for commission: since it takes no percentage, this plus logistics margin is how it earns. It does not scale with your price, so it is proportionally heaviest on cheap products and negligible on expensive ones.

Payment gateway fee / Collection fee

Charged for collecting the customer's money. Usually a percentage of the order value, and typically higher for COD than prepaid.

Flipkart charges a collection fee that differs between prepaid and COD. Meesho charges nothing on either — verified on its own pricing page, and genuinely unusual.

Shipping fee / Weight handling fee

Charged by weight slab and delivery zone, not by actual weight. A base rate covers the first 500g, then a further charge applies for each additional 500g or part thereof — so 510g costs the same as 1,000g. Now the largest fee on most sub-₹1,000 products. See our weight slab guide.

Fulfilment terms

Self-ship / NFBF (Non-Flipkart Fulfilled)

You store, pack and hand over the parcel. Cheapest per order, most work.

Easy Ship (Amazon)

You store and pack; Amazon collects from you and delivers. A middle option.

FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) / FBF (Fulfilled by Flipkart)

The marketplace stores your stock and handles picking, packing, shipping and returns. Higher fees, better delivery promise, usually better conversion.

Amazon's FBA charges, verified from its schedule:

Storage fee

Charged by volume, not weight — ₹50 per cubic foot per month on FBA. The fee sellers most often forget, and the one that punishes light bulky products hardest. A box of cushions can cost more to store than a box of tools.

Removal fee

What you pay to get unsold or returned stock back out of the marketplace's warehouse. Worth budgeting for before you send in 500 units of something untested.

Logistics and returns

Zone: local, regional, national

Local is the same city, regional the same region, national across regions. Amazon defines four regions covering India. The difference between local and national on a 300g parcel is about ₹30 an order.

Volumetric weight

Weight derived from a parcel's size rather than its mass. Couriers bill whichever is greater.

RTO (Return to Origin)

An order that never reached the customer — refused, undeliverable, or a declined COD. You pay shipping both ways, but the product usually comes back sellable. Concentrated in COD orders.

Reverse logistics / Return shipping

The cost of bringing a returned item back. Charged in addition to the forward shipping you already paid — which is why a return costs real money rather than merely earning none. See what a return actually costs.

Money, tax and settlement

Settlement amount

What the marketplace actually transfers to your bank: selling price minus all fees. Not your profit — it still contains the GST you owe and doesn't account for what the product cost you.

Taxable value

Your selling price with GST removed: price ÷ (1 + GST rate). This, not the sticker price, is your revenue. At ₹499 and 18% GST, ₹422.88.

ITC (Input Tax Credit)

The GST you paid on business inputs — including the 18% GST on marketplace fees — which you reclaim against the GST you owe. It makes the GST on fees cost you nothing net, though the fees themselves are still real. Explained fully in our GST guide.

Net GST payable

GST collected from customers minus ITC reclaimed — what you actually remit. A cash-flow figure, not a cost. Subtracting it from profit double-counts, because taxable value already excluded it.

Advertising and performance

ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale)

Ad spend ÷ revenue from ads, as a percentage. Your break-even ACoS equals your profit margin — above it, each advertised sale loses money regardless of what it does to your rank.

Contribution margin

Revenue minus all variable costs, per order. What each sale contributes towards fixed costs. Divide monthly fixed costs by this to get your break-even volume — see break-even pricing.

Seller tier (Flipkart: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum)

A performance rating that changes your commission and fixed fees. Two sellers listing an identical product at an identical price can pay materially different fees. It is the main reason no public Flipkart rate card can exist — and why we show an estimate and let you override it.

Verified and estimate

Two labels of our own, used throughout this site. Verified means taken from the marketplace's own published page, with a source URL and the date a human checked it. Estimate means we could not confirm it officially and are saying so rather than presenting a guess as fact.

The distinction is a rule we hold ourselves to, not a disclaimer — full detail in our methodology.