Last updated: August 2026 · Fee structure in force from 16 March 2026. Rates still move — open Seller Central before you reprint a price list.
If you still quote “13% referral” on a ₹799 kurti, you are pricing for last year. On 16 March 2026 Amazon India expanded zero referral fees from products under ₹300 to products priced up to ₹1,000 across 1,800+ categories — apparel, shoes, jewellery, grocery, home, beauty, toys, kitchen, automotive, pet, and a long tail you will not memorise. Amazon’s own note said coverage jumped from about 1.2 crore listings in 2025 to over 12.5 crore. Source: Amazon India press release, 2 March 2026.
That is the headline. The rest of the stack did not retire. Closing fee, weight handling, FBA pick-pack, storage, returns and ads still eat the order. This page is the stack, a category table, a small calculator, and a ₹999 walk-through that no longer pretends referral is 13%.
What actually changed on 16 March 2026
Two years of “zero referral under ₹300” made cheap grocery and seed packs viable. The 2026 step pulls mid-price fashion and home into the same logic. Amazon also cut Easy Ship on sub-₹300 units and talked up “sell more, save more” when two units share a carton.
| Rule | Before 16 Mar 2026 | From 16 Mar 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Zero referral price cap | Mostly under ₹300 (narrower set) | Up to ₹1,000 in 1,800+ fee categories |
| Listings Amazon cited | ~1.2 crore (2025 expansion) | 12.5 crore+ |
| Above ₹1,000 (select demand cats) | Older category % | Referral reduced 4% to 9.5% |
| Easy Ship under ₹300 | Higher logistics take | Fees cut 20%+ (Amazon) |
High-demand groups Amazon named for the above-₹1,000 cut: apparel, healthcare, home improvement, home appliances, personal care, grocery, pet care, footwear, automotive. They also added fee-category labels (breast pumps, diaper bags, gym weights, large furniture, shelves, some regulated healthcare) so ASINs stop sitting in the wrong bucket. Wrong bucket is still how people overpay.
Category-wise referral (how to read it)
I am not pasting a fake “exact %” grid for 1,800 nodes. Those numbers drift, and copying last month’s blog table is how you ship a 92% impression drop. Below is the shape sellers actually use, then you click through to sell.amazon.in/fees-and-pricing.
| If you sell… | Price ≤ ₹1,000 | Price > ₹1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Apparel, sarees, t-shirts, shoes | 0% referral if eligible | Often cut 4–9.5% vs old card |
| Fashion jewellery | 0% referral if eligible | Still a % — jewellery was never “cheap to sell” |
| Beauty, personal care | 0% referral if eligible | Named in the reduction list |
| Home décor, furnishings, kitchen, kettles, chairs | 0% referral if eligible | Home improvement / appliances named above ₹1k |
| Toys, pet, grocery, automotive accessories | 0% referral if eligible | Grocery / pet / auto named above ₹1k |
| Earphones and similar electronics Amazon cited | Press example at ₹798 used FBA savings | Do not assume 0% — check the fee category |
Amazon’s own rupee examples (not ours)
From the same March press note — useful because they published total fees, not just referral:
| Example | Channel | Old total fees | New total fees | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion jewellery set ₹999 | Easy Ship | ₹324 | ₹100 | ₹224 (69%) |
| Earphones ₹798 | FBA | ₹248 | ₹109 | ₹139 (56%) |
| T-shirt ₹299 | Easy Ship | ₹71 | ₹56 | ₹15 (21%) |
Notice the t-shirt. Referral was already low or zero in that band; the win is mostly Easy Ship. Jewellery at ₹999 is where referral disappearing actually moves the P&L.
Sketch the order before you list it
Type a price. Untick eligibility if you know the ASIN is not in the zero list. This will not match your settlement. It will stop you using 2019 Excel.
Closing and fulfilment here are mid-band guesses for a local, under-500g unit. Referral uses 0% when you tick eligibility and price is ≤ ₹1,000, otherwise 10% as a placeholder for “above the line / not in the zero list”. Check the official fee schedule.
- Referral (0%)
- ₹0
- Closing (sketch)
- ₹32
- Fulfilment (sketch)
- ₹42
- GST on those fees
- ₹13
- Amazon take (ex-COGS)
- ₹87
- Left before COGS & ads
- ₹912
The rest of the stack (referral is only line one)
FBA, Easy Ship, or you ship it yourself. The mix below still applies.
1. Referral fee
Percentage of item price, by fee category and slab. After March, a huge band is 0% at or under ₹1,000. Above that, you are back on a percentage — sometimes a lower one than 2025. This used to be the fattest line. On a ₹699 eligible fashion unit it may now be the smallest.
2. Closing fee
Flat rupees per unit, by order-value band and channel. Zero referral does not touch it. A ₹199 phone cover can still die on closing plus shipping even when commission is ₹0. That is why bundling two units into one box (Amazon’s “second unit” saving) is not a blog trick — it is how cheap SKUs stay alive.
3. Weight handling / shipping
Volumetric or actual, whichever is higher. Local vs regional vs national. Easy Ship under ₹300 got the 20%+ cut; a 2 kg national sofa cushion did not.
4. FBA pick, pack & handling
FBA only, by size tier. Compare it to Easy Ship on the same SKU — Prime conversion vs storage. We wrote that fight up in FBA vs FBM India.
5. Storage fees
Monthly, cubic, worse in Q4. Long-term storage on units that have not moved. Zero referral on a slow SKU is a trap: you keep listing it because “commission is free” while the bin rent quietly exceeds the sale.
6. Returns, refunds & removals
Referral credit on a return is worth less when referral was already zero. You still ate fulfilment. Apparel sellers knew this; now home and beauty at ₹799 will learn it. Track return rate in return management, not in a monthly panic.
7. Advertising and promotions
Sellers who got referral relief often poured it into ads the same week. Fine if contribution still exists. An 18% ACoS on a 12% gross after FBA is still a hobby. Break-even ACoS has to be rebuilt after March — see good ACoS.
A ₹999 FBA order, after 16 March
Same ₹999 unit we used in July — but referral is now 0% assuming the ASIN is eligible. Fulfilment numbers are still illustrative. The point is the shape: closing and shipping did not vanish.
| Line item | Old mental math (₹) | After 16 Mar (₹) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selling price (incl. GST) | 999 | 999 | Customer pays this |
| GST @ 18% (output) | −152 | −152 | Not your revenue |
| Referral | −130 (~13%) | 0 | If fee category is in the zero list |
| Closing fee | −25 | −25 | Still there |
| Weight / pick-pack | −80 | −80 | Channel and size |
| GST on Amazon fees | −42 | −19 | 18% on the fees that remain |
| COGS | −350 | −350 | Your landed cost |
| Ads @ 15% ACoS | −150 | −150 | Optional, but common |
| Storage / return allowance | −45 | −45 | Amortised |
| Rough net | ~25 | ~178 | Referral relief is real; it is not “the whole fee” |
July’s version of this article still subtracted 13% referral on ₹999. That was already wrong after March, and it is the kind of stale table Google quietly demotes when every other page in the SERP has updated. If your payouts jumped in April and your spreadsheet did not, this is why.
FBA vs Easy Ship vs self-ship (fees, not philosophy)
| Self-ship | Easy Ship | FBA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who holds stock | You | You | Amazon FC |
| Who picks up / delivers | You or your courier | Amazon | Amazon |
| March 2026 extra | No referral relief on logistics | 20%+ cheaper under ₹300 (Amazon) | Press FBA example: earphones ₹798 |
| Hidden line | Your labour + RTO | Pickup failures | Storage + long-term storage |
| When it wins | Heavy, low-velocity, custom pack | Tier-2 seller, own warehouse | Prime conversion on fast SKUs |
GST and TCS: what is a cost and what is not
- GST on Amazon fees leaves your account, then comes back as ITC if you are registered. Do not bake it into “Amazon stole 18% more”.
- TCS is tax collected on the sale, parked against your GSTIN. Cash-flow hit, not a fee.
The P&L dashboard is built to split those two from referral and FBA. If you only watch GMV in a sales tracker, March will look like a miracle and September storage will look like a bug.
Fee preview vs settlement
Listing-page fee estimate: what this order should cost. Settlement: what Amazon paid. They diverge because of reimbursements, fee corrections, storage, coupons, reserves. Map deductions to ASINs in settlement reconciliation. Category mis-map (wrong fee node) is the boring overcharge Evanik-style auditors chase — fix the node before you hire anyone.
What to actually do this week
- Pull the fee preview on every hero SKU at ₹999 and ₹1,049. If 999 is 0% and 1049 is not, stop “premium pricing” on autopilot.
- Shrink the box. Referral relief does not fix volumetric.
- Bundle where closing fee murders cheap units. Second unit in the same carton is the March logistics gift.
- Re-check browse node / fee category after Amazon’s new labels. Breast pumps in “baby toys” was always a tax.
- Do not restock the long tail just because referral is free. Storage does not care.
- Rebuild break-even ACoS with the new referral. Old 25% targets are leftover from a different P&L.