Amazon how to make money

Many of us know Amazon as a handy site where you can buy just about anything you need. But to some, it's so much more than that – it's an amazing opportunity to make money. Here's how.




It's no secret that Amazon is a very convenient website for shoppers. What's less well known, though, is just how easy it is to earn an income on there – and not just as a seller.

Granted, selling is one of the most common ways to make money on Amazon, and we've got plenty of tips to maximise your profits as a seller below. But it's far from your only option. In fact, it's even possible to generate a passive income through the site, letting you earn cash in your sleep.

Read on for all the info you need on how to sell on Amazon, as well as our list of the 11 best ways to make money from the site (both with and without selling).

Amazon selling plans

There are two selling plans to choose from at Amazon:

  • Professional selling plan – If you're selling more than 35 products a month, you could consider this plan. It costs £25 a month excluding VAT plus additional fees (below).
  • Individual selling plan –  This one's generally better for people selling less than 35 products a month. You wouldn't need to pay a monthly subscription fee, but you would have to pay £0.75 per item sold excluding VAT plus additional fees (below).

When choosing an Amazon selling plan, think about whether you would be selling a large enough quantity of products at a high enough price each month to go for the professional plan, or if you'd be better off sticking with the basic plan.

If you're unsure how many things you'll be selling each month, it might be better to start off on the individual plan, then consider upgrading to the professional one later on if you decide it would be worthwhile.

But, if you do decide to go for the professional selling plan, it might be worth also thinking about trying Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA). There are added fees, but it would mean you could reach more customers, and packaging and delivery would be handled by Amazon.

Amazon selling fees

As mentioned above, there's a fee per item for the individual selling plan (£0.75) and a fee per month for the professional plan (£25). And, on top of these, there are additional fees that apply to both plans.

These are the additional seller fees to be aware of:

  1. Referral fee – This fee will vary depending on the type of product that's sold. It's calculated as a percentage of the total sales price, which includes the product price and added charges for delivery and gift wrapping. There's usually (but not always) a minimum referral fee of £0.25 per item.
  2. Closing fee – There's a closing fee of £0.50 for most media items that are sold. This applies to items like music, DVDs, video games and software. Books have a closing fee of £1.
  3. Refund administration fee – If you need to refund a customer after receiving payment, you'll get your referral fee back, but a refund administration fee will be taken from it. The fee will either be £5 or 20% of your referral fee, whichever is less.
  4. High-volume listing fee – This is unlikely to apply to you unless you're selling a LOT. If you have over two million active stock-keeping units (SKUs), there will be a fee of £0.0003 per SKU. SKUs are the unique reference codes you give to each product you list.