How a Bamboo Tray Seller Lost $45k (and What You Can Learn)

Here’s the deal…
You’re not just losing money from weak sales.
You’re bleeding it from fees you didn’t even know existed. 😤

Amazon’s fee structure is sneakier than a raccoon in a trash can. And if you don’t understand where your dollars are leaking out, your profits will stay stuck in “meh” mode—no matter how great your product is.

Let me tell you a quick story that’ll hit close to home 👇

📦 Storytime: The $20k Mistake

A seller named Jacob DM’d me last fall. Great guy. Hustler. He’d launched a slick bamboo bathtub tray (you’ve probably seen it on Instagram).

Sales were decent. Ads were humming. But profits?
🧊 Ice cold.

He showed me his numbers:
He was grossing $48,000/month but netting barely $2,500. That’s less than 6% margin—after all his blood, sweat, and Jungle Scout subscriptions. 😅

When we dug in, the culprit wasn’t bad ads or high COGS. It was hidden fees. SEVEN of them.

He was being Amazon’d to death. 🪦

But once we identified and tackled them?
Boom 💥 — next 60 days, he was netting over $8k/month.

Let’s break down those silent killers... and how to shut them down. 🔒

🕵️‍♂️ The 7 Hidden Fees Draining Your Wallet

1. 🧊 Long-Term Storage Fees (LTSF)

If your inventory sits like old leftovers in FBA’s fridge, Amazon slaps you with fees every 90–180 days.

Solution:

• Use Inventory Age reports in Seller Central

• Create removal orders BEFORE month 6

• Or run a break-even promo to flush old units fast

2. 📦 Dimensional Weight Fees

Your product may be light, but if it's big, Amazon bills based on volume—not weight. It’s called DIM weight.

Solution:

• Ship test units in smaller packaging

• Optimize product inserts and bundling

• Re-measure your item after repackaging

3. 🤖 Unplanned Prep Fees

If your products arrive at the warehouse unbagged, unlabeled, or un-prepped… guess who gets billed?

Yep. You.

Solution:

• Use a prep center that knows FBA rules

• Or triple-check Amazon’s prep requirements before shipping

4. 🧾 Category Referral Fee Increases

These suckers creep up and you won’t even notice—until your margin vanishes.

Some categories went from 12% to 15% this year!

Solution:

• Double-check your ASIN’s current referral fee

• If your product straddles two categories, consider reclassifying it strategically

5. 📉 Returns and Repackaging Fees

Every return isn’t just lost revenue—it can come with a returns processing fee or a repackaging hit.

Solution:

• Use product inserts to reduce preventable returns

• Flag frequently returned SKUs and dig into the reasons

6. 🧪 Labeling Fees

If you’re not labeling your products with FN-SKU barcodes properly, Amazon will “help you out”… and charge you $0.30–$0.50 per unit.

Solution:

• Print labels in-house or work with a 3PL that does

• OR enroll in the Stickerless Commingled Inventory program—only if you're OK with shared inventory

7. 🐢 Overweight Inbound Shipments

You saved $20 by packing 50 lbs into one box.
Then Amazon slapped a $25 overweight fee on it.

Congrats, you just paid to be thrifty. 😂

Solution:

• Stick to Amazon’s 50-lb rule for individual boxes

• Break pallets into lighter shipments, even if it means extra boxes

💡 The Big Lesson

Amazon won’t tell you where the money goes.
You’ve got to hunt it down yourself like a fee-finding detective with a calculator holster. 🕵️‍♀️

The difference between 6% profit and 18% is rarely more sales.
It’s almost always cleaner margins.
And cleaner margins start with cutting these sneaky charges down to size.

🧠 Proverb to Remember

“Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Fees are the enemy.” 🧾⚔️

📢 Now It's Your Turn

💬 Got a fee horror story? Drop it in the comments—let’s compare scars.
⭐️ If this helped, save it to your favorites. You’ll want this checklist handy.
🚀 Know a seller buddy who’s clueless about these fees? Share this post with them—don’t let them bleed profits in silence.

✍️ Stay scrappy,

Ryan Keene
Amazon Seller | Coach | Profit Hunter
Helping sellers escape the 9-to-5… one fee at a time.