FBA vs Easy Ship on Amazon.ae: Who Stores, Who Delivers and What Each Costs in AED

On Amazon.ae, FBA means Amazon stores, packs and delivers your product, and the listing carries the Prime badge. Easy Ship means you store and pack, then Amazon collects from you and delivers. FBA fees are referral, closing, fulfilment and storage; Easy Ship fees are the referral fee plus a shipping fee that starts at AED 14 per shipment. FBA suits fast-moving stock you want eligible for Prime; Easy Ship suits sellers who hold stock themselves and want to avoid storage fees. Details below are as published in October 2026.

What is the difference between FBA and Easy Ship?

Amazon's own comparison covers three options. This table follows it:

Amazon describes Easy Ship as an end-to-end delivery service for Amazon.ae sellers where an Amazon Logistics associate picks up the packaged product from your location. Its own bullet list and table disagree on who handles returns under self-ship, so check the return flow in Seller Central for your account.

How do the fees compare in AED?

Rates are from Amazon's pricing page. The Easy Ship fee is stated as effective from 22 August 2022, and the detailed FBA table as effective from 1 August 2025. Amazon states that all fees are shown excluding VAT, which it adds on top. Full size-tier rates are on Amazon.ae FBA fees, and Easy Ship detail on Amazon.ae Easy Ship.

Worked example: a 0.5 kg standard parcel priced at AED 100

Illustrative only, using a 10% referral rate and the AED 9.5 FBA rate for a standard parcel up to 0.5 kg above AED 25.

The gap looks like AED 4.30 in FBA's favour. It reverses if stock sits: at AED 2 per cubic foot, the same unit would need around 43 months in the warehouse to erase that gap, so for small items storage is rarely the deciding cost. For bulky items it is. Run your own dimensions in the FBA fee calculator. Easy Ship's AED 14 is only the start of its range, so large or heavy parcels cost more.

When should you choose FBA?

• Your product is small, light and sells steadily, so storage per sale stays low.
• You want the Prime badge on every FBA product.
• You do not have a warehouse or staff to pack. FBA has no minimum number of products to send.
• You are launching a new-to-FBA product: Amazon has a limited-time offer of free monthly storage, removals and return processing for eligible new-to-FBA ASINs. Check eligibility and the end date in Seller Central.

Getting stock in takes a shipping plan, ID labels and a Carrier Central appointment, and products typically become available for sale 48 to 72 hours after Amazon receives and processes them. The steps are on sending inventory to Amazon.ae FBA.

When should you choose Easy Ship?

• You already hold stock and have staff to pack.
• Your products are bulky or slow, so FBA storage would add up, and Amazon notes inventory held more than 365 days attracts a long-term fee.
• You need control of packing, for example gift or custom packaging.
• You want Amazon's last-mile delivery without moving stock into an Amazon warehouse.

You can mix both. Many sellers send best-sellers to FBA and keep the long tail on Easy Ship. Whether a listing can show both offers depends on your category and account, so check in Seller Central.

A bulky, slow product: where the answer flips

Take a bulky item of 2 cubic feet that takes 6 months to sell. Storage alone is 2 x 6 x AED 2 = AED 24 per unit at the published AED 2 per cubic foot per month rate. That is more than the AED 14 starting Easy Ship fee, before you add the FBA fulfilment fee for an oversize unit. The illustration uses only the published storage rate; your real oversize fulfilment rate is in Amazon's table, and Easy Ship's shipping fee for a bulky parcel will be above its AED 14 start, so run both numbers before deciding. The lesson is simple: small and fast favours FBA, large and slow favours keeping stock yourself.

Three questions that settle it

1. How many days of stock do you hold? If it turns over inside a month or two, storage is a small line. If it sits for half a year or more, price it.
2. How big is one unit? Storage is charged by volume, not by units, so volume per sale is what counts.
3. Do you need Prime or control of packing? Prime is an FBA feature in Amazon's table. Custom packing is an Easy Ship or self-ship feature.

If you cannot answer the first two with data yet, start a small batch on each route and compare the fee preview and the real cost per sale after a month. Amazon does not charge a minimum inventory for FBA, so a test batch is cheap. Pair the result with Amazon.ae seller fees so the whole fee stack is in one sheet.

What can go wrong?

• Slow stock in FBA. Storage and the 365-day long-term fee build quietly. Review aged stock monthly. See Amazon.ae storage fees.
• Easy Ship pickup misses. Late handover can hurt your late shipment rate, which Amazon sets as a target below 4%. See Amazon.ae account health.
• Comparing headline rates only. FBA's AED 5.5 and Easy Ship's AED 14 are starting points; size and weight move both.
• Forgetting VAT. Both are quoted before VAT.

FAQ

What is the difference between FBA and Easy Ship on Amazon.ae? With FBA, Amazon stores, packs and delivers. With Easy Ship, you store and pack and Amazon collects and delivers. FBA listings get the Prime badge; Easy Ship does not appear as Prime-eligible in Amazon's comparison table.

Is Easy Ship cheaper than FBA on Amazon.ae? Not by its starting rates. Easy Ship starts at AED 14 per shipment while FBA fulfilment starts at AED 5.5 per unit in Amazon's rate table, but FBA adds storage fees. Total cost depends on size, weight and how long stock sits.

Does Easy Ship support cash on delivery? Yes. Amazon's table says Easy Ship enables cash on delivery or card payment for customers, and also lists cash on delivery for FBA.

Can I use both FBA and Easy Ship? Amazon offers both as options for Amazon.ae sellers, and sellers commonly run different products on different routes. Whether one listing can use both depends on your category and account, which Seller Central shows when you set up the offer.

Is there a minimum quantity for FBA? Amazon states there is no minimum for the number of products you send. You still pay per-unit fulfilment and monthly storage on what you hold.

Do I need a UAE trade license for either? Both need an Amazon.ae seller account, which needs business registration documents. See Amazon.ae seller account requirements for the document list.

What to do next

Take your top five products, run FBA and Easy Ship through the FBA calculator, and put the slow movers on Easy Ship. If you want the set-up and ongoing listing and ad work handled, Blooprint offers Amazon.ae account management.