FBA, or Fulfilment by Amazon, is the fulfilment model where your stock sits in Amazon's warehouses rather than yours. When an order comes in, Amazon picks, packs and delivers it, answers the buyer's delivery questions and processes the return. The listing gets the Prime badge and is eligible for one-day and same-day delivery in the metros. Amazon.in runs more than 60 fulfilment centres and delivers to over 19,000 pin codes through FBA as of September 2026. The alternatives on Amazon India are Easy Ship (you store and pack, Amazon collects and delivers), Seller Flex (your warehouse operates as an Amazon-managed node) and Self Ship.
How FBA works and what it costs
You create a shipment plan in Seller Central, label the units, and send them to the fulfilment centre Amazon assigns. From then on the stock is "fulfillable inventory" and orders flow without you touching them. Fees, per Amazon's fees-and-pricing page as of September 2026:
- Referral fee: the category commission every seller pays regardless of channel; zero on most products priced under ₹1,000 since 16 March 2026.
- Closing fee: a fixed per-unit fee by price band; FBA's band runs from ₹14 to ₹75, higher than Easy Ship's, and it rose by ₹1 (items up to ₹500) or ₹3 (above ₹500) on 7 September 2026.
- Weight handling fee: the delivery charge, from ₹37 per item and rising with weight and distance (local, regional or national).
- Pick and pack fee: ₹17 per standard unit up to 1 kg, ₹5 per extra kilogram to 5 kg, then ₹2 per further 5 kg; ₹26 per unit for heavy and bulky items.
- Storage fee: ₹50 per cubic foot per month, with long-term storage surcharges on stock that sits unsold. Removal orders cost ₹10 to ₹100 per unit.
Worked example: a ₹1,299 bedsheet set weighing 900 g sold to a customer in the same region. Referral fee at the category rate (say 15%) = ₹195; closing fee ₹30; weight handling around ₹75 for a regional 1 kg parcel; pick and pack ₹17. Fees ≈ ₹317 before GST, leaving ₹982 before product cost, packaging and storage. Run the same product through the FBA calculator on sell.amazon.in with your own category rate before deciding.
Why FBA matters for sellers
The Prime badge is the main reason. Prime members filter for it and convert better, and Amazon's own guidance is that FBA offers get a Buy Box advantage because Amazon controls the delivery promise. FBA also removes the operational cost of packing and daily pickups, and shifts delivery-related feedback and A-to-z claims onto Amazon, which helps the Order Defect Rate. The trade-offs are cash tied up in stock you cannot easily redirect to Flipkart, storage fees on slow movers, and the inbound freight to the fulfilment centre. Fashion and low-priced items with high return rates often do better on Easy Ship, where a return comes back to you rather than being inspected and possibly graded unsellable by Amazon.
How to manage FBA well
- Send 30 to 45 days of cover, not a quarter's worth. Storage fees and long-term surcharges punish overstock; stockouts punish rank. Use the restock report.
- Split fast and slow SKUs. Keep hero products in FBA for Prime, and slow or bulky ones on Easy Ship.
- Reconcile inventory monthly. Amazon reimburses lost or damaged units, but only if you claim within the window.
- Check the unsellable returns report and create removal orders before the stock accrues storage.
- Use multi-unit shipments. Amazon discounts fees heavily on the second and later units shipped in one box, which suits multipacks.
Blooprint plans FBA inbound and inventory for clients under Amazon account management. The full fee tables are broken down in the Amazon seller fees guide.