Revenue is not the amount you keep
An order can look profitable at the top line while producing a much smaller operating profit. The gap is created by marketplace fees, fulfillment, advertising, returns, taxes on fees, landed product cost, and other expenses that do not appear in the customer-facing price.
Treat the order total, Amazon disbursement, bank deposit, and operating profit as separate checkpoints. Each answers a different question, and combining them can hide a weak margin.
Build the cost stack in a fixed order
- Net sales: item revenue and customer charges, excluding sales tax collected for authorities.
- Amazon selling costs: referral, plan, closing, and other marketplace fees.
- Fulfillment and inventory: FBA or FBM fulfillment plus storage and inventory allocations.
- Demand costs: advertising, coupons, deals, and promotions attributed to the order.
- External costs: landed product cost, packaging, freight, returns allowance, and overhead allocation.
- Cash adjustments: reserves, withholding, and currency-conversion costs.
Use actual statements whenever possible
Published fee tables are useful for planning, but your own transaction and settlement reports show what was actually charged. Reconcile estimates against Seller Central regularly, especially after a size-tier change, fee update, or cross-border expansion.
The number to manage
Operating profit per order is the amount left after the costs required to generate and fulfill that order. Divide it by net sales to monitor operating margin. Compare both the currency amount and the percentage: a healthy percentage on a very small order may still contribute too little cash.