Sales on Amazon
How much does Amazon management by an agency cost, and is such a cooperation profitable?
Last updated: 22/09/2026
The cost of Amazon management by an agency is only one part of the calculation. If you want to evaluate the viability of such a collaboration, simply comparing a monthly subscription with the cost of a single employee is not enough.
Selling on Amazon requires expertise in several areas simultaneously: advertising, content, analytics, operations, compliance, logistics, and customer service. Additionally, there are fees charged by Amazon, tool costs, advertising expenses, and the financial risk arising from incorrect decisions.
Therefore, a more precise question should be asked: “What is the total cost of professional sales management on Amazon, and which model offers the company a better cost-to-effect ratio?”
Below we break down this calculation into its key elements.
Table of Contents:
Cost of Amazon management by an agency
Amazon agency or in-house team? Compare the full cost
What are the hidden costs of selling on Amazon?
Is collaborating with an Amazon agency worth it?
When can you expect results from the collaboration?
How to choose an Amazon agency? Red flags to watch out for
Summary: Is an Amazon agency a cost or an investment?
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Cost of Amazon management by an agency
Professional agencies rarely bill for collaboration using a single flat rate. A hybrid model is more commonly used, which combines a fixed operational fee with performance-based compensation.
Fixed subscription, or retainer
The fixed monthly fee primarily covers day-to-day operational support, the work of a dedicated team, and the creation and optimisation of materials needed to drive sales. This is the portion of remuneration corresponding to daily tasks performed regardless of current sales volume.
The exact scope can depend on the model of cooperation - in the case of comprehensive Amazon sales management, it may include account management, listing optimisation, advertising, price and inventory management, or customer service.
Success Fee, or performance-linked remuneration
The second element can be a Success Fee, which is a commission based on sales growth or achieved results. Such a model aligns the interests of the client and the agency more closely: as the business grows, so does the compensation of the partner responsible for its development. However, the subscription fee alone does not show whether outsourcing is expensive or cheap. For that, you need a comparison with the alternative: building an in-house team.
Amazon agency or in-house team? Compare the full cost
At first glance, an in-house team might seem like a cheaper solution. The problem is that running Amazon yourself rarely means hiring just one person. Professional sales management requires competencies spread across several specialisations.
Recruitment and retention of specialists
Depending on the scale of operations, a company may need, among others:
an Amazon PPC specialist,
an SEO specialist or copywriter,
a graphic designer or A+ Designer,
a Compliance specialist,
an analyst,
a person responsible for customer service.
In addition to salary costs, there is recruitment, onboarding, team management, and the necessity of maintaining competencies within the organisation.
Tools and software
The team also needs access to specialised analytical and operational tools, such as:
Helium 10,
Metricoz,
SellerBoard.
The cost of technology should therefore be included in the same calculation as employee salaries.
Time needed to acquire competencies
Another cost is time.
According to the assumptions in this calculation, self-acquiring the competencies needed to effectively manage sales on Amazon can take from 6 to 18 months.
During this time, the company is not only investing in learning but also bearing the risk of errors.
Incorrect settings related to VAT OSS or EPR, or poorly optimised PPC campaigns, can generate direct financial losses. The cost is therefore not just the team's salary, but also the consequences of decisions made during the learning phase.
When does an in-house team make more sense?
Building an extensive internal team is justified primarily at a very large scale of activity - in the presented model, with Amazon turnover exceeding EUR 10 million annually - or in the case of highly specific products that require a high level of knowledge to be kept within the organisation.
Therefore, when comparing the two models, it is not worth putting side-by-side simply:
agency subscription vs. the salary of one employee.
A much more reliable comparison will be:
agency cost vs. the cost of a complete team + technology + onboarding + errors + time needed to acquire competencies.
What are the hidden costs of selling on Amazon?
The agency's fee is only one line item in the budget. Regardless of whether the account is managed internally or by an external partner, margins are also affected by fees directly related to selling on Amazon.
1. Fixed fees and commissions
The first group consists of the basic costs of the platform.
These include:
Professional account - approx. EUR 39 net per month,
sales commission, i.e., Referral Fee - usually 8-15% of the product value.
In practice, this means that a portion of the margin disappears even before you factor in logistics or advertising.
2. FBA Costs
If you use Fulfillment by Amazon, another group of expenses is the fees associated with order fulfilment and storage.
These include:
order fulfilment fee, i.e., Pick & Pack,
storage fees,
surcharges for excess or long-term stored inventory,
Aged Inventory Surcharge,
Low-Inventory Cost Coverage Fee.
This is why inventory levels and stock rotation are not only operationally important. They directly affect the profitability of sales.
3. Advertising and marketing
Advertising spend must also be factored into the budget.
This primarily applies to campaigns such as:
Sponsored Products,
Sponsored Brands.
As CPC rates rise, the cost of acquiring sales from advertising can increase. Therefore, simply raising the budget does not solve the problem. What matters is how campaigns are structured, which products they promote, and how the advertising cost relates to overall sales.
Thus, professional Amazon Ads management should combine campaign optimisation with an analysis of their impact on sales and the overall profitability of the account.
4. Logistics, currency conversion, and Compliance
Beyond the costs directly visible in the account, there are expenses stemming from the international nature of sales.
These include, among others:
currency conversion of disbursed funds,
bank spread,
multi-currency solutions, e.g., Ebury,
registrations related to Compliance,
EPR,
WEEE,
VAT OSS - depending on the markets where sales are conducted.
Each of these elements can affect the final margin of the product. The task of professional account management is therefore not only to generate higher sales, but also to control costs and find areas where profitability can be improved.
Is collaborating with an Amazon agency worth it?
The profitability of cooperation should not be measured solely by the growth in turnover. Sales can grow while simultaneously generating a lower and lower margin. Therefore, the assessment of ROI should factor in sales results as well as advertising efficiency, operational security, the pace of expansion, and the time saved by the client's team.
Optimisation of margin and metrics
One of the core areas is profitability control.
The agency should look not only at turnover, but also at key metrics showing the cost of generating sales, including:
ACoS - the share of advertising cost in sales generated by ads,
TACoS - the share of total advertising costs in revenue.
The goal is not simply to "spend a larger budget," but to understand how advertising impacts the entire business on Amazon.
Security and Compliance
The second area of return on investment is risk mitigation.
Professional support is meant to help protect the business from problems such as:
account suspensions,
loss of Buy Box,
product counterfeiting and hijacking,
tax settlement errors,
issues with required certificates.
Some of these issues can halt sales immediately. Therefore, their significance cannot be evaluated solely through the lens of the monthly service cost.
Faster international expansion
Another potential benefit is the ability to quickly enter other European markets, including:
Germany,
France,
Italy,
Spain,
the United Kingdom.
Established procedures, translation support, and knowledge of local regulations reduce the number of elements a company has to build from scratch for every subsequent expansion.
More time for the internal team
Outsourcing Amazon management also has organizational value.
Instead of involving own employees in the day-to-day handling of the account, campaigns, catalogue, and operational issues, the company can leave the internal team to focus on areas where their knowledge is hardest to replace - for example:
product development,
offer management,
supply chain.
This should also be included in the viability calculation.
When can you expect results from the collaboration?
The ROI from Amazon management does not appear overnight. Different results have different time horizons.
First 1-3 months: sorting out the basics
In the short term, the results of collaboration may primarily include:
time savings,
account audit,
catalog clean-up,
correct structure of PPC campaigns,
resolution of ongoing technical issues.
This is the phase where you often first need to remove roadblocks that limit further growth.
3-12 months: efficiency improvement and expansion
In the medium term, expected results include:
growth in organic rankings,
decrease in advertising costs relative to overall sales (TACoS),
safe entry into new markets.
Here, the systematic improvement of the account's performance starts to become more important than just fixing the existing setup.
12+ months: brand and profitable growth
In the long term, the goal is:
building a strong and recognisable brand on the platform,
stable sales growth,
maintaining the profitability of that growth.
This is an important distinction. The long-term goal should not be turnover alone, but sales that can be scaled without losing control over costs and risk.
How to choose an Amazon agency? Red flags to watch out for
The cost of cooperation is only one criterion. Equally important is how the potential partner works and what they are willing to take responsibility for.
Red Flag 1: Guarantee of first position and instant growth
A reputable agency should not guarantee:
the top spot in search results,
hundreds of percent growth within 30 days,
immediate success regardless of the product's situation.
Amazon's algorithm and sales results depend on many market factors that no agency has full control over. A promise of a specific result without knowing the business context should raise suspicion rather than trust.
Red Flag 2: The agency wants to own Brand Registry
The brand should not be registered under the agency's account.
The client must remain the owner of the Amazon account and Brand Registry.
The agency is granted the necessary administrative roles to do its work, but it should not take ownership of the brand's key assets. This is especially important when changing partners or ending the collaboration.
Red Flag 3: Lack of transparency
The client should maintain full and constant access to their account in Seller Central or Vendor Central.
Transparency should also extend to reporting.
A spreadsheet filled with numbers is not enough. Good service should explain:
what happened on the account,
what insights can be drawn from the data,
which issues require action,
what the agency recommends and why.
This ensures the company does not hand its business over to a "black box" but retains knowledge of how one of its sales channels is being managed.
Summary: Is an Amazon agency a cost or an investment?
The answer depends on what you compare its fee to.
If you compare a monthly retainer solely with the salary of one employee, outsourcing may seem expensive.
However, if you calculate the full cost of driving sales - specialists, tools, onboarding, advertising, operations, compliance, the time needed to acquire skills, and the risk of mistakes - the picture changes.
Therefore, before making a decision, it is worth calculating three things:
how much your entire sales model on Amazon costs you today, not just salaries,
which competencies you would have to build internally to replace the agency's services,
what results you expect after 3, 12, and more months - in terms of sales, profitability, risk, and team time.
Only then can you fairly answer the question of whether working with an agency is profitable.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Amazon management by an agency cost?
The cost depends on the scope of cooperation and the chosen billing model. Agencies may use a hybrid model combining a fixed monthly retainer for ongoing support with a success fee (remuneration linked to performance). When evaluating the price, it is crucial to check exactly what the agency's offer includes.
How does an Amazon agency charge?
One model is a combination of a fixed retainer and a Success Fee. The retainer covers day-to-day operational work and team resources, while the variable part can depend on sales growth or achieved results.
What does professional Amazon sales management include?
Running sales can require competencies in Amazon PPC, content and SEO, analytics, graphics and A+ Content, Compliance, and customer service. The exact scope depends on the company's needs, the number of markets, and the chosen cooperation model.
Amazon agency or in-house team – which is more cost-effective?
It is not worth comparing just the agency's subscription with the salary of a single employee. For an in-house team, you must factor in the cost of all required specialists, recruitment and onboarding, tools, management, and the time needed to develop competencies. Only a comparison of the total costs of both models allows you to evaluate their profitability.
What additional costs need to be considered when selling on Amazon?
Aside from the agency's fee or in-house team, profitability is influenced by Amazon commissions, FBA fees, storage, advertising, currency conversion, logistics, and compliance obligations. Therefore, the cost of running sales is broader than just the account management fee.
How long does it take to see results from working with an Amazon agency?
Results can appear at different stages. Initially, the work may focus on auditing, organizing the catalog, campaigns, and technical issues. In subsequent months, improving efficiency, expanding into new markets, brand development, and maintaining profitable growth become more prominent.
How do you assess if working with an Amazon agency is profitable?
You shouldn't look only at turnover growth. In your evaluation, you should also consider profitability, ACoS and TACoS, operational security, the pace of expansion, and the time freed up for your internal team. Sales growth does not necessarily mean an improved bottom line if costs are rising at the same time.
What should you look out for when choosing an Amazon agency?
Watch out for guarantees of fast results or specific rankings, a lack of transparency, and solutions where the agency takes control of key brand assets. The client should maintain access to Seller Central or Vendor Central and ownership of the account and Brand Registry, and reporting should explain not only results but also actions, conclusions, and recommendations.
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