Every profitability number in the results table comes from a handful of inputs: the Amazon selling price, Amazon's fees, and your item cost. Here's what each column means and how they fit together.
The inputs
- Buy Box price. The price in the Buy Box, the "Add to Cart" offer on the listing, which is where the large majority of sales happen. This is the default selling price used in the math.
- Referral fee. Amazon's commission on the sale, charged as a percentage of the selling price. It varies by category.
- Fulfillment fee. What Amazon charges to pick, pack, and ship the unit when you sell via FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon, where Amazon stores and ships your inventory). If you fulfill orders yourself, that's FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant), and your own shipping cost takes this fee's place in your thinking.
- Your item cost. The per-unit cost from your catalog, adjusted for the resolved pack quantity. If the listing is a 6-pack and your supplier sells singles, the cost side reflects six units. You can also layer in prep and production costs from your settings so the math matches how you actually operate.
The outputs
| Metric | Formula | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Net profit | selling price − referral fee − fulfillment fee − your item cost | Dollars earned per unit sold |
| ROI (return on investment) | net profit ÷ your item cost | Return on the cash you put in |
| Margin | net profit ÷ selling price | Share of the sale you keep |
An example: a $25.00 Buy Box price with a $3.75 referral fee, a $5.00 fulfillment fee, and a $10.00 item cost gives a net profit of $6.25, an ROI of 62.5%, and a margin of 25%.
ROI and margin answer different questions. ROI tells you how hard your buying budget is working; wholesale buyers usually set a minimum ROI rule first. Margin tells you how much room a listing has to absorb a price drop before profit disappears.
Price periods: current vs. averages
The View menu on the results table lets you run all of this math against different price bases:
- Current: the price right now
- 30d / 90d / 180d avg: the average price over that window
Current price can be spiky. A listing might be at $32 today because two sellers ran out of stock. Buy at that number and your real-world selling price may land closer to the $24 it's averaged for months. Grading against a 90-day or 180-day average asks a more conservative question: would this deal work at the price this listing normally sells for? If a row is profitable on the average and the current price is higher, that's upside. If it's only profitable at a current spike, that's a warning.
The same menu lets you switch the listing basis between Buy Box, FBA, and FBM offers. Your choice of period and listing type is part of the shareable view; see Filters, rules, and shareable views.