← Amazon FBA vs FBM calculator
Sellers search this after a Shopify or eBay order comes in and the only stock is sitting in FBA. Selling the unit on Amazon pays referral plus the FBA pick fee. Letting Amazon ship the website order — Multi-Channel Fulfillment — skips referral and pays a higher pick fee plus the card you already take on your site.
Open the Amazon FBA calculator, keep your own list price and fee preview, and enter the MCF line and card rate from the accounts you actually use. The table below uses the page defaults: $29.99, 15% referral, large-standard FBA at $4.15, illustrative MCF at $6.55, $8.00 cost of goods, $1.20 inbound, one month of storage, 2.9% + $0.30 card, $4.75 seller label, 80 units, 30% target margin.
On Amazon the unit keeps $10.99 (36.7%) after $4.50 referral and $4.15 FBA. Sold on your site and shipped MCF it keeps $11.92 (39.8%) after $6.55 MCF and $1.17 card — $0.93 more. The $4.50 referral you skip more than covers the $2.40 MCF premium and the card. MCF still matches Amazon until that pick fee reaches about $7.48.
| Path | Price | Fees | Profit | vs Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon FBA | $29.99 | $8.65 | $10.99 | $0.00 |
| Website + MCF | $29.99 | $7.72 | $11.92 | +$0.93 |
| Website + you ship | $29.99 | $1.17 | $14.97 | +$3.98 |
$14.97 assumes the unit is already outside Amazon — a garage stash, a second bin, a supplier drop. Pulling it from FBA first adds a removal fee. Type that line from your preview; the calculator adds it only to you-ship. Amazon ads stay on the Amazon row so a website order is not taxed for PPC you did not run.
If your own label is expensive, MCF can win the whole table. On these defaults a $12 seller-ship cost leaves MCF ahead of both Amazon and you-ship. Rates change by size, speed, and account. This page does not publish Amazon’s live MCF or FBA schedule. Enter the numbers from your current fee preview. The calculator is arithmetic, not advice, and it does not claim a website order will appear or that MCF will arrive on time.
On the calculator example — a $29.99 home listing, 15% referral, large-standard FBA at $4.15, $8 cost of goods, and an illustrative $6.55 MCF fee — Amazon keeps $10.99. The same unit sold on your site and shipped MCF keeps $11.92 after the MCF fee and a 2.9% + $0.30 card. Skipping the $4.50 referral more than covers the extra pick fee and the card. MCF still matches Amazon until the MCF fee reaches about $7.48.
MCF is the pick, pack, and ship fee Amazon charges to send a non-Amazon order from FBA inventory. There is no Amazon referral on that order. You still pay inbound and storage because the unit sat in the warehouse, and you pay your own card processor on the website checkout. The calculator default adds an illustrative premium to the FBA size-tier band. Replace it with the MCF line on your current fee preview.
If the unit is already outside Amazon, you-ship often keeps more: the same example leaves $14.97 after a $4.75 label and the card. That path is not a free pull from FBA. Add the removal fee from your preview when you would un-fulfill the unit first. The calculator does not recommend a sales channel.