The order matters more than the percentages
Three deductions come out of a marketplace sale, and they do not stack neatly. VAT is not yours to begin with. The referral fee is usually calculated on the price the customer paid, tax included. Fulfilment is a flat amount per unit that ignores your price entirely.
Add those three as percentages and you will be wrong in both directions depending on the price point. The only reliable way is to strip VAT first, then subtract everything else from what is left.
One listing, several tax rates
The same product at the same price yields different revenue in different marketplaces, because the VAT baked into the price differs: 19% in Germany, 21% in the Netherlands, 23% in Poland, 25% in Sweden. Six percentage points of VAT is six points off the top before any fee is charged.
This is why a price copied across marketplaces is rarely the right price in all of them.
Returns are a cost line, not an accident
A returned unit does not cost you nothing. The outbound fulfilment fee is spent and not refunded. The return journey is paid by someone, and on most European marketplaces that someone is the seller. The unit comes back to be inspected, repackaged and restocked, or graded as unsellable and disposed of.
Which means the honest unit economics are not “profit per sale” but profit per sale weighted by the return rate. At a 5% return rate the difference is small enough to ignore. In clothing and footwear, where 30–50% is normal, it is the difference between a profitable range and a loss-making one — and it is invisible in every report that shows gross sales.
The practical consequence is that reducing returns usually beats raising prices. Better photographs, honest sizing guidance and accurate descriptions cost once; a return costs on every occurrence.
Fee schedules move, and your prices should move with them
Marketplace fees are not a constant you set once. Referral percentages get revised by category. Fulfilment fees are restated annually and usually rise. Storage rates increase sharply in the final quarter, and aged-inventory surcharges escalate the longer a unit sits.
A price that cleared a comfortable margin when it was set can be marginal two fee revisions later, and nothing in the seller dashboard will point this out. The products most at risk are the ones that sell steadily and never demand attention — precisely the ones nobody reviews.
Recomputing the full stack once or twice a year, on your actual current fees rather than remembered ones, is dull work that reliably finds money. The Amazon FBA calculator and the rest of the tools in this section exist to make that recomputation quick enough that it actually gets done. What each Allegro line item is charged on is set out in Allegro fees explained.
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Frequently asked questions
On most European marketplaces, yes — the referral fee is calculated on what the customer paid, tax included, and often on the delivery charge as well. That is why adding the percentages together gives the wrong answer: strip VAT first, then subtract the fees from what is left.
Because the VAT baked into the price differs — 25% against 19%. Six percentage points come off the top before any fee is charged, which is why a price copied across marketplaces is rarely the right price in all of them.
Not by comparing the FBA fee against postage, which misses most of the cost on both sides. Storage, returns handling and your own picking and packing time belong in the comparison, and the honest figure is profit per sale weighted by the return rate rather than profit per sale. Both sides are laid out in FBA against FBM.
Once or twice a year at minimum, on current fees rather than remembered ones. Referral percentages get revised, fulfilment fees are restated annually, and storage rates rise sharply in the final quarter. Nothing in the seller dashboard warns you when a price stops working.