Overview

Amazon charges sellers fees for running promotional deals such as Lightning Deals and Best Deals through its merchandising platform. Understanding these fees is essential for any seller considering time-bound promotions, as the costs can significantly impact profit margins on discounted inventory.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Every deal incurs a fee — Each Lightning Deal or Best Deal you submit and run will be charged a fee, regardless of how well the promotion performs.
• Fees are charged after the deal runs — You won't pay upfront, but the fee is processed once your deal has run on its scheduled date and time.
• Canceling a running deal still costs you — If you cancel a deal while it is actively running, you'll be charged the full fee. However, canceling before the scheduled start time incurs no charge.
• No refunds for poor performance or returns — Amazon does not guarantee sales from deals and will not refund fees if the promotion underperforms or if customers return purchased items.
• Stacking promotions means stacking fees — Running multiple promotion types simultaneously (such as a Lightning Deal and a coupon) will result in separate fees for each promotion type.

How Deal Fees Are Structured

Amazon's deal fee structure varies depending on the type of promotion. For standard deals running multiple days, there are two fee components: a daily fee of $70 per day and a variable fee of 1.0% of deal sales, with the variable portion capped at $2,000. The variable fee is calculated based on the price the customer actually paid after any deal redemption. This means your total fee depends on both the duration of your deal and the sales volume it generates.

For special promotional events, Amazon charges a single flat fee regardless of deal performance. These flat rates vary by event. As of 2025, the flat fee is $1,000 for major promotional events and $500 for smaller ones. Sellers should factor these costs into their promotional planning, especially since the daily fee applies even if the deal produces zero sales.

Fee Examples in Practice

To illustrate how fees add up, consider a 14-day deal that generates $4,200 in sales. The daily fee would be $980 (14 days at $70), plus a variable fee of $42 (1.0% of $4,200), bringing the total to $1,022. A shorter 3-day deal generating $900 in sales would cost $210 in daily fees plus $9 in variable fees, totaling $219. For high-volume sellers, the cap provides some relief — a 14-day deal generating $250,000 in sales would still only incur a $2,000 variable fee (rather than $2,500), making the total $2,980.