What the account costs you each month splits in two. Amazon's own deductions sit inside the account, so you read them there and never from an article. The other half is yours to price: management, advertising media, creative, tools, and the traffic channels you never run.
The short version
- One half of the sheet is not yours to set. Confirm inside your own account what Amazon deducted last month, and write it as one line.
- Four lines are yours to choose. Management, advertising media, creative, and tools all move on what you buy next month.
- Management here is priced per product, not per dollar of sales. One product costs $800 a month and three cost $1,500, all 50+ services included, no commission.
- A percentage of sales prices your revenue rather than the work. At $20,000 a month, every point of sales you agree to is $200.
- The channels you skip are missing from most sheets. Sellers run two of the five, so the rest show zero cost and return zero back.
The lines that belong on your monthly sheet
A monthly sheet has two halves, and most sellers build only one. The first half is what Amazon takes, and every figure in it is read inside your own account. The second half is what you choose to buy, and it decides the price.
Take one recent order and last month's statement, then confirm inside your own account what Amazon deducted. No article can hand you that number, because it moves with your product and your month.
The rest is four lines you control, each a decision you can make differently in 30 days. That is what makes them prices rather than costs.
| Monthly line | Where the number comes from | A choice |
|---|---|---|
| What Amazon deducts | confirm inside your own account, on a recent order and last month's statement | no |
| Landed cost per unit | your supplier and your freight, fixed until you reorder | at reorder |
| Advertising media | your budget, about $1,000 a month recommended here, no hard minimum | yes |
| Management | $800 a month for one product, $1,150 for two, $1,500 for three, all services included | yes |
| Creative | inside the fee here, so ask where any other quote puts it | yes |
| Tools and subscriptions | your own list, cancelable this month | yes |
| The channels you do not run | zero out, zero back | yes |
Flapen figures as of September 2026. The first row is yours to confirm, and it sizes everything under it.
The arithmetic at $5K, $20K, and $30K a month
Do the division before you take a call. Three products cost $1,500 a month here. That reads as 30% of a $5,000 month, 7.5% of a $20,000 month, and 5% of a $30,000 month. One product at $800 reads as 16%, 4%, and 2.7%.
At the bottom of that band the arithmetic says no. Nobody selling $5,000 a month should hand 30% of revenue to a manager. Buy management once the fee reads as a single-digit share of the month.
Now price a percentage of sales the same way. At $20,000 a month one point of sales is $200, so the fee is that number multiplied by the points you signed. It rises every month your sales rise, for work that did not change.
A percentage of ad spend prices something else. At $2,000 of media one point of spend is $20 a month, and it climbs with every dollar through the same campaigns. So the model pays a vendor most for the channel your account already runs.
The channels that sit at zero on your sheet
There are five traffic channels: organic, paid, promotions, influencer and creator, and off-channel. Most sellers run two, organic and paid, because that is what the education market teaches. The rest cost nothing on the sheet, which is exactly why they never get priced.
"I'm spending money on ads but don't know if it's working." I hear that from sellers running one to three products at $5K to $30K a month. It is a traffic question rather than a campaign question, because one channel is carrying the work of five.
Put a number next to the ones you skip. A promotion costs margin on every unit it moves. A creator program costs a share of revenue instead of cash upfront, and off-channel traffic costs weeks before it costs dollars.
Write them beside your ad spend and the sheet finally shows what traffic costs.
The same fee covers whichever of the five your product needs here, because every tier includes all 50+ services with no commission. Our 50 operators run about 70 brands by hand from Abu Dhabi, with sourcing in Guangzhou and creative in Dubai. Ask any provider which of the five their price covers.
What a percentage fee will not tell you about your own sheet
The fee model decides who keeps the money a good month produces. Run three months against three shapes and read the columns.
| Your month | Three products at $1,500 flat | Each point of sales | Each point of ad spend at $2,000 of media |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | 30% of revenue | $50 a month | $20 a month |
| $20,000 | 7.5% of revenue | $200 a month | $20 a month |
| $30,000 | 5% of revenue | $300 a month | $20 a month |
Flapen figures as of September 2026. You supply the months and the points, and only the flat column is published.
Read the first money column down, then the second. One falls as a share while you grow, the other rises in dollars for a scope that never moved.
The third column is the strangest. It holds flat against sales and grows against media, so nobody there is paid to open the channels you skip.
Hold Flapen to the same sheet. The fee is flat and per product, the contract runs month to month on 30 days' notice, and you keep the account, the campaigns, and the creative on exit. If the flat column does not beat doing it yourself, do it yourself.
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One free thing to do this week, whether you run one product or three at $5K to $30K a month. Open last month inside your own account and write two totals by hand, everything Amazon deducted and everything you paid outside Amazon.
Then add a line for the traffic channels you did not run, with a zero beside each. Those zeros are your ceiling.
For a written read on that sheet and the campaigns under it, ask for the free audit. Get prioritized fixes back inside 48 hours at no cost from Flapen.
