Amazon account management is the ongoing work of keeping a seller account healthy and its listings selling: watching account health, fixing listings, following up Seller Support cases, checking reimbursements and, often, running ads. An agency does this for a monthly fee, on top of what you pay Amazon. You don't need one to sell on Amazon, and many small sellers manage well on their own. One tends to pay when the account is big enough that a suppressed listing or a health warning costs more than the fee.
What an agency does
- 1Check account healthThe rating, the measures behind it and any policy warnings.
- 2Fix listingsSuppressed listings first, then the products that matter most.
- 3Work the casesOpen what is needed and follow up until it is resolved.
- 4Check the moneyReimbursements against reports, and ad spend against sales.
- 5ReportWhat changed, what is open and what is next.
Account health
This comes first, because everything else depends on the account staying open. Amazon's Account Health Rating runs from 0 to 1,000 and shows your risk of deactivation. Amazon also publishes targets for the measures behind it:
A manager checks these every week, looks at the cause when one moves, and answers policy warnings before they become a bigger problem. Late shipments apply to orders you ship yourself rather than those Amazon ships for you.
Listings
This covers titles, bullet points, images and descriptions written for the searches behind your products and within Amazon's style rules. It also means finding listings that Amazon has suppressed, working out why, and getting them live again, because a suppressed listing can sit unnoticed for days.
Seller Support cases
Opening a case is easy. Following it through a run of replies until it is resolved is what takes the time, and it is a good part of what you are paying for.
Reimbursements
Amazon says it now automatically reimburses items lost in its fulfillment centers, based on the product's manufacturing cost, so filing a claim for each one is no longer the job it was. The work has moved to checking: is your sourcing cost entered correctly, do the reports match what was paid, and has anything been missed? Check the reimbursement policy in your own Seller Central account for the current rules and time limits, since Amazon changes them.
Ads
If it is in scope, this means running Sponsored ads, reviewing search terms and watching what you spend against what you sell. Not every plan includes it, so ask. GigaCommerce's free TACoS calculator shows your ad spend against total sales.
What it costs
Agency fees are on top of Amazon's own. Amazon charges $39.99 a month for a Professional plan, or $0.99 an item on Individual, plus a referral fee on each sale that depends on the category, 15% on Home and Kitchen for example.
Agencies price in different ways: a flat monthly fee, a percentage of sales or ad spend, or both. Ask exactly what the fee is based on, as a percentage can grow quickly. For reference, these are our flat plans, run by GigaCommerce, Gigaverse's commerce team:
| Plan | Monthly | One-time onboarding | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplace Care | $599 | $499 | Up to 50 ASINs |
| Marketplace Care + Ads | $1,499 | $499 | Everything in Marketplace Care, for up to 150 ASINs |
Onboarding is waived on annual billing. See what each plan includes.
| Monthly management fee (example) | $600 |
| Your margin per unit after Amazon's fees (example) | $8 |
| Extra units a month to cover the fee | 75 |
Do you need one?
Probably not yet if you have a few products, your health measures are comfortably inside the targets and you enjoy the work. Consider one when:
- You are finding out about problems late, after sales have dropped.
- Cases and listing fixes are taking time away from sourcing and product work.
- You have had a health warning you were not sure how to answer.
- Ad spend is growing and nobody is reviewing it properly.
How to choose one
- What exactly do you do each week, and what isn't included?
- Is the fee flat, or a percentage of sales or ad spend?
- How many products does the fee cover?
- What access do you need? (Never your main login)
- How long is the contract, and what is the notice period?
- Who owns the ad account history and listing content if we leave?
- What will you report, and how often?
- Do you promise sales? (Be careful if they do)
Never share your main login. Add a manager as a user with only the permissions they need, so you can remove them at any time. If you would like a second opinion before deciding, our free audit looks at your account health, top listings and anything suppressed. Selling on your own website as well? Read what Shopify maintenance costs.
