Here is an example. Say you sell a plain cotton T-shirt for ₹499 on Amazon and on Flipkart. One order comes in on each site. About a week after delivery, the money reaches your bank. From Amazon, it is about ₹404. Neither site sends you ₹499.
The ₹499 is what the buyer pays. Before any of it reaches you, the marketplace takes its fees, adds GST to those fees, and holds back two small taxes for the government. And the money in your bank is still not your profit, because ₹23.76 of the ₹499 is GST that you owe on the T-shirt itself.
Here is the whole path from ₹499 to your bank, line by line, first on Amazon and then on Flipkart. We have used each site’s published fees as of October 2026.
Amazon: ₹499 becomes ₹404
Since 16 March 2026, Amazon charges no referral fee, its word for commission, on products priced up to ₹1,000 in more than 1,800 categories. Men’s T-shirts are one of them, so this order pays no commission.
That does not make the order free. Amazon charges a closing fee on every item it sells. It also charges a shipping fee, which it calls the weight handling fee, when its couriers deliver the order. Here is the order on Easy Ship, where you pack the parcel and Amazon picks it up and delivers it.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Price the buyer pays | ₹499.00 |
| Referral fee (0% up to ₹1,000) | ₹0.00 |
| Closing fee (Easy Ship, items from ₹301 to ₹500) | −₹23.00 |
| Weight handling fee (first 500 g) | −₹55.00 |
| GST at 18% on the two fees | −₹14.04 |
| TCS (0.5% of the price without GST) | −₹2.38 |
| TDS (0.1% of the price without GST) | −₹0.48 |
| Paid to your bank | ₹404.10 |
These are Amazon’s rates for a new seller, from 7 September 2026. Amazon pays you 7 days after the order is delivered, and sends the money every 7 days. Its fees page has the current rates and a calculator, and the rates change a few times a year.
Other ways of shipping change the numbers. With FBA, Amazon stores your stock in its warehouse, then packs and ships each order. The same T-shirt pays a ₹19 closing fee, ₹17 to pick and pack, and ₹39 for delivery within your region, or ₹65 for delivery to another region. You receive ₹407.64 for an order in your region, and ₹376.96 for one outside it. With Self Ship, Amazon charges only the ₹26 closing fee, so you receive ₹465.46. But you pay your own courier out of that.
The zero commission stops at ₹1,000. Price the same T-shirt at ₹1,099, and Amazon takes 23% of the price as commission. Some products pay commission even below ₹1,000: mobiles, laptops, TVs, many electronics accessories and books. Some beauty products, such as fragrances and face washes, pay no commission only up to ₹500.
Flipkart: no commission, but a fixed fee and courier charges
Flipkart’s fees page says it charges no commission on any product priced below ₹1,000, in any category. Since July 2026, it charges no commission on fashion at any price. So this T-shirt pays no commission on Flipkart either.
Flipkart does charge a fixed fee on every item. The amount depends on your seller tier. Every new seller starts in the Bronze tier, which pays the base rate plus ₹10. Flipkart shows the base rate only inside Seller Hub, so the fixed fee below is an example. Your rate card shows the real one.
The courier charge depends on where the parcel goes. Since May 2024, Flipkart has charged no shipping fee on parcels under 500 g that are delivered in the same city or zone. A parcel that goes to another zone, or weighs more, pays a shipping fee that is shown on your rate card. Here is the T-shirt delivered within its zone.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Price the buyer pays | ₹499.00 |
| Commission (0% below ₹1,000) | ₹0.00 |
| Fixed fee (example for a Bronze seller) | −₹15.00 |
| Shipping fee (under 500 g, same zone) | ₹0.00 |
| GST at 18% on the fee | −₹2.70 |
| TCS (0.5% of the price without GST) | −₹2.38 |
| TDS (0.1% of the price without GST) | −₹0.48 |
| Paid to your bank | ₹478.44 |
If the parcel goes to another zone, take away the shipping fee from your rate card, and 18% GST on it as well. Flipkart says it pays within as little as 7 days of delivery, depending on your tier.
The money that comes back
Three of the deductions in these tables come back to you, as long as you are registered for GST and file your returns on time.
The 18% GST on Amazon’s or Flipkart’s fees is input tax credit. You use it to reduce the GST you pay each month.
The TCS is GST that the marketplace collected and paid to the government in your name. You accept it on the GST portal, and it goes into your electronic cash ledger, where you can use it to pay GST. It is not input tax credit, and it only reaches you if you accept it. The GST portal’s guide to TCS credit shows the steps.
The TDS is income tax deducted in your name. It shows in your tax statement on the income-tax portal, and you claim it in your income tax return.
On the Amazon Easy Ship order, ₹16.90 comes back: ₹14.04 of input tax credit, ₹2.38 of TCS and ₹0.48 of TDS.
What you really keep
The ₹404 in your bank is not your profit. ₹23.76 of the ₹499 is GST on the T-shirt itself, which you still owe the government. Clothing priced up to ₹2,500 a piece has been taxed at 5% since 22 September 2025.
So on the Amazon Easy Ship order, you keep ₹397.24 before the cost of the T-shirt and its packing. That is the price without GST, ₹475.24, minus Amazon’s fees of ₹78. On Flipkart, with our example fixed fee, you keep ₹460.24. Returns, ads, discounts and any cancellation fees come out of what is left. Our guide to cancellation fees explains those.
Three things that change these numbers
The first is the price band. Amazon sets the closing fee by the price the buyer pays, including any delivery charge you add. If you charge ₹40 for delivery, the ₹499 T-shirt becomes ₹539. That puts it in the ₹501 to ₹1,000 band, where the Easy Ship closing fee is ₹48, not ₹23.
The second is the box. Both sites charge more once a parcel weighs more than 500 g. Amazon charges for the real weight or the volumetric weight, whichever is higher. Volumetric weight is length × width × height in centimetres, divided by 5,000. A T-shirt in a 30 × 25 × 5 cm box counts as 750 g, so it pays ₹75 on Easy Ship instead of ₹55. Folded into a 30 × 25 × 3 cm mailer, it counts as 450 g.
The third is a price just above ₹1,000. On Amazon, the 23% commission on a ₹1,099 T-shirt is ₹252.77. On Flipkart, fashion pays no commission at any price. Check each site’s rate before you set a price near ₹1,000.
Where we come in
We onboard and manage sellers on Amazon and Flipkart, so we know where first-time sellers lose money: a price that slips into the next fee band, a box that pushes a parcel past 500 g, and TCS that nobody claims back. Before you set your prices, we work out what each product will actually pay you on each site. We design packs that keep your parcels in the lowest weight slab. Everything runs in your own seller account, and you keep the login. See our onboarding and account management and packaging design work.
We are not your accountant. Your CA files your GST and claims the TCS and TDS. But every line in these tables is a number you can plan for before your first order.
