Originally published Septemebr 23, 2022
Last updated May 28th, 2025
Amazon fees are high, any seller will tell you.
Whether you're running an Amazon FBA business or just starting out, understanding how fulfillment fees affect profit margins is essential.
If you sell products that are on the smaller side, Amazon will end up charging so much to fulfill your orders that you will end up not making any money, unless you charge your customers $11 for a pair of tweezers.
Amazon is aware of this problem, so to fix it, they have the FBA Small and Light program, which is designed for sellers that provide smaller products with lower fulfillment costs so that they can actually sell their products and still make a profit.
This specialized Amazon fulfillment program is ideal for low-cost, light items that meet specific eligibility requirements and can benefit from optimized fees.
In this post we’ll go over the Small and Light program and all the important details you need to know to see if your products qualify and if it’s worth enrolling in.
What is Amazon’s FBA Small & Light Program?
FBA Small and Light is a special fulfillment program for products that are light in weight and small in size that qualify for lower fulfillment costs from Amazon.
This version of Fulfillment by Amazon is particularly helpful for ecommerce businesses aiming to increase sales without sacrificing profitability on low-ticket items
Which products qualify for Small & Light?
To know if your particular product qualifies it must:
- The weight is under 3 lbs.
- Priced under $10
- The dimensions of the product are smaller than 18 x 14 x 8 inches
- New products only
You can read specific product packaging guidelines on Amazon.
Amazon Seller Central provides a detailed step-by-step template for checking your SKU or ASIN eligibility.
What makes a small and light purchase different to shoppers?
In the past, small and light products had to be purchased alongside other products or else Amazon wouldn’t ship them.
They’ve since removed that requirement, so the biggest weakness of Small & Light products is essentially gone.
Since any disadvantage of a qualifying small product is effectively gone, if you have products that do qualify for Small & Light, you should be taking advantage.
Prime customers will still see the Prime badge on Small & Light products, even with slightly longer delivery windows of 4–5 business days.
Enrolling and Sending Small & Light Products to Amazon
If you have products that would qualify for the Small & Light program, then enrolling those products and sending them to Amazon has an added layer of complexity, but nothing crazy.
Rather than list the steps here, Amazon has a great guide for prepping Small & Light products that you can follow for your products.
To enroll your products, log in to Amazon Seller Central and follow the FBA Small and Light program submission form under the fulfillment settings tab.
Some common things to look out for that differ from usual sending of products to FBA:
- Errors in designating your MSKU properly can get your product pulled
- Improper weight and dimension listing can get your product pulled
- Price raises can get your product removed from the program automatically
- You must send 24 units minimum to FBA warehouses in a shipment
If you want some guidelines for packing your products, Amazon also has a guide on that.
Use the FBA calculator before enrolling to compare standard FBA vs Small & Light fees and determine your profitability.
Pros of the Small & Light Program
- Offer lower prices to customers due to lower fulfillment costs from Amazon
- Get a free 5% discount bonus from Amazon for certain products when customers by 2 or more in a single order
- Still considered “Prime” products
The program can help new sellers, dropshipping businesses, or low-price FBA brands optimize SKU performance without inflating storage fees.
Cons of the Small & Light Program
- Longer fulfillment time than usual Prime products
- Easy to get your products automatically removed from the program
- More strict Send to FBA rules
- Even with the discounts from Amazon, sub-$10 products are hard to build a business off of
If your product is temperature-sensitive or considered dangerous goods, it may not qualify under the light program.
Conclusion
In the end, there’s not many downsides to avoiding the Small and Light program, if you sell small and inexpensive products, this is something you definitely want to utilize.
From referral fees to fba fulfillment fees, managing cost structures is crucial for any Amazon seller looking to scale an ecommerce business sustainably.
Leverage this low-cost, low-price FBA strategy to get better margins and reduce fulfillment headaches in your Amazon selling journey.
