The four fee buckets
Almost every deduction on a Flipkart order falls into one of these, and then GST is applied on the fees:
- Commission fee: a percentage of the selling price, set by product category (it varies widely — a phone case and a refrigerator are nowhere near the same rate).
- Shipping fee: based on the product’s weight slab and the delivery zone (local, zonal, national). Larger or heavier items cost more, and national shipments cost more than local ones.
- Collection fee: a charge for collecting the payment; cash-on-delivery typically costs more than prepaid.
- Fixed fee: a flat per-order charge that often steps up with the order value band.
How settlement is calculated
Your settlement (the amount that reaches your bank) is the selling price minus the four fees and the GST on them. Returns, SPF (seller protection) adjustments and any penalties are then added or subtracted in the relevant cycle.
Worked example
| Line item | Amount (₹) |
|---|---|
| Selling price | 899 |
| Commission (assume ~12%) | −108 |
| Shipping fee (weight + zone) | −75 |
| Collection fee | −15 |
| Fixed fee | −25 |
| GST on fees (18%) | −40 |
| Settlement to bank | ≈ 636 |
On an ₹899 sale you receive about ₹636 before you have paid for the product itself. Subtract your COGS, packaging and a return provision to find the real profit. If your product cost is ₹400, you are looking at roughly ₹200 net — until a return turns that order into a loss.
Weight slabs: the lever sellers ignore
Shipping is charged by weight slab, not actual grams, and Flipkart uses the higher of dead weight and volumetric (dimensional) weight. A bulky-but-light item can be billed on its box size. Two practical wins:
- Shrink packaging so a borderline parcel drops into the lower slab.
- Check volumetric weight on large, light items — right-sizing the box can cut the shipping fee outright.
Reading your payout like a pro
- Reconcile every order in the settlement file against your own cost sheet, not just the total.
- Watch for return and RTO lines — they appear in a later cycle and are easy to miss.
- Flag any order where commission looks off; category mis-mapping is a common, recoverable error.
- Track fixed-fee bands; nudging a price across a band boundary can change the flat fee.
Rather than reverse-engineer the statement by hand, upload it to the Flipkart profit & loss calculator to see payouts, the tax component and SKU-level margin in one report — and use the price calculator to preview the settlement before you list.