Most sellers who come to Onlihub arrive with the same instinct. The units are stuck, the storage fees are real, and whatever comes back should be as close to full price as possible. That instinct is reasonable, and it is also the quickest way to end up with a catalog full of products that never sell.
The reason is simple. A recovery amount is not a retail price. It is the portion of the sale that comes back to you, and it sits inside a transaction with other people in it. A retailer has to find the customer, take the order, and earn something for doing it. If your number leaves no room for that, the retailer has no reason to list the product, and a product nobody lists recovers nothing.
This guide is for sellers who are close to trying Onlihub and want a practical answer to a narrow question: what FBA recovery amount should I set? It explains what the amount means, why 20 to 30 percent of retail is the usual starting range, how the math works at different levels, and how to adjust once real orders start arriving. If you are weighing slow moving FBA inventory recovery against other exits, it also shows how to compare the numbers honestly.
| Quick answer: Start at 20 percent of the retail price, which is Onlihub’s default and the level it recommends for the best sell through rate. Amazon’s integration page advises keeping the recovery amount under 30 percent, and Onlihub’s help center says it can be set up to 30 percent. Raise it only for products with clear demand, and lower it only when inventory age or storage fees make speed more valuable than margin. Set it per SKU, test a few products first, and change one group at a time. |
What a Recovery Amount Means
When you enroll a product in Onlihub, you set its recovery amount, which is the sum you want to get back per unit sold. Whatever amount you set is exactly what you receive on every sale. Onlihub’s help article on how much you can recover describes it as your decision. It is also called the Onlihub recovery floor, because it is the lowest amount you are willing to accept for a unit, and the price the customer pays is built on top of it.
Three details are worth fixing in your mind before you choose a number.
It is set per SKU
Every enrolled product has its own recovery amount per SKU. A fast aging, high value item and a low value item that still sells on Amazon should not share a number. Treating the amount as a setting for each product, and not a policy for your whole catalog, is where most of the value in this process comes from.
It is a share of the retail price
The amount is expressed against the retail price recorded for the product. Twenty percent of a 30 dollar product is 6 dollars. Because the percentage is tied to that retail price, it is worth checking that the price on the product is accurate before you set anything. The product page in your Onlihub dashboard lets you edit both the retail price and the recovery amount, as described in the article on how to edit a product.
It is not the price the customer pays
Independent retailers choose products from the network and set their own selling prices above your recovery amount. The difference funds everything else in the sale: Onlihub’s 10 percent commission, which is built into the retailer’s price on top of your recovery amount and the MCF fee, and the retailer’s own margin for finding the customer. You receive the full amount you set, with no deduction from your payout and no separate bill.
Why the Retailer Needs Room
Amazon inventory recovery through a retailer network works only if both sides can make it work. Understanding what the retailer is paying for makes the right range easier to see.
| Who | What they need from the sale | What happens if the numbers do not work |
| You, the seller | Capital back per unit, ahead of further storage fees | Stock keeps aging in FBA and costs more each month |
| The retailer | A selling price that covers your recovery amount and Onlihub’s commission, with a margin for the work of finding the customer | The product is not worth listing, or it is listed at a price customers will not pay |
| Amazon MCF | The fulfillment fee, billed to your account when the order ships | Covered by the order. The fee is included in the price the retailer pays and recovered from the end customer as a shipping charge |
| The customer | A fair price for a branded product delivered by Amazon | They buy elsewhere |
Notice that the MCF fee is not part of the tension. Onlihub’s help center explains that the fee is included in the price the retailer pays, recovered from the customer as a shipping charge, and paid back to you together with your recovery amount, so it does not come out of your pocket. The decision that is yours is how much of the product price you claim. The more you claim, the smaller the share left for the commission and the retailer’s margin.
The 20 to 30 Percent Range as a Starting Point
Two sources give the useful guidance. Onlihub sets the default at 20 percent of the retail price and recommends it for the best sell through rate. Amazon’s Onlihub integration page advises keeping the recovery amount under 30 percent, and Onlihub’s help center says it can be set up to 30 percent. Read together, they describe a working range of roughly 20 to 30 percent of retail, with 20 as the place to begin.
The range tends to balance the two sides for a practical reason. At 20 percent, the seller recovers a meaningful share of retail on every unit, and the remaining 80 percent of the price leaves room for the commission, the retailer’s margin, and the customer’s expectation of a fair deal. As the percentage moves toward 30, the seller’s share rises, and the room for everyone else shrinks. Past 30 percent the retailer has to charge noticeably more or accept a thin margin, and many retailers will choose a different product.
These figures are guidance, not a formula. Neither Onlihub nor Amazon publishes a guarantee that a given percentage will sell, because sell through also depends on the product, its brand strength, its competing price on Amazon, and the season. Treat 20 percent as a tested starting point, and let your own results move you from there.
Example Math: A 30 Dollar Product at 20, 25, and 30 Percent
Numbers make the trade off concrete. Take a product with a retail price of 30 dollars and three possible recovery amounts.
What each recovery amount returns per unit
| Recovery amount | You receive per unit | Per 100 units sold | Sell through needed to match 20 percent |
| 20 percent (default) | 6.00 dollars | 600 dollars | Baseline |
| 25 percent | 7.50 dollars | 750 dollars | 80 units out of 100, or 80 percent as many |
| 30 percent | 9.00 dollars | 900 dollars | About 67 units out of 100, or two thirds as many |
The last column is simple division: 6.00 divided by 7.50 is 0.80, and 6.00 divided by 9.00 is 0.67. The figures are an illustration of the arithmetic, not a forecast.
The last column is the part sellers tend to skip. A higher recovery amount pays more per unit, but it only wins if sell through holds up. If raising the amount from 20 to 30 percent cuts the number of units sold by more than a third, you recover less in total than you would have at the default. If it cuts sales by less than a third, you recover more. Nobody can tell you in advance which side of that line a particular product falls on, which is why a small test beats a guess.
Compare the number with liquidation, not with full retail
It is natural to compare a recovery amount with the price the product once sold for, and the comparison always looks disappointing. The honest comparison is with the alternatives you actually have. Liquidation typically returns a small fraction of retail value after fees, and the exact figure depends on the product and the buyer, so ask for a real quote before you decide. Our comparison of four exit paths sets recovery next to discounting, removal, and liquidation. A recovery amount does not need to approach retail. It needs to beat what you would net from the other routes, after the cost of waiting.
That is the logic behind looking at recovery as an FBA liquidation alternative. If a floor of 20 percent returns several times what a liquidation quote offers, even a partial sell through can put you ahead. If the quote is close to your floor, speed may matter more than the difference.
Add up the cost of waiting
Waiting is the third comparison, and it is the one most often left out. Units in FBA pay monthly storage fees, and units aged 181 days or more pay an aged inventory surcharge on top, with higher rates as the age increases. The table below uses the 2026 surcharge rates per cubic foot and the off peak base storage fee of 0.78 dollars per cubic foot to estimate the cost of one unit that occupies 0.1 cubic foot, held for each 30 day band between day 181 and day 365. Our guide to the 181 day rule explains the tiers in more detail.
| Age of the unit | Surcharge per cubic foot | Base fee per cubic foot | Cost per unit for the band |
| 181 to 210 days | 0.50 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.13 dollars |
| 211 to 240 days | 1.00 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.18 dollars |
| 241 to 270 days | 1.50 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.23 dollars |
| 271 to 300 days | 5.45 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.62 dollars |
| 301 to 330 days | 5.70 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.65 dollars |
| 331 to 365 days | 5.90 dollars | 0.78 dollars | 0.67 dollars |
Illustration for a unit of 0.1 cubic foot at the off peak base fee. The fourth quarter base fee is higher, and some categories, including clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry, and watches, are excluded from the first three tiers. Check Seller Central for the rates that apply to your products.
Add the six bands together and one unit costs about 2.47 dollars to hold from day 181 to day 365, and about 1.94 dollars of that arrives from day 271 onward. Against a 6 dollar recovery amount, that is roughly 40 percent of the value, spent on storage if the unit does not sell. This is why storage pressure should shape the recovery amount. A unit that has just crossed 181 days can afford to wait for a better price. A unit approaching 271 days has a cost curve that is about to steepen.
To run the same arithmetic for your own products, use the Onlihub storage fee calculator. It takes a product’s size and age and estimates the carrying cost.
How to Choose a Starting Recovery Amount for Each SKU
A single percentage for every product is easy to set and rarely right. A few questions help you tailor the starting point.
| Situation | Suggested starting point | Reasoning |
| Strong brand, healthy demand, under 181 days | 20 to 25 percent | The product can still find buyers, so protect value without crowding the retailer |
| Recognized brand, slowing, 181 to 270 days | 20 percent | Default balances recovery and movement while the surcharge is still moderate |
| Aging past 270 days, steeper fees ahead | 20 percent, with room to lower | Time is working against you, so favor movement |
| High retail value | 20 to 30 percent | Retailers have more room in the price, so a higher share can still leave a margin |
| Low retail value | 20 percent or less | The fixed costs in the sale take a larger share of a small price |
| Uncertain demand | 20 percent | Use the default until the market tells you more |
These are starting suggestions based on how the pieces of the sale fit together, not performance guarantees.
Whatever the starting number, begin with a handful of products. Onlihub’s help center confirms you can enroll a few SKUs, watch how they perform, and expand when you are comfortable, as covered in can I test with a few products.
Common Mistakes When Setting a Recovery Amount
Setting the amount too high
The most frequent error is anchoring on what the product used to earn. A high number protects your pride more than your capital. If the retailer cannot list the product at a price customers accept, the product sits, and you pay storage on units that were supposed to be moving.
Ignoring the urgency of storage fees
A unit that is 120 days old and a unit that is 260 days old do not deserve the same patience. The second one is a few weeks away from the steepest part of the surcharge curve. If age is already high, a lower amount that moves stock is worth more than a higher amount that does not.
Comparing recovery with full retail
A recovery amount will always look small next to the price on the shelf. The right comparison is with liquidation, with the net of a discount campaign, and with the cost of holding the units another six months.
Forgetting the retailer’s margin
Retailers are businesses. They list products that leave room to earn. A recovery amount that squeezes the price leaves them with a choice between a thin margin and a different product, and many pick the different product.
Using one number for the whole catalog
Different products have different retail values, ages, and demand. A setting that suits one product can strangle another. Set each SKU on its own merits.
Changing everything at once
If you adjust twenty products on the same day, you cannot tell which change made the difference. Move one group at a time and wait for evidence.
How to Adjust Your Recovery Amount Over Time
The first number is a hypothesis, and the first few weeks are the test. A short routine keeps the adjustments disciplined.
Start with a reasonable floor
Enroll a few SKUs at the default or at the level your table above suggests. Resist the urge to optimize before there is any data.
Give the number time to work
Retailers need time to discover a product, and statements are issued every three weeks. Allow at least one or two statement cycles before you judge a SKU, and longer for products with small retailer audiences.
Read the signals
Look at which products sell, which ones draw no orders, and how quickly each moves. A product with steady orders at 20 percent is a candidate to hold or to raise slightly. A product with none after a fair period is telling you the price, the demand, or the fit is wrong.
Lower only when age or storage demands it
The case for lowering the amount is not that it feels slow. It is that the carrying cost has become larger than the margin you are protecting. When units are approaching the older age tiers, trading some recovery for movement usually pays. When they are young and demand is real, patience costs less.
Change one group at a time
When you do adjust, change a small set of products so that you can see the effect. The recovery amount, retail price, and sale controls are all editable from the product page, as described in how to edit a product. If a product still does not move, pausing it or considering another exit is a sound decision, not a failure.
A Short Setup Checklist
| Step | What to do |
| 1 | Connect your Amazon Supply Chain account and wait for your FBA catalog to import |
| 2 | Choose a small group of stagnant SKUs, favoring branded products with remaining demand and enough retail value |
| 3 | Check that the retail price on each product is accurate |
| 4 | Set the recovery amount per SKU, starting at 20 percent unless the table above points elsewhere |
| 5 | Review sales after one or two statement cycles, then adjust one group at a time |
| 6 | Expand to more SKUs once you understand how your products behave |
Set a Number You Can Test
The right recovery amount is not the highest one you can defend. It is the one that gives retailers enough room to sell while bringing your capital back faster than waiting would. Start at the default, test a few products, watch the results, and let evidence move the number.
Connect your Amazon account, choose stagnant SKUs, and set a recovery amount that gives retailers room to sell while helping you recover capital. Create your Onlihub supplier account to begin.
About Onlihub
Onlihub connects Amazon FBA sellers who have slow moving inventory with independent online stores. Stores sell the products, Amazon Multi Channel Fulfillment ships each order from existing FBA stock, and sellers receive the recovery amount they set for every unit sold. Onlihub is an independent company and is listed as an integration on Amazon Supply Chain Services.
