Noon fees by category: the commission tier breakdown 2026

Your product is listed. Your title is optimised. You have spent weeks getting images right. Then the settlement report lands in your email, and the math does not add up. The price you set and the money that hits your bank account are two completely different numbers.

This is not a bug. It is Noon's fee structure. And unless you understand exactly how Noon fees and commission tiers work across categories, you will spend months watching margin disappear into a black box.

By the end of this post, you will know precisely how Noon calculates what it takes from each sale, how commission tiers differ by category, and where most sellers are leaving money on the table.

How Noon fees really work: the full picture

Noon does not charge one flat commission rate. It charges different rates depending on what you are selling, whether you use FBN (Fulfillment by Noon) or FBPI (Fulfillment by Partner Integrated), and which country you are selling in. The settlement report is where the truth lives, but most sellers never actually read it.

Here is what happens when you make a sale:

1. A customer buys your product at the listed price.
2. Noon takes its commission (the percentage varies by category).
3. Noon deducts payment processing fees (typically a small percentage).
4. If you use FBN, Noon deducts fulfilment fees and storage fees.
5. If you use FBPI, you pay your own fulfilment costs, but Noon still takes a small referral fee on top of the category commission.
6. After returns and refunds, the remaining amount lands in your account.

The category commission is the biggest hit. A SAR 100 product in Electronics might see a 15% commission (SAR 15 gone), whilst a SAR 100 product in Fashion might be 20% or higher. The difference is not small. Over 1,000 units, that is SAR 5,000 in margin you either keep or lose.

Most sellers price their products without accounting for this. They think "I will list it at SAR 100 and make my target margin," but they have not actually calculated what Noon takes. Then they wonder why their profit-per-unit is half what they expected.

The commission tier myth

Many sellers believe Noon has "tiers" where your commission rate drops once you hit a sales threshold. This is not how it works. Your commission rate is determined by your category, not by your volume. A new seller and a veteran seller in the same category pay the same percentage. There is no volume discount.

What does change is your eligibility for Noon's "Featured Offer" badge, which improves visibility. But that is visibility, not a fee reduction.

Understanding Noon fees across categories

Noon groups its marketplace into categories, and each category has its own commission rate. The rates are not published in a single table on Noon's website, which is part of the problem. You find them buried in your seller dashboard or by reading your settlement report line-by-line.

Here is what we know about how categories are structured:

High-commission categories (typically 15-25% or higher):

• Fashion and apparel
• Beauty and personal care
• Jewellery and accessories
• Some home and kitchen items

Mid-commission categories (typically 10-15%):

• Electronics and mobile phones
• Sports and outdoors
• Toys and games
• Books and media

Lower-commission categories (typically 5-10%):

• Grocery and fresh food (varies by sub-category)
• Home improvement
• Some automotive parts

The reason for these differences is partly about Noon's own costs (high-touch categories like fashion have more returns and customer service overhead) and partly about market dynamics (luxury goods can sustain higher fees because margins are built in).

But here is the critical point: do not assume your category rate based on this list. The only truth is your settlement report. Every line item shows the commission percentage applied to that specific order. If you are selling in multiple categories, pull your last three months of settlements and calculate the actual average commission rate per category. You might be surprised.

The settlement report is your real teacher

Your Noon seller dashboard shows your account balance, but your settlement report shows your actual fees. Every week or month (depending on your agreement), Noon emails you a detailed breakdown:

• Order value
• Commission deducted
• Payment processing fee
• Refund deductions
• FBN fulfilment fee (if applicable)
• FBN storage fee (if applicable)
• Net amount to your account

Most sellers glance at the "net amount" and move on. That is a mistake. The settlement report is a map of where your margin is going. If you spend 10 minutes reading it properly, you will see patterns. You will notice that one product category is eating 22% in fees whilst another is only 8%. You will see that your storage fees are climbing every month because inventory is not moving. You will spot refunds that are dragging down your net profit on an otherwise successful SKU.

This is where tools like SKUmargin help. Instead of manually parsing settlement reports, you can upload your Noon data and see, in a single dashboard, which SKUs are actually profitable after all fees, COGS, returns, and ad spend are accounted for. You see the real profit per unit, not the gross margin. That changes how you make decisions.

Breaking down Noon fees: the component parts

When you look at your settlement, you are seeing several fee types. Let us separate them.

Category commission

This is Noon's cut for hosting your product, handling the transaction, and managing the customer relationship. It is a percentage of the order value (or sometimes the discounted value, depending on how Noon is configured that month). There is no way to avoid this. It is the cost of selling on Noon.

Example: You sell an AED 150 dress in the UAE on Noon. If the Fashion category commission is 20%, Noon takes AED 30. Your net is AED 120 before other fees.

Payment processing fee

This is typically 1-3% of the order value, depending on the payment method. A credit card purchase costs more to process than a bank transfer. Noon absorbs some of this and passes some to sellers. It is usually small but adds up over thousands of orders.

FBN fulfilment fee

If you use FBN, Noon picks, packs, and ships your order. The fee varies by product weight and dimensions. A light item (under 500g) might be AED 8-12 per order. A heavier item (2kg) might be AED 20-30. This fee is deducted per order, so it scales with volume.

Example: You sell 100 units of a 400g gadget per month on FBN. At AED 10 per order, that is AED 1,000 in fulfilment fees monthly. That is AED 12,000 per year. If your gross margin per unit is only AED 25, fulfilment fees are eating half your profit.

FBN storage fee

If you store inventory in Noon's warehouse, you pay a monthly storage fee per cubic metre or per pallet. The rate depends on the country and season. Storage fees are calculated monthly, typically on the last day of the month based on units in stock. If you send 500 units to the warehouse and only sell 100, you pay storage on the remaining 400 for the next month.

This is where many sellers bleed money silently. A product that seemed profitable at AED 80 selling price and AED 45 COGS looks terrible when you add AED 8 in category commission, AED 1 in payment processing, AED 10 in fulfilment, and AED 4 in storage (allocated across the month). Your actual net per unit is now AED 12. Your gross margin was 44%, but your net is 15%.

FBPI referral fee

If you use FBPI (you handle your own fulfilment), Noon still takes a referral fee on top of the category commission. This is typically 2-5% additional. So a 15% category commission becomes 17-20% total. You save the fulfilment and storage fees, but you pay a higher overall fee and you manage logistics yourself.

The trade-off: FBPI gives you control and cash flow (you get paid faster), but it requires you to manage warehousing, shipping, and returns. FBN is simpler operationally but ties up capital and can create storage-fee problems if inventory does not move.

Advanced: calculating your real cost per sale

Here is where most sellers go wrong. They calculate their margin as: (Selling Price - COGS) / Selling Price. That is gross margin. It is not real margin.

Real margin is: (Selling Price - COGS - All Noon Fees - Ad Spend - Returns Impact) / Selling Price.

Let us work through a concrete example. You sell a SAR 200 kitchen gadget in KSA on FBN.

• Selling price: SAR 200
• COGS: SAR 70
• Gross margin: 65%
• Category commission (let us say Electronics at 12%): SAR 24
• Payment processing (2%): SAR 4
• FBN fulfilment fee: SAR 15
• FBN storage fee (allocated): SAR 3
• Average refund rate (5% of orders): SAR 10
• Total fees and impacts: SAR 56
• Real net per unit: SAR 74
• Real margin: 37%

Your gross margin looked like 65%. Your real margin is 37%. That is a massive difference. And if you are running ads (say, SAR 30 per sale for a 10% ACoS), your real net drops to SAR 44, or 22% margin.

This is why understanding Noon fees is not an accounting exercise. It directly affects which products you can profitably sell and which ones you should not bother with.

Where most sellers lose money on Noon fees

Selling in the wrong category

Some sellers list a product in a high-commission category when it could fit a lower-commission category. For instance, a wooden utensil might be listed in "Kitchen & Dining" (high commission) instead of "Home Improvement" (lower commission). Noon's category assignment is not always obvious, and sellers do not always explore alternatives.

Action: Before you list a new product, check where competitors are listing similar items. If you see the same type of product in two different categories on Noon, calculate the fee difference. If it is more than 5 percentage points, consider which category makes sense for your product and your business.

Not monitoring storage fees

FBN storage fees are invisible until you read your settlement. A seller sends 1,000 units to the warehouse in month one, sells 200, and thinks nothing of it. In month two, they are paying storage on 800 units they have not sold yet. By month four, they are paying storage on 500 units that are not moving at all. Over six months, storage fees can exceed the profit on those units.

Action: Set a monthly reminder to check your FBN inventory report. Calculate your storage cost per unit per month. If a SKU has been in stock for more than 90 days with fewer than 10 sales, consider a price cut or a promotional campaign to move it. Storage fees are a sunk cost, but you can still prevent future waste.

Ignoring the settlement report

Many sellers never actually read their settlement report. They see the bank deposit and assume everything is fine. But the report shows you exactly where your margin is going. If you spend 30 minutes per month reading it, you will find patterns and opportunities.

Example: You might notice that your average commission in Category A is 18%, but one product in Category A has a 22% commission applied. That could indicate a sub-category assignment issue, or it could be a pricing-based fee (some Noon categories charge higher commissions on higher-priced items). Either way, you would not know unless you read the report.

Mispricing for FBPI

FBPI sellers sometimes price as if they have no fulfilment costs, forgetting that Noon still takes a higher referral fee. If you are FBPI and you price the same as an FBN competitor, you will lose margin because your total Noon fees are higher (no storage fees, but higher referral percentage). You need to either price higher or accept lower net margin.

Not accounting for refunds in your margin math

Every category has an average refund rate. Fashion is often 10-15%. Electronics is 5-8%. If you do not factor this into your pricing, you are already losing money on every 10th or 15th sale in fashion. Your settlement report shows this as "Refund Deductions." Most sellers see it as a line item and move on. Smart sellers use it to inform their pricing strategy.

The advanced play: using Noon fees as a competitive advantage

Here is where it gets interesting. Most sellers see Noon fees as a fixed cost they have to accept. But savvy sellers use fee structure to their advantage.

Exploit category arbitrage

If a product can legitimately fit in two categories, list it in both (if Noon allows) or test it in the lower-fee category first. If it sells, you have found a fee advantage. Over 1,000 units, a 5-point fee difference is AED 5,000 in margin.

Use FBPI for high-velocity, low-touch SKUs

If you have a product that sells 50+ units per month with minimal returns, FBPI might be cheaper than FBN when you factor in storage fees. You handle fulfilment yourself (or use a 3PL), pay the higher referral fee, but avoid storage costs. The math works if your volume is high and your inventory turns fast.

Price strategically around fee tiers

Some Noon categories have different commission rates at different price points. A SAR 50 item might be 15% commission, but a SAR 100 item might be 18%. If your COGS allows, price in the lower-fee band. The price difference to the customer might be small, but the fee savings are real.

Negotiate with Noon if you are a high-volume seller

If you are moving significant volume (thousands of units per month across multiple SKUs), Noon may be willing to negotiate your category commission rates. They do not advertise this, but it happens. You need to be at a scale where you are worth the conversation, and you need to have data showing your performance and reliability.

Common questions about Noon fees

Q: Does Noon charge different fees for different countries (UAE, KSA, Egypt)?

Yes. The commission rates can differ by country, and the FBN fulfilment fees definitely differ. A product might be 15% commission in UAE but 16% in KSA. Always check the settlement for the specific country.

Q: If I offer a discount or a promotion, does Noon's commission apply to the discounted price or the original price?

This depends on how the discount is structured. Check your settlement report. If you offer a discount through Noon's platform, the commission is typically applied to the final price the customer pays, not the original price. If you offer an external discount code, the commission might be on the original price. Read your settlement to confirm.

Q: Are there any Noon fees that do not show up in the settlement report?

Noon's fees are supposed to be transparent in the settlement report. However, some costs are indirect. For instance, if you run ads on Noon, the ad spend is separate from the settlement report (you pay that directly). Also, if you have chargebacks or disputes, Noon may deduct those separately. Always cross-reference your settlement with your ad spend and account balance.

Q: Can I negotiate Noon fees?

Category commission rates are generally fixed. However, if you are a high-volume seller or a preferred partner, Noon may negotiate. You can also optimise your fee structure by choosing the right fulfilment method (FBN vs FBPI) and managing your inventory to avoid excess storage fees.

Putting it all together: your action plan

Understanding Noon fees is not just about knowing the numbers. It is about making better business decisions.

Start here:

1. Pull your last three months of settlement reports. Calculate your average commission rate per category. Compare it to what you expected.

2. Identify your highest-fee products. Which SKUs are you selling in high-commission categories? Could any of them fit in lower-commission categories?

3. Calculate your real margin per SKU. Use the formula: (Selling Price - COGS - All Noon Fees - Ad Spend) / Selling Price. You might be shocked.

4. Audit your FBN storage. If you are using FBN, check which products have been in stock for more than 90 days. Calculate the storage cost per unit. If it is eating your margin, price down or delist.

5. Test FBPI for high-velocity products. If you have SKUs that sell 30+ units per month with low return rates, calculate whether FBPI would be cheaper than FBN when storage fees are factored in.

6. Use a tool to track it all. Manually calculating fees across dozens of SKUs is tedious and error-prone. A tool like SKUmargin pulls your Noon settlement data and shows you real profit per SKU after all fees, returns, and ad spend. You can see at a glance which products are actually making money and which ones are slowly bleeding margin.

The sellers who win on Noon are not the ones with the cheapest products. They are the ones who understand their fees, price accordingly, and make inventory decisions based on real data, not assumptions.

Your settlement report is telling a story. The question is whether you are reading it.