Amazon Local Selling lets you list products to shoppers inside a delivery area you draw yourself — down to the zip code — and fulfill those orders out of your own local stock instead of an Amazon fulfillment center. On fees, Amazon’s program page is unambiguous: “There are no additional fees to participate in Local Selling. You’ll continue paying a category referral fee per unit sold and a Professional selling plan fee.” (sell.amazon.com/programs/local-selling, data checked 2026-08-22.)
That one sentence is the reason this program is worth a look for anyone already holding inventory in a warehouse, showroom, or store. It is also the part most third-party write-ups get muddled, alongside two numbers — a “25-mile radius” and “90-minute pickup” — that do not appear anywhere on Amazon’s program page as of 2026-08-22. This guide sticks to what the official page actually says.
What Amazon Local Selling Actually Is
Local Selling is a listing-and-fulfillment arrangement, not a separate marketplace. Your offers stay in the normal Amazon store; what changes is who can see them and who moves the box.
Two things define it:
- You define the area. Amazon’s page describes local delivery as letting you “list selection only available to customers within a delivery area you define, down to the zip code level.” So the geographic unit is the zip code, not a radius in miles.
- You promise speed from local stock. The page states you can “Ship in as fast as 1-2 days in an area defined down to the zip-code.” Note the hedge — as fast as is a ceiling, not a guarantee Amazon makes on your behalf.
This is a fit for bulky, heavy, or fragile goods that are painful to send through FBA; for sellers with regional showrooms; and for categories where installation or in-home work is part of the sale. It is a poor fit for small, light, nationally shippable items, where standard FBA or FBM economics almost always win.
Who Qualifies for Amazon Local Selling
Eligibility splits by which mode you want.
For the two delivery modes, the gate is operational: you need real inventory positioned near the customers you intend to serve, and either an integrated Amazon shipping partner or your own delivery capability. Amazon does not publish a hard revenue floor or category whitelist for these on the program page.
For the services mode, read the status line before the gate: the “What you can offer customers” summary box on the same program page labels Delivery and Services “Coming soon”, while the FAQ further down the page already spells out its application, eligibility, licensing, and technician requirements as if it were open. Both statements are on sell.amazon.com/programs/local-selling as of 2026-08-22; treat the page’s state on the day you apply as authoritative. The gate the FAQ describes is explicit and narrow. Amazon writes: “We have created an application to help evaluate your services infrastructure as it relates to our performance standards. Currently, only sellers who sell products and services related to furniture are eligible.”
Two further requirements apply once services are in play:
- Licensing. “For licensed services, you must also hold and provide to Amazon the appropriate jurisdictional trade licenses, registrations, and certifications according to the city and state laws of your account-coverage areas.” That is a per-jurisdiction obligation — expanding your coverage area expands your paperwork.
- Technician vetting. “All in-home technicians must be added to your Seller Central account and include a headshot. All in-home technicians must also complete and pass Amazon’s background check, and you must assign a technician to every service order.”
The last clause is the one that bites operationally: every service order needs a named, cleared technician assigned to it. Crews that rotate or subcontract informally will not survive that requirement.
All quotes above: sell.amazon.com/programs/local-selling, data checked 2026-08-22.
The Three Fulfillment Modes
Amazon’s program page describes three distinct ways to fulfill a local order. They are frequently collapsed into one in secondary coverage, which is why the eligibility picture gets confused.
| Mode | Who moves the box | Availability | Official wording (checked 2026-08-22) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Delivery | Amazon’s integrated shipping partners | Open to sellers who define a local area | “you can continue to utilize integrated Amazon shipping partners while still gaining access to faster 1-2-day delivery promises” |
| Local Self-Delivery | Your own vehicles and drivers | Requires you to have the capability | “you can offer self-delivery and use your own fulfillment vehicles to deliver products to customers in your defined regions” |
| Delivery and Services | Your own trusted logistics providers, plus service work | Furniture sellers only — and the program page’s summary box marks this mode “Coming soon” (checked 2026-08-22) | “lets you offer furniture in the Amazon store using your own trusted logistics providers to complete delivery and provide related services” |
Local Delivery
The lowest-friction entry point. You keep using shipping partners already integrated with Amazon and gain the faster local delivery promise. You are still the one holding stock, but you are not building a driver roster.
Local Self-Delivery
You run the last mile with your own fleet. This buys control over delivery windows and handling — decisive for items that a parcel carrier would damage — at the cost of owning routing, proof of delivery, and driver capacity.
Delivery and Services
The furniture-only mode, and the only one that puts your people inside a customer’s home. It is also the one mode whose availability the official page states twice, differently: the summary box says “Delivery and Services Coming soon: Deliver an order and provide a related service,” while the FAQ answers “How do I qualify for Delivery and Services?” with a live application process (both read on sell.amazon.com/programs/local-selling, data checked 2026-08-22). Plan for the possibility that the application is not yet open in your marketplace. Amazon lists the specific offerings it currently supports: “Room of Choice, Room of Choice plus Haul Away, Inside Entry, Inside Entry plus Haul Away, Assembly, and Assembly plus Haul Away.”
Read that list carefully before applying — it is the menu, and haul-away in particular implies disposal logistics most furniture sellers have not built.
What Local Selling Costs
Here is the part the headline promises, stated in Amazon’s own words rather than inferred: “There are no additional fees to participate in Local Selling. You’ll continue paying a category referral fee per unit sold and a Professional selling plan fee.” (data checked 2026-08-22)
So the fee stack is the ordinary Amazon selling fee stack:
- Professional selling plan fee — listed at $39.99 / month on Amazon’s pricing page (the Individual plan is listed at $0.99 / item sold). Data checked 2026-08-22.
- Category referral fee per unit sold — varies by category; the percentages published on Amazon’s pricing page run from 3% (the Watches tier on any portion of the sales price above $1,500.00) to 45% (Amazon Device Accessories), with a $0.30 per-item minimum in most categories and no minimum in a few, such as Fine Art and Grocery. Data checked 2026-08-22.
What Amazon’s program page does not do is put a price on the program itself, a per-local-order surcharge, or a fulfillment fee of the kind FBA charges. That absence is the actual economic argument: you are trading Amazon’s fulfillment fees for your own real delivery costs.
And those costs are real. Fuel, vehicles, drivers, insurance, background checks, and trade licenses do not appear on any Amazon rate card, but they are the true cost of Local Selling. “No additional fees” means no additional fees payable to Amazon — it is not a statement about your operating margin.
If you are unsure which selling plan you are on, or how your category’s cut is calculated, start with the Individual vs Professional plan comparison and the referral fee breakdown.
How to Get Started
Amazon compresses the process into three steps on the program page:
- “Submit your application and our team will contact you.”
- “List your products, inventory, and services for your location.”
- “Complete fulfillment of orders.”
Two practical notes on what sits behind those lines. The application is a review, not a switch — Amazon states its team contacts you, so treat the timeline as open-ended and do not commit to a launch date before you are approved. And the actual configuration of your delivery area happens inside Seller Central after approval: you define coverage at the zip-code level and attach it to the offers you want restricted to that area. Because that screen sits behind a logged-in seller account, verify the exact field names in your own account rather than trusting any screenshot you find online.
Before you submit, it is worth assembling the evidence the application will test. For the delivery modes, that means knowing which zip codes you can serve within your promised window on a bad weather day, not a good one. For Delivery and Services, it means having the trade licences for every jurisdiction in your intended coverage area already in hand, plus a roster of technicians who can each clear a background check. Amazon frames the application as an evaluation of your “services infrastructure as it relates to our performance standards” — the review is looking for capacity you already have, not capacity you intend to build once approved.
Local Selling vs. Seller Flex, MCF, and Plain FBM
These four get conflated constantly. The distinction is not where the inventory sits but who the customer is and who pays for delivery.
| Program | Inventory location | Who fulfills | The line that separates it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Selling | Your local site | You or Amazon’s shipping partners | Offers restricted to a zip-code area you define |
| Seller Flex | Your warehouse | You, under Amazon’s process | Invite-only; aimed at earning a Prime badge from your own warehouse |
| MCF | Amazon fulfillment center | Amazon | Uses FBA stock to fill orders from other sales channels |
| FBM | Anywhere you like | You | Ordinary merchant fulfillment, no geographic restriction |
The pair most often mixed up is Local Selling and Seller Flex. Both leave stock in your building. But Seller Flex is about Amazon’s fulfillment standards reaching into your warehouse so your listings can carry a Prime promise nationally; Local Selling is about narrowing who sees an offer so you can serve nearby buyers fast. One widens reach, the other deliberately restricts it.
Common Mistakes
- Quoting the 25-mile radius or 90-minute pickup. Neither string appears on Amazon’s program page as of 2026-08-22. If you plan around numbers you cannot find on an official page, you are planning around someone’s stale summary.
- Assuming “no additional fees” means cheap. It means Amazon adds nothing. Your fleet, insurance, and licences are still yours to fund.
- Applying for Delivery and Services outside furniture. Amazon’s page limits current eligibility to sellers of furniture-related products and services. Applying anyway wastes a review cycle.
- Underestimating the technician requirement. Every in-home service order needs an assigned technician who is on your Seller Central account, has a headshot, and has passed Amazon’s background check.
- Drawing the delivery area optimistically. You define coverage down to the zip code, and a zip code you cannot reliably serve becomes a defect rate problem, not a growth lever.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Amazon charge extra for Local Selling?
No. Amazon’s program page states: “There are no additional fees to participate in Local Selling. You’ll continue paying a category referral fee per unit sold and a Professional selling plan fee.” (data checked 2026-08-22.)
Is there a 25-mile radius limit?
Not according to Amazon. The program page defines coverage by zip code — “a delivery area you define, down to the zip code level” — and the strings “25 miles” and “90 minutes” do not appear on it as of 2026-08-22, despite circulating widely in third-party articles.
How fast is local delivery?
Amazon’s wording is “Ship in as fast as 1-2 days in an area defined down to the zip-code.” That is a best case tied to your own operation, not a guaranteed service level.
Can any category use Delivery and Services?
No. “Currently, only sellers who sell products and services related to furniture are eligible” (data checked 2026-08-22). The other two modes are not limited that way on the program page.
Do I need a Professional selling plan?
Amazon’s fee sentence refers to “a Professional selling plan fee” as an ongoing cost of participating, so plan for the Professional plan rather than the Individual plan. See the plan comparison for what each includes.
Can I keep using FBA at the same time?
The program page does not restrict you to a single fulfillment method — it describes Local Selling as an addition to how you already sell. Sellers commonly run FBA nationally and Local Selling for bulky regional items.
Conclusion
Amazon Local Selling is best understood as a permission, not a product: permission to restrict an offer to zip codes you can serve quickly, and to fulfill it yourself. Amazon charges nothing extra for that permission — its page says so in as many words — while leaving the entire cost of delivery on your side of the ledger.
Decide it on operations, not on fees. If you already run local delivery, this is a low-risk channel to bolt on. If you would be building a fleet from scratch to chase a 1-2 day promise, compare it honestly against FBA and FBM before you apply.
All Amazon quotations in this guide are from sell.amazon.com/programs/local-selling, retrieved 2026-08-22.