Sonic

Amazon told sellers on Wednesday that it will be adding a 5 percent fuel and inflation surcharge to American sellers who use their fulfillment services amid rising prices.

Starting on April 28, Amazon told sellers it would be imposing a fee of 5 percent “on top of our current Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fulfillment fee per unit rates.”

“In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as COVID-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges,” Amazon said in its notice.

“It is still unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or for how long they will persist, so rather than a permanent fee change, we will be employing a fuel and inflation surcharge for the first time—a mechanism broadly used across supply chain providers,” it added.

The news of the surcharge was first reported by Bloomberg News.

The retail giant said it had already taken steps to support its sellers and sales online, including adding more than 750,000 full-time and part-time roles, doubling its fulfillment capacity and raising hourly average wage to $18 an hour, up from $15.

Amazon also claimed that its surcharge was lower than those levied by competitors such as FedEx and UPS.

“Like many, we have experienced significant cost increases and absorbed them, wherever possible, to reduce the impact on our selling partners. When we did increase fees, we were focused on addressing permanent costs and ensuring our fees were competitive with those charged by other service providers,” Amazon told sellers.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has compounded supply chain woes and rising inflation that began amid the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden has taken a number of steps to combat record gas prices, including releasing millions of barrels of oil from the strategic reserve and allowing summer sales of a higher-ethanol fuel blend.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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Who is flocking back to eBay? j/k

The Cow

in before the zyzzle rant...

zyzzle

No rant, except to say I'm glad as hell I neither buy nor sell on Amazon anymore. But for 99% of people who do, this is another "5% tax" which will affect us all as prices spiral further and further out of control, squeezing the dwindling middle class dry.

Josh-da-man

Bezos gotta launch rockets!

JeffTheAlpaca

I was charged $.40 for printing UPS return labels and still waiting for them to process the refunds though hoping it was because of Easter.

Sonic

Amazon to hit third-party sellers with holiday shipping surcharges

Amazon is raising fees for third-party sellers that use Fulfillment by Amazon services by 35 cents per item during the 2022 holiday season.

Sellers who use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) will need to pay an additional 35 cents per item sold over the holidays.

Amazon has announced it’s raising fees charged to third-party sellers who utilize Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) over the holidays for the first time in company history. According to an email sent by Amazon, the price increase will begin October 15 and will run until January 14, 2023.

The reason for the price hike is due to inflation and “expenses reaching new heights” which, as a result, has reportedly made it harder for Amazon to balance the costs of services provided to merchants via FBA.

Among the services third-party sellers receive with FBA include Amazon handling things like packing and shipping items. With the seller fee increase, those looking to continue using FBA will have to pay an additional 35 cents per item sold in the U.S. and Canada as reported by outlets like CNBC. This extra 35 cents will be tacked on to existing fees that sellers currently pay for FBA services based on the items being sold (size, weight, category).

The extra 35 cents per item sold also comes after previous price hikes, such as when Amazon hit U.S. sellers with a 5 percent fuel and inflation surcharge back in April of this year.

While you’d think these sorts of hikes would discourage sellers from using Amazon’s FBA, many have come to rely on these services with Amazon’s third-party marketplace becoming “the centerpiece of its dominant e-commerce business” as noted by CNBC, accounting for over half of online retail sales.

The increased fees that third-party sellers will have to pay over the holidays will likely result in price increases from sellers on the items that are being sold. With this, it sounds like it might be a good idea to do your holiday shopping sooner, rather than later. As always, we’ll keep you posted as well on any additional price hikes and pertinent Amazon news here at Shacknews.

zyzzle

Those are bullshit reasons, of course. Amazon's raising prices because it can -- and will get away with it. Just means prices will go up across the board as those retailers rush to "recoup" Amazon's fees from their buyers. And, dollars to donuts, 99% of them won't lower them if Amazon drops the increased fees (which is itself extremely doubtful. I'll wager 10-to-1 odds that this is really a permanent increase).

Shannon Nutt

Exactly. They don't want to be undercut by sellers, so they come up with these things to make it harder for sellers to have a lower price.

BobO'Link

I don't think they care about being undersold by a MP vendor as they still get a cut of the sale. It's quite often I see MP items which are "Fulfilled by Amazon" selling for less than Amazon's price and that *MP* seller is who you'll see up front on the item - not Amazon. You'll have to select "other offers" to see Amazon's price.

jjcool

Yeah. Amazon doesn't care. They're getting paid either way. But that doesn't fit the narrative of the militantly anti-amazon crowd.

Josh-da-man

I've always heard that Amazon gets better margins from marketplace sellers than they do for their own sales, so I doubt they're too concerned about being undercut by a dollar or two by MP sellers. Someone else is providing the product, Amazon is just facilitating the transaction. The MP sellers would just be selling the stuff on eBay if it wasn't Amazon, and this way Amazon gets a cut of the sale and undercuts a competitor.