News August 18, 2022
Amazon to Charge Third-Party Sellers New Holiday Season Fulfillment Fee
The Seattle-headquartered multi-national corporation will charge 35 cents per item fulfilled through Fulfillment by Amazon in the U.S. and Canada.
Companies in the promotional products industry that sell on Amazon’s online marketplace and use the Seattle-headquartered multi-national technology company’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service are going to pay more to do so this holiday season.
From Oct. 15 through Jan. 14, Amazon will charge third-party sellers that use FBA a fee of 35 cents per item fulfilled in the United States and Canada. It’s reportedly the first time the e-commerce giant has instituted such a seasonal fee with FBA, which already has various other charges depending on a product’s weight, size and category.
CNBC first reported the news, noting that Amazon says it’s instituting the peak holiday season fee as a means of offsetting rising expenses that have resulted from the recent run of 40-year-high inflation. With FBA, Amazon picks, packs and ships items businesses sell on its e-commerce platform.
“Expenses are reaching new heights,” Amazon told third-party sellers in an email explaining why the 35-cent charge was coming into play. “Our selling partners are incredibly important to us, and this is not a decision we made lightly.”
UPS and FedEx typically institute fees/surcharges during the holiday season as they deal with increased loads. The United States Postal Service is also planning elevated fourth quarter rates.
The FBA fee and others like it all potentially chip away at the bottom lines of businesses, including those in the promo products industry, that rely on the service providers for delivery. That, or they compel the businesses to charge customers more to offset the expense.
More than half of online retail sales occur on Amazon’s third-party digital marketplace. “The access to the Amazon system is an integral part for many merchants that get a majority – or sometimes all – of their revenue through Fulfillment by Amazon,” Insider noted. Various promo products companies sell on Amazon.
This 35-cent FBA holiday fee isn’t the first price hike that Amazon undertook this year. In April, the corporation slapped a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge on U.S.-based sellers.