Amazon says it doesn’t intend to raise its merchant fulfillment and referral fees next year.
In a message to its sellers published Tuesday (Nov. 19), the eCommerce giant said that — despite inflation and greater investment in employee pay and benefits — it had managed to reduce costs through innovation, greater efficiency and reducing defects.
Therefore, Amazon said, the company will not raise its U.S. referral and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees, nor will it introduce any few fees. The company will also lower some fees and offer added benefits to bolster new selection growth.
“Over the coming weeks and into 2025, we will continue to invest in our fee-related product experiences — including improving your fee calculators and fee preview tools, enhancing the FBA inbounding experience with features that estimate transportation costs and recommend the most cost-effective shipping options to Amazon, and more, so that you can more easily understand and optimize your business,” the company wrote on its blog.
According to the blog post, Amazon will lower its inbound placement service fees for large bulky-size products to an average of $0.58 per unit for minimal shipment splits, a change that will go into effect on Jan. 15.
In addition, Amazon will waive the inbound placement service fee for new parent ASINs that qualify for the FBA New Selection Program and are included in shipments created between Dec. 1 to March 31 of next year.
“We are introducing more incentives for adding certain new selections in our store,” the post said. “We will enhance the New Seller Incentives and FBA New Selection programs with greater fee discounts to further support targeted segments of new selection growth.”
Amazon found itself defending its merchant fees earlier this year following a Bloomberg News report that the company’s revised fees had shifted more costs onto merchants at a time when sellers were making less money and Amazon’s merchant service revenue was growing.
The company argued in a statement provided to PYMNTS that the fees it charges merchants using its fulfillment, storage and shipping services reflect underlying costs and are “significantly less” than those imposed by other major fulfillment services.
This month saw the news that Amazon was combining the fulfillment networks of its Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh stores to better compete in the grocery space.
The company has reportedly begun using 26 of its Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers to handle delivery orders for Whole Foods products and household goods, and has also started using one same-day fulfillment site to deliver groceries.
The grocery sector is a category in which Amazon has traditionally lagged behind rival Walmart, PYMNTS Intelligence research has shown.
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