Amazon recently announced they will be adjusting their rates for the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service in the U.S. to reflect the changing costs of fulfillment, transportation, storage, and customer service.
Significant fee changes for 3P Sellers in Feb 2019 will include:
- A decrease in referral fee for certain categories including Beauty, Furniture, Jewelry, and more.
- A change in long-term storage fees, especially for dangerous goods that contain flammable or pressurized aerosol substances.
“I could see this having a big impact on the beauty and health & personal care sellers with smaller AOV products.”
– Meghan Andrade, Marketplace Channel Analyst at CPC Strategy
Fulfillment By Amazon Fee Changes:
[What Sellers Need To Know]
Amazon recently sent out the following email regarding the upcoming changes:
While the costs to fulfill, transport, and deliver orders increased this year, our continued investment in supply chain innovation allows us to limit the fee changes for 2019. Certain fulfillment fees will be increasing, while many storage and referral fees will go down. Our goal was to minimize the impact of these adjustments for as many of you as possible, and we expect over 40% of FBA units shipped to experience no change—or even a decrease.
When will the fee changes take place?
According to Amazon:
- The storage fee changes will take effect on February 15, 2019
- The fulfillment and referral fee changes will take effect February 19, 2019.
Below is a list of all the available fee changes for fulfillment, storage, and referral.
Fulfillment Fee Changes:
[Quick Summary]
- No changes to fulfillment fees for small standard-size and large standard-size items with a shipping weight of 10 oz or less.
- Amazon will implement small increases in fulfillment fees for products in other size tiers to reflect fulfillment and transportation cost changes.
- Amazon will change the dimensional billing weight calculation for oversize items.
- Amazon will introduce separate fulfillment fees for dangerous goods that contain flammable or pressurized aerosol substances and items that contain lithium-ion batteries.
- Amazon will simplify the Subscribe & Save fee structure starting in September 2019. You will be able to fund a flat discount of 5% or 10% for each new item you add to the program.
All 2019 US fulfillment fee changes, definitions, and examples
Storage Fee Changes:
[Quick Summary]
- Amazon will eliminate long-term storage fees for units that have been in a fulfillment center for 181-365 days. The last long-term storage fee charge for inventory we store for 181-365 days will be January 15, 2019. We will continue to charge long-term storage fees for units in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days.
- Amazon will reduce the minimum long-term storage fee on units in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days from $0.50 per unit to $0.15 per unit. The last charge at $0.50 per unit will be January 15, 2019.
- Amazon will introduce a higher monthly storage fee for dangerous goods that contain flammable or pressurized aerosol substances. This change will first be reflected in April 2019 charges for storage that occurs in March 2019. We will not change the monthly inventory storage fees for other products.
All 2019 US storage fee changes, definitions, and examples.
Referral Fee Changes:
[Quick Summary]
According to the new fee structure, Amazon will:
1) Reduce the referral fee percentage for Beauty, Health & Personal Care, and Baby products (excluding Baby Apparel) from 15% to 8% on items with a total sales price of $10 or less. We will continue to charge a fee of 15% on items with a total sales price above $10.
2) Reduce the referral fee percentage for Grocery & Gourmet products from 15% to 8% on products with a total sales price of $15 or less. We will continue to charge a fee of 15% on products with a total sales price above $15.
3) Reduce the per-item minimum fee across 30 categories from $1 to $0.30 per item, and from $2 to $0.30 per item for Jewelry and Watches.
4) Reduce the referral fee percentage for Furniture items from 15% to 10% on any portion of the total sales price above $200. This does not apply to mattresses.
5) Reduce the referral fee percentage for Jewelry items from 20% to 5% on any portion of the total sales price above $250.
All 2019 US referral fee changes, definitions, and examples
For a directory of all fee changes, visit amazon.com/selling-fee-