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AuctionBytes Blog
Covering auctions, collectibles and marketplace selling.
Julia Wilkinson is Editor of the AuctionBytes Blog and is author of the "eBay Price Guide," "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks," "My Life at AOL" and numerous ebooks about selling online. You can also find her writing on Yard Salers.
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| Wed Dec 5 2012 10:49:41 |
How Do You Feel About Amazon's New FBA Fees?
By: Julia Wilkinson
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Amazon.com notified sellers late yesterday that some of the FBA fees were changing, as Ina wrote up in today's NewsFlash, "Amazon Hikes FBA Fees." While some fees are going down - many products that fit into the new Small Oversize and Medium Oversize categories will have reduced overall fulfillment fees, according to the email - one-pound Large Standard-Size products, "which represent a significant portion of the products Amazon fulfills" - will have a the total fee increase of $0.09 per unit. Amazon noted that to give sellers time to plan for these fee changes, they will not take effect until February 18, 2013.
They are also adding more product-size tiers to "better reflect the variety of products we fulfill." The Pick & Pack Fee for Oversize products "will result in a fee reduction for most Oversize products," they wrote, ranging between $4 and $10 depending on the product size tier. "Pick & Pack Fees will remain $1 for all Standard-Size products," according to the email.
Sellers discussing the changes on the "New FBA fees starting in February" thread in the Amazon Seller Discussion Forums (under Fulfillment By Amazon ยป General FBA Discussions) seemed to take the changes in stride.
"I was very critical of the prior FBA fee changes, but this one actually was done right, so I'll give credit where it is due," wrote one seller. "I get the small increase in standard size weight fees. They are just taking back the reduction from 40 cents to 37 cents, kicking it up to 42 cents." But, the seller added, "that shouldn't be an issue for anyone, shipping costs do go up."
They said the nice thing is that "oversize items are going down in fees, this was a major issue the last time around, $6 for oversize vs $1 for standard size did not make any sense at all. They didn't completely fix it, but it does help."
Asked by the seller starting the thread, who wrote, "I was surprised to come over here and find no one posting about this," if anyone had thoughts on this, a seller with the forum name "Texas Angel" said, "Not really. I sell a lot of things where there are no FBA sellers (item cost is too low), so I control the buy box most of the time. Even if I don't, when the one or two lone FBA sellers run out, I get 100's of orders a day. I just have to wait them out, and I'm making three times the profit they are. I sell things FBA, too, but I think the mix of merchant and FBA-fulfilled works - at least for me."
Another said this new change wasn't really a big deal compared to changes made over the last couple of years: "That's why there's no outrage. We already got that out if our systems." And, "If you want to win the Buy Box on a regular basis, you really have no choice. Self-fulfilled featured merchants really have the deck stacked against them, even if they beat the FBA price by a good amount."
The most negative comment was made by the seller starting the thread, who pondered that they were "ambivalent?" about the changes. On the one hand, they wrote, "there is a 9-cent increase in the weight handling for items up to 1 lb. (which most of mine are), but on the other hand, at least they have attempted to come down on the ridiculous $6 oversize charge."
However, this seller felt the new tiers that now include "small standard size" and "large standard size" and "small, medium, large and special" in the oversize were "ridiculous." It seems like it's just going to be a cluster with all those measurement options. Not to mention Amazon has never been very good about their 'measurements.'"
But one seller summed up how the gist of the changes would impact them succinctly, "Going from $6 oversize to $4 for small oversize is like Christmas in February."
How do you feel about the new FBA fee structure? Good, bad, indifferent...or, will it be "Christmas in February"? Post a comment here!
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How Do You Feel About Amazon's New FBA Fees?
by: Al G 
