Hold on to your hats, Amazon is rolling out new fees for sellers who use its Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service, but the new fees will be in effect only during the last 3 months of the year, after which normal FBA rates will resume.
The goal of the holiday-season fee changes is to ensure sellers use Amazon storage wisely - we've been writing all year about the capacity issues that caused some Amazon Fulfillment Centers to reject certain shipments or items from sellers.
Amazon spokesperson Tom Cook told us the goal is to make sure the inventory that's in Amazon FCs in the fourth quarter will sell during the holidays.
Here's the crux of the fee changes - it means an item sitting on the shelf will cost more, but if/when it sells, it will cost less to fulfill:
- Amazon is lowering storage fees for October, and it's raising storage fees for November and December.
- Amazon will lower Weight Handling Fees (outbound fees) in November and December.
As explained in the letter: Sellers who hold unproductive inventory through November and December may see an increase in total fees.
Interestingly he said the "spring cleaning" Amazon helped sellers do recently by removing FBA removal fees was very effective.
Here's the letter that is going out to sellers today, look for more info in tomorrow's newsletter:
Hello from Fulfillment by Amazon,
In 2015, FBA volumes, growth rates, and inventory levels were very high. As a result, our U.S. fulfillment centers were very full in November and December. This fullness was driven in part by FBA inventory that did not sell until well into 2016.
To avoid potential capacity constraints during the 2016 holiday season, we are accelerating the expansion of our fulfillment capacity. Additionally, we are changing our FBA fee structure to encourage all sellers to send in and store products in November and December that are likely to sell by the end of 2016. To give you time to plan for these changes, they will begin to take effect on October 1, 2016.
We are introducing the following updates to our fees:
- Adjustment to Monthly Inventory Storage Fees: Effective October 1, 2016, the monthly fee for inventory storage will change for Standard-Size and Oversize units. October storage fees will decrease, and the fees for November and December storage will increase. This change will first be reflected in November 2016 charges for storage that occurs in October 2016. See details (or scroll to the Monthly Inventory Storage Fees information below).
- Reduction of Weight Handling Fees in November and December: To minimize the impact of the increased storage fees in November and December on your business, effective November 1, 2016, we will reduce our Weight Handling Fees for all items shipped in November and December. See details (or scroll to Fulfillment Fee information below). With the reduction in Weight Handling Fees, sellers who reduce the storage space they use in November and December have the opportunity to pay lower total FBA fees. Sellers who hold unproductive inventory through November and December may see an increase in total fees. See examples of how total fees may be reduced.
- Box content information required for shipments to Amazon: To ensure that shipments to Amazon are received quickly and accurately, effective November 1, 2016, you must provide box content information for each box sent to a fulfillment center. Shipments containing more than 55% of FBA units already provide box content information. In September 2016, we will provide additional tools to make it easier to provide box content information on all shipments. If your shipping processes do not support providing this information, we will apply a fee of $0.15 per unit in November and December. The fee will be $0.10 per unit for January through October. If you provide box content information, you will not be charged this fee.
Look for Wednesday's EcommerceBytes Newsflash for more information (
available now). We'd love to hear your reaction to the announcement.
Amazon Adjusts FBA Fees to Optimize Warehouse Capacity
by: Bidonmine 
by: Rexford 
by: BuildingMyOwnSite 
by: FEEbay 
by: iheartjacksparrow 
by: Al G 
by: RKTOYS