By Nathalie Voit
Amazon is planning to raise third-party seller fees this holiday season, the company said in an email obtained by CNBC.
According to the email, sellers who rely on Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to pick, pack, and ship their orders will see a 35-cent surcharge per item sold in the U.S. or Canada. The holiday surcharge will run from Oct. 15 through Jan. 14 and is in addition to other extra expenses merchants must pay to use the company’s fulfillment services.
“Our selling partners are incredibly important to us, and this is not a decision we made lightly,” Amazon said in the email, noting that business expenses had reached “new heights.”
The price hike is not the first for the company’s sellers. In April, Amazon added a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge to U.S. merchants who use FBA, citing the war in Ukraine and related supply-chain disruptions.
Amazon’s third-party sellers are a vital arm of its e-commerce business, accounting for over half of all e-retail sales.
According to the company’s second-quarter earnings report, revenue from third-party retailers who use FBA and pay added service-related commissions surged 13% from Q2 2021 to $27.4 billion in the second quarter. At the same time, Amazon’s total e-commerce revenue actually declined 4% during that same time period.
“At a certain point, you can’t keep absorbing all those costs and run a business that’s economic,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC on April 14.
