Amazon Category Changes and Commission Increases: Sellers’ Dilemma and Responses

In 2024, a series of measures taken by Amazon brought a huge impact to many sellers. A large number of product categories were modified, and commissions increased significantly. This change aroused widespread concern and dissatisfaction among sellers.

According to sellers’ feedback, the categories of their products were suddenly modified by Amazon. Products from different categories in some stores were classified into a new category, and the commissions of the new category were generally higher. For example, industrial products were classified into the tools and home improvement category, books were adjusted to the home and kitchen category, industrial products were changed to the office supplies category, and auto parts were changed to the home and kitchen supplies category.

The commission increases for different product categories vary. Some commissions have increased by a certain percentage from the original price, such as industrial products have increased by 3% after being changed to office supplies; others have increased by a larger amount, such as auto parts have increased by 20% after being changed, and the annual cost is expected to increase by about US$5,000.

The increase in commissions directly leads to an increase in sellers' operating costs. This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to sellers who already have limited profit margins. Sellers need to re-plan product pricing, profit accounting, etc. to cope with the increase in costs.

What sellers are more worried about is whether the link can still obtain accurate traffic distribution of the category. After the category is modified, if accurate traffic cannot be obtained, the exposure and sales of the product may be seriously affected, and the link may even become a "dead" link, making the previous operation efforts go to waste.

Amazon officials said they would regularly review sellers’ ASIN categories and fee standards. If sellers believe that the fee category is incorrect, they can raise objections to the seller support department, and a dedicated team will then help sellers resolve the issue.

However, this response did not quell the anger of sellers. Many products whose categories were inexplicably adjusted have not been restored, and sellers have not yet received effective solutions in their attempts to provide feedback.

Some industry insiders speculated that this situation might be because the platform was testing a new function, which caused a BUG to accidentally harm sellers.

For sellers whose sales have been affected, they need to open a case and report the problem to Amazon as soon as possible. At the same time, sellers can also pay close attention to subsequent changes in categories and commission policies, and adjust their operating strategies in a timely manner, such as optimizing product information to improve search rankings in new categories, and re-evaluating product pricing and profit margins.

Amazon's category changes and commission increases have brought many difficulties to sellers. While sellers expect Amazon to properly resolve the problem, they also need to take proactive measures to reduce losses and maintain their operations and development on the platform.