Sellers must know! Updates and adjustments to Amazon FBA fees in 2019

Recently, Amazon adjusted its FBA fee structure and claimed that only about 40% of FBA inventory would not be affected by these changes.

The main contents of Amazon FBA fee adjustments in 2019 are as follows:

The fee adjustment will take effect on February 19, 2019;

There will be no change in fulfillment fees for Small Standard Size and Large Standard Size inventory. Amazon estimates that 40% of inventory will not be affected by this year’s fee changes.

Oversized items have minimal additional cost for inventory, calculated using a minimum 2-inch width and height.

Long-term storage fees start to be charged after 365 days.

There are also separate additional charges for “dangerous goods” such as flammable or aerosol sprays.

The commission charged on each transaction dropped from $1 to $0.3, which enabled many low-priced items in various categories to achieve better returns.

Amazon's motivation for adjusting fees

Amazon said the fee adjustment will have three impacts: improving execution efficiency, reducing warehousing costs and increasing transportation costs.

It makes sense to slash commissions and storage fees and increase shipping costs and fulfillment fees for oversized products.

Many sellers believe that this adjustment has a negative impact on their business, and they believe that Amazon is trying to squeeze merchants to get more profits, but the fact is that it is in the best interest of the e-commerce giant Amazon to make small, medium and large businesses profitable on Amazon. This is why Amazon is constantly optimizing fees based on its costs and reducing certain fees instead of increasing them.

An in-depth analysis of Amazon’s FBA fee adjustments in 2019

1. FBA fulfillment fees

Below is an overview of the changes to the fee structure, which will take effect on February 19, 2019.

Fulfillment fees for small standard-size and large standard-size items remain the same, but will increase over time for small, medium, large and special oversized items.

Currently, the dimensional weight of oversized items is charged based on a minimum of 2 inches in width and height.

Products containing dangerous ingredients such as lithium-ion batteries or aerosols will be charged a handling fee based on the weight of the goods and packaging.

Below is a comparison of the old and new execution fees:

The following are the Dangerous Goods Execution Fees:

2. FBA storage fees

This year, the storage fees have changed the most, as follows:

Long-term storage fees will no longer be charged from the 181st day. On January 15, 2019, Amazon will stop charging all long-term storage fees incurred between the 181st and 365th days.

Long-term storage fees will only be charged after 365 days (effective February 19, 2019).

The minimum long-term storage fee will be reduced from a minimum of $0.50 per item to $0.15.

·Except for dangerous goods, the monthly storage fee for all products remains unchanged.

Starting from February 19, 2019, Amazon FBA long-term storage fees are as follows:

Monthly storage fees remain the same as in 2018:

The minimum long-term storage fee has been significantly reduced, which is good news for small sellers:

3. FBA Commission (Referral Fees)

The adjustment of FBA commissions for all categories is not large. The following are the details of the commission adjustment:

The minimum commission was appropriately reduced from $1 to $0.3;

Currently, except for electronic accessories, home decoration and other products, other categories of products have two levels of commission, that is, for products above a certain amount, the commission rate will be higher (except for jewelry, which is more expensive and has a lower commission rate). Other affected categories include: baby products, beauty products, food and general merchandise, health and personal care, and jewelry.

The specific commission rates for each category are as follows:

For more details on category commissions, please visit Amazon's official website .

4. Other related adjustments

In April 2019, the monthly storage fee for dangerous goods will take effect for goods that were put into storage in March (but not sold in April).

In September 2019, the Subscribe & Save fee structure will be further adjusted to allow merchants to offer 5% or 10% discounts. This plan will introduce more products to Amazon and increase the user click-through rate of the Amazon platform. When consumers order 5 or more items, Amazon will also provide a 5% discount on each item they order, and the cost does not need to be borne by the seller. (Text/ Zhu Lingxia)