Big recovery! European commission rates cut in half, customized products no longer eligible for return

According to Amazon’s official news, the current sales commission discount will continue for clothing and accessories products sold through Amazon Logistics:

And starting June 30, 2023 , for sellers using Amazon's VAT calculation service , the sales commission percentage will be based on the product's list price, rather than the total sales price paid by the buyer.

If you use a VAT calculation service, the total sales price paid by the buyer may be different from the item's list price, depending on the transaction type and customer. You can view examples on the Seller Central Help page.

Note: This change does not apply to promotions, for which Amazon will continue to charge a referral fee based on the total sales price paid by the buyer.

This VAT calculation service previously charged fees based on the buyer's payment, which may have included packaging fees, shipping fees, etc. Now the new policy is to calculate the tax directly based on the product's marked price .

In 2022, Amazon's logistics costs increased fuel and inflation surcharges. At the time, it was only said that the cost increase was temporary, but the market is constantly updating and the industry is constantly changing. These cost increases seem to be persistent. Therefore, Amazon is about to cancel the separate fuel and inflation surcharges and adjust Amazon's standard logistics rates to reflect this part of the cost increase.

To help sellers sell between the EU and the UK, Amazon will soon offer discounts on European delivery network fees between the EU (Germany, France, Italy and Spain) and the UK for a period of one year.

Another update, similar to the change made in 2022 when dimensional weights were introduced for all oversized items, is to use the greater of unit weight or dimensional weight to determine shipping weight for all package size classes.

This year, some Amazon sellers have used more FBA storage space than Amazon expects to be needed to better serve customers, which has reduced the space available for other sellers to ship to Amazon's fulfillment centers. As a result, FBA storage fees will be updated to more appropriately reflect underlying costs.

Note: Overage Stock Assessment Date Effective May 15, 2023

Amazon will impose a storage utilization surcharge on sellers who store a large amount of inventory in the fulfillment center. The inventory volume is assessed based on the seller's recent weekly sales volume.

Inventory removal and disposal fees. Due to the increase in service costs, inventory removal and disposal fees will be increased. However, bulk clearance fees will remain unchanged. Sellers are advised to actively use the bulk clearance plan to recover more inventory value.

New product testing is an indispensable part of cross-border e-commerce. In order to help new sellers in 2023, considering the cost of entering the store, Amazon has upgraded the Amazon Logistics New Product Warehousing Discount Plan.

This policy increases the sales rebate for eligible new Amazon products from 5% to 10%.

And rebates will still apply to sellers who meet certain criteria.

Not only that, the preferential plan also increases the number of products that can enjoy benefits and extends the trial period of certain benefits in the plan.

Not only that, the preferential plan also has the opportunity to obtain some benefits, such as exemption of inventory removal fees, exemption of return processing fees, exemption of bulk clearance, exemption of storage fees, and even discounts on inbound transportation fees for Amazon's partner carriers, etc.

Amazon Logistics Small and Light is a policy aimed at small commodities with fast logistics and low prices. One good thing about this plan is that you don’t need to pay for the storage of commodities. Prime members can get the goods delivered very quickly, usually in 1-3 days. If you are not a Prime member, it will be delivered in 3-5 days. The vortex speed is very fast.

Then again, what are the new changes in this plan?

The range of products eligible for the Amazon Logistics Small and Light program will be expanded .

The threshold prices for the light and small plans at the five European stations have all been raised, with the UK station raising it by 1 pound and the other four stations raising it by 1 euro.

The small and light commodity plan itself saves logistics and distribution costs, which is already very favorable. Now that the scope of small and light commodities has been expanded, the number of eligible small commodities has increased significantly.

Also the latest information, Amazon announced that starting from February 15, 2023 , customized products on Amazon will no longer be eligible for returns.

The policy makes it clear to customers that the custom products they purchased are non-returnable and sellers do not need to manually authorize return requests.

So what are custom products?

Amazon states that customized products that are not allowed to be returned include: customized products or personalized products with customized names, designs or inscriptions, such as: engraving, stamps, monograms, embroidery, embossing, etching, carving or printing. Customized products sold by third-party sellers are eligible for Amazon's Marketplace Transaction Guarantee.

Once the announcement was issued, countless sellers applauded!

For sellers, the most annoying thing is probably the return and after-sales issues, especially for those who sell customized products. Once these products are returned, there is no way to resell them, and they are just a waste of money. This way, some of the rights and interests of these sellers can be protected to avoid malicious returns.

Judging from these policies, more interests of merchants are protected. It can be said that compared with the past, whether in terms of value-added tax, customized goods, or product planning, the interests of sellers have been greatly increased. Of course, on the other hand, it also attracts more sellers to enter this industry, and the market is becoming more and more crowded.