Amazon will remove this feature next month!

A few years ago, there were many ways to do self-delivery on Amazon, and FBA did not have much platform support. Whether it was a low-priced small package or standard parts, you could do self-delivery.

As FBA matures and Amazon's operational strategy changes, self-delivery has gradually been marginalized by the platform. However, all this happened quietly. After all, suppressing self-delivery is definitely detrimental to Amazon's image and cannot be put on the table.

However, the new changes recently announced by Amazon blatantly suppressed self-delivery sellers and deleted a very effective promotional method.

"The free shipping promotion will no longer be available after January 13th. If you need to provide free shipping to customers, please set it up in 'Shipping Settings'"

It may seem a bit confusing, so let me explain to you the function and principle of this promotional feature, as well as the significance of its cancellation.

What is the Free Shipping Promotion?

This is a promotional feature exclusively for self-delivery sellers. Sellers can set promotions for their orders such as "free delivery for purchases over xx US dollars" to encourage buyers to place combined orders. It is a very effective promotional method that can significantly increase sales.

As for FBA sellers, Amazon is responsible for delivery. The Prime delivery service provided by Amazon for FBA products is not only fast, but also free for Prime members, while non-members are charged a higher delivery fee.

Amazon, which has a large number of FBA products, can use this delivery policy to attract a large number of consumers to purchase Prime memberships.

Seeing this, I believe you can guess why Amazon is canceling the free shipping promotion. It is to make Prime delivery more attractive and bring more Prime members.

Although sellers can still achieve free delivery through delivery settings after the 13th, there is still a slight difference compared to the effect of promotions. Consumers will subconsciously be more inclined to fill up the free delivery amount to deduct the delivery fee.

There is no doubt that this change has a great impact on self-delivery sellers. The effect of free delivery promotion is quite significant, and even many buyers have developed a certain habit of buying together. Now directly canceling it will inevitably cause a significant drop in sales of self-delivery sellers.

What is the purpose of canceling free shipping?

Further promoting the free delivery service for Prime members and increasing the number of Prime members is only one of the purposes of canceling this promotion. Behind the cancellation of the free delivery promotion is actually a battle for market share between the FBA system and the self-delivery system.

FBA can obviously bring more revenue to Amazon, including delivery fees, storage fees... Even if sellers using FBA do not place orders, Amazon can still reap the profits. In comparison, the amount received from self-delivery sellers is much less.

Under such circumstances, it is only natural that Amazon prefers sellers to choose FBA. However, the fact that this operation is now openly launched shows that the share of self-delivery is so low that Amazon can ignore it.

Therefore, next year, the road for self-delivery sellers may be more difficult than any previous year, and FBA may also receive more support from Amazon to compete for the self-delivery market. If your products are suitable and combined with corresponding operational methods, FBA will be a better choice for sellers.