Multiple FBA fees are about to rise across the board!

As a rule, Amazon will adjust its FBA charging standards in February each year, and the standards will generally be announced to sellers some time in advance.

Just recently, Amazon released the details of the changes to FBA fees for February next year, which are very different from the changes in February of this year and even aroused the indignation of sellers.

The official announcement is a long one, but in short it says:

However, judging from the number of comments under the news, it is obvious that the price increase is not as minor as Amazon’s announcement said . Let me analyze the details of the fee changes with you below.

2020 FBA Fee Changes

The fee changes can be roughly divided into the following parts:

1. Changes in FBA logistics and delivery costs

2. Changes in sales commission

3. Changes in monthly storage fees

4. Changes to removal and labeling fees

5. Changes to the cost of the light and small plan

Except for the monthly storage fee, all the above-mentioned fee changes will be implemented on February 18, 2020, and the monthly storage fee will be implemented on March 1. That is to say, the new billing standards will be used to charge the February storage fee in March . Everyone should pay attention to this difference.

Let me explain the changes in detail below.

The detailed changes are shown in the following table. You can find them according to the product weight.

This change is what sellers complain about the most. Although everyone knows that FBA shipping fees will definitely increase after the upgrade to one-day delivery, the increase this time is not only 3% as stated in Amazon’s announcement. In fact, I calculated that the cost increase in several stages exceeded 8%.

Compared with the increases in previous years, this price increase is relatively high. Here is the detailed fee adjustment in February this year. You can compare them. There are many stages where the fees have not changed.

Currently, Amazon’s self-delivery is becoming more and more difficult, and basically orders can only rely on FBA. Therefore, the general increase in FBA shipping fees is a change that affects almost all sellers. This is why many sellers vote for Amazon with their feet. It’s getting more expensive every year, and they’re killing people!

Wait, my brother-in-law also said that the commission rate was reduced. Can this offset the increased costs? It would have been fine if he hadn’t mentioned this. After reading the details of the commission rate reduction, the sellers cursed even more fiercely.

After looking around, the only category that actually reduced the commission rate was "shoes, bags and sunglasses priced over $75", and it was only reduced by 3%.

The other categories mentioned in the policy have been merged into a certain large category and enjoy the same commission rate as the large category. There are no substantial discounts at all.

This is the preferential policy used by Amazon in the announcement to calm the anger of sellers. It is really ridiculous. No wonder there is a lot of scolding in the Amazon forum, and there are also sharp complaints from American sellers.

(Amazon actually made a typo, it should be as follows)

Not only are the changes to commission fees a bummer, but each of the following fees is also more ruthless than the last.

Not only have logistics costs increased, this update also increased the monthly storage fee for standard-sized products by $0.06 per cubic foot (the fee for large-sized products remains unchanged)

The increase in storage fees is close to 10%, which is not a small amount for sellers. Please note that the increased fees are only effective from January to September, and the previous rates will still be implemented from October to December.

The labeling service has directly increased from $0.2 per piece to $0.3, and the labeling for the light and small plan has been changed to $0.1. The removal/disposal fee is more complicated, and has been changed from a flat price to a tiered fee.

At first glance, this part of the fee seems to have been reduced, and a tiered pricing system has been implemented. However, a closer look reveals that Amazon is cunning - products weighing more than 2 pounds are already charged the highest tier .

2 pounds is a little less than 1 kilogram. Once it exceeds 1 kilogram, a fee of 0.4+0.2*excess weight will be charged. The weight of many products is above this line. For these sellers, the disposal/removal fee is actually more expensive.

The removal fee for small and light items over 4 ounces has also increased by $0.05, and will be $0.30 per item after the policy is implemented.

The light and small plan mainly involves changes in delivery costs. Before the change, weight-based charging was used, while after the change, a fixed tiered charging method was adopted.

Before change:

After the change:

It seems confusing, and I don't know whether it has gone down or up. I roughly calculated that the products between 1-3 ounces and 4-8 ounces have become more expensive, while the products between 3-4 ounces and 8-10 ounces are slightly lower than before.

There are increases and decreases, but most of them are increases. This sentence can not only summarize the cost changes of the Light Small Plan, but also summarize the FBA fee adjustment of Amazon this time. Using some insignificant price cuts in exchange for the increase of key costs, my brother-in-law's calculations are too good.

FBA is becoming more and more expensive, which is also the problem I worried about when I analyzed Amazon squeezing out FedEx to dominate the logistics platform. We sellers rely on Amazon, and it is difficult to resist this monopoly.

However, the US political circles are now also discussing the plan to split up Amazon's various businesses. If FBA can be independent of the platform and compete with other logistics providers, we will have more opportunities and choices at that time.