Amazon adds a new fee for sellers who ship their own packages

Amazon is including a brand new cost for third-party sellers who ship their very own merchandise as a substitute of paying for the corporate’s achievement providers.

Beginning Oct. 1, members of Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime program can pay the corporate a 2% payment on every product offered, in keeping with a discover despatched to retailers final week, which was seen by CNBC. Previously, there was no such payment for sellers.

“We’re updating our requirements for Seller Fulfilled Prime to ensure that it provides customers a great and consistent Prime experience,” the discover states.

Representatives from Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

The SFP program, launched in 2015, permits third-party retailers to promote their merchandise with the Prime badge with out paying for Amazon’s achievement providers, often known as Fulfillment By Amazon. The SFP program hasn’t attracted as many customers as FBA has, on condition that sellers are anticipated to fulfill the corporate’s Prime supply requirements, equivalent to speedy delivery and weekend service. In June, Amazon reopened sign-ups for the invite-only program, after it suspended enrollment in SFP in 2019.

The e-commerce big additionally prices sellers a referral payment between 8% and 15% on every sale. Sellers might also pay for issues like warehouse storage, packing and delivery, in addition to promoting charges.

Amazon’s market has been an growing focus of antitrust investigators within the U.S. and overseas, lots of whom consider the corporate makes use of its energy to squeeze the retailers that promote on its platform. Regulators have examined whether or not Amazon pressures sellers into utilizing its providers in trade for preferential therapy on {the marketplace}.

The payment improve comes because the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly gearing as much as file a long-awaited lawsuit towards Amazon as quickly as this month. The company has been probing the corporate on a lot of fronts, together with its therapy of sellers on {the marketplace}, which now accounts for roughly 60% of its general retail gross sales.

Amazon has pushed again on regulators’ accusations. In a weblog submit on Monday, the corporate argued sellers proceed to flock to its sprawling market “because it’s a great value.”

“These optional, paid services aren’t required for succeeding in the Amazon store — some independent sellers run thriving businesses without them — but many sellers choose to use them because they offer impactful opportunities to drive their business growth at lower cost,” Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vp of worldwide promoting accomplice providers, wrote within the weblog submit.

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