Small and Light FBA Fees Price Hikes

#1

I received an email from amazon with a lot of fee updates.

One noticeable change was:-

Small letters up to 80g - was £0.65, new fee is going be £0.86
Large Letter between 60g and 210g - was £1.00, new fee is going be £1.21.

Due to our purchase of stock increasing dramatically over the last year our prices has seen some good rises being passed onto our customers, but now amazon has increase some of their small and light fees over 20% increase, that means more rises of our prices being passed onto our customers.

We can’t keep rising prices of small and light items because we will be priced out of the market when it comes to buying online.

We can’t absorb the fees either because we would be working for nothing.
I know
Yes a 5% increase is understandable, but 20% increase is a bit much I think.

I know amazon can do what they want and charge what they want, what goes, goes. So have to just accept it. I’m just hoping this does not kill our sales.

Amazon 2023 price changes info: https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G201411300

#2

If thats correct its 29% increase on the small

#3

It’s even worse than it seems, because storage fees are also going up. If increasing prices causes less stock to shift then naturally that means higher use of storage so they charge us more in storage fees too.

#4

Unfortunately it was inevitable - but for many sellers, the only other option is fbm

I would imagine though that RM will hike their prices similarly in April so all sellers will have to increase prices

Note that they have though finally increased the s&l cap from £9 to £10

#5

It’s quite a rise aswell with storage because they are now adding a surcharge to any items that have not sold in 6 or or more months, before it was a surcharge on 331+ days or not selling.

#6

Yes they have increased the s&l cap which is good, but as we have to increase our prices due to fees rising, that will not mean we will be able to include more sku’s into fba, it would probably means the ones in fba can still stay in fba.

#7

You probably won’t because (don’t forget) everybody else will be paying higher prices to buy goods too. It’s this ever increasing circle of inflation. It is inevitable that everybody (Amazon included) will increase rates because they have to maintain a certain level of return, as we all do.

With inflationary pressures there are really only three ways to go, you either increase prices, decrease the size of the product on offer but keep the price the same or absord the increases. A combination of all three seems to be a common theme these days? :thinking:

#8

The problem is that the larger a company gets, the more they tend to increase their prices by to sneak in a profit increase alongside the increase to cover rising costs.

Although Amazon might have found some costs associated with fulfilment have increased, I don’t believe for a second that storage space for regular sized inventory comes into that. It’s hard to see this as anything other than leveraging the power they know they have over 3rd party sellers to gouge us by using the economic situation as an excuse.

#9

An unbelievable hike for the smallest items which is 95% of my catalogue. I will find it very hard to justify rising my prices by that much after so many other rises the last year due to higher purchasing costs.

Feel this could be the end of the road unless buyers are willing to pay the extra as I can’t absorb this.

#10

One of the reasons Amazon may well do this is to discourage sellers from having too much stock in Amazon FC’s.

They really don’t want sellers having slow selling lines as these just take up space other sellers could use.

If you also look at the announcement there is now a FBA Storage surcharge starting at 50p a cubic foot for standard items if you don’t shift enough stock through FBA.

They are also replacing restock limits with capacity management which focuses more on volume than units.

Both of these new measures along with increased storage costs and long term storage starting at 271 days shows to me they want fast selling stock in FBA…which really is what everyone should be using FBA for.

#11

i sell the same items fbm and fba
the fbm offer is £2.95 with 4-5 day delivery according the the EDD on the customer side
the fba offer is £4.05 with next day delivery on most depending on area

my fba sales outweigh my fbm sales 100 - 1 - all day every day

#12

I will have to increase my prices too but in the knowledge that all my FBA competitors will have to do the same or face making losses on items.

I think buyers will still buy from Prime and will continue to in larger quantities than FBM. The faster delivery will always be a draw to customers. Also the possibility of more industrial action by Royal Mail (subject to ballot) in March will mean buyers will turn more to Prime as it can be trusted to deliver faster.

We haven’t also seen RM price increases yet. From memory they are normally announced by now. It could be Amazon have Royal Mail costs supplied to them already which is why they are rising prices. Also FBM sellers are likely to see increased Royal Mail costs this year to due to the losses from strike action last year.

#13

i’d say this year they’ll be higher than ever

#14

Problem is that S&L is no longer considered Prime. Seeing delivery times of up to 6 days for my small and light items lately. I can post something RM second class and it will arrive quicker than my FBA S&L items.

Now if this increase of fees means that Amazon are dropping Royal Mail and will fulfil S&L orders themselves alongside other FBA items and the Prime badge comes back then I would say fair enough.

If it’s still around 6 day delivery and no Prime badge then it’s a likely going to mean customers will not be willing to pay the extra I will have to charge.

#15

most of mine are next day and the ones that aren’t are usually 2 days
since christmas i’ve been checking my prime dispatch emails and haven’t seen any go by RM yet

try changing the buyer postcode and you’ll see different delivery dates for your offers

#16

I just checked one of my items on FBA and its got a Prime One Day badge with it, Just in case it was a fluke I checked 3 or 4… all say

FREE delivery Tomorrow, January 20. Order within 3 hrs 41 mins.

#17

I just checked one of my items on FBA and its got a Prime One Day badge with it, Just in case it was a fluke I checked 3 or 4… all say
but is that S&L?

#18

Some of mine have had long delivery dates recently but I am still not seeing a decrease in sales because of this. I still have the prime badge on the listing and most importantly the buy box even where there are FBM sellers selling cheaper so I still get the sales.

Others are showing as next day or 2 day

I think the longer delivery dates maybe something temporary…the longest I have today seems to be 4 days with delivery on Monday 23rd.

#19

yes - small and light

you need to check your offers with a different postcode

also, you won’t see the prime badge in the BB if you are not a prime member
I can’t see mine as i’m not - but my daughter showed me my offers in BB on her prime account

#20

All my items are S&L, I don’t have any in normal FBA