Amazon Will Soon Be Charging A 5% Inflation And Fuel Surcharge

Amazon plans to charge its sellers a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge — the first time in its history.

The surcharge will be imposed starting April 28 and is being enforced as inflation has gotten significantly worse over the past few months.

“In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as COVID-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges,” Amazon told CNN.

“It is unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or for how long they will persist, so rather than a permanent fee change.”

The increased fee is only applicable to sellers that utilize Fulfillment by Amazon, which offers storage, packing and shipping services. Meanwhile, sellers that do not use the company’s fulfillment service will not be impacted.

The increase in costs for sellers could result in a hike in product rates for consumers as businesses across the board are passing along increased costs to their customers to sustain their business.

“Like many, we have experienced significant cost increases and absorbed them, wherever possible, to reduce the impact on our selling partners,” Amazon said. “When we did increase fees, we were focused on addressing permanent costs and ensuring our fees were competitive with those charged by other service providers.

Amazon’s move to charge a surcharge fee comes days after Etsy announced plans to increase its 5% seller transaction fee to 6.5% to help fund marketing efforts and offer additional seller support and technology.

Etsy Sellers Go On Strike Following Increase In Transaction Fee

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on April 14, 2022.