Amazon Adds Fuel and Inflation Surcharges for Sellers


Faced with rising costs, Amazon said on Wednesday it is adding an initial “fuel and inflation surcharge” to the fees it charges from sellers where it stores inventory and delivers it to customers. announcement on its website.

The surcharge, which averages 5 percent of current fulfillment fees, will take effect on April 28.

In an email to vendors, the company said that as its costs soared, including increased wages for workers and building more warehouses, it was “absorbing them wherever possible to reduce the impact on our sales associates,” but it didn’t. predicted the current increase in costs.

New federal data released yesterday Inflation rose to 8.5 percent In March, the fastest 12-month pace since 1981. Gasoline rose 48 percent year on year.

The company announced in November the wage increases that came into effect in January. On Wednesday, he told sellers that it wasn’t enough.

“We expected a return to normalcy in 2022 as Covid-19 restrictions ease around the world, but fuel and inflation brought more challenges,” the company told vendors.

The company called the fuel surcharge “a mechanism commonly used in supply chain providers.” FedEx and UPS both have fuel surcharges fixed to their fuel cost indices.

Most products that customers purchase from Amazon are sold by third-party sellers who pay Amazon a shipping fee for each sale and an additional order fulfillment fee if they use Amazon’s storage and delivery services. While sellers aren’t required to use Amazon’s fulfillment services, it’s the primary way that products meet the “Prime” label, which promises fast shipping to customers and is a key driver of sales.

Sellers paid Amazon $103 billion, or about 22 percent of the company’s total revenue, last year.

Bloomberg News first reported the surcharge is on Wednesday morning, before it is announced to the public.



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