Amazon's Upcoming Fee Changes In 2024

Amazon has recently disclosed forthcoming adjustments to the fees for UK and EU sellers, attributing these changes primarily to the enhanced and expedited shipping services offered to customers. These 2024 alterations are purportedly aimed at minimizing overall expenses. Additionally, the company emphasized its commitment to improving the seller experience by streamlining processes and providing more comprehensive tools for account management. Sellers are encouraged to review their user permissions for Amazon accounts to ensure compliance with the updated policies and maintain account security. These adjustments are expected to foster a more efficient and secure marketplace for both sellers and buyers across the regions.

There's a mixed bag of fee changes. Some fulfilment fees are reduced, but other increases might outweigh these savings for many sellers.

Feedback from sellers on Amazon's announcement highlights their frustration and concern. They point out the cumulative impact of various factors on their businesses: the discontinuation of the Small & Light program, the obligatory use of Amazon Buy Shipping, and rising Royal Mail costs, all contributing to diminished profits.

In light of these challenges, some sellers are contemplating expanding their sales channels. Others are critical of Amazon's escalating fees and the perceived disparity between customer expectations and the quality of support, despite annual fee increases. Overall, the mood among sellers is one of dissatisfaction and financial burden due to these policy and fee changes.

Key Points of the 2024 EU FBA Fee Changes:

1. FBA fulfilment fees are set to rise in several countries and across the European Fulfillment Network, except for domestic fulfilment fees in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, which remain unchanged.
2. Significant modifications to seller return, disposal, and liquidation fees will take effect from February 5th, 2024. Local return-to-seller fees will increase, as will most cross-border returns, except for a few lower tiers.
3. Beginning October 1st, 2024, Amazon will introduce new returns processing fees for products with high return rates, without addressing the issue of fraudulent or Amazon-at-fault returns within this policy.
4. Average storage fees during peak and off-peak periods will see an approximately 10% increase from March 1st, 2024.
5. Starting February 15th, the aged inventory surcharge will rise significantly across most tiers.
6. From June 1st, 2024, Amazon will introduce new tiers for the storage utilization surcharge, affecting Professional sellers who exceed a storage utilisation ratio of 22 weeks.
7. Unlike US sellers, there will be no "inbound placement fee" in these regions.
8. The low-level inventory fee appears to apply only to pan-EU inventory.

Breakdown of FBA Fee Changes:

The FBA fees in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain will stay constant. However, in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, and Belgium, domestic fees per unit shipped will increase as follows:

• Standard Envelope: £0.08 to £0.09
• Small Parcel: £0.2 to £0.23
• Standard Parcel: £0.19 to £0.35
• Standard Oversize: £0.26 to £0.48 (+ £0.01 per additional kg)
• Large Oversize: £0.54 to £0.72 (+ £0.01 per additional kg)

Rates for Small Envelope and Special Oversize remain unchanged. The Remote Fulfillment fee for shipments from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain to the UK will decrease, while fees for the EU Fulfillment Network and Remote Fulfillment from the UK to the EU will stay the same.

However, these EU fulfilment fees come with conditions, as outlined in the footnotes of each rate table. Notably, Amazon reserves the right to adjust fees within the EU network based on fluctuations in foreign exchange rates.

You can refer to the 2024 Fulfilment by Amazon fulfilment fee changes page provided by Amazon for details on all of the changes.