Amazon raises fulfilment costs in Europe

Amazon increased the costs of its multi-channel fulfilment service. The new fees will be in effect for European sellers starting next month. According to the ecommerce giant, the increase is due to rising operational costs due to inflation.

Recently, Zalando and eBay also upped seller fees in the face of economic slowdown. Furthermore, Amazon has recently been investigated by market authorities for benefitting sellers using its logistics service, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).

Parcel size and oversize affected

Amazon published an announcement on its seller platform. The company’s multi-channel fulfilment service (MCF) offers logistics services for orders outside of Amazon. The parcel size and oversize category are affected by the price change, while envelope size remains mostly unchanged. The detailed fees are listed by Amazon here. The new pricing will be implemented on April 7th.

‘Reflect rising operational costs’

Retailers will have to increase their own pricing.

On a seller forum, retailers were disappointed, saying that they would have to increase their own pricing as a result. The platform writes that fees are increased “(…) to reflect rising operational costs brought about by inflationary pressures and to help ensure that we can continue to provide best-in-class fulfilment services for your business.”

FBA prices have also increased

Prices for Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), the logistics service for orders on the platform, were also recently adjusted. Seller fees increased by 6.2 percent on average, Internet Word writes. FBA pricing is usually adjusted once or twice a year.

FBA fees increased 6.2 percent on average.

Because Amazon has been under investigation for favoring sellers using their in-house fulfilment service, the matter is quite sensitive. At the end of last year, Amazon settled with the European Commission to set up a second Buy Box for rival products.