Are you ready for Q2? Not unless you’ve read our Amazon seller news report, you’re not. Give us a minute of your time, and we’ll give you a rundown of all the latest news in this month’s edition of our digest for Amazon sellers.
New Amazon US Referral Fees
Amazon.com will be changing the fees schedule on June 1, 2021.
To begin with, it will be charging a fee for Amazon Renewed items. But the biggest change is the projected rise in fulfillment fees, which Amazon claims will be 2-3% on average for all sellers on Amazon US.
- Appliances will be split into two tiers: Compact and Full-Size. The latter will be charged only 8% in referral fees.
- Personal Computers will incur higher referral fees, from 6% to 8%.
- Veterinary Diets pet food items will be charged 7% more.
New FBA US Fees
But FBA sellers are likely to bear the brunt of the fee rise because packaging weight no longer matters and size tiers are changing. So, in practice, items are being bumped up to higher, more expensive tiers. Here’s a brief rundown of the fee changes:
- FBA fulfillment fees will be $0.05 to $0.79 higher per product (except for Special Oversize) for most products – including dangerous goods, and excluding apparel.
- FBA returns processing fees will be lower and the same for all products in the Apparel and Shoes category. As for Watches, Jewelry, Sunglasses, Luggage, and Handbags, Amazon will be waiving these fees.
- FBA fees for removals and disposals will rise by $0.07 to over $1.6, depending on the shipping weight.
- FBA manual processing will cost 50% more from Jan. to Oct., so $0.15 per unit. And it will double to $0.3 between Nov. and Dec. This fee will apply to FBA Small & Light too.
- FBA Small and Light will accept slightly bigger items. The fee will be $2.16 to $2.6 per unit. The optional FBA Label Service will cost $0.1/unit on top of that.
- The FBA Liquidations program will relaunch in the USA, with a referral fee of 14% and a per-unit fee of at least $0.25, but with the potential to recoup some of the value of the inventory.
FBA US New Selection Program
Apr. 1, 2021 will bring changes for the New Selection initiative:
- Amazon is waiving storage fees for up to 90 days and removal fees for up to 180 days on up to 30 units per parent ASIN for eligible Oversize items.
- New-to-FBA products will no longer be subject to the 500-ASIN limit per parent ASIN.
- Eligible Apparel and Shoes ASINs (Standard Size only) will enjoy free storage for 120 days and free removal for 180 days (100 units max./ parent ASIN), and no processing fees for 180 days (50 units max./ per parent ASIN).
- New-to-FBA sellers can make advertising campaigns for free and enjoy up to $200’s worth of promotional clicks for their Sponsored Ads.
Free Replacements for MFN and SFP Orders
Starting Apr. 15, Amazon will give buyers of MFN and SFP fulfilled items the option to ask for “Free Replacements”.
But only if sellers have another unit of that specific item, and in the same condition. The offer applies to items that arrive damaged, defective, or different.
Whether they ask for a refund or a replacement, all buyers will be offered a prepaid return label.
If they accept a replacement unit, buyers will have 7 days to return their item, and Amazon will prompt sellers to ship a replacement as soon as the return label is scanned.
Products that fulfill a seller’s Returnless Refund rules are also affected by this change.
So, any items that come with a returnless refund option will now also have a returnless replacement option.
More FBA Disposal Powers
Amazon has updated its policy on Unsuitable Inventory investigations.
Starting Mar. 19, any inventory suspected as counterfeit or illegal may be withheld until sellers provide proof of its authenticity.
Should sellers fail to provide sufficient proof before the deadline, Amazon may deem the inventory unsuitable and destroy it.
Even if the inventory is not deemed unsuitable, it will be released for removal from the fulfillment network (i.e. any and all fulfillment centers).
Heavy & Bulky FBA to Launch
Amazon FBA will start accepting very large items from Apr. 1 through its Heavy & Bulky FBA program.
Unlike the Amazon Heavy & Large program (for items over 30kg and 1.5m long), this program is designed for products with even greater mass and girth.
Heavy & Bulky FBA will take items over 360cm in girth and from 175cm to 662cm long (or 300cm in the UK).
The minimum weight is 31.5kg, but the maximum mass is venue-specific (e.g. 40kg on Amazon ES versus 300kg on Amazon FR).
Eligible items will be offered to buyers with Scheduled and Room of Choice delivery options.
The catch?
A fee of €15/￡15 per SKU, on top of the usual FBA fees.
Also, only domestic orders are eligible, and the items must be Amazon Barcoded and boxed as single units.
Amazon-Fulfilled Shipment Report Gone
Effective Apr. 8, 2021, Amazon is removing buyer names and addresses from the Amazon Fulfilled Shipment Report in Seller Central.
Sellers who need these reports can download the data for 30 days at a time, going back to no more than 18 months.
R.I.P. ERP
No new enrollments have been made for the Early Reviewer Program since Mar. 10.
According to a recent email to sellers, Amazon is pulling the plug on ERP on Apr. 25, 2021.
Sellers who have enrolled their products by then may see several changes:
- Program fees ($60/SKU) for reviews published after Apr. 25 will not be charged.
- Enrolled SKUs with no ERP-generated reviews will not incur a fee.
- Fees for enrollments with more than 1 review will be reimbursed by July 25.
- Some reviews generated through the ERP may be removed, as reported on the forums.
In the email notification, Amazon claims ERP is being terminated because other initiatives have proven more efficient by comparison, despite this being a paid and popular seller program.
Here are the two more efficient programs Amazon is referring to:
- ‘One Tap Reviews’– lets buyers leave a star rating with no comment.
- Global Review Sharing– displays reviews collated from several venues.
Automate Pricing for Business Sellers
Business sellers can now use Amazon’s Automate Pricing tool to reprice single-unit business items in bulk.
The tool comes with the same rules, parameters, and quantity discount options as usual.
Note that discounts will lower prices below the preset minimum threshold.
Amazon Singapore Fee Waiver
For a limited time, sellers can open a store on Amazon.sg and enjoy a fee waiver.
Aside from charging lower FBA fees than other venues, Amazon Singapore will also dispense with fees for the Professional selling plan, as well as Deals and Coupons, until June 2021.
Amazon Gets Tough on Poor IDR
The Invoice Defect Rate (IDR) is a metric that’s been around since last summer.
Back then, it wasn’t mandatory and it only applied to Business orders.
But as we mentioned in our recent post about Performance Metrics, this IDR will start to apply to all European orders on Apr. 5.
What’s it for?
IDR measures the share of orders you don’t provide a downloadable VAT invoice or receipt for before the end of the next business day. It should always be under 5%. Otherwise, Amazon announced it may start to deactivate sellers’ accounts next month.
UPS Shipping Labels Not Valid in Europe
As UK/EU ‘small parcel’ UPS deliveries via the Partnered Carrier Program have been suspended, cross-border UPS shipping labels are no longer usable.
Amazon will reimburse sellers the cost of their labels and any FBA shipments that have been affected.
Lower FBA Returns Fees in Europe
Amazon Europe is making returns cheaper.
As announced on the forum, sellers have been enjoying lower returns processing fees for items in several product categories from Mar. 1, 2021.
The total reduction amounts to:
- 100% of total fulfillment fee for Watches and Jewelry.
- 50% of the same for Clothing, Shoes, and Handbags.
Lower Fees on Cycling Accessories
On Apr. 1, 2021, Amazon will launch a new category on its European venues (UK included), called Cycling Accessories.
Rather than the usual 15% in referral fees, Amazon will be charging 8% of the total price (item price + shipping + gift wrap charge).
As explained on the Seller Central Europe forum, digital service tax will continue to apply on top of the 8% for 4 venues: UK, FR, IT, ES.
New Image Style Guide
Amazon has updated the EU seller’s guide for uploading product images, Selling Partner Style Guide EU: Clothing & Accessories.
The changes include a requirement for the use of at least one model who must always be standing upright, in a variety of settings.
The guide is also available to access and download in other EU languages (e.g. change EN to IT in the URL).
Amazon PL Goes Live
Shortly after the official launch of Amazon Poland on Mar. 2, 2021 came the announcement that the BSA has also been updated.
It now includes references to the local currency, the Polish złot (PLN), as well as insurance limits and thresholds (seen here in red).
As Poland’s largest US employer, with 7 fulfillment centers and more investment likely to come, Amazon may very well continue expanding across Eastern Europe in the years to come.
Melanie takes an active interest in all things Amazon. She keeps an eye on the latest developments and keeps Amazon sellers up to speed.