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Amazon is charging platform sellers 5% more because of rising inflation and fuel prices. Earlier, Etsy raised its commission, but that led to a massive strike. Could Amazon suffer the same fate?
Temporary inflation surcharge
Anyone in the United States who sells and ships their goods via Amazon will soon have to pay the platform around 5% more. The e-commerce giant is raising its fees for sales partners who use its fulfilment services, i.e. who have their merchandise stored at and delivered by Amazon. According to the company, this is not a permanent fee change, but a temporary fuel and inflation surcharge. The surcharge is therefore in addition to the normal costs.
“In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as Covid-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges,” an Amazon spokesperson said to CNBC. “It is still unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or for how long they will persist, so rather than a permanent fee change, we will be employing a fuel and inflation surcharge for the first time — a mechanism broadly used across supply chain providers.” Amazon stresses that the fee is lower than the fuel surcharge that other logistics providers, such as UPS and FedEx, already charge today.
Boycott at Etsy
Some 89% of the more than 2 million sellers on Amazon in the US use the fulfilment services, CNBC knows, so the impact will be huge. It remains to be seen, however, whether the merchants on the platform will accept the measure. Last week, Etsy, an American marketplace for makers and creatives, also announced a commission increase, but this was not well received. Sellers now have to pay 6.5% on each order, compared to 5% before.
More than 12,000 sellers went on strike this week: they put their webshops on holiday mode for the entire week, which is as close to closing one can get. The initiators complain that Etsy continues to eat into their margins every year, among other things by pressuring them to pay for advertisements and making them offer free shipping. The sellers threaten to leave the platform. However, it is far from certain that the Amazon sellers can afford such a protest.
