I have to admit my heart nearly skipped a beat when I saw the part in the title about referral fee changes…I was like, oh here we go. But it was actually a decrease.
And while warehousing doesn’t seem like it should be more expensive, labor costs have increased and someone has to cover that so I understand the off-peak increase for storage.
Wow. 5.2% is not nothing.
If you sell the same product as Amazon does, forget it. You cannot compete.
What does everyone else think?
I think this:
we would like to thank you for once again putting your trust in Amazon to power your business this year.
‘Putting our trust in Amazon’? Are they kidding? 
providing FBA sellers with premium expedited fulfillment and delivery speed for lower than standard service prices.
Nice way to make a false claim, based on skewed data. Aren’t people complaining left and right about how SLOW FBA’s ‘premium expedited fulfillment’ is? 
Throughout the pandemic we have worked to support you
I don’t know about the rest of you, but Amazon does NOT work to support me. Neither during the pandemic, nor before it. They do, however, do a lot to make life harder and waste my time. I wonder if the people at Amazon really believe what they’re putting out there?
But you have to realize that shipping costs have gone up what, like 3 times (with the new ones coming) since the last adjustment. FBA sellers have been spared much of those increases compared to FBM who feel it every time we click that buy shipping button.
Even being in Prime is not what it was, no more 2 day guaranteed…
Since they have been so great in the past.
Well maybe not if they actually did something about scammers and/or counterfeiters…
Hey no one has more “feedback” about Amazon than me but ignoring Amazon’s puffy propaganda, this is about the fee/expense increases (which are pretty much all at FBA) and new programs and adjustments.
Do I think Amazon is going to be impacted by government regulation? Yes, their actions have basically guaranteed it.
Do I think anyone of us sellers could improve the marketplace more in a single day than they do in 2-3 years? Yes.
Do I think they violate actual laws in how they run the place as a judge/jury/competitor/boss/etc. ? Yes.
Do I think most government folks understand that? Nope. They are struggling to understand that fake crap on Facebook is GOOD financially for Facebook so (much like Amazon) they pretend to do something, slowly, to combat it.
At the risk of sounding like some of the forum members I used to dislike, Amazon is a beast–she is not fair, she is not right but we choose to be here because if you ride the waves correctly, the rewards are great.
What does everyone else think?
I also think Amazon hasn’t read the thread about what we all expect from the holiday season this year. ‘another big holiday season’ isn’t exactly the consensus.
sellers have continued to thrive.
We have? I wonder what Amazon is basing that on?
US-based sellers sold more than 3.8 billion products, or 7,400 products per minute, in Amazon stores alone
Please be transparent about exactly what you mean. What is ‘in Amazon stores’? Also, please gather this data and then report how many of those 3.8 billion products were sold at a profit and how many were sold at the money-losing price Amazon constantly tries to shove sellers into? Does that 3.8 billion include items that were ‘sold’ through the FBA program that lets you turn over your unwanted/unmoving product to Amazon for pennies on the dollar? Can’t remember what it’s called, since I don’t do FBA, but I bet Amazon is counting those as “sales”.
and we welcomed more than 200,000 new third-party sellers to our US store
Note that this does not say welcomed 200,000 new US-based sellers. I bet at least 195,000 of them were Chinese accounts scamming customers and selling counterfeits.
We are proud to have supported you
You didn’t support ME. You only got in my way. Stupid pesticide bots, bogus fair pricing violations, obstacles, obstacles, obstacles. WHERE WAS THE SUPPORT??? All I saw (and ever see) is interference.
with significant investments in our fulfillment and delivery network
And yet, the performance has gotten worse. Interesting.
across our fulfillment network to help keep employees safe
Funny. I haven’t seen a single news story bragging on how Amazon workers are so happy they have a safe workplace. Only stories about how dangerous working at Amazon is and how Amazon management doesn’t care.
to ensure we are able to quickly receive your inventory
Throughout the pandemic we have worked to support you—reducing or eliminating select fees like those for customer returns
I’m sorry, but what??? I’m doing nothing but PAYING FALSE FEES for customer returns. We lost the ability to recoup expenses through withholding outbound shipping costs and charging restocking fees easily. Please someone show me where Amazon reduced or eliminated ANY of our costs associated with returns.
I’ve got no gripe about Amazon raising their fees, although I haven’t looked at the details yet. But it really galls me how they lie and promote a bunch of BS nonsense, trying to spin this as if they’re doing us some giant favor by charging us more.
Lets give discounts to the next wave of get rich quick middlemen and the next cheap and easy chinese brand thats one letter different than the last.
Will this mean that the quality of FBA fulfulment will improve? 
The FBA fee increase for my goods is between 9-10%. So its pretty steep but what choice do we have (I don’t have the time for FBM). Wouldnt be as bad to swallow if they took care of the units that go missing even after confirming receipt, the late deliveries that get refunds, units that are mislabeled (despite me labeling correctly), delays in receiving goods at the FC, aggravating seller support. The fees have gone up over that last few years and the quality of FBA fulfillment seems to have gone down in that time.
Not getting my hopes up … just need to be prepared to raise prices again and get even worse support. C’est la vie!
That’s a good point, although I haven’t experienced increase shipping costs anywhere near 3 times as an FBM seller. But your point that FBM sellers have been paying incrementally higher shipping costs each time carriers raised them, while FBA sellers have not, is a good one.
On the other hand, what Amazon charges in FBA pick-and-pack fees (or whatever they’re called now) is still no-doubt more than what it actually costs Amazon to do the work and the shipping. But they warned Wall Street that Q4 this year might not be great for them (the complete opposite of the rosy picture painted in this news item PR spin) so they’re understandably trying to pad their bottom line.
If you lower your average starting wage down from $18 can you reduce the FBA fees? If so, lets do that.
What is wrong with that ?
At least twice…the one year regular increase, and this year for the 4th quarter.
Small and light is changing from 12oz to 3lb, which is great - but will it still be capped at $7 sell price to be eligible? Really wish that price cap would be lifted!!
I think good luck with a $7 ceiling on S&L prices. Even if your 3 lb product costs pennies to make, between fulfillment fees and freight moving it to Amazon, it’s hard to imagine being profitable.
although I haven’t experienced increase shipping costs anywhere near 3 times as an FBM seller
At least twice…the one year regular increase, and this year for the 4th quarter.
Oops, my mistake. I thought he was saying that prices had increased 3-fold, (ie somthing that used to cost $4 to ship now costs $12) not that he meant prices had gone up 3 different times.
. On a recent forum, a seller had responded to the latest hurdle to jump over by saying it was reason 599 not to go with FBA.
I’d say this is reason 600 . I’ll continue with FBM ,until A deactivates all of us
