Amazon Imposing Fee on Sellers Who Ship Products Themselves
Amazon.com Inc. is imposing a new fee on merchants who don't use the company's logistics services, a change many of these sellers consider coercive and surprising since the US government is poised to file an antitrust lawsuit against the e-commerce giant.
Thousands of third-party merchants who ship products via Amazon's Seller Fulfilled Prime program will start paying a 2% fee on each sale in October, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. That's on top of the commission — usually 15% — that merchants already pay Amazon to sell products on the popular web store.
Several merchants interviewed by Bloomberg interpreted the new fee as an attempt to pressure them into using Amazon's logistics services rather than fulfilling orders themselves. The company didn't explain to sellers why the levy was required, but told Bloomberg it will help cover the costs of running a separate infrastructure and measuring its effectiveness.
Amazon has been accused of having too much power over the some 2 million merchants who use its platform, which captures about 37.6% of all online spending in the US, according to Insider Intelligence, or about six times more than its closest online competitor Walmart Inc. The Federal Trade Commission is in the final stages of preparing an antitrust case against Amazon, and the timing of the new fee took some merchants and consultants by surprise.
“We're sitting here waiting for the FTC to take action against Amazon for antitrust issues, and this fee shows Amazon is not scared at all,” said Jason Boyce, whose Avenue7Media helps about 100 businesses sell products online.
In recent years, Amazon has been ratcheting up fees on merchants, who typically pay for advertising and logistics to help maximize their
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
