Amazon: Third-party retailers must pay higher sales fees

In order for third-party retailers to be allowed to take advantage of the lucrative Christmas business on Amazon, they have to pay a sales fee. This is now set to increase in the USA and Canada. I wonder if the rest of the globe will soon follow suit?

Increase to 35 cents per item sold

Between October and January, business on Amazon booms, as experience shows. Events like Thanksgiving and, of course, the Christmas holidays themselves encourage people to store. Accordingly, Amazon has been relying on the so-called holiday fee for some time. The online giant now wants to increase this to 35 cents per item sold. This is according to a report from CNBC, in which the broadcaster refers to an email that is said to have gone out to third-party retailers. Our colleagues at Golem.de have since been able to find out that this price increase probably only applies to third-party dealers in the U.S. and Canada, however – for now, at least.

First price increase since the existence of Marketplace

The price increase for third-party merchants is a first. Until now, they could rely on the fixed existence of the fee. But these are not the only ones that users of Amazon Marketplace have to pay. On top of that, there are costs for shipping by Amazon. In view of increased energy prices and other expenses, the online marketplace saw itself forced to increase prices, according to the e-mail. In the digital letter to the contract partners, it also becomes clear what great importance the third-party retailers have for Amazon. For example, they emphasized that the sales partners were incredibly important to them. Accordingly, the “decision was not taken lightly.” A look at Amazon’s figures makes it clear that this is not just content-free gobbledygook.

For example, trade through third-party sellers on the “Amazon Marketplace” platform now accounts for more than half of the group’s e-commerce sales. And the success story is by no means over. For example, the revenue that Amazon generated with its Marketplace for third-party sellers rose by 13 percent in the second quarter. Revenue, in turn, fell by four percent in the second quarter. Consequently, this step seems to have been without alternative for Amazon. Things were quite different just two years ago. The online mail order giant was delighted to double its profits in the wake of the corona pandemic. Accordingly, the company added nearly half a million new employees to its workforce, which of course now also means more spending.