Amazon is bringing back peak season fees for third-party sellers that plan to use its mix of fulfillment services this holiday.
The peak fulfillment fees will apply from Oct. 15 through Jan. 14, 2025. In a post on its seller central forum, Amazon said the seasonal fee is similar to those charged by other major carriers, and covers increased fulfillment and transportation operating costs during the season.
UPS unveiled its “demand surcharges” for shippers in July as it seeks to make back some of the money it left on the table when customers traded down for cheaper shipping services. These surcharges will largely kick in during the peak holiday, Similarly, DHL added its own version of demand surcharges for DHL Express users as air cargo capacity constraints persist across some trade lanes.
FedEx has not announced peak season surcharges yet.
Amazon’s fees will apply to sellers using services including: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in the U.S. and Canada, North America Remote Fulfillment, U.S. Multi-Channel Fulfillment and Buy with Prime.
“The average holiday peak fulfillment fee will remain the same as last year, except for products priced under $10 in U.S. FBA, for which the peak fee is new in 2024,” the company said. “Amazon’s average FBA fulfillment fees continue to be 70 percent less expensive than comparable two-day shipping methods offered by other major third-party logistics providers.”
For example, a peak fee for a “large standard-size” item like a T-shirt would jump to $5 to ship, versus $4.67 during the rest of the year. A “small standard-size” product like a mobile device case, would jump elicit a $3.34 fee, as opposed to the non-peak $3.15 charge.
The company first introduced the fees during the 2022 holiday season.
FBA fulfillment fees are calculated and charged when shipments leave the fulfillment centers. That means if a product is ordered before Oct. 15, but is shipped on or after that date, the fulfillment fees will still apply.
Ahead of the holiday, Amazon recently moved up its Black Friday shipping deadline to Oct. 19, one week earlier than last year. The online marketplace recommends sending inventory to fulfillment centers in August and September to ensure they have enough products in stock for the season.
Amazon eliminates excess inventory fees for sellers
Amazon also quietly got rid of one of its seller fees as it gears up for the holiday. Retroactively as of July 1, the company is eliminating “overage” fees for FBA inventory storage in the U.S.
The charge penalized sellers whose inventory sitting in Amazon warehouses exceeded the limit set by the e-commerce giant.
“The fee removal is in part due to Amazon’s more effective capacity management features, and we are glad to be able to eliminate these fees and allow sellers to not worry about them as we head into peak,” Amazon vice president of worldwide selling partner services Dharmesh Mehta wrote on LinkedIn. “We hope this will help more sellers ensure they have enough inventory ready for peak demand this holiday shopping season.”
Amazon offers a capacity monitor tool aimed at helping sellers stay up to date on the company’s capacity limits.
The tech titan will still set inventory capacity limits for sellers, but they will no longer be charged the added fee if sales are slow and their in-stock inventory exceeds their threshold. Instead, Amazon will penalize the sellers by preventing them from adding to their inventory if their in-stock merchandise plus in-transit restocks surpass their limit.
Amazon’s decision softens the blow of the two new charges that it started levying FBA-using sellers in 2024, both of which drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
An inbound placement fee, which went into effect March 1, required sellers to pay and use the Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) bulk storage service unless they opt to ship goods to at least four different warehouses using their own resources.
The second fee, a low-inventory-level fee, slapped sellers who carry “consistently low” levels of inventory relative to unit sales. That fee first went into effect April 1, but the imposition was postponed after negative feedback, with Amazon instead crediting the sellers through May 31 to help them transition into the fees.
The overage fees were called out by some sellers when the low-inventory-level fees were announced, with some arguing that it was unfair to have to find a “sweet spot” for inventory given that sales can vary month to month based on a factors like seasonality and product fads.
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