Amazon says it will delay a planned raise in merchant fees for storing and shipping items until June 2021 in the US, EU, and Japan
Context & Ripple Effects
In December 2020, at the height of pandemic-era e-commerce strain, Amazon chose to absorb rather than pass on cost pressure: a planned increase in the fees merchants pay it for storing and shipping goods is pushed to June 2021 across its three biggest fulfillment markets — the US, EU, and Japan. For sellers locked into Fulfillment by Amazon, that defers any repricing through the holiday quarter.
The delay reads differently in hindsight. The pause held only until costs gave Amazon cover to move again: by spring 2022 it added a ~5% fuel and inflation surcharge to US sellers, and later layered on a 35¢ per-item FBA fee and floated a 2% fee on self-shipping merchants — the latter withdrawn after disclosure. The 2020 freeze was a pause in a ratchet, not a reversal.
First-order effects
- Merchants using Amazon's fulfillment network in the US, EU, and Japan keep their current storage and shipping rates through the holiday season and into mid-2021, while Amazon carries the added operating cost itself.
Second-order effects
- Sellers who might otherwise diversify to rival fulfillment providers get no price push to leave, blunting competitors' recruiting pitch; when Amazon does reprice, it has shown it will do so via targeted surcharges like the 2022 fuel-and-inflation add-on rather than headline rate hikes.
Third-order effects
- The episode sketches Amazon's fee playbook: freeze take-rates under public cost scrutiny, then recover ground through incremental charges once conditions justify them — a cycle that leaves merchants facing structurally higher all-in costs even after each 'delay.'
The trend: Marketplace fulfillment fees are becoming a managed lever for Amazon — paused during demand shocks, then compounded back upward through surcharges and per-item charges.