Yeah, that’s the kind of business that dies to a random Amazon change.
Not to mention he’s probably not authorized to sell Nintendo on Amazon, so he’s taking a huge risk for chump change.
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My last FBA shipment was in January, and I’ll pull the remaining items (only 11!) this January. The new/higher fees are a major disincentive for me trying FBA again.
For any ASIN, the MAXIMUM quantity I ever sent to FBA in one shipment was 3.
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“We will reduce referral fees for apparel products priced below $20. For items priced under $15, we will decrease referral fees from 17% to 5%. For products priced between $15 and $20, we will decrease referral fees from 17% to 10%. Other referral fees will remain unchanged. These reduced fees will apply starting January 15, 2024.”
Are these reduced referral fees for apparel items under $20 only for FBA or does this apply to FBM items also?
Just back from a two day break. I lost, my wife won so it was pretty normal.
Let’s see if I get an answer for you since I just posted it on the NSFE (NNIF).
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Thank you, all of my items are apparel items that sell for less than $20 so this makes a big difference to me.
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This is a good summary
I didn’t have to login to facebook to watch the video.
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Thinking about this overnight, I wonder if this is a way to deal with the high return rate on apparel products. 
You “guys” get ripped off in this area in my opinion. Frankly, I don’t know how you do it.
On the “transfer/low volume fee” we are going to have to take a close look at that. At this point I feel like a frog 
in a pot. Every time we turn around yet another fee.
This one hits us hard, as our competitive advantage over offshore sellers, is the volume of SKU’s that we offer. While they compete on sales volume of fewer products, we compete on variety.
Is what it is, we will deal with it.
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Update on this. I waited for 21 hours and only got one reply from another seller saying THEY didn’t “think referral fees change based on fulfillment method.”
It’s a weekend so at that point I tagged my list of MODS and MAYBE one of them will come back on Monday or Tuesday and say something.
Just seems like a crappy way for Amazon to make an announcement that affects so many of you apparel sellers.
If they were publishing a paper it would be called 'burying the lede".
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This, along with all the baloney that came before it, is why I am strictly FBM. Good Luck to all the FBA folks, I believe you will need ----LUCK!
Basically what you stated is that Amazon wants the fewest sellers necessary to match their logistic capabilities. Good for them, bad for the vast majority of Sellers.
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We just raise our prices to cover the costs. Less than half of the return requests are actually returned.
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Thing is, BS or not, for a lot of businesses FBA’s much cheaper than FBM. And that’s including “lost” items, the cost of FBA’s crappy customer support, all the fees and what have you. Booksellers are the 1 exception because they can use media mail to save money, and even then, after accounting for labor they’re probably spending more.
I would still largely recommend FBA for most businesses with the following exceptions:
- Needs special handling. (Fragile items, needs to be shipped with an ice pack, etc)
- Made to order items
- Slow selling items, < 10 units / month in sales makes it hard to consistently plan FBA restocks
- 1 off items (This one’s a mixed bag, FBA can work for these but they suck at handling them and tend to get 1 off items stuck in FC Transfer for long times)
Strictly financially FBA beats FBM almost every single time, and still will even if people are getting hit with the new fees.
Especially if that seller is located on either coast of the United States. Those in the middle of the country can make a more broad assertion of logistics cost, but San Diego to Burlington, or Atlanta to Spokane gets expensive and timely for everything outside of media.
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In order to come even close to FBA’s costs you need multiple locations.
3PL networks even with multiple locations are substantially more expensive than FBA. I’ve never seen anyone mention a service that even comes close to FBA’s costs so I don’t think it exists.
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Correct and correct with your other post from today upthread…
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And we FINALLY have a response from a MOD!
Bingo has been called and both FBA and FBM get the new cost structure.
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We still fail to see any where in the article that Jim_Amazon linked back to that says anything about referral fees with the exception of the apparel fee. In fact, that link is embedded into the FBA section in the Seller Help pages as seen by the link hierarchy in the following image and is the exact same info of the thread to which you replied.
So to be clear … this discussion about referral fees and FBA vs FBM is only about apparel … correct?
And that your clarification from Jim_Amazon is on FBA and FBM apparel referral fees only … correct?
Does anyone have the link to where all referral fees can be view for all categories and the subtree (there use to be an excel file that could be downloaded) ???
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Having seen enough of its Laodicean-like sloth over the years, in matters like these, I strongly suspect that the Editorial Team simply hasn’t yet gotten around to posting an update to the SHC (“Seller Help Content”) page Referral fees (link, 'simplified non-“G”-prefixed v.).
I haven’t yet poked around to see if I can still download a spreadsheet, because I believe that things are likely to currently be in flux.
We found that page also. But it is so lacking of categories that it is almost worthless. The category we sell in isn’t even on the list.
And so we all wait so impatiently in the dark …
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I simply tried to get clarification on the issue by posting the question asked above by @TheOrangeCrush
Here is the important part of what I posted there –
" On that ‘other’ Forum that Amazon does not like very much – where all the old really experienced people went – THIS question was asked –
“Are these reduced referral fees for apparel items under $20 only for FBA or does this apply to FBM items also?”
I lost lots of brain cells reading this entire thread and do NOT see an answer.
Is Amazon just throwing a bone to all you crazies that sell FBA or do the FBM sellers get a break as well?
I don’t do clothing so I don’t care either way, but it IS a legitimate question!
I am adding an EDIT 21 hours after the original post to see if any MODS can chime in and explain.
Hey guys — it is NOT CLEAR if the reduced fees are ONLY for FBA or if they are for ALL sellers since you buried it deep in a story targeting FBA sellers.
Which is it – ALL or just FBA???
And then the answer came from Jim_amazon.
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As a seller in a “fly over” location (north middle of country) I can tell you that we have high shipping costs to both coasts where the majority of the population lives. We don’t have to pay coast to coast shipping but we pay higher rates on 95% of our shipments going from the middle (of nowhere) to the coasts.
As GGX has said, FBA is a much more cost effective solution for us even adding in the extra costs associated with FBA (return fees, lost, damaged, etc). We just have to figure those extra costs into our pricing.