Amazon.com will be introducing new minimum Referral Fees to some categories from the 16th May. You can find the Amazon page with full details here. The below table summarises the changes.
Now, this is unlikely to affect a great many Tamebay readers, as the vast majority of UK and European based Amazon sellers don’t trade on the US mothership Amazon.com site
But for readers stateside this is not just a fee rise headache but also a Pricing Parity problem. Over here in the EU, we don’t have Pricing Parity any longer (whereby you cannot offer an item for sale on Amazon any cheaper elsewhere on the net), but in the States it is alive and well and these changes will require some amendment.
There must also be a note of concern. Often what starts in the US on eBay and Amazon is subsequently implemented on other international sites. Could it be that similar minimum referral fees such as this will be heading our way soon?
3 Responses
This does effect some of my smaller items that I sell on Amazon (I’m in the U.S.). I think Amazon did this to make their products (that they sell direct) more competitive. They have enough overhead that they were getting undercut by smaller sellers on these lower cost items.
Yup, very fair comment. This is the Amazon conundrum. Third party sellers compete direct, and they own the store.
if it is happening in the USA now, then I expect it to be implemented in the UK in the next 12-18 months.
It was going to happen sooner or later when they introduced the minimum order amount for free shipping.