Amazon have at last recognised that many carriers charge more to deliver to outlying areas of the UK and are to allow sellers to charge extra as Amazon UK shipping region surcharges are introduced. This change applies to merchant-fulfilled orders only – orders fulfilled by Amazon won’t be affected so Prime (FBA and Seller Fulfilled Prime) offers will continue to provide free delivery throughout the UK.
Who will Amazon UK Shipping Region Surcharges impact?
Amazon Merchants
This change won’t impact sellers who ship via Royal Mail services as they have a flat fee throughout the UK. It is likely to be welcomed by merchants who have courier surcharges imposed on them and especially by those who ship very large or bulky items including pallet shipments as they will for the first time be able to put realistic shipping charges in place. Deliveries to those living in central areas can now be more realistic whilst those that live in remote areas can be charged what it actually costs to deliver.
Regional shipping applies to addresses in Inverness and the Scottish Highlands and offshore locations (Shetland Islands, Outer Hebrides, Kirkwall, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. All other UK addresses within England, Wales and Scotland must be charged the same shipping fee or be offered free shipping. The Isle of Wight isn’t specified as a separate region even though some couriers still charge extra to deliver to the UK’s largest Parliamentary constituency.
Amazon Consumers
It’s worth noting that consumers in outlying areas of the UK hate surcharges. They view them as a deterrent and feel victimised simply for living in some of the most remote areas of the UK.
Amazon UK Shipping Region Surcharges Rules
First up it’s important to realise that whilst you can surcharge to certain parts of the UK, you are required to deliver to all UK addresses and can’t decline orders based on destination.
In your shipping template, as well as being able to specify different shipping costs to each different Amazon UK shipping region, you can also extend delivery times to those regions where your chosen courier takes more time to deliver. If possible, it’s a better customer experience to offer an extended delivery time without applying Amazon UK shipping region surcharges.
Amazon UK Shipping Region Surcharges banned behaviours
You are not allowed to:
- Refuse delivery or cancel orders to certain regions.
- Use product description bullet points to refuse delivery to certain regions or request that customers in certain regions choose ‘express delivery’ in order to collect additional shipping fees.
- Contact customers to request additional shipping fees after the order has been placed.
Amazon merchants who have already been migrated to the new template can make changes to their shipping fees through Seller Central via Settings > Shipping Settings. If you’ve not been upgraded yet it’ll be coming soon.
For more information on the Amazon Shipping Policy you can visit their help page here.
7 Responses
This is long overdue but greatly welcomed. We actually pulled 90% of our catalogue from Amazon as shipping fees were just killing us. We’re a niche retailer and it seemed like a good chunk of the market in Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands had caught on to the benefits of shopping on Amazon. This means we can look at Amazon again as a channel.
Wish ebay would do this. Despite adding a note to every listing that is affected by courier surcharge areas ( upper case, red and bold text!), we still get loads of buyers who don’t read it, then take 3 days to reply to our message and then if they are happy to pay the surchage, then leave us with a late delivery mark!
I note that OnBuy have this faciility, so it is a miracle that Amazon is only just doing it and Ebay haven’t even suggested it yet. Complete pain in the neck it is!
for remote areas we use Royal Mail. there is never a surcharge because it is the Crown delivery service and offers the same postage no matter where within the UK. I dont see what the problem is. Are you selling items that CANT be sent by Royal Mail?
Shipping rate surcharges all sorted, more or less, but wasn’t that impressed really.
Per order plus per kilo is not ideal and they could do with a lower weight exclusion level, as anything under 2kg can go in the post anywhere and doesn’t need a surcharge. But at least now I can add some heavier listings to Amazon without risk of taking a big hit on orders to the remote regions.