Amazon is putting a controversial new seller fee on hold for the month of April to give merchants time to adjust and potentially avoid paying the fee.
The fee, which was supposed to go into effect on April 1, impacts products sold through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service, that are consistently low in stock relative to its sales. Sellers can enroll their products in the service, where Amazon stores, packs, ships, and provides customer service for the items.
“We have heard feedback from a number of sellers that they are uncertain about how, if at all, the new fee will impact their business,” Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide selling partner services, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Now, the month of April will serve as a “transition period,” so sellers can understand how the fee will impact their business. From April 1 to 30, sellers will be charged incurred fees, but will be credited back the fees at the end of the month.
“Our goal is to help our selling partners learn in real-time if they need to make adjustments to avoid the fee in the future, while having the peace of mind that during the transition period any fees incurred will be credited back,” Mehta wrote.
The transition period will also allow “the majority of sellers” to see the fee does not impact them, and that the fee “will most often be a rare case” for sellers who do incur them, he added. In addition to the low-inventory fees, Amazon sellers in the U.S. will also be charged new “inbound placement fees” if they do not ship inventory to at least four of the company’s warehouses, Fortune reports.
In March, the Federal Trade Commission began looking into Amazon’s new fees, including the requirement to ship products to at least four different warehouses, Fortune reported. Amazon sellers said the company’s new fees might make them rethink their business on the platform, and some told Fortune the new fee on low inventory isn’t fair because they are also charged if they have too much inventory in a warehouse.