Amazon employees work to fulfill same-day orders on Cyber Monday, one of the company’s busiest days, at an Amazon fulfillment center in Orlando, Florida, on December 2, 2024.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Getty Images
Amazon As the war in Iran enters its fifth week and oil prices soar, the company is adding a 3.5% “fuel and logistics surcharge” to the fees it collects from third-party sellers that use its fulfillment services.
The surcharge will go into effect April 17 for sellers in the U.S. and Canada, the company said in a memo to sellers Thursday seen by CNBC.
“Rising fulfillment and logistics costs are driving up operating costs across the industry,” Amazon wrote. “We have so far absorbed these cost increases. However, like other major airlines, where costs are still rising, we have introduced a temporary surcharge on our fulfillment fees to recover some of the actual cost increases we are experiencing.”
Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Vanicek said in a statement that the surcharge is “significantly lower” than the surcharges applied by other major carriers.
“We remain committed to the success of our distribution partners and to maintaining our broad selection and low prices for our customers,” Vanicek said in a statement.
Oil prices soared on Thursday as investors weighed how long Middle East conflicts will block crude oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. International benchmark Brent crude oil futures for the June contract rose more than 6% to $107.35 a barrel.
Amazon, which has about 2 million sellers on its marketplace, is not the only company grappling with soaring oil prices. The U.S. Postal Service announced last month that it plans to impose a fuel surcharge on packages starting April 26 “to align shipping costs with the market.”
Major delivery companies UPS and fedex It also imposed higher fuel surcharges since the start of the Iran war.
Amazon’s surcharges are calculated based on the seller’s fulfillment fees, not the product’s selling price, the company said. Banicek said the levy was “significantly lower” than the surcharges applied by other major airlines.
According to the company, this surcharge varies depending on the size and dimensions of the item, but on average it equates to an additional 17 cents per item for Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) shipments.
FBA is Amazon’s widely used service that handles the process of picking, packing, and shipping products. The majority of third-party sellers use FBA as a fulfillment method for products sold on Amazon.
Attention: No crisis yet for European liquefied natural gas suppliers
