News Roundup (January 15-21): Amazon Referral Fee Changes, USPS Price Hike Implemented
Here's another roundup of what went down in the ecommerce world from January 15th to 21st. Take a look:
Amazon Referral Fee Decreases for Jewelry, Increases for Clothing and Accessories
Sellers reported receiving an email from Amazon announcing a temporary reduction in referral fees for jewelry but an increase for clothing and accessories.
Before the change, the referral fee for jewelry was 20% of the sales price, with a minimum fee of $2 per item. With the change that took effect yesterday until next year, Amazon will still collect 20%, but only for sales prices of $250 and below. Items above $250 now have a reduced fee of 5%, still with a minimum fee of $2 per item.
Things don’t look so good with clothing and accessories though. Currently, the referral fee stands at 15% of the sales price, but with the announced increase, it will go up to 17%, with a minimum fee of $1 per item. This increase will take effect on April 15th.
USPS Implements Price Hike
Speaking of increases, the proposed new postage rates by the USPS were implemented on Sunday, January 21st. USPS filed the price hike notice last year, expecting to increase the price of shipping services by an average of 3.9%.
Amazon releases HQ2 finalists, launches Amazon Go
Things don’t look so gloom for Amazon recently.
Do you remember the HQ2 location hunt that sent North American cities to a frenzy? Amazon just released their top 20, naming cities like Boston and New York City as possible candidates to host their 2nd headquarters.
They’ve also launched Amazon Go in Seattle yesterday. Although the launch is a year late, we still couldn’t help but be amazed. Amazon Go is a convenience store where you can take items off the shelf and just go–no cash, no lines, no checkout. It’s basically the store of the future.
EcomCrew Updates
If you feel like you’ve maximized your Amazon sales, you can explore other sales channels to squeeze more revenues out of your business. Dave wrote a guide on these channels and shows whether or not you should explore them, and what your profit would look like if you did.
We released Part 2 of the Under the Hood pilot episode! Mike now gets in the meat of things, giving our guest, Brad Bernhart solid advice about his business. Go to EcomCrew.com/112 to check it out.
Our new Director of Ecommerce Jaqueline is in the house for our 113th episode. She’s been with us for 4 months now and we got her on the podcast to talk about the hiring process and what it’s like to be on the front seat running our ecommerce company. Head on to EcomCrew.com/113 to listen to the episode.
That’s it for this week! Until the next one, happy selling!
