(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. will levy a 5% fuel and inflation fee on online merchants that use its shipping services, according to documents reviewed by Bloomberg, a first for the company.
The surcharge, which will start April 28 and is the latest sign of companies grappling with rising costs, will apply to U.S. sellers who use the Fulfillment by Amazon service that stows, packs and ships products. Amazon intends to notify sellers about the fee later Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. The fuel surcharge is on top of seller fee hikes announced in November that averaged 5.2%, which were also attributed to rising costs.
Inflation has skyrocketed in recent months, and gasoline prices have surged since Russia invaded Ukraine. Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. each added fuel surcharges last month to offset the added costs.
In the email to be sent to Amazon sellers, the company said it has made big investments since the start of the pandemic to meet surging demand. Those include doubling capacity, adding 750,000 employees and raising the average Amazon warehouse employee wage to $18 from $15.
“Like many, we have experienced significant cost increases and absorbed them, wherever possible, to reduce the impact on our selling partners,” according to the email. “In 2022, we expected a return to normalcy as Covid-19 restrictions around the world eased, but fuel and inflation have presented further challenges. It is still unclear if these inflationary costs will go up or down, or for how long they will persist.”
For Amazon, the marketplace business represents nearly a quarter of sales. The company had seller services revenue of $30.3 billion in the quarter that ended in December.
(Updated with previous fee hike in second paragraph.)
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