On 5 June 2019, changes to Referral Fee – the % fees Amazon charges on sales through its Platforms – come into effect,
The key changes are:
– Reducing the fees in the Grocery category (excluding beer, wine and spirits), Beauty, Health & Personal Care, and Baby category products(excluding children’s clothing) from 15% to 8% for items with a total selling price (including shipping and gift wrapping) of less than €10/ÂŁ10. The 15% rate will continue to be charged on items with a total selling price of more than €10/ÂŁ10.
– We will reduce Referral Fee charges for items in the Furniture category from 15% to 10% on the proportion of the total selling price exceeding €200/ÂŁ175. This does not apply to mattresses. The fee for mattresses will remain at 15%.
– We will reduce the Referral Fee for the Jewellery category from 20% (UK 25%) to 5% for the proportion of the total sale price exceeding €250/ÂŁ225.
– Reduce the Referral Fee for the Watches Category from 15% to 5% for the portion of the total sale price above €250/ÂŁ225.
– A minimum product sales charge of €0.30/ÂŁ0.25 is introduced for all categories except Grocery and Media which includes books, music, video games, DVDs and software.
– The Referral Fee for TVs, laptops and computers in France will increase from 5% to 7%.
In summary, there are more reductions than increases. The trend shows that Amazon is making systematic changes that favour more expensive products and a category with high turnover.