Amazon's SMB Sellers Bear Brunt Of Slowdown, Shell Out More Sales Commission

  • Amazon.Com, Inc AMZN squeezed more money from the nearly 2 million small businesses that sell products on its sprawling online marketplace to beat weaker sales and cost headwinds.
  • For the first time, Amazon’s average sale commission surpassed 50% in 2022, said Marketplace Pulse, which sampled seller transactions back to 2016, Bloomberg reports.
  • Sellers paid Amazon more per transaction for six years in a row but could absorb the increases because the company attracted new customers and rapidly increased sales. That abruptly changed as people began traveling and dining out again on pandemic recovery.
  • In 2022, Amazon generated the slowest sales growth in its history.
  • Recovery-driven deal-sensitive consumers, coupled with the steady increase in fees, prompted some struggling sellers to handle shipping themselves and spend less to advertise on Amazon’s site.
  • Amazon sellers choose to use its logistics services because, on average, they cost 30% less than alternatives from other shipping companies, and merchants are free to buy advertising anywhere, company spokesperson Mira Dix said.
  • Juozas Kaziukenas, Marketplace Pulse’s founder and CEO, said, “Amazon might be tempted to keep increasing fees because it’s in a tough spot, but you have to reach some kind of equilibrium.”
  • Without Amazon Web Services, the profitable cloud computing business, Amazon would have posted a $10 billion operating loss last year
  • Amazon hiked the annual price of a U.S. Prime subscription by $20 in 2022. 
  • In January, Amazon shared plans to charge for online grocery orders of less than $150
  • But charging customers more is risky. Merchants who generate 80% - 90% of their Amazon sales are less likely to rebel.
  • Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 1.68% at $99.25 on the last check Monday.
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