Blog

Amazon shopping could become costlier from next month as the online retailer looks to increase its commission from sellers on the platform. According to reports, Amazon is going to charge higher commission from all the sellers as the company looks to cut its cost amid the market uncertainty.

As mentioned in its report by ET this month, Amazon making these changes could have a direct impact on items you buy from the platform, as higher commission fees could make you pay extra for products on Amazon from June onwards. The report says the commission increase affects products in categories like electronics, eyewear, apparel and more.

Online shopping has grown in the country thanks to appealing discounts and lower-than-offline prices of products. But these changes that come into effect from next month could have a serious effect on how many people shop on the platform and the volume (money-wise) of their shopping.

The report doesn’t say how much price increase we could see on products, but it suggests that any change in the commission fees charged by Amazon, for instance, a 2 percent hike, the same figure could be passed onto the consumer.

Amazon has been quoted saying the reason for the hike is linked to change in market dynamics and various macroeconomic factors, which suggests the company is focusing on cutting its expenses and making the seller bear the additional cost from here on. Amazon has already undertaken mass layoffs globally and in India, so the decision to revise commission fees is hardly surprising.

One could say that the price of items have gone up drastically in the past 12 months, so any further increase is not ideal for both Amazon and its customers. The online retailer has special sale days every now and then but even then making people shell out more for the same products from next month could work in favour of the offline sellers to some extent.