Amazon Kills Small & Light Program, Replaced With Low-Price FBA Rates

Amazon has announced it will be ending the FBA Small & Light program on August 29, replacing it with "low-price FBA rates" instead.

Low-Price FBA rates to replace Small and Light on August 29

For a number of years, the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Small and Light program has provided sellers with an option to enroll low-price, small, and light products into this program to receive lower FBA rates because the program provided slower shipping speeds than standard FBA.

We have learned a great deal over the last few years, including how these lower fees have helped enable sellers to offer far more low-price selection to customers and how much customers value the continued improvements we have made in speed. As a result, we have decided to end the US FBA Small and Light program and instead lower the standard FBA rates for all low-price products.

Starting August 29, 2023, US FBA will introduce these lower FBA rates for all items priced below $10. The new rates make it simpler for every seller to take advantage of lower fees on their low-priced selection, while providing the same, fast FBA delivery speeds that customers love. Any eligible items will automatically receive the low-price rates and will not be subject to 2023 holiday peak fulfillment fees that will apply from October 15, 2023, through January 14, 2024.

With this change, we will close the Small and Light program in the US effective August 29, when the new low-price FBA rates go into effect. Until then, items enrolled in Small and Light will continue to have Small and Light rates applied. Enrollment of new products into the program will end after July 17.

The new FBA rates for low-price products will be an average of $0.77 lower per item than the current FBA rates for these products. If your products were enrolled in Small and Light and are priced below $10, this change will mean that you will pay about $0.30 more per item than with Small and Light, but your items will now ship with the faster FBA fulfillment speeds.

If your products were not enrolled in Small and Light and are priced below $10, this change will mean that you will pay about $0.77 less per item while continuing to enjoy the fast FBA fulfillment speeds you have been receiving. For items priced above $10, they will automatically have the standard FBA rates and shipping speeds applied.

We understand that changes to programs and fees can affect your business. To help prepare for this change, you’ll have approximately two months until the new lower FBA rates for low-price products take effect and the Small and Light program closes. We recommend that you review your product offerings, check your inventory status, and review the FBA rates to assess any changes.

Sellers sounded off in the community forum about how this change will impact their businesses.

Walking back the recent $11.99 FBA Small and Light increase is bad, this really helped us out a lot.

Spinning this as anything other than a price hike in disingenuous.

Another example of Amazon taking a bite out of 3rd party sellers profit. If anything the price should have increased from $11.99 to 12.99, not gone backwards. Many customers do not care about delivery times like they use to obsess over it.

This is crazy. FIrst Amazon NEVER measures correctly and even the smallest items end up in the large standard category. In that case, for apparel an item that was 6oz the fee has gone from a fee of $2.77 to $3.86 - thats a 39% increase! How did they come up with 30cents? That is on top of reducing the threshold from $12 to $10. This will result in a huge change for us and we will need to rethink our products and now package more items together.

We have goods being packed to take advantage of the old $12 threshold that will only arrive AFTER August. What a mess. We need at least 6 months notice for these changes (but I know that is wishful thinking). Arghhhhh. I am starting to believe the thoughts that Amazon is out to get 3rd party sellers. They make changes to make a program enticing and then as soon as you have packaging and inventory to take advantage, they pull the rug out and give you two months notice for a "small" 39% increase. Arghhhh

If Amazon could explain the relationship between what and item sells for and their cost structure relating to fulfill that item - it would be an interesting read.

I understand the initial idea around small and light - the items are small and light - therefore should be easier to pack and ship - less cost to Amazon.

Setting a selling price point is ridiculous - and has no bearing on the cost involved in "picking and packing the item".

How will these changes impact your Amazon FBA business? Let us know in the comments below!