Do you ever feel that way?

Advertising rates haven't dropped, platform commissions aren't decreasing, supply chain costs have just been negotiated down a little bit - and Amazon has added another amount to your bill.

On April 3, 2026, Amazon officially released a notice: affected by the industry's escalating costs, the North American station FBA delivery fee added 3.5% fuel and logistics temporary surcharge, and the European station added 1.5%, which came into effect on April 17th.

It's not next quarter, it's not next month. It's9 days later, directly out of your profits.

The first reaction of many sellers when they see the notice is: it's only 3.5%, not a big problem.

But if you're shipping over 30,000 units a month, that 3.5% a year is close to$70,000. If you haven't done any tax planning yet, the amount of money you can save is this number of10 times moreThe

Today's post helps you put three things into perspective:How much did it go up this time, how does it affect your profits, and what is the most important thing you should be doing right now.

01 How much has it gone up this time? Detailed rates at a glance

According to Amazon's official announcement on April 3, this new addition is“Temporary surcharges related to fuel and logistics”The

The point: this 3.5% is on theExisting FBA Delivery ChargesThe additional charge is added on top of the selling price of the item, not the selling price of the item.

Let's do the math first:

Taking an ordinary 3C small item of the US station as an example, the current FBA delivery fee is about$5/pieceThe

Additional cost per piece: 5 × 3.5% = $0.175

Ship 5,000 orders per month → spend more per month $875Annualized $10.5 million

Ship 30,000 orders per month → spend more per month US$ 5,250Annualized $63,000

Individual pieces may seem insignificant, but when multiplied by volume, it's real money cut out of the profit.

Amazon characterizes the increase as ”temporary,” but few in the industry believe it will go away. 2022 saw Amazon impose a ”temporary fuel surcharge” that has not been reversed in more than three years.

If you're already doing Amazon and want to know how much this price increase will affect you specifically, or need a cost compression program, feel free to contact me (WeChat: qcygscszk, Mobile: 18676749275) ▼▼▼

02 Why now?

This price hike is not a coincidence, behind it is the overall rise in the cost of cross-border e-commerce in 2026.

Global transportation costs have not come down.

Shipping giants such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have increased their surcharges several times this year, and Amazon's rationale for this increase - ”escalating costs in the industry” - is highly consistent with the overall trend.

Compliance costs are stacking up for cross-border sellers.

U.S. $800 Micro Duty Free Eliminated, Direct Mail Mode Costs Rise 15%-20%

EU EPR mandatory compliance, thousands of euros per year in new compliance costs for sellers on the European site

New U.S. IOR (Importer's Responsibility) regulations come to fruition, raising the bar for compliant customs clearance

This 3.5% from FBA is just one piece of the domino of rising cross-border costs in 2026.

Meanwhile, another context that has to be mentioned is:2026 Amazon itself is getting better and better at this road of price increases.

For the last 4 years, Amazon has had to adjust the FBA base rate once a year in January. This year, it added an additional one in April. The platform side is systematically shifting the cost of fulfillment from itself to sellers, and the trend shows no sign of stopping.

03 It's wrong to focus on ”saving on shipping”, there's more to it than that!

Seeing the FBA price increase, the first reaction of most sellers is: how to reduce logistics costs?

But I'd like to put it another way and give you a bigger picture.

A US site seller with $5 million in annual sales spends about $300,000-$400,000 a year on FBA delivery. This 3.5% increase will cost an extra $300,000 per year for theApproximately $10-15,000The

This same seller, who has never done any tax planning, is currently facing tax costs that could be:

FBA hikes cost an extra $10,000 per year, but the tax space that can be optimized is often more than 10 times that amount.

The right way to think about it is:You don't get to talk about FBA fees, but the tax burden can be optimized for compliance.

If you're already doing Amazon and want to know how much this price increase will affect you specifically, or need a cost compression program, feel free to contact me (WeChat: qcygscszk, Mobile: 18676749275) ▼▼▼

04 Amazon FBA Price Increase, What Should You Do Now?

Things to do this week

Step 1: Recalculate the true profit of each SKU

Take your list of on-sale SKUs and rerun the cost model with the new delivery fee:

New FBA Delivery Cost = Current Delivery Fee × 1.035
Net Profit = Selling Price - Cost of Goods - New FBA Fees - Advertising Fees - Commission 6% - Return Costs

Any SKU with a gross margin below 5% must make a decision by April 17th:Raise the price, switch to FBM, or just take it off the shelf.

Dragging this out and waiting for April 17th to pass is a daily loss.

Step 2: Evaluate FBM Alternatives

For light and small items, standard products, and products with low unit prices, it is sometimes more cost-effective to switch to FBM (merchant self shipment) instead.

Used in conjunction with the third party overseas warehouse, the fulfillment cost of some categories of FBM can be 15%-30% lower than that of FBA Not all categories are suitable, but it is worth seriously counting once now.

Step 3: Update minimum pricing

Use Amazon's pricing rules to set a ”minimum saleable price” to ensure that your profit line isn't eaten up by price wars when prices go up. Don't wait for Amazon to automatically set prices for you, set up your own protection mechanisms.

Things to do in the next 1-3 months

Step 4: Compliance tax planning is the biggest variable in cost reduction

Rising costs are a common pressure in the industry, and whoever can optimize their tax compliance will live longer than their competitors.

The current mainstream compliance tax reduction program for cross-border sellers:

Step 5: Beat the input invoice, don't let 13% go to waste!

Many sellers in the domestic procurement, the other party can not open the VAT invoice, resulting in 13% the loss of all input tax, export tax rebates can not be applied.

Solution:

Explicitly requesting VAT invoices when signing procurement contracts

Preferred procurement targets are factories or trading companies with invoicing qualifications

Where it is not possible to collect the invoice, the cost is converted to a legitimate input through a compliant tax planning program

05 What Enterprise Finance can do for you

FBA fees go up every year, that's something you can't change. What you can change, however, is your overall profit structure.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Shenzhen, Enterprise Caiying has been focusing on cross-border e-commerce tax compliance for more than 10 years, serving more than 300,000 companies. We have helped a large number of Amazon sellers in the context of rising costs across the board, through compliance tax planning to achieve net profit instead of falling.

The value that Enterprise Finance earnings can bring to you:

✅ Free tax health checkups: Evaluate your current tax burden structure, identify the space that can be optimized for compliance, and give you a clear number

✅ Multi-subject architecture design: Hong Kong company + Mainland entity combination, compliance to avoid double tax burden, let the profits stay where they should be kept

✅ 1039 Market Purchase Qualification Process: Help you complete your export at the lowest compliance cost with a combined tax rate as low as 0.3%

✅ Incoming invoice compliance program: Completely solve the ”goods without tickets” tax gap, hundreds of thousands of dollars less loss every year!

✅ Export Tax Refund Agent: Accelerating tax refunds and improving cash flow from document preparation to fund repatriation

✅ Hong Kong/Overseas Company Registration: Build you a compliant offshore body that meets Amazon's rules and reduces account risk

FBA goes up every year, and compliant tax planning is done once for continued long-term benefits.

If you're wondering just how much room there is for current tax planning, feel free to contact me for a free consultation: (WeChat: qcygscszk, Mobile: 18676749275) ▼▼▼