Something is stirring inside Amazon’s Seller Services division, and the whisper network among seven- and eight-figure FBA operators is getting loud. Multiple sources close to the matter — including agency leads managing combined Amazon revenue north of $400M annually — say Amazon has been quietly testing a tiered fulfillment fee structure that would segment sellers into performance tiers based on a composite score of return rates, inventory health, and customer satisfaction metrics. If confirmed, the change would represent the most significant FBA cost restructuring since Amazon’s 2023 inbound placement fee overhaul.
“We started hearing about this in late April from our Amazon account team,” said Vanessa Hung, founder of seller consultancy Online Seller Solutions, who manages accounts for over 60 mid-market FBA brands. “The framing was very soft — ‘performance-based fulfillment incentives’ — but the math, if our sources are right, could mean a 12 to 18 percent fee increase for sellers sitting below a certain IPI threshold.”
“The framing was very soft — ‘performance-based fulfillment incentives’ — but the math, if our sources are right, could mean a 12 to 18 percent fee increase for sellers sitting below a certain IPI threshold.” — Vanessa Hung, Online Seller Solutions
Amazon has not publicly confirmed any such pilot. A spokesperson provided a boilerplate response stating the company “regularly evaluates its fulfillment programs to better serve both sellers and customers.” That non-denial, sources say, is being read in seller circles as confirmation that something is in motion.
What Is Amazon’s Alleged Tiered FBA Fee Pilot Actually Testing?
According to three unconfirmed but corroborating accounts from sellers in Amazon’s Strategic Account Services program, the pilot reportedly involves a five-band scoring system. Sellers in the top two bands — those with IPI scores above 650, return rates below 4.2 percent, and late shipment rates under 0.5 percent — would allegedly receive a modest fee reduction of 3 to 6 percent on standard-size items. Sellers in the bottom two bands, however, reportedly face surcharges that stack on top of existing fulfillment fees.
The categories allegedly most exposed include consumables, electronics accessories, and home goods — three segments where return rates have spiked since Amazon expanded its “no questions asked” returns window to 45 days in January 2026. One seller managing a $14M home goods brand told Ecommerce Times their per-unit fulfillment cost projections jumped by $0.74 on their core SKU when they ran the alleged band structure against their current metrics.
- Top-band sellers (IPI 650+, returns under 4.2%): reportedly eligible for 3–6% fulfillment fee reductions
- Mid-band sellers (IPI 500–649): no change under the alleged pilot structure
- Bottom-band sellers (IPI below 400, returns above 7%): unconfirmed surcharges of $0.40–$1.20 per unit on standard-size items
- Hazmat and oversize categories: allegedly excluded from the pilot entirely in phase one
Which Amazon Sellers Are Most Exposed If the Restructure Goes Live?
The sellers most at risk, according to agency operators tracking the rumor, are mid-market brands doing $2M to $15M in FBA revenue annually — the segment that lacks the negotiating leverage of enterprise vendors but carries enough volume to absorb fee hikes catastrophically if margins are already thin. Several brand aggregators are reportedly running internal scenario models.
Thrasio, the aggregator that has spent much of the past two years restructuring its portfolio after its Chapter 11 filing and emergence in late 2024, is said to be particularly exposed. Sources allegedly familiar with Thrasio’s current portfolio health say a meaningful share of its 150-plus active brands sit in the IPI range that would trigger surcharges under the rumored model. Thrasio declined to comment.
Berlin Brands Group, the German aggregator with significant U.S. FBA presence, is reportedly in internal discussions about accelerating its FBM hybrid strategy as a hedge. “Every major aggregator is war-gaming this right now,” said one agency operator who works with three of the top-ten aggregators. “FBM suddenly looks a lot more attractive when your FBA unit economics could shift by a dollar or more.”
“Every major aggregator is war-gaming this right now. FBM suddenly looks a lot more attractive when your FBA unit economics could shift by a dollar or more.” — Agency operator, identity withheld
Is Amazon Using IPI Scores as a Leverage Tool Against Sellers?
The deeper controversy isn’t just about fees — it’s about whether Amazon is algorithmically tightening its grip on seller behavior through metrics that sellers have long complained are opaque and inconsistently enforced. Inventory Performance Index scores have been a flashpoint since Amazon introduced storage limits tied to IPI in 2020, but the alleged fee-tiering pilot would mark the first time IPI reportedly influences fulfillment cost directly, not just storage access.
“This is Amazon using its own grading system to extract more margin from the same sellers who built this marketplace,” said Norm Farrar, a well-known Amazon brand-building consultant and podcast host, speaking at a private seller roundtable in Scottsdale in late May. “If the metrics were transparent and fair, maybe you could defend it. But IPI has always been a black box, and now they allegedly want to charge you based on that black box score.”
“If the metrics were transparent and fair, maybe you could defend it. But IPI has always been a black box, and now they allegedly want to charge you based on that black box score.” — Norm Farrar, brand consultant
Amazon seller attorney CJ Rosenbaum, who runs Amazon Sellers Lawyer and represents thousands of third-party merchants, told Ecommerce Times he’s received a surge of inbound inquiries in the past six weeks from sellers asking whether Amazon has contractual authority to implement performance-based fee tiers. “The short answer is yes — the Business Solutions Agreement gives Amazon enormous latitude on fee structures,” Rosenbaum said. “The longer answer is that if Amazon changes fee terms materially and mid-cycle, there are arguments to be made about adequate notice.”
How Are Amazon PPC and Repricing Tool Vendors Reacting to the Rumors?
The ripple effects are already hitting the broader Amazon software ecosystem. Executives at Perpetua, Pacvue, and Jungle Scout are reportedly fielding questions from agency partners about whether their platforms can model scenario analyses against the alleged new fee bands. Sources at one major Amazon PPC platform say their product team has already built an internal prototype of a “fee impact estimator” that maps current client metrics against the rumored tier thresholds.
Repricer vendors are also reportedly scrambling. Feedvisor, which positions its AI repricing around margin optimization, is said to be updating its margin calculation engine to incorporate variable FBA fee inputs — a feature that didn’t previously exist because FBA fees were treated as fixed line items. A Feedvisor spokesperson said the company “does not comment on unconfirmed platform changes” but confirmed it is “actively developing enhanced fee modeling capabilities for H2 2026.”
- Jungle Scout reportedly adding a “fee tier risk score” to its Opportunity Finder in a Q3 2026 roadmap update
- Helium 10’s Profits tool allegedly being updated to support variable FBA fee modeling by late July
- Pacvue sources say internal teams are building scenario dashboards for agency clients managing $50M+ in Amazon ad spend
- Sellerboard, the lean margin analytics tool popular with sub-$5M sellers, is reportedly running a beta of fee band simulations for its 50,000-plus user base
When Could Amazon Officially Announce a Fee Structure Change?
Historically, Amazon has announced major FBA fee changes between August and October, with implementation typically landing in January of the following year. If the pilot is real and moving on the timeline sources suggest, an official announcement could land as early as Amazon’s Accelerate conference, which is expected in September 2026 in Seattle. Several sellers say they’ve been told by Amazon reps — in conversations described as informal and off-the-record — to “watch the Seller Central news feed closely in Q3.”
Not everyone is convinced the pilot will survive internal review. One veteran Amazon category manager who left the company in 2025 and now consults for DTC brands said the operational complexity of administering a five-band dynamic fee system at FBA’s scale would be “a logistical nightmare for Amazon’s own systems.” They added: “Amazon tests a lot of things that never ship. But sellers are right to take this seriously because the direction of travel — extracting more from lower-performing sellers — is absolutely consistent with where the business has been heading.”
For now, the practical advice circulating in seller communities including Seller Sessions, the Private Label Sellers Alliance, and high-ticket Amazon masterminds is consistent: get your IPI above 600 before Q3, aggressively prune low-velocity ASINs, and run the numbers on FBM viability for your top-10 SKUs. Whether or not the tiered fee restructure materializes, the underlying message from Amazon’s direction is hard to miss — the platform is increasingly rewarding operational excellence and penalizing inventory drag, and the cost of mediocrity on the marketplace is only going in one direction.
