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Rockets and Feathers
Earlier this month Amazon sent me an email about holiday fees. Peak fulfillment fees start October 15, same as last year. Then one more line: the 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge they added in April "applies on top of holiday peak fulfillment fees."
My first thought was "Do these ever end?" My second thought was "probably not."
You might not remember Spring 2022. That spring, Amazon added a 5% fuel and inflation surcharge. Later that year our old friend Dharmesh explained it was for what they believed "may only be temporary cost increases." In January 2023 the surcharge went away as its own line. The cost moved into the regular FBA fee, and we’ve all been paying it ever since.
This new one has no end date either. Amazon's words: "when costs remain elevated, we implement temporary surcharges."
Economists have a name for this: Rockets and Feathers.
In 1990, Britain's competition regulator finished an inquiry into the gas companies. One complaint in it was that when costs went up, pump prices shot up like rockets. When costs came down, prices drifted down like feathers.
An economist named Robert Bacon, at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, went and measured it. He took seven years of UK gas prices and checked how fast they moved each way. The complaint was real, but small. Price cuts took about a week longer to show up than price rises. The gap was too small for him to call the market uncompetitive.
So the feather came down. Slower than the rocket went up, but it came down. In plain terms, if one station sat on a high price, drivers could go to the next one.
Amazon's fees went up like a rocket too. But my feather from 2022 didn't… come down. The surcharge line disappeared and the cost stayed in the base fee. Why? because there's no station across the street for me. My reviews, my rank, my whole catalog live on Amazon, and none of it comes with me if I leave. Amazon knows that. The sellers I talk to mostly figure the 3.5% is permanent already.
Every business raises prices eventually (I get it). Amazon is just a business whose customers can't pull into the next station.
In this story, you're the driver with nowhere else to fill up. Price like every surcharge is permanent. If one ever comes off, that's margin you didn't count on.
The IVS
Big thanks to Max (ME) for supplying this week’s IVS! Max is first and foremost an Amazon Seller, and he is actively testing, managing, and working in the Amazon space. Max has been helping Amazon sellers find their blind spots since 2020.
The 10 Biggest Things Amazon Announced at Accelerate 2026
No guest this week. Everyone is at Accelerate, so you're stuck with me (lower your expectations accordingly).
It's conference season. Amazon Accelerate just wrapped in Seattle, and Amazon streamed about four hours of main-stage sessions. We went through all of it so you don't have to. Every "Watch it" link below drops you on the exact moment Amazon announced it, so you don't have to scrub through a two-hour video.
1. An official way to plug your Amazon account into Claude. Amazon built a Selling Partner plugin for Anthropic's Claude and for its own AI assistant, Quick. Sign in once with Seller Central and your AI can see your sales, inventory, listings and shipments. No exports, no code. I already run most of my account through my AI, so this one hit home. Oh, and every seller can grab 12 months of Amazon Quick Plus free (you plus two users).
When: Limited US beta now. Free Quick Plus sign-up closes December 31.
Watch it | Amazon's post
2. Listing Protection. The one I'd care about most. If you're in Account Health Assurance (you consistently keep your account health rating above 250), most listing enforcements will come with a grace period to fix the problem BEFORE the listing comes down. Appeal in that window and in most cases the listing stays live until Amazon decides. You'll also get a warning before a price change goes live if it would get you deactivated.
When: US by the end of 2026, worldwide in 2027. No written page from Amazon yet.
Watch it
3. Walmart, Shopify, eBay and TikTok Shop inside Seller Central. Yes, really. Connect your accounts, see every order in one place, and ship any of them through MCF in a few clicks if you want. A profit-by-channel view and edit-once listings are on the way. Free.
When: US only, rolling out gradually over the next few months.
Watch it | Amazon's post
4. Prime on your own website, the simple version. Buy with Prime needed its own setup. Now US sellers using MCF can add Prime delivery as a normal checkout option for no extra cost beyond regular MCF fees. Early adopters saw more than 40% of eligible orders ship with Prime. You switch it on in the "Amazon MCF and Buy with Prime" Shopify app, and Amazon says setup takes under 10 minutes on average.
When: Live now, US only. Heads up: the old "Amazon MCF: US Fulfillment" app gets shut off this Wednesday, September 30.
Watch it | Amazon's post | Setup steps
5. Seller Assistant watches the boring stuff for you. Amazon calls them workflows. Pre-built ones watch account health, summarize orders, track pricing trends and find expansion ideas, or you write your own in plain English. It works in the background, hands you the fix, and nothing happens until you approve it. Every action goes in an audit trail.
When: Introduced September 23. Amazon didn't give a rollout date.
Watch it | Amazon's post
6. Auto optimization for Sponsored Products. Keyword auto optimization finds new keywords, pauses the ones not earning their spend, and keeps every bid under your max. In early results, Amazon says new campaigns using it got their first sale 40% faster. There are three at launch: keyword targeting, product targeting and seasonal moments like back to school.
When: Keyword auto optimization started September 23. No marketplace or written page given yet.
Watch it
7. Amazon builds your inbound shipments. Amazon pitched this at last year's Accelerate. Now it's actually going into beta. Seller Assistant lays out the whole plan (which SKUs, how many units, which locations, what it costs) and books it when you hit approve.
When: Beta this week, all US sellers "in the coming months."
Watch it | Amazon's post
8. Amazon Lending opens to everyone. No invitation needed. Check eligibility and apply in Seller Central. There are new lenders too, including lines of credit from Slope (backed by JPMorgan Chase) and SBA loans up to $5 million for qualifying US businesses, and you can now carry more than one loan at a time.
When: Open to every seller by the end of 2026.
Watch it
9. Test a product idea before you spend a dollar. In Opportunity Explorer you can now describe the product and price you're considering, and it compares your idea against what shoppers are searching, buying and saying about similar products. Tweak the features and run it again.
When: Live now, per Amazon on stage.
Watch it
10. Amazon's China warehouses go global. Global Warehousing and Distribution (GWD) is already open in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Ningbo, shipping into US FBA. Amazon says storage runs up to 45% cheaper than AWD in the US and FBA replenishment is up to five days faster. The same facilities will soon supply seven more countries, including Canada and the UK. One shipment, eight countries.
When: Live for the US now, seven more countries by the end of 2026.
Watch it | Amazon's post
Also worth knowing: Managed Placement at Origin (one drop-off in China instead of booking five US regions, no launch date yet), and a 90-day launch plan for new products in Seller Central by the end of October.
Anyway, pick the two that fit your business and go find them. Half of this is beta or "coming soon," so if it's not in your account yet, check again next month.
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Amazon News Week 40/52
Amazon now requires $1 million in liability insurance from safety-category sellers, regardless of how much they actually sell. |
Amazon confirmed Prime Big Deal Days for October 6 and 7 across 22 countries, so inventory and deals need to be ready by then. |
Amazon now lets sellers manage eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Walmart orders directly inside Seller Central, in a free, gradual US rollout. |
Amazon is rolling out payouts within 24 hours, free for now, shaving days off the wait after the existing settlement hold. |
Amazon says merchants can now add Prime delivery to their own sites and save up to 25% on fulfillment fees through Supply Chain Services. |
Amazon upgraded Seller Assistant with 24/7 AI automation and a new plugin linking seller tools to Anthropic's Claude. |
TikTok Shop added Best Buy and Sephora as part of a funded push to recruit brands away from Amazon. |
The FTC's lawsuit against Amazon over an alleged $20 billion in advertising fees continues, with no clarity yet on seller payouts. |
The Deep Dive (Premium Content)
Everything You Can Ask Amazon's Seller Assistant, Tested
At Accelerate, Amazon said Seller Assistant can now remember your business, run jobs in the background while you're logged out, and see your ad performance.
Is that true? Is it live? We found out:
We asked it…
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It goes out in the newsletter. Subscribe free, share it with one friend, and every Deep Dive unlocks.
Tastes Like Victory
Chase on the right.
One of Chase's buddies celebrated his birthday out fishing this year, and Chase got the invite. They hooked a mahi mahi, and it took the two of them together to reel it in. That's not an easy job. These fish fight hard, and they don't give up.
Down here nobody calls it mahi mahi. It's Dorado, the golden one, and if you've only ever seen it on a menu you've never really seen it. Fresh out of the water it's electric green and blue with gold down the sides, like it's lit from the inside. Then within minutes it fades to a dull grey-yellow. The colour comes from cells tied into the fish's nervous system, so once it's gone, the light show goes with it. It's also one of the fastest-growing fish in the ocean. Up to two inches a week in its first year, and most don't make it past five.
Right now is a good time to find one. The rainy season floods the rivers, the rivers push logs and junk out to sea, and dorado love to hang out under anything floating. Captains here will troll right past a drifting log on purpose, because there's a good chance something's under it.
Back in July I wrote about pulling the plug on the boys' devices for a week. This is the kind of thing I was hoping would come out the other side. Nobody planned a life lesson. Two kids tried something new, had to work as a team to pull it off, and came away with a story they'll be telling for years. I'll be honest, I needed the reminder more than they did. I run every business I have from a laptop, and it's easy to let a whole week go by where the most exciting thing I did was clear my inbox. Nobody remembers the afternoon they spent scrolling. Chase is going to remember that first large fish for the rest of his life.
After Marsha cooked it up, he took one bite and gave his review: it tastes like victory.
Canadian Company Selling on Amazon.com? You May Need Two IRS Forms
If your Canadian corporation sells on Amazon.com, the Canada-US tax treaty probably means you owe zero US federal income tax. Depending on your setup, you may still need to tell the IRS.
(although with all the changes in the world, who knows for how long)
The two forms:
• Form 1120-F as a "protective" return: check the Protective return box, fill in your company details and the page 2 questions, sign it, and leave income and deductions empty.
• Form 8833 behind it, saying you rely on the treaty (Articles V and VII). Article V says a place used only to store, display or deliver goods isn't a "permanent establishment". That's the argument for your FBA inventory.
Why file if you owe nothing:
• An undisclosed treaty position can cost a corporation $10,000. It's printed at the top of Form 8833.
• File nothing, and if the IRS later decides you owed, you can lose your deductions and credits (per the IRS instructions).
If you file:
• With no US office, it's due the 15th day of the 6th month after year end (June 15 for a December year end). You'll need a US EIN.
• E-file, or mail it to P.O. Box 409101, Ogden, UT 84409 by regular post. FedEx and UPS can't deliver to a P.O. box.
A few catches:
• Filing isn't a ruling that you owe nothing. Whether FBA fits Article V is your accountant's call.
• Line 6 of the 8833 asks for a reasonable estimate of your gross receipts, so you're telling the IRS your US sales.
• Up to 18 months late generally still counts, but maybe not if last year's was never filed. Don't count on it.
Not sure this applies to you? Ask Rob, he can point you to the right cross-border help. (Not legal or accounting advice.)
A Company Email Gets You Into a Free Corporate Hotel Club
Engine is a members-only booking site that resells negotiated corporate hotel rates. It's free in the plain sense. Its own pricing page says no membership fees, no contracts, no minimum spend. Hotels pay Engine a commission instead.
The gate is a business email address, one on your company's own domain rather than Gmail. It covers over a million properties in 185 countries, deepest in the US, and it sells flights and rental cars now too. About 85,000 of those properties carry Engine-only rates, so not every hotel on there is a deal.
Next time you book a hotel, open Engine in one tab and the hotel's own site in the other. Take the cheaper one.
What’s interesting about it? Hotels & Corporations pay to be on here. You pay nothing.
There is no one more miserable than the person in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.
William James
DISTRACTION! Now that I have your attention… you probably would like the Facebook community.
This week in the Facebook group: Amazon launches “Amazon Quick”
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