Weekly Buzz 10/16/25: Amazon Announces Fee INCREASES! | Shop Walmart on ChatGPT

We’re back with another episode of the Weekly Buzz with Helium 10’s Sr. Brand Evangelist, Shivali Patel. Every week, we cover the latest breaking news in the Amazon, Walmart, and E-commerce space, talk about Helium 10’s newest features, and provide a training tip for the week for serious sellers of any level.

2026 US Referral and FBA fee changes summary
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G201411300

2026 US FBA fulfillment fee changes
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/GABBX6GZPA8MSZGW

Walmart is incorporating ChatGPT into online shopping. Here’s how.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/10/14/walmart-chatgpt-openai-shopping/86688757007/

In this episode of the Weekly Buzz by Helium 10, Shivali covers:

• 00:49 – Amazon Raises Seller Fees!
• 11:03 – How to Sell Elsewhere
• 12:25 – Pay with OpenAI at Walmart
• 15:22 – A New FBA Feature to Appreciate

Transcript

Shivali Patel:

Amazon just announced new FBA fee increases for 2026,. Walmart is teaming up with ChatGPT to launch AI-powered shopping, and Amazon rolled out a brand new inbound shipment list view to help sellers plan faster deliveries. This and more on this week’s episode of the Weekly Buzz.

Bradley Sutton:

How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. This is the show that is our Helium 10 Weekly Buzz. We give you a rundown of all the goings on in the Amazon, TikTok shop, e-commerce world. We let you know what new features that Helium 10 has and give you a training tip of the week that’ll give you serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. Today’s host is actually going to be Shivali Patel. So, Shivali, take it away and let us know what’s buzzing.

Shivali Patel:

All right sellers. This week’s top story Amazon is raising fees. Amazon is raising fees, that’s right. Amazon just announced their updates to US referral and fulfillment by Amazon fees and while the company says it’s an average of eight cents per unit sold, when you dig into the details, the average might not be telling you the whole story, which is why I’ll take a little bit of effort on your part. I’ll explain what I mean, but let’s just first dive into the seller news piece that we’re taking a look at here inside of Seller Central. Amazon points out that there were no other FBA increases in 2025 and that they have made sure that this year’s adjustment remains below 0.5% of an average item’s selling price. Okay, this is a lot different and a lot less than inflation and the 3.9% to 5.9% annual cost increases from other major carriers over the last two years. So, while fees are technically going up, amazon has said that they are doing more to hold costs down compared to the rest of the industry. This update has to do with innovation and efficiency, saying that these adjustments allow them to invest into improved forecasting, into inventory placement, into automation and all those things that, as sellers, we we love faster delivery times, lower defect rates and higher sales. For us, here’s something that everyone should be happy to hear, which is there are no new fee types in 2026. If you guys remember a couple of years back, when Amazon rolled out new fees like low inventory level fee and the inventory placement fee, everybody was a bit okay, it’s happening, how do we keep up with this? But this time there’s nothing new of the sort, just rate updates across existing categories, and the new rates take effect January 15th 2026, giving you guys at least 90 days of prep time. All right, so what you’ll want to do is review the revenue calculator to make sure that all your numbers are tip top shape. You will want to check out the fee and economics preview report, as well as analyze the impact inside of your profit analytics dashboard. Okay, this is literally what Amazon is telling you to do in order to prepare during these 90 days.

Shivali Patel:

Now what I do want to do to dive into specific fee changes for you and for your business. Let’s go ahead and jump into this 2026 US referral and fulfillment by Amazon fees page. I’ve gone ahead and opened that up right here. If you’re taking a look at my page on YouTube, you are going to see that there’s some variants across different product types. Let’s get into what those might be. Okay, so if you have a standard size product priced between $10 and $50, those will increase by 25 cents per unit, whereas the large standard size product fees are going to increase by 5 cents per unit on average. All right, this is for, again, standard size products priced between 10 bucks and 50 bucks. This varies when you could jump into standard size products priced below 10 bucks, where now you’re going to see an increase of 12 cents per unit on average. To make things helpful, there are listed links which, if you jump into those, you’ll see this beautiful chart. If you’re seeing this on YouTube, you can see it behind my screen. And, just as we just read, if we went into small standard and we went to the $10 to $50 column, you’ll see, say, we were selling something that’s between six to eight ounces. Okay, it’s going to jump from 333 to 354. If we were taking a look at, say, our coffin shelf we sell at helium 10, then you might know it as being a three pound item. That is, large standard size, in which case, based on our price, it’s $662, jumping to 667. Pretty consistent with what we just read of it being increased 5 cents per unit on average. So it really just varies based on what you’re selling, how much it weighs, what the price is, all these things which I encourage you to go and check out inside of Seller News and check these charts and make sure that you are still built for profitability and that your numbers make sense. All right, you are doing whatever you can to also account for the inventory.

Shivali Patel:

Speaking of inventory, let’s also scroll a little bit further down on this page and check out what it says about this fee structure in the aspect of inbound placement service fees. Okay, these are also going to see small adjustments, as you can see here. It says standard size products will see an inbound placement service fee increase of five cents per unit on average, while using the minimal splits option and for large standard size items between three and 20 pounds, amazon is adding five new weight tiers for more precise pricing. Let’s go back to that coffin shelf example. The same large standard size product currently has an inbound placement range of 37 cents to 68 cents. Again, this is large standard three pounds or higher. That, starting January 15, 2026, is going to move up to what? 38 cents to 76 cents Again, not a really dramatic shift per se, but one to keep in mind as you plan your restocks for quarter one. Now, amazon did release a FAQ to us for this new fee release and here are some of the top questions that sellers like you might already have that Amazon has already answered to us. First, will the peak fulfillment fee apply when these increases take effect? Amazon says no. The 2025 peak fulfillment fees will officially end January 14th 2026 before the new non-peak rates begin the next day. The next question are these fees increases happening because of the tariffs? The answer is no. Amazon confirmed that this update is just part of their standard annual cost review and service improvement cycle, so it’s not tied to any tariff changes or trade policies.

Shivali Patel:

You might be wondering have the size tiers changed? Not really. There are no changes to the core fulfillment rate card, but Amazon is aligning its apparel rate tiers with the non-apparel and then adding new weight bands. So two bands for small standard size up to 16 ounces and then five bands for large standard size between three and 20 pounds. Okay, so this is all just a push for greater precision in how costs are calculated. If you are wondering, how is Amazon going to define a product that’s priced above 50 bucks, it’s going to be based on your listing price, not on those promotions or discounts. So if you list, let’s say, a product at 55 bucks and then you apply a $10 coupon, it’s still going to be treated as a $55 item for fee calculation purposes. Now, something else you might be thinking is purposes. Now, something else you might be thinking is Shivali, what about the switch from parent ASIN to FNSKU based low inventory level fees? Are those going to penalize products with variations? Amazon says this change is only going to apply to variations with low inventory levels under 28 days of supply that have sold 20 units or more in the past seven days. So any sort of grocery item or slower moving products are still going to be exempt. So as long as your variations stay in stock, this is not going to affect you.

Shivali Patel:

The next question of how does this impact sellers maintaining good inventory levels across variations? Well, if your overall parent ASIN has enough stock, but one variation runs low, only that FNCQ is going to incur a fee, not the whole product family, which is awesome, right? At least you’re only paying for for the one that it matters to, and so this new system ensures that amazon can maintain enough supply for your best-selling variations for customers. And what about amazon warehousing and distribution or multi-channel fulfillment? For AWD storage fees are being adjusted regionally, so the East and the South Central regions remain at 48 cents per cubic foot, while the West is increasing to 57 cents per cubic foot to match the higher operational costs. Awd transportation is going to be $1.40 per cubic foot, but smart storage and managed service discounts continue 10 to 20% respectively. Note, you guys, that the buy with prime and multi-channel fulfillment are also going to see really small increases, so 24 cents and 30 cents per unit, depending on the order size, while still keeping that volume based preferred pricing available for eligible merchants.

Shivali Patel:

So to wrap this up, yes, fees are increasing in 2026, but there are no new fee types, no hidden add-ons and Amazon is still emphasizing transparency and control. And there are plenty of pages inside of Seller Central, inside of news, that you can just kind of follow one to the next, to the next and discover all the information you need to make sure that you stay at the forefront of these changes and that your business is profitable at the end of the day. Like the seller news segment said, you want to log into seller central. You’re going to review your revenue calculator, review your profit analytics dashboard with the new rates and then you should be able to see how your costs are going to change come February. January 15th that was a test. Were you guys even listening to me? Yeah, so come 15th. That was a test. Were you guys even listening to me? Yeah, so come January 15, 2026, you will be well prepared.

Shivali Patel:

Now, all of these changes that we just went over obviously apply to Amazon in the United States. We haven’t seen any announcements about the FBA fee increases in other marketplaces, not in Europe, not in Asia or anywhere else. So this does bring me to an important question, which is are you only selling in the US or have you started exploring international markets? Because when your costs rise in one region, one of the best ways to protect your margins is by expanding that footprint globally. Alternatively, maybe these costs will come to the other regions, but it’s about capitalizing on what’s working right now, and then leveraging those things that you already have, for example, your products, your skills, your knowledge, and so, for this week’s strategy, Bradley is going to walk you through something we call expansion ticket, which is a smart way to identify which international Amazon marketplaces make the most sense for your business and how to get started selling there.

Bradley Sutton:

Another thing that only Helium 10 has is we have a full course called expansion ticket. Now, this is important. Gone are the days, I think, where Amazon sellers think, oh, I would be okay just selling in Amazon USA or only Amazon Germany. It’s something that you probably need to think about from day one is how do you expand to other marketplaces, be it TikTok, but, more importantly, other Amazon marketplaces? Like, if you’re in the US, how do you manage VAT to launch in Amazon Germany, amazon Netherlands? What about compliance issues? And so that was the reason why we partnered with Avask to make a very detailed course. I think it’s like 11 or 12 modules altogether where it goes into detail about things such as how to get your product EU ready, compliance translations, EPR made simple. What the heck even is EPR um? Here’s another one here global growth blueprint sell on amazon, us, UAE, Australia and Japan. Uh, how to set up vat on amazon euro? That’s probably one of the most asked questions how to validate and launch your us amazon products in global markets. So anybody who has a helium 10 account even the lowest plan, the starter plans like 30 something dollars you have full access to this course. So if you are only selling in one marketplace you are looking to expand. Take this course that you can only find in Helium 10, and learn about how you can expand to other marketplaces.

Shivali Patel:

So if you’ve been thinking about going global guys, this is your sign to start. In other major retail news, we’ve got some cool, exciting news from Walmart. Walmart has just partnered with OpenAI and this could potentially reshape how people shop online. Not potentially. I think this is going to do just that. According to USA Today, the retail giant will soon allow customers to browse and even pay for things directly inside of ChatGPT using OpenAI’s new instant checkout feature. We talked about this some time ago on the Buzz. Walmart CEO, Doug McMillian, in a news release, said that you know, for many years, this was the standard old school’s search bar and scroll shopping experience, where people went in and type something in and then you have this long list of itemized responses. That is how we’ve known it to be, for as long as I can remember at least, and going forward, there’s going to be this native AI experience coming that is multimedia and personalized and contextual. Essentially, shopping is going to feel like a conversation instead of a keyword search. If you remember, Walmart launched its own AI assistant called Sparky back in June, and then Sparky is now going to work alongside ChatGPT in this upgraded experience. In the company’s announcement, Walmart said shoppers and Sam’s Club members are going to be able to chat with AI to do things like plan meals, restock household essentials or find something new. They can just say hey, show me X, y, z. For example, they’ve said find the best running shoes under a hundred bucks or gifts for ceramic lovers, and then the chat bot will show them all the relevant products with instant checkout. Users can just click buy, confirm their order, shipping and payment details. That was as of September 29th. Now, the first merchants were Etsy and Shopify for single item orders, with multi-item carts on the way. Today. Walmart is just one of those partnerships that is going to allow people’s purchases to be way easier. It’s going to simplify how we purchase things, enhance our daily lives and, most importantly for online sellers like us, this is going to give us a glimpse into the future of shopping.

Shivali Patel:

Okay, a lot of folks are beginning to go to chat GPT, to other AI learning models, to find what they want to purchase, and so visibility and these AI driven product recommendations are gonna serve as the new battleground for brands on platforms like Amazon, on Walmart, on TikTok shop. It’s not just about optimizing your listing, your keywords and your product data that is super, super important but also what are you going to do off of the platform that matters and that’s going to help your brand and your business at the end of the day? For example, in our last AI webinar at Helium, 10 places like Wikipedia, reddit and more and I really think she hit the nail on the head with that, because that sort of SEO is going to begin to matter more and more. So make sure to have a plan in place and be thinking ahead about this sort of thing. And to close out, let’s quickly talk about a recent update that could help you make smarter decisions when you send your inventory to FBA. This is straight from Seller Central as well. Amazon’s rolled out a new and improved list for inbound placement options during shipment creation for standard size inventory shipped to the US. This feature was designed based on our feedback to give us more visibility into our receiving times and the networking capacity. Aka, now you can actually see which fulfillment centers have faster delivery windows, so you can intentionally decide which fulfillment centers. Which fulfillment centers have faster delivery windows, so you can intentionally decide where and when to send inventory for the quickest check-in. What you’re seeing is going to be a single list view showing you all available placement options along with their estimated total costs. There is going to be clear alerts about delays and capacity limits, priority appointment scheduling when shipping, when shipments arrive within delivery windows, and then, as you can see what I’m reading here, the ability to update delivery windows.

Shivali Patel:

Shipment in transit. What you’ll see is a single list view of all placement options with estimated total cost. You will see clear alerts about delays and capacity limits, plus priority appointment scheduling when shipments arrive within its delivery windows and then, if your shipment’s already in transit, you can still update delivery windows on the fly, meaning you can now plan inbound shipments with data instead of guesswork, and you know we love data at Helium 10. Real world application wise. If you’ve ever had inventory stuck waiting to be received or like watch your restock window slip past a key sales week, this tool is going to help you track what’s going on. It should be able to help you align with actual timings with Amazon’s actual network capacity. So, to learn more, check out the full update on seller central underneath sent to Amazon and then confirm shipping. Okay With that. That is it for this week’s episode. I will catch you next week for the Weekly Buzz, to see what’s buzzing.

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