Amazon has quietly unleashed its biggest-ever fee cuts across Europe, starting with the bargain-bin fashion that has been making European wallets weep with joy elsewhere.
The e-commerce giant, clearly tired of watching customers discover that jeans can indeed cost less than a Pret sandwich, announced Tuesday that it will slash referral fees on clothing priced up to 15 euros to a mere 5 percent from December 15. Items between 15 and 20 euros will drop from 15 percent to 10 percent, undercutting even Shein’s standard European rate of 10 percent.
Amazon insists this is simply the result of “operational improvements and innovation.” Translation: someone in Seattle finally noticed the stampede toward Chinese apps that treat the concept of profit margins like an optional extra.
The company’s European dominance is still comfortably parked in the “don’t make us prove it” zone, yet the sight of Shein selling duvet covers cheaper than the cotton they’re made of has apparently been keeping Jeff Bezos awake on his modest yacht.
From February, the mercy extends to home products under 20 euros (down to 8 percent from 15 percent) and even pet clothing, because apparently your chihuahua deserves haute couture without Amazon taking a 15 percent bite.
Fulfilment fees are also shrinking by an average of 0.32 euros per parcel in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Britain starting mid-December. That’s roughly the price of one fewer gummy bear per order, but sellers will take it.
Industry watchers note the European e-commerce market is still expected to grow 7 percent to 900 billion euros this year. Amazon currently owns the largest sofa in that living room, yet the new kids keep bringing bean bags priced like loose change.
One seller, who asked to remain anonymous because Amazon knows where he stores his inventory, said the cuts were “like getting a coupon from your landlord after he finds out the guy next door is renting for half the price.”
Shein, meanwhile, continues offering zero fees to new sellers for the first 30 days, a policy roughly equivalent to a drug dealer’s “first taste is free” strategy, only with crop tops instead of substances.
Amazon stressed the reductions are permanent and not some Black Friday stunt. Sources close to the matter say executives practiced saying “this is about efficiency” in the mirror at least seventeen times before the announcement.
European fast-fashion chains, already nursing bruises from Shein and Temu, now face an Amazon that has decided to play the same game—only with warehouses the size of small countries.
Somewhere in Luxembourg, a finance minister just felt a mysterious urge to check the nation’s VAT receipts.
Shoppers can expect even more “How is this legal?” pricing on everything from socks to slow cookers. Sellers, suddenly handed extra margin, are reportedly considering radical moves like feeding their families something other than instant noodles. Traditional retailers, meanwhile, have begun printing résumés in Comic Sans—just in case.
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