Amazon will reportedly make grocery brands pay for Prime Day losses
Amazon is waiving the Prime Day placement fee to instead charge fees for missed promo sales across grocery stores, a report says.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Amazon could be charging retailers for making losses on Prime Day promo sales.
Amazon is reportedly charging some grocery brands an additional fee during 2019 Prime Day if their promotional sales fall short and cause a loss for Amazon. The charge will "fund the profitability gap," CNBC reported Tuesday, citing an email allegedly sent to the retailer's vendors.
Amazon Prime Day is arriving July 15-16 and will see a massive sale on Amazon.
According to the report, though, Amazon will then waive the usual $500 placement fee to run Prime Day promotions for these grocery brands.
"This year we've decided not to charge placement fees for inclusion in deal events, but instead we request our vendors to fund a [deal] if it's unprofitable for the duration of the deal," the email from Amazon reportedly said. "If additional funding is required, it will be based off total unprofitable units sold for the duration of the deal."
Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Early Prime Day deals include sales on Amazon Music Unlimited, Fire TV Recast , the Echo Dot , the Chamberlain myQ smart garage door opener, the Amazon Cloud Cam and Apple AirPods with a wireless charging case. Also expected to go on sale are Amazon's full range of Echo speakers, Fire tablets , Fire TV streamers, Kindle readers and Blink cameras.
