Amazon adds fuel surcharge for sellers. But will you have to pay more?

Amazon is adding a new surcharge to seller fees in response to rising oil prices, and experts say it could have a ripple effect on customer prices.

The retail giant recently announced that it will add a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge to seller fulfillment fees, beginning later this month.

Amazon's fulfillment services include the process of storing, packing and shipping orders. While businesses that sell on Amazon can opt to manage their own fulfillment, many use an Amazon-run service like Fulfillment by Amazon or Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Amazon attributed the surcharge to higher fuel and logistics costs that have "increased the cost of operating across the industry." Fuel prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war with Iran on Feb. 28.

"We have absorbed these increases so far, but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs," Amazon's statement said, adding that the company is "committed to our selling partners’ success and to maintaining broad selection and low prices for customers."

What is Amazon's new fuel surcharge?

Amazon said it will add a 3.5% fuel and logistics-related surcharge to seller fulfillment fees beginning this month. This surcharge will apply directly to sellers, not consumers.

The surcharge will roll out on different dates depending on which fulfillment service a seller uses. It will start on April 17 for those who use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), while those who use Buy with Prime or Multi-Channel Fulfillment will see the surcharge begin on May 2, Amazon said on its seller central page.

The company also said that the surcharge will be calculated based on a seller's fulfillment fees, not the sale price of their items. On average, the surcharge equates to $0.17 per unit for FBA sellers, but it will vary based on an item's size.

How will Amazon's new fuel surcharge impact shoppers?

Sellers could choose to increase their prices on Amazon in response to the new fuel surcharge.

"If you're a seller, you face a very tough choice: Either you absorb the cost, and so your margin lowers, or you raise prices," Luca Cian, a business professor at the University of Virginia, told USA TODAY.

Ultimately, even if a seller opts to raise prices, the impact of the surcharge may not be immediately visible to customers because they likely won't see it listed when checking out, Cian said. Instead, sellers could choose to increase the price of their products by small increments at a time.

"Sometimes it's more like a death by a thousand cuts," Cian said. "It's not something sudden, oh my God, something that cost me 15 bucks now is 35. It's more like, you know, maybe a dollar or something like that."

Another approach for sellers could be to reflect the surcharge in the shipping fee for the product, said Stephen Henn, an adjunct economics professor at Sacred Heart University.

"Consumers will understand that and probably accept it a little bit more," Henn told USA TODAY.

Because the surcharge is percentage-based, consumers could see higher handling fees for bulky or heavy goods specifically, said Savannah Wei Shi, associate professor of marketing at Santa Clara University.

"These 'back-end' costs are rarely absorbed by the supply chain for long," Wei said in an email.

Other carriers have increased shipping surcharges

Amazon is not the only carrier grappling with higher fuel costs.

The U.S. Postal Service announced that it is temporarily enacting an 8% fee for shipping certain packages, effective April 26.

UPS and FedEx, which adjust fuel surcharges weekly based on the price of diesel, have both increased surcharges for ground and air package transporting since the start of the Iran war.

But even after the news of a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran, economists have said oil prices could remain high for several months.

“There’s no going back to what we had. At least not this year," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, previously told USA TODAY.

Contributing: Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY

Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. Keep up with her on X @melinakh and Instagram @bymelinakhan.