Amazon announced its 2027 US FBA changes on November 5. Fulfillment fees rise an average of $0.19 per unit from January 15, which Amazon puts at roughly 0.8% of the average item's selling price. A redesign of storage and low-inventory charges follows on February 1.

Check that headline against last year before you budget on it.

What Happened to the 2026 Headline

Amazon announced an average $0.08 per-unit increase for 2026 and said it would add no new FBA fee types that year.

Then April 17 brought a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on fulfillment fees, which Amazon estimated at roughly $0.17 per unit. More than double the announced annual increase, arriving three months after the schedule.

Holiday peak rates from October 15 added approximately $0.32 per unit on top of that.

A seller who modeled 2026 on $0.08 understated actual fulfillment cost substantially. The announcement was accurate about what it covered. It did not cover most of what happened.

Amazon's 2027 notice says costs including fuel and line-haul trucking have stayed elevated since April, and that it will keep reviewing the surcharge as conditions change. That is not a commitment to leave it alone.

The February Storage Redesign Is the Bigger Change

Effective February 1, Amazon eliminates the storage utilization surcharge and removes the aged inventory surcharge, combining it with monthly storage into a single age-based rate.

Amazon says the result is flat or lower fees for inventory turning in under six months, higher fees for aged inventory, and more predictable storage costs.

Do not read the removal of two surcharges as cheaper slow stock. Compare the combined old cost against the combined new cost for the same units.

The current structure gives you the baseline. Monthly storage runs $0.78 per cubic foot for standard size from January through September and $2.40 October through December. The aged inventory surcharge starts at $0.50 per cubic foot at 181 days and climbs steeply, jumping from $1.50 to $5.45 between 270 and 271 days.

How Amazon layered these charges together covers the structure, though those older rates do not belong in a 2027 model.

Start from an inventory-age export rather than an average storage bill. Separate units likely to sell soon from stock needing a discount, another channel, or removal, then project where each group lands when the new structure starts.

A product can look healthy at parent-listing level while one color or size quietly accumulates old units. Forecasting at variant level surfaces that before another purchase order compounds it.

Low Inventory Gets Tested Against Later Demand

The low-inventory-level fee currently uses trailing 30-day and 90-day sales. From February 1, it applies only when inventory falls below 28 days of supply based on actual shipments in both the four weeks before and the four weeks after the assessment date.

Amazon says the change targets SKUs genuinely needing replenishment while reducing instances triggered by unexpected demand spikes, end-of-season products, and end-of-life products.

That is a real improvement for seasonal sellers. It also means a backward-looking sales spike no longer carries the decision on its own.

Build separate forecasts for ordinary sales, promotional sales, and the period after a promotion ends. A product that sells hard during a deal and then slows will leave you storing units you did not need if you replenished to the promotional pace.

The reverse mistake costs money too. Avoiding a fee and maintaining availability are different objectives, and your forecast still needs supplier production time, transport variance, receiving time, and a real safety buffer.

Convert the Increase Into Contribution

Take a SKU contributing $3 per order after variable costs. A $0.19 fulfillment increase drops that to $2.81, a 6.3% reduction. Across 10,000 units, that removes $1,900 before any storage change.

Amazon's 0.8% figure describes the increase against selling price. The number that matters to your business is its share of contribution, which is usually several times larger.

Use three columns: current non-peak economics, current holiday economics, and projected 2027 economics. Mixing those periods makes the end of a temporary holiday charge look like a permanent reduction.

Keep fuel separate. The 3.5% surcharge is unchanged for now, so it stays in the model rather than disappearing because a new base schedule arrived.

Check Purchase Orders Before Repricing

Amazon points sellers to its Fee Change Comparison dashboard in Profit Analytics and the Revenue Calculator. Export those results, then reconcile against your own landed cost, advertising, return allowance, and expected inventory age.

Rank products by dollars of contribution at risk rather than percentage fee change. A small change on a high-volume product deserves attention before a dramatic change on something you barely sell.

For each major replenishment, compare a larger purchase order against smaller, more frequent orders, including supplier pricing, freight, storage, stockout risk, and cost of cash.

Before approving your next production deposit, have someone verify the SKU's 2027 fee estimate and inventory-age projection. Put both January 15 and February 1 in the purchasing calendar so the second change does not get missed after the first one lands.