Amazon has introduced a bidding system for Amazon Seller Central users who want their products included in its sub-Same Day programme, asking Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) sellers to compete against each other for access to its fastest shipping tier.
The scheme, outlined in an email sent to sellers earlier this month, lets Amazon deliver eligible products to customers in 2,300 metro areas within two hours of an order being placed. Items sold through the service ‘have experienced 12% higher sales on average’ than those shipped through standard FBA, Amazon said in the email.
The pricing structure is auction-based. ‘You pay only for units that actually ship through Sub Same Day, at the per-unit price you bid,’ Amazon told sellers. ‘Participation is optional, and you’re never charged more than the price per unit you set.’
A new layer of cost on top of existing FBA fees
People who advise sellers told Business Insider the bid system could increase what sellers pay to Amazon overall. Under the existing FBA arrangement, sellers already pay Amazon to store, pick, and pack their inventory, with some charges on a per-unit basis and others as a percentage of each sale.
Those fees have already been climbing. ShipBob reported that Amazon raised US FBA fulfilment fees by an average of $0.08 per unit on 15 January 2026, then added a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on top of every FBA and MCF fee effective 17 April 2026. Amazon has said the fee changes amount to less than 0.5% of an average item’s selling price and were ‘significantly less than inflation and less than the 3.9%–5.9% annual cost increases from other major US carriers during the last two years.’
Vanessa Hung, chief executive of Online Seller Solutions, said Amazon’s search rankings would increasingly reward speed. ‘Amazon will prioritize in search results (or even in Alexa results) whatever gets there faster,’ she said. ‘If you want to keep playing at the highest level, you need to bid for that and pay more.’
Scott Needham, who has sold on Amazon for 13 years and is the chief executive of SmartScout, said FBA is still ‘a good deal’ for fast shipping despite the change. But he argued the bidding format adds unnecessary complexity. ‘I would rather that they just have an elevated cost’ for sub-Same Day shipping, he said. That way, he added, ‘there’s no game theory.’
Amazon sub-Same Day bidding arrives as the network scales fast
The bid system lands as Amazon’s same-day and next-day infrastructure expands at pace. The company delivered 13 billion items same-day or next-day in 2025, a 70% year-over-year increase in the number of items delivered in under 24 hours, according to the Amazon newsroom. Same-Day Delivery now reaches customers in over 9,000 cities and towns across the United States, from large metro areas to rural communities.
To support that reach, Amazon committed $4 billion to its rural delivery network, converting existing rural delivery stations into hybrid hubs and extending same-day and next-day service to more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural areas across 44 states.
The sub-Same Day facilities at the centre of the new bidding system stock about 100,000 products, a fraction of the millions held at Amazon’s traditional fulfilment centres. Retail Dive has reported that each facility serves customers within roughly a 60-minute drive-time radius, functioning as a combined mini-fulfilment centre and delivery station.
Chief executive Andy Jassy indicated in December 2023 why the company prioritises this push. In the first half of that year, 60% of shipments in Amazon’s top 60 metropolitan areas were same-day or one-day deliveries, Jassy said, adding that delivery speed meaningfully changes customers’ conversion rates and willingness to buy, according to CNBC.
For third-party sellers, the operational costs of qualifying for sub-Same Day run beyond the bid price itself. To meet short delivery windows, sellers must stock inventory in multiple Amazon facilities closer to customers. ‘Before, the same warehouse could serve Raleigh and Charlotte,’ Hung said. ‘Now, you need to have inventory in Raleigh and in Charlotte in order to have the 30-minute delivery window.’
Some sellers are already looking elsewhere. Hung said sellers are trying to grow on platforms such as TikTok Shop, where selling costs are lower. But for those who depend on Amazon’s volumes, the bid system is simply another line item. Analysis from Cahoot.ai notes that Amazon increased same-day delivery sites by more than 60% in 2024, meaning the number of sub-Same Day facilities competing for seller inventory is already high and growing.
‘I roll my eyes, and I’m like, okay, this is another fee,’ Hung said.
Amazon said it ‘will continue to place a wide variety of products from independent sellers throughout our Same Day network at no additional cost to sellers.’ Whether that baseline offering is sufficient for sellers who want the 12% sales uplift tied to sub-Same Day placement is the calculation now sitting in every FBA seller’s inbox.