Every DTC Fee Just Went Up. Here Is What Is Actually Changing.
Q2 is here, and it’s adding line items to your invoices.
Amazon just added a 3.5% fulfillment surcharge. Effective April 17, no end date.
USPS, FedEx, and UPS are already up in response to global conflict.
Return rates are on the rise… again.
Shopify just opened B2B to everyone. Score for those of us resisting the Plus Plan.
This is Open With Joy, a monthly resource for founders of premium, customer-centric, scaling DTC brands. The latest on operations, supply chain, and the tech that keeps us growing.
Here we go.
On our radar for April
Amazon adds a 3.5% fuel surcharge. It hits FBA, Buy with Prime, and Multi-Channel Fulfillment.
So, no surprise, oil prices are soaring, and it’s taking a toll on supply chain and logistics. Starting April 17, Amazon is adding a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge to fulfillment fees for FBA sellers in the US and Canada. It expands to Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfillment on May 2. Amazon says it has absorbed these increased costs so far, which is a polite way of saying “Your turn now”. This is on top of the FBA fee increase from January and every carrier surcharge already in play. If you are routing wholesale or DTC orders through Amazon's fulfillment network, your fulfillment costs just increased again.
Return rates are projected to hit 20 to 25% across e-commerce in 2026.
This one made me choke a little. New data puts general e-commerce return rates between 20 and 25% for 2026, driven by what researchers are calling a permanent shift to value-seeking behavior. Not a post-inflation blip. For apparel, the average is 25%. Shoes hit 31%. The industry is already adjusting: 65% of merchants now charge return fees for mail-in returns, and more than half are offering store credit instead of cash refunds in an effort to protect margin. Returns are unavoidable and part of the DTC deal, but this increase warrants real strategy.
Shopify opened B2B features to all plan tiers. No Plus required.
Confetti toss!! As of last week, Shopify made its B2B tools available to merchants on Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans at no extra cost. Custom pricing by buyer, company profiles, net payment terms, self-serve wholesale ordering: all of it, from the same admin where you already run your DTC store. Merchants who have turned on B2B features are seeing up to 33% more self-serve orders and 20% higher reorder rates within six months. If wholesale has been on your list but felt like a whole other build, the setup just got a lot smaller.
What you can do
B2B Simplified - Run DTC and Wholesale from One Shopify Store
Not in the Shopify Plus club? REJOICE! The Shopify B2B news is the path a lot of founders to diversify their channels simply. But knowing a feature exists and knowing how to actually run both channels from one store are two different things. This month's post breaks down what changes, what does not, and what to set up first.
With love, Best Buds
Open With Joy is brought to you by Best Buds CX, a fractional COO partnering with bold brands built on core values. We implement customer-retaining operations across the business that empower teams to operate at their highest potential so you can reclaim your time, energy, and ambition. Learn more.
