Concern About Deprecation of Price-Banded Shipping – Need a Viable Solution for Size-Based Shipping Costs
We recently received the notice that HAQM will be deprecating the “price band” shipping rate option effective June 30, 2025. This change is extremely concerning for our business, and I’m hoping others in a similar situation can share how they’re handling it — or if HAQM might consider keeping this very important setting for FBM sellers.
WARNING: On June 30th 2025 HAQM will deprecate the option to set 'price band' shipping rates. Update your shipping templates now to switch from 'price band' rates to 'per item' or 'weight' rates for each region. Learn more about updating shipping rates.
Our products come in various sizes with dramatically different shipping costs. For example, smaller items may cost under $10 to ship, while the largest versions of the same product can cost close to $50 due to oversized packaging and carrier fees. Unfortunately, HAQM’s system does not support assigning variant-specific weights under a single listing when using customization or variation options. This makes weight-based or per-item rates unusable for us.
Price banded shipping is the only method that has worked to fairly and accurately pass on shipping costs based on the actual size (and thus cost) of the product. Without this, we either lose money on large orders or overcharge customers on smaller ones — neither of which is sustainable.
We’re a U.S.-based small business and have worked hard to stay compliant with HAQM’s evolving systems, but this particular change could severely impact our ability to sell effectively on the platform because of the big impact that shipping costs have on our products. With all the constant constrictions, hassles, and marketplace fees, it is costing small business tons. I see never ending restrictions that make it easier and more profitable for HAQM but the opposite for sellers.
How can I get HAQM's attention to reconsider this so they understand the risk this poses to businesses that depend on size-based shipping pricing?
Has anyone found a workaround? Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide guidance.
Thank you!! DD
Concern About Deprecation of Price-Banded Shipping – Need a Viable Solution for Size-Based Shipping Costs
We recently received the notice that HAQM will be deprecating the “price band” shipping rate option effective June 30, 2025. This change is extremely concerning for our business, and I’m hoping others in a similar situation can share how they’re handling it — or if HAQM might consider keeping this very important setting for FBM sellers.
WARNING: On June 30th 2025 HAQM will deprecate the option to set 'price band' shipping rates. Update your shipping templates now to switch from 'price band' rates to 'per item' or 'weight' rates for each region. Learn more about updating shipping rates.
Our products come in various sizes with dramatically different shipping costs. For example, smaller items may cost under $10 to ship, while the largest versions of the same product can cost close to $50 due to oversized packaging and carrier fees. Unfortunately, HAQM’s system does not support assigning variant-specific weights under a single listing when using customization or variation options. This makes weight-based or per-item rates unusable for us.
Price banded shipping is the only method that has worked to fairly and accurately pass on shipping costs based on the actual size (and thus cost) of the product. Without this, we either lose money on large orders or overcharge customers on smaller ones — neither of which is sustainable.
We’re a U.S.-based small business and have worked hard to stay compliant with HAQM’s evolving systems, but this particular change could severely impact our ability to sell effectively on the platform because of the big impact that shipping costs have on our products. With all the constant constrictions, hassles, and marketplace fees, it is costing small business tons. I see never ending restrictions that make it easier and more profitable for HAQM but the opposite for sellers.
How can I get HAQM's attention to reconsider this so they understand the risk this poses to businesses that depend on size-based shipping pricing?
Has anyone found a workaround? Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide guidance.
Thank you!! DD
14 replies
Seller_9z7K85RzAOGC9
Is this for all sellers or is price banded deprecation on sellers of certain items? I haven't received any e-mails that price banded shipping is going away, but I did read an article that was not by HAQM but about HAQM saying some products will be affected by this change.
Seller_slcJxslsNqLov
I will be having the same issue and this notification is at extremely short notice
Seller_Mfzg0fucOiPS0
This is a big deal for us too. HAQM explicitly supports product quantity as an option on customizable products. Different quantities of an item affect the weight (duh) and can greatly affect shipping cost. We must have a way to account for this in order to offer competitive shipping prices to HAQM customers.
Please revaluate this deprecation or offer a solution for customized products.
Seller_u5NhC61gK9Rhg
@KJ_HAQM @Cooper_HAQM @Michelle_HAQM @Manny_HAQM
The recent HAQM change for deprecating price bands in the shipping templates will have catastrophic results for us.
We also sell customized products. One of the things customers can choose at the customization level is the quantity.
This means a customers order can be anywhere from from 1lb to 50lbs. But HAQM does not let us set the weight of each quantity.
Price bands are the only way for us to set the actual price of shipping.
Seller_slcJxslsNqLov
Here is the actual notification but was this ever mentioned in Seller News? NO
How are sellers supposed to see this change if they dont update their shipping settings?
Seller_txsx2aMgSQqPE
And what exactly does "depreciating" mean?
Seller_RnoJYdlqCE5Tw
Oh boy. Another ridiculous decision from HAQM. So much work now needs to go in to work this through. It gets tiring.
Seller_RnoJYdlqCE5Tw
Reading this again. What would happen after June 30th if we didn't change our templates? The wording states "HAQM will deprecate the option to set". If they are already set then does that mean that they will continue until we want to create a new template?
Also the "learn more" talks about June 15th rather than June 30th. Another messy new policy.
Seller_xeDdQgRH5VZwO
As someone who sells Trading Cards & Figures... this is a poopshow to say the least for me.
My cards I sell for cheap prices and if it's under $2 I have a shipping charge of the cost of a postal stamp added to it. With this new nonsense that HAQM is doing, I have to figure out what to do.
Seller_yp5DqfSl6OXdE
Basically, HAQM does or does not require tracking based on price, but now wants to remove our option to charge shipping based on price.
The vast majority of our products are under $10. Currently, If they order just one, the customer only pays for a stamp. If they order more than one, the customer pays for tracking, which is $4 and up. Most of our customer order just one. By removing price banding, HAQM is forcing us to charge every customer more for shipping than is necessary.
We are opting to raise our prices to cover shipping and offer free shipping on all products. No other choice. Needless to say, our products will be far more expensive on HAQM than they are on all the other marketplaces where we sell. Hopefully, consumers will get wise to this and go shop on Etsy or eBay or our website. We will see.