Amazon MCF Guide: Fees, Peak Surcharges and Shopify Setup (2026)

What Amazon MCF Is (and What It Isn't)

Amazon describes MCF as its third-party logistics service. A customer orders on a channel that isn't Amazon, you send Amazon the order, and Amazon picks, packs, and ships it from your inventory in its network. The service now sits inside Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), and in a September 24, 2026 press release Amazon said MCF serves hundreds of thousands of merchants in 11 countries.

A few basics from Amazon's own guides:

• One pool of inventory. According to the Shopify app user guide, the same stock fills your Amazon.com orders (through FBA) and your off-Amazon orders (through MCF).
• You don't have to sell on Amazon. The guide says you can create an MCF account if you only want to fulfill orders from other channels. If you also sell on Amazon, a regular selling account with FBA is the better choice.
• It isn't a customer service desk. MCF ships the box. Your store still handles checkout, refunds, and customer emails.

If you're still setting up your first FBA shipments, read our FBA inbound shipping guide first. MCF only works well once inventory is arriving and being received cleanly.

When MCF Makes Sense

MCF is a good fit when you already sell a product on Amazon and want to add another sales channel without opening a second inventory location. Typical cases:

• You have a Shopify or WooCommerce store and want to avoid packing orders yourself. We covered why a store matters in our post on why Amazon sellers need a Shopify store.
• You're testing TikTok Shop and don't want to rent warehouse space until you know what sells.

Amazon also claims results. In the same press release, it says sellers using both MCF and FBA in the U.S. cut out-of-stock rates by 19% and improved inventory turnover by 12% on average. These are Amazon's own averages, so treat them as marketing claims, not a forecast for your catalog.

MCF is a weaker fit when your product is cheap and light, because a fixed fulfillment fee can swallow the margin. Do the math before you connect anything. We'll do that below.

How MCF Fees Work Right Now

Amazon says MCF fulfillment fees are based on product size, shipping weight, units per order, and delivery speed. You choose between Standard and Expedited speeds. The fee covers pick, pack, and ship, and Amazon's MCF pricing page lists these key points as of October 11, 2026:

• 2026 price changes. Fulfillment fees went up by about $0.30 per unit on average. Fees stayed the same for orders with three or more units in the small and large standard-size categories.
• 3.5% surcharge. A fuel and logistics-related surcharge of 3.5% applies to U.S. MCF fulfillment fees.
• Holiday peak fees. They apply from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027. Amazon says the per-unit increases match last year's, with the 3.5% surcharge added on top.
• Multi-unit discounts. Amazon says orders with several units can save up to 50% per unit on fulfillment fees.
• Remote areas. Orders to Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories carry a surcharge of 100% for standard-size items and 200% for oversized ones.

The peak rate card adds a few more details. Lithium batteries add $0.11 per unit. If you block Amazon Logistics as a carrier, there is normally a 5% surcharge, but the peak card says that fee is waived for MCF orders through January 14, 2027 (check the eligibility notes before you rely on it). Return processing is charged separately, and non-fulfillment fees such as storage follow the same rules as FBA. Our post on FBA warehouse storage fees explains those.

A look at the numbers

On the peak card, the listed standard-speed fee for a single small standard-size item up to 4 oz is $7.53. For orders with four or more units, the same row lists $3.83 per unit. Add the 3.5% surcharge and you get about $7.79 and $3.96. These are fees before any discount program, and the live Seller Central rate card is the source of truth for your exact size tier.

The point isn't the exact cents. It's the shape: one-unit orders are expensive and multi-unit orders are much cheaper per unit. If your products are low priced, bundles and "buy more, save more" offers on your own store can make MCF work.

Discounts You Can Use in 2026

Amazon currently promotes several ways to lower MCF costs. Terms change, and in one place Amazon's own pages don't match, so verify the details in Seller Central first.

MCF Preferred Pricing

The MCF pricing page says Preferred Pricing offers up to a 15% discount on MCF fulfillment fees plus up to a $1 FBA credit per MCF unit shipped, for up to one year. The September press release describes the program as saving merchants 15 to 25% on fulfillment fees for the first six months, with one-click enrollment and no contracts. Those two descriptions don't line up exactly, so open the Preferred Pricing page in Seller Central and read the current terms before you count on a number.

35% off for TikTok Shop orders

Amazon's TikTok Shop promotion page says that starting July 16, MCF offers 35% off Standard and Expedited rates for U.S. TikTok Shop orders for 12 months. The fine print matters:

• It applies automatically, but only to orders attributed to TikTok Shop through a supported integration partner.
• Orders you create by hand in Seller Central don't qualify.
• It replaces the Preferred Pricing discount on those orders, and it can't be combined with other promotions.
• It's valid only for TikTok Shop orders delivered to U.S. addresses.

Prime delivery on your own website

The September announcement also said MCF merchants can now add fast, free Prime delivery to their own site at no cost beyond standard MCF fees. Prime membership is verified after checkout, so shoppers don't have to log in to Amazon. Amazon says merchants can turn it on through the MCF and Buy with Prime app for Shopify, and that one early adopter, Skinnies Instant Lifts, reported nearly a 10% increase in sales. That's one company's quote from a press release, not a promise.

An Illustrative Per-Order Check

Here's an example with made-up numbers. It isn't real data, but it shows how to test whether MCF works for a product before you connect a store.

Say a small standard-size item sells for $39.00 on your Shopify store with free shipping. Your costs per order:

• Product cost: $9.00 (illustrative)
• MCF fee at the peak-card rate above: about $7.79
• Payment processing: $1.43 (illustrative; check your processor's rates)
• Storage and inbound shipping share: $0.60 (illustrative)

That leaves roughly $20.18 per order before ads, software, and returns. Now imagine a "buy four" bundle. Using the 4+ unit row, the fulfillment fee would be about $15.86 for the whole order, compared with about $31.17 if the same four units shipped as four separate orders. The same math works in reverse: at a $12 price, a $7.79 fee for a single unit leaves very little room.

Run this for each product with your real numbers. Our true per-unit cost guide walks through the full cost stack.

How to Set Up MCF With Shopify

Amazon's user guide for the MCF and Buy with Prime app for Shopify gives a clear path. In short:

1. Get inventory into Amazon. You can connect the app without inventory, but you need stock in Amazon's network before SKU mapping and fulfillment can work.
2. Install the app and log in with your Amazon seller account. If you still use the old Amazon MCF: US Fulfillment app, Amazon says it was set to be deactivated on September 30, 2026, so move to the new one.
3. Map your SKUs. If your Shopify SKU matches your Amazon SKU, the app maps it automatically. If not, you map each one yourself, so keep your SKU names consistent from day one.
4. Set up shipping options. Customers only see the shipping choices you create in Shopify. Map them to Amazon's Standard or Expedited speeds inside the app.
5. Automate orders. You can submit orders manually, or let Shopify's order processing setting or Shopify Flow send them to MCF automatically.
6. Place a test order before you go live, and cancel it after you check it appears in Seller Central.

Things the guide says to watch

• The app only fulfills from available inventory. Inbound units aren't counted.
• An order can have up to 250 units and 100 unique SKUs. Larger orders must be split.
• Returns aren't handled directly in the app. Process the refund in Shopify. If the customer ships the item back to Amazon, the postage isn't covered by Amazon.

Packaging, Tracking, and Customer Experience

Amazon says MCF orders ship in unbranded packaging, with no Amazon logo on the box, tape, mailer, or packing slip. In the Seller Central order screen, you can choose to ship only in unbranded packaging, but the feature doesn't cover items longer than 56 inches or heavier than 49.9 lb.

For tracking, Amazon says Amazon Logistics orders in Shopify show customers a link to track.amazon.com, and you can look up any MCF order on Swiship. If you enter a customer's email, MCF sends a shipment confirmation with the tracking link.

Common MCF Mistakes to Avoid

• Not checking fees by size tier. A product that sits one tier higher can change your whole margin. Look up your own tier before you quote shipping prices.
• Ignoring peak fees. The October 15 to January 14 window covers the busiest selling weeks. Update prices or free-shipping thresholds before it starts.
• Letting two channels fight over the same units. Because the pool is shared, a sale on your site reduces what's available for Amazon. Watch your restock dates, and keep an eye on IPI and storage limits as volumes change.
• Sloppy SKU mapping. A mismatched SKU can show zero stock in Shopify even when units are in Amazon's centers.
• Forgetting returns. MCF return fees are charged by size tier and weight, and return postage isn't covered by Amazon. Decide your return policy before launch.
• Missing lost units. If MCF inventory goes missing, use the same weekly checks we describe in our FBA reimbursements guide.

Putting It Together

MCF can turn the inventory you already send to FBA into a fulfillment engine for Shopify, TikTok Shop, and other channels. It saves you from running a second warehouse, but it only works when the per-order math works.

The key takeaways:

• MCF fills off-Amazon orders from the same pool of inventory as FBA
• Fees depend on size, weight, units per order, and delivery speed
• A 3.5% surcharge applies, and peak fees run October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027
• Multi-unit orders cost much less per unit than single-unit orders
• Preferred Pricing and the TikTok Shop promotion can lower your costs, but check the live terms
• Test your SKU mapping and order routing before you go live

Your next step: Pick your three best-selling products, find each one's size tier, and run the per-order check above with your real costs before you connect a single store.