This is the first time we are creating a shipping plan with case packs instead of mixed inventory. I am sending several cases and this might seem like a weird question but should I create a separate plan for each case or put them all on one shipping plan? I’m just wondering if it would affect FC placement. I know the case will be shipped to whatever warehouses the item has a selling history or wherever Amazon thinks the product will sell, that’s not the question, I want to know if I ship more cases does anyone know if it will affect which FC I have to ship to. They usually have us send mixed inventory to Las Vegas, NJ, and somewhere in the middle of the country. I’m assuming if I ship less than 3 cases they would go to one warehouse or maybe two, and if I ship 5 cases they could end up going anywhere. Thoughts?
We put them all in the same plan. Sometimes they go out to the same place, sometimes but not often they get split up.
We have seen sending multiple cases is helpful. We just had one last month that had two cases, shipped to the same place. One was lost for 30 days, the other checked in 2 days after arrival.
I prefer distributed for faster availability. Amazon appears to prefer consolidated, to centers in our region of the country.
Another method we use is laddering out the case shipments. Shipping a case a week, to remain in stock. This when we are smart. We often don’t have time to be smart. Like you we mostly manufacture on demand. For just in time, or near just in time fulfillment.
Thanks, I’m just building stock for Q4 so we’ll be dong the same thing sending in a case a week after we get our initial stock in place. this is just the beginning, but I haven’t done consolidated before so I thought I’d ask here.
When we have done more than one shipment, as in added another case, since we found enough stock. It always appears to go to the same location. Even different days of the week. They pick the same FC until they change where they want our stuff to go.
Always two days or less for shipping time.
I think a lot of the distribution and storage is on trucks now. When we do local (New England) customer work and are on the road, we see a lot of Amazon trucks. Resting or hauling.
I would do whatever is less work and not worry about how the packages are distributed. Either way all you’re doing is putting the label on the box.
There are ways to game the system to avoid shipping things to far away FCs to reduce shipping costs, but unless the products you’re selling are big and heavy it’s not worth the effort to do that.
I do notice that in the past if we sent 10 cases Amazon would split it 4/3/3 to 3 different FCs, but lately they just have it all go to a local FC for the most part. Personally I have no real preference as the inbound shipping costs aren’t substantial either way, and whether inventory is lost or delayed is more or less luck of the draw as every FC can have it’s issues.
Yeah you’re right about the shipping costs, that’s not really a concern as even to the other coast the difference is like $3. Just hate not knowing which FC I’ll draw on the roulette wheel, you know what I mean? Never shipped case pack before, but after all the stories about miscounts (we never had a problem since 2015) I’m a bit nervous about it. Thanks for the info, appreciate the help from everyone here.
Just remember the reason why you use FBA is because you don’t want to deal with fulfillment related issues. This includes deciding which facility it goes to. Your job is to put the label on the box, everything else is UPS and Amazon’s responsibility. No need to worry or stress about it.
We ship everything in case quantities. Similar to others, it usually gets broken into 2 different locations but sometimes we get lucky and it all goes to one place – which is what my shipping department prefers and you will save a few dollars on shipping. There is no need to create separate shipments. Amazon will spread the inventory throughout the country once your shipment gets to their warehouses.
Which is what we are hoping for. We’re used to shipping to 3 different FCs with mixed inventory, just not sure how they’ll handle case lots so thanks for the confirmation that they MAY possibly go to one or 2 FCs.