Preface: I’m handmade, small, low-volume & produce, package & ship all by myself. I don’t have the same items FBA and FBM, I just flip them if I run out.
Tl;dr: Does Amazon prioritize items in search that have more in stock?
This has been mentioned before and most of you might have thousands in stock so you might not know. For me, it’s a balance of keeping items in-stock, but not so many that I’m hit with too many fees if something stalls. So I typically never have more than 20 in stock at any given time. Most things are less than 10.
I’m wondering if it might be worth it to send 50-100 of my better selling items to see if that pushes more sales, but without ever testing it, I just don’t know if that’s how ye olde Amz algo works.
I was suggesting that metrics that would impact the BB might also impact search results, but I don’t know if this is true. The dumpster fire that is Amazon’s search is simply not my thing.
Well, yes, I do think more quantities = the item showing up better in search results. Because the more likely that that SKU will get spread out to more FCs which means closer proximity and faster shipping to customers, so amazon will show those items over something that will have a longer ship time. I don’t know this for a fact, just guessing. My items that I keep well-stocked sell better, but that’s also the reason I keep them well-stocked, so it’s kind of a cycle.
In other categories that is a resounding yes all else being equal. So obviously it has to be a competetive enough product with great reviews, low returns (in general), high USP (conversion), etc - then yes the guy who mass produces wins - because that is what amazon is going for and that is what amazon dot com is built upon (high volume commodity items) - translate as you will to handmade
I really have no Idea if it would translate well to handmade.
I’m low volume too and I don’t like to ship too much to FBA (especially getting to the off season for me.) Right now I have only two Items I’ve been stocking in FBA, I also keep them in stock at home so when/if they run out at FBA I will simply get FBM oders and not need to worry about flipping back and forth.
Anyway. The Larger Item is the better selling Item and I can fit 40 in a case. During the spring planting season I am often sending a couple cases a week (used to be lots more but copy cats have entered my niche) The smaller item I can pack 80 to a case but those seem to last 3 to 4 times as long in FBA.
So, you are going to have to balance out how fast your best selling item sells normally and consider if doubling the amount you ship in might get you more sales due to it maybe getting to the customers faster and therefore perhaps being higher in the search, balanced with the possibility that if it doesn’t sell through faster you might wind up with more storage fees. How well this all works may also depend on your price point and the size of your items in storage.
I wish the small item sold better because the size means the FBA fee is way lower. My bigger item that sells the most of got bumped up into the large standard size tier so the FBA fee jumped up a couple years back.
I’m working hard to figure out how to package one of my other items so that it can stay under the .75 inch thickness to make it cost effective for me to price it lower.
Edit to say, I think I have noticed that when Items only have a few in FBA, they don’t seem to sell out those last few very fast unless it is “busy season” for me.
Excellent observation and now that you say it - same here. I think I’ll give it a go with my better-selling FBA items at my lower (@ 25) price point to see how it goes.
Yea, like if your normal restock case is 20 and you don’t usually send it till your are all out at FBA, perhaps send another case whenever you get down to only 10 left to see if sales are any better. Or perhaps send two cases instead of just one.
but but, even if it were true that more = better search, you don’t know (and won’t know) how much more that means.
It may well surpass your reasonable sales expectations for months. For example, if I have a pair of earrings that sells once per week, I might have to send in 500 to get it to twice per week due to improved search. Could be 50, could be 500. And 500 would be overstocks in a hot minute.
I’ve often thought it would be a nice option if Amazon gave you a few FC options when you sent a shipment so you could control placement and get it on the shelf faster. I would even compromise with smaller shipments. I know the locales that sell best for me. I don’t think their distribution of my products are always the best. As of late, ALL my shipments go to the same place, take forever to distribute, and don’t always go to areas I want. I guess the only solution is to over stock in hopes of better distribution.
The more FBA stock you have, the better conversion you will have, period.
Amazon will spread that inventory around to more of the country when there’s more which will lead to a quicker time to home and thus better conversion.
One thing about this though is that this matters more for items buyers need vs. want. For commodities, you have to have a ton of inventory to succeed. In your case, it might not be as important but based on everything we know, it’s worth a test to send more in to see what happens.
Thank for asking this @LR72 and for all the posters sharing their knowledge and observations.
In the last two years I had to spend March-April and September-December out of the country, missing all Mother’s Day and Christmas sales on Etsy and depending only on whatever little volume I had left on FBA… As a result, my annual sales are only a fraction of what they used to be I will hopefully be back home within 10 days and am looking forward to start working! I will definitely need a jump start and this information will help in my decision making.
I wish the FBA auto-returns feature would be an option for all of us soon. One thing that kept me sending more items to FBA was returns, because like some of us I chose to pull back the whole ASIN after a return was determined sellable and added back to the inventory. As a tiny tiny seller I cannot afford a “used item sold as new” comment, if that return arrives at the next customer in a bad shape.
This is a big deal for me too, especially now that FBA removals are $0.97 each, and remain super slow. Calling back 5 pairs of new earrings to catch one return, and then the downtime from FBA for that ASIN…the cost…it’s really a big loss to business every time it happens. I have only one or two ASINS - after 8 years lol - that have enough reviews to survive a 1* and remain over 4.5 on average.
This is one thing I learned from you a long time ago and it works well for us. I’ll just warn the OP to be careful because what happens usually with us is that if we send in a good amount of stock our sales will snowball and we can’t keep up with the demand unless we plan ahead and have more ready to send in when we see stock is getting low. It’s an art to predict what amount you will need. I’m sure this is highly dependent on product though, so I would start with a few hundred and try it first, but have more stock sitting ready to send in if necessary and remember it can take a month or more to get checked in and available for sale.
Thanks ASV_Vites for that tip a while back, it was the “secret sauce” we needed.
Thank you for confirming Ana! I didn’t send in a hundred, but I did send in more - I would love to be busy enough to force my daughter to pack and ship, I’m easing into sending more volume of better-sellers.
I will hopefully be back home within 10 days and am looking forward to start working! I will definitely need a jump start and this information will help in my decision making.
