50 lbs, 25" per side
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Ok, so stick with me here…
I take 2 of my cartons, and band them into one banded package that I designate as my new “carton size”. The larger number of units per carton force Amazon to not split my usual 2 case shipment into to different places, one far away, one nearby.
Do I win? Or is it impossible to win this game?
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Then you pay the placement fee.
Tons and tons of people (myself included) played these games that you’re talking about and FBA’s probably tired of it. If you don’t provide Amazon a 5 way splitable shipment you get the placement fee now.
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So just send 5 cases, and forget it?
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Seems like the placement fee is typically higher than splitting things 5 ways (as long as you’re sending a decently large amount of inventory), so yeah. Most people will probably want to send 5 cases at a time if possible.
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Our experiences on this point are completely different, but we are located in a commercial area and have a stocked fridge for UPS/USPS/LTL drivers.
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Have to do the math. Many destinations make the freight price for 5 cases more than the fee, when they pick locations all the way across the nation.
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I meant for SPD shippers.
The number of sellers who ship 5 pallets of inventory at a time are few and far between.
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My example above shows that 5 cases was not cheaper when everything goes across the country though. YMMV.
APC costs>Fee in some cases.
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As our friend @GGX alludes upthread, 50 lbs has long been the cutoff threshold - but there was a fly in the ointment, earlier this year, as discussed in this SAS Thread:
In one of the rare examples of the Editorial Team correcting conflicting data in an expedient fashion, that SHC (“Seller Help Content”) page has recently been updated to remove the error quoted in that 011524 post.
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Just going back to look at the note we were all sent. Underlined the best part and have a red box on one of my favorite parts. It costs us 2 cents a unit LTL (freight), or at least it did. Now it will be 9 cents min. 4X+. This certainly would have been a disaster without the reduced FBA fee.
We will give you the option to pay reduced fees???
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I can attest to the 50 LB max weight limit as the FC tried to fine me for boxes over 50 LB in the past. After they fined me, I weighed 10 boxes in my warehouse and all were 48-49 LBS. Close to 50 but not at or over. I appealed and they removed the infraction and the fines but there absolutely is a 50 LB weight limit per box unless one individual unit weighs over 50 LBS.
Another warning about wanting to “band” 2 boxes together to make a single pack unit. Please don’t use banding of any kind on your inbound shipments. This too will get you a violation and fine. One of my suppliers put banding on all master cartons. Instead of removing the banding, we sent them in as they were and received a violation and a fine for it. Enough of those and they will ban you from FBA so be careful if your business model is using FBA.
Also, please keep in mind the max weight per pallet is 1500 LBS. Yes, I learned this lesson the hard way too.
Amazon used to be pretty understanding about these violations when I first started and made these mistakes. I doubt if they are so forgiving now so please pay close attention.
Good Luck,
TJB
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We have a certain product that we band down to the pallet because its so dense - no issues have ever been raised. But yea we definitely wouldn’t send in individual boxes banded for extra strength.
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Check this situation out everyone.
An actual scenario - throwing this on here as a stress test to see if I am missing something…
Previously - we ship 6000 units on a pallet for $120 on avg - no placement fees.
Placement fees now - 27 cents a unit - $1,620
FBA Fee reduction 4-15-24 - 20 cents a unit - worth $1,200
Total offset of fees - $420 loss
Go exclusively SPD:
No Placement Fees - save $1,620
Enjoy Lower FBA Fee -save $1,200
Working with $2820 of found $
LTL = $120
UPS = $410 - Our avg UPS box costs $8 partnered but accounting for going further on the avg to $10 a box for 41 shippers of 144 each.
Loss of $280 of the $2820 = Net Gain of $2,540 per pallet.
Labor / materials for the 41 shippers = $410
Total net gain is $2,130 per pallet - increased profit per unit of 35 cents.
Lots more work for Amazon to do + faster receipts vs. LTL. They Lose!
Am I crazy or is Amazon this stupid? If I’m right, it won’t take long for others to figure this out.
LMK your thoughts…
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Where did you find a lower FBA fee? The above message has “on average” so how did you calculate your fee?
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I think going SPD in a lot of cases for small items will be the winning choice. But it’s not an option for ALL sellers and all items.
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There is also the core problem of FC location in their splits.
This is about $10 per unit in freight
When the above is only $9
The single shipment to Texas is $13.50 a unit.
Image how much more expensive it would be if they sent it to VA, TN or NJ for split from the West Coast…
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In our experiments they are going to punish small volume sellers with logistics costs.
If you only have one case or one pallet, you will suffer. If you have 3-6 cases or pallets you have flexibility to try and absorb the fees.
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I’m curious what the cost would be if you used AWD. I’m getting the impression that a lot of companies that use 3PL for storage will likely get pressured into using AWD if these costs stay this way.
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The per unit charges on one item and its variations cost more than one of our warehouses based on volume, so AWD is not a logical choice for us.
Edit- I forgot to add, our top 3-4 sellers are oversize so it’s a no go for AWD too.
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