I don’t think this will be an issue for you, as the fee is most likely based on your sales volume, not item total volume. If you have one and you sell one, you are done, if you sell two in 90-120 days, great. Still not an issue.
IMO this is geared toward overseas FCL/LCL shippers who wreak havoc on the system by dumping huge one time quantities like seasonal goods. Leaving inventory in early pre-season, and then, holding inventory over till next season is cheaper than owning domestic logistics. Amazon is growing tired of the expense of the lead and tail end of that supply chain.
Very hard to store 10000 boxes of The Marvels costumes they got on AliExpress, in their moms basement till next Halloween. The inventory they put in stock July of 2023 hoping to sell for a few weeks in October.
Well, the way FBA has changed over the past few years makes the system not well suited for used books, which means higher fulfillment costs for them on those items. It only makes sense to pass those costs onto the sellers (who then pass those costs onto the buyers).
Given that Amazon uses a “one size fits all” approach for everything, their system can either run smoothly/efficiently on large, well distributed shipments, OR they can handle single items well (which they USED to do). They’re heading more and more towards the direction of only being able to process large high volume shipments smoothly.
Even with large shipments, the FBA system struggles when selling the last few units of them, which is partly why they want high stock levels, so it covers up some of their network’s problems.
Now, I’m a person that’s a huge fan of FBA and used to recommend FBA to almost every business, but I’ve been seeing more and more situations where FBA is no longer well suited for certain businesses. Customers will have to get used to getting their used books by media mail instead of overnight prime delivery.
Plus small batch manufacturers, seasonal supply Sellers, collectibles, stock-limited resellers, and handmade.
Maybe Amazon is trying to weed out the RA and liquidated junk without an outright prohibition, but they are not and will not be the only or even most of the Sellers affected.
And if limiting attractiveness to RAers as a marketplace is Amazon’s goal, then they just need to grow a pair and put restrictions for those Sellers/products in place.
I don’t think they’re trying to stop it, they’re just saying “using our network in this manner costs more money, so you’re gonna pay for the additional cost.”
I so very badly want you to be correct about this!!!
I need confirmation from Amazon on EXACTLY how the fee is assessed.
Because I’ve currently got restock recommendations on a ton of my inventory that I have only ever sent 1 copy of. On some books, Amazon is telling me to restock 15 additional copies. I need to know if the LIF would be assessed on those.
That is the Make or Break Question for all sellers who only ever stock 1 unit of any given ASIN at any given time.
Well on a positive note, all those RA/RT sellers who buy/steal one item from CVS and then list it, waiting for Amazon to be out of stock in June, will go bye bye if you are correct.
Hadn’t thought about that, but of course it makes perfect sense. Thank you!
Those recommendations are based on your inputs of resupply times and transit times. They are useless to one time sellers as it implies an invenory level >1
So wrong an interpretation.
They are waiting to see what the code some programmer who received an incomplete requirements document writes.
Until the code is written, no one will know what the policies and procedures are.
That’s been the case for every new function and fee in the past 15 years, and maybe longer.
Amazon never changes their operations.
I will bet it is the most inclusive application of the fee. because it only requires “If then”. Understanding the exceptions requires greater input from whoever decided to have this scheme implemented. And it cannot be trashed or delayed because both cost and revenue forecasts expect its effects.
In my nearly 23 years on the venue, I have seen Amazon walk back only two planned policies / fees prior to implementation.
-
The “Perfect Order Performance” (POP) customer service rating/metric. Every transaction starts with a score of 100 points. Points would be deducted for late delivery, no/lost delivery, returns, negative feedback, A-Z claims, but also any/every time the buyer contacts the seller through Buyer-Messaging, even if only to say “thank you, I love this item”. You can imagine how that went with sellers (and Lake, I know you were here for that, but it was such a long time ago, I barely remember it myself). Amazon rescinded POP and eventually rolled out NCX instead.
-
Amazon’s revenue cut of Seller Fulfilled Prime. Announced then rescinded in short order only because it would give ammunition to the current FTC lawsuit against Amazon for unfair trade practices.
There’s a 0.0000001% chance the 2024 fees / changes will be retracted prior to implementation. Amazon might exclude certain categories of sellers or merchandise from the fees or give sellers more options to mitigate them, but that’s the best we can hope for.
Longtime sellers, please add any policy/fee retractions (prior to implementation) you can remember that I’ve forgotten about .
I expect them to expand on this idea with additional fees based on things some sellers do that cost FBA more money to process, whatever they may be, or at the minimum increase the number of day range brackets. Given that they have a weight bracket every 2 oz now (which is nuts), they might eventually make the penalty fee based on the exact number of days instead of “14 - 28”
I’d like to see them reinstitute the savings when an FBA buyer buys more than 1 of the same ASIN, since it doesn’t cost Amazon anything to do the work / ship it, in most cases.
That’s something they walked back to the detriment of sellers.
POP was created and dumped along with Seller Rating.
I may not have communicated clearly what I meant.
By Amazon operations I meant their process of developing new functionality.
For all intents and purposes they brainstorm a new function. Write what it is supposed to accomplish on the back of an envelope, and hand that to a programmer who has no clue how to flesh out the function.
Yes, my fees increased drastically because of that change, as my items are frequently ordered in multiples.
As a result of that, I lowered my FBM price on the same item (I offer both) to try to siphon off some of the FBA sales.
As well, that change also caused me to ignore many SKU that were low in stock, because if they sold out, my FBM inventory took up the slack, and I made again more on each sale.
Lastly, I am heavily into under $10 items, and Small and Light for the first 5 years of existence had a minimum of 24 units.
Interesting, that minimum, and now they are essentially requiring minimums (in regards to selling history).
I understand your business is 100% different from mine. You have 5 - 20 products? that sell in volume. I have a line of 500+ items that as a group sell volume, but individually do not, except for 50 styles.
The way Amazon does business now, with FC spread around the country, the ONE FBA fee for multiples would work for you, but not so for my line, as the dozen or 2 It send in for each SKU then tends to be parcelled out in 2’s and 3’s to 10-15 FCs once received.
It would be nice if they did it, and let you set a volume discount. Or even just keep fees the same and automatically provide the customer a discount for a multi-unit order which would streamline the entire process and get rid of the need for variations for 2/3/4/etc packs.
I suspect the rationale for removing the volume discount is that items are being stored across the country in multiple warehouses. On some of our items we also have an FBM offer and multiple purchases gives you a discount.
Most definitely. Our percentage (I’m guessing) is < 1% of sales but when people order 4, 5 or even 20 units of something, that adds up very quickly. It would help to offset some of the other unnecessary fees that Amazon invents to keep revenue targets going up for investors.
Ya we got the same thing.
Hey Amazon, how about you receive itshay in a timely manner and you wouldn’t have to make time wasting emails.
I still find it really funny that Amazon went from a virtual “just in time” inventory strategy for FBA to send / hold 8-10 weeks at FBA min.
Also funny that the capacity limit more than doubled from the forecast in Dec just a couple weeks after Amazon said it would be cut for Q4.
These clowns really can’t get our of their own way. I can’t complain though. This (current situation), is the way it should be. Amazon will make more money in more ways than 1, sellers will convert better, customers will be more satisfied and get their ish faster, and Amazon will be better stocked overall.
I believe that’s what they built the capacity for in the first place. Now they are using it or letting sellers use it.