Virtual Multipacks for 3P Sellers

Fulfillment by Amazon
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This is some pretty shifty ■■■■ by Amazon, I tell you….

Jumping to the punchline - Amazon will double the FBA fee for 2-packs…. Right, sign me up.

Real life example of present day for us:

  • Single Bottle - $3.68 FBA Fee
  • 2-Pack - $3.90 FBA Fee

Amazon’s virtual Multipack fee - 2-pack $7.68 - 47% increase. There is a cost for bundling in production but it’s 57 cents for the wrap, labor, FNSKU sticker, and do not separate sticker.

Amazon must really think their sellers are dumb. Don’t fall for this ■■■■ folks….

Hello,

We’re creating virtual multipack listings for some Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) brand-owned products that show strong customer demand for multi-unit purchases.

A virtual multipack combines multiple units of your existing single-pack FBA products into one listing, which we fulfill with existing single-pack inventory. Virtual multipacks allow you to sell multiple units of the same product as a single offer with no change to your operations and no need to physically package items together.

We’ll create all virtual multipacks by September 26, 2025, and you’ll have through October 12, 2025, to review or delete them before they’re available to customers. On October 13, 2025, all virtual multipacks that you haven’t deleted will be available for customers to purchase.

Each virtual multipack will have a unique ASIN and SKU and will appear as a variation on the original, single-pack product detail page. By default, all virtual multipacks will be priced according to the current per-unit price. You can discount the virtual multipack or run coupons or ads to help drive more sales.

Virtual multipacks are already available for vendor products on Amazon. For example, this pack of four shaving foams is a virtual multipack.

To review your virtual multipacks, go to Manage All Inventory, and filter for VMP_. To edit the price, title, or description, click Edit virtual multipack. To delete the virtual multipack, go to the hamburger menu, and select Delete listing.

For more information, go to Virtual multipacks.

The Fulfillment by Amazon team

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We thought the Robins were just mating and now you tell us it was just virtual bundled Robins.

:smirking_face:

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I thought there is no increase in fee per unit sold?

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I got this notice, but so far Amazon has not created any virtual multipacks for us, so I can’t check any real world numbers yet.

What FBA fees are increasing 47% exactly? I’m just confused.

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Amazon says they won’t increase. We just pay the same price per unit. If we well 2 units, we pay the FBA fee for 2 units.

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I’m giving an example of what we currently do - prepackaging 2-packs and sending them to FBA. Being sold as a 2 pack variant of the single parent.

The FBA fee for the single is $3.68

The FBA fee for our prepackaged 2-packs is $3.90

Virtual would be $7.68 = +47% 2 X $3.68

@HobbesIsMyTiger

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You are saying that Amazon’s 2 packs would cost you more than your manufacturer created 2 packs.
OK. I get that. But it doesn’t cost more than if a buyer puts 2 singles in their cart.

Did Amazon create a virtual multipack for this item?

My assumption (yeah, yeah, I know) is that Amazon would not create virtual multipacks of items with multipacks. There would be no need or use for it, and it would have to compete with itself, which it probably wouldn’t be able to do since unless the seller discounts the virtual pack (which they have no incentive to do) it will cost the same as 2 singles, where an already existing multipack is generally cheaper.

I don’t think this program is meant to replace manufacturer multipacks. I think it’s just meant to be a way for sellers to offer volume based discounts without having to create their own multipacks, which sellers who are not manufacturers aren’t really allowed to do.

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2 X $3.68 = $7.36

...

We use non-robin math.

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This will save me from having to make more listings. I have been wanting to do virtual bundles but couldn’t.

Once I see which bundles work, I could offer my own real bundles.

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This could definitely be a profit center for Amazon as the savings to ship 2 of the same things would certainly be lower for them. That said, the seller is still going to get the same profit on both units. I don’t see how this is a problem for sellers? If I can double my revenue while exerting no effort or added cost with the same profit margin, why would I complain about this?

Absolutely it would make more sense for me to create a 2-pack and save a lot on FBA fees but that’s on me to do. What I would suggest is everyone keep an eye out for products where the virtual multipacks are selling and do exactly that. Benefit from the market research Amazon is doing for you.

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The problem comes when Amazon (and buyers) expect/push for that 2pk to be cheaper than 2x single price. If our FBA fees are the same, there’s no way we can reduce the price of the virtual 2pk. Our margins are too slim.

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Bingo - you get the prize.

I guess others missed my point twice.

I probably should have included this - We can lower the price, get more sales, and actually make a higher margin.

I suspect Amazon figured this out as they will buying space in the capacity manager. We got all our $ back for Sept already - building to 4X what our FBA limit is for Q4. I don’t understand their formula for performance credits but not complaining. Doesn’t make sense.

Just for clarification - this isn’t bundles in the sense of multiple different items. Has to be the same item X3, X4, X4, etc.

For now, Amazon is picking the items, and to only a group of sellers. Eventually, per SAS manager, the program will roll out to everyone and sellers will be able to bundle (multipack) anything they want. That’s a year+ away.

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Then don’t reduce your price. It’s your business, you make the decisions. Either that or physically bundle the items as a 2-pack. If you let Amazon tell you how to run your business, you won’t be in business very long.

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If you’re printing your own anyway, you can easily put both of those on one sticker at time of print, FWIW. Unless you’re getting savings outsourcing the “Do not separate” stickers, saves you a bit of time in terms of separate applications.

More relevant to the thread: I’m failing to see how there’s a benefit to anyone for this ‘virtual multipack’ - just toss two in your cart if you want two, as a consumer.
If you, as a seller, see there’s a lot of people buying two, and want to offer a bundle for convenience for them, more power to you, especially if you’re saving the FBA fees (storage, picking, etc.) for each bottle vs the bundle.
Most of the time, if I want twice the amount of product, I’d rather it be in one package, though there’s occasions when I specifically buy two of a thing (where I need ibuprofen for the desk, for the bedside table, etc.). In ASV_Vites-land, I’m struggling to imagine why you’d want two bottles vs 1 larger one, unless you’re worried about limited carryon space, but that’s related to the specific niche.

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55 cents a 2-pack labor / materials using a banding / shrink machine and the 2 stickers is good enough for us. I personally think the “This is a Set / Do Not Separate” ready made sticker is worth it to keep Fred from FBA from breaking them apart. We buy them for next to nothing on Amazon at 10K stickers a pop.

You can’t print the FNSKU on anything but flat, white sticker stock so the chances of anyone noticing the black print about being a set are slim to none.

We get in trouble regularly for actually following Amazon’s policies on item prep. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if we didn’t.

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to review or delete them before they’re available

I hope we will still have the option to delete them after the intro date if it’s not going well,

I see a potential for messed up inventory quantities if not properly coded.

I received a buyer message yesterday that he ordered a qty of 2 and only received one from his FBA order. If they can’t manage to send 2 when 2 are ordered, how well will this multi pack plan be implemented?

:slightly_frowning_face:
I was not a pessimist BA (before Amazon)

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Just wait for the happy customer who receives 4 when they only ordered 2.
:smirking_face:

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The pickers aren’t going to see anything but 2. They won’t know how it was ordered (virtual or actual).

Not worried about that or any of this because if we want to do a 2 pack or 3 pack or 6 pack - we’ll take care of it on our end.

Imagine doing a 6 pack with 1 stop to the picking location and Amazon takes $23 as the pick / pack fee? If we did that ourselves, the FBA fee would be like $7. :rofl:

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They’ve been pestering me to make multi-packs, but I am not the manufacturer so I don’t own UPC’s for the products or else I would. I used to give a quantity discount on FBM orders but once I sent the products to FBA the FBM order rate fell and I just don’t think the buyers were clicking on the other sellers link, which was necessary to see that there was a discount offer.

My quantity discount calculation made use of the postage and packaging savings of sending multiples. I couldn’t offer that on the FBA offers since Amazon does not give us any discount on multiples. Now they will take advantage to profit from the shipping/packaging savings but still not offer any of that credit to us :thinking: .
I will sell a higher quantity when they sign me up, so there is that.

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Nail, meet hammer.

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