Comments on: E542: How to Avoid Amazon’s Newest Inventory Fees

By: Dave Bryant

Dave Bryant — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 04:19:29 +0000

In reply to Sophie.

Hi Sophie,

Thanks for the comment – I do think these new placement fees have been a tipping point for a lot of people. It’s hard when Amazon ‘owns the telephone poles’ so to speak but I do think people are going to be investing more in other platforms going forward.

By: Dave Bryant

Dave Bryant — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 04:03:20 +0000

In reply to Brad Lee. That's a good point.

By: Brad Lee

Brad Lee — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:04:13 +0000

The problem with choosing Inbound Settings > Minimal Splits > (east) (mid) (west) is that they are NOT sending your shipments to the closest FCs from you. That was the original purpose of that service but, as an ex, Im in Vegas. They are making me ship my shipments to NJ and TX! That makes zero sense and that is why this is adding insult to injury. I dont mind paying for this placement service IF they allowed me to ship all my shipment to a local FC in Vegas. Or even AZ or CA, in fact. but shipping them to NJ or TX is just illogical and insane.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 20:47:12 +0000

I’ve sold on Amazon for more than 25 years, back when we were only 1 of 100 merchants in the Jewelry category. Those were the days!!

I went thru the same thought process as you spoke of.

After figuring out about the new placement fees and then learning about the low inventory surcharges coming up, I so get the feeling Amazon is trying to hone down their sellers to be as efficient as possible and willing to eat losses. I sell in the Fashion Jewelry category. AWD isn’t an available option for us as Jewelry isn’t a category they serve. Our margins are good but I’m no longer willing to be a participant in the Amazon Jump! – How high? show anymore. As such, I’m leaving what I have listed for FBA there to sell off and not replenishing. I had a 500pc replenishment shipment set to go and when I saw how much the placement fees and shipping fees were, I put a pause on the shipment. Then, when I heard about the low inventory surcharge, that decided it for me. They’re going to charge me extra to send it in, extra to store it, even more to store it in the 4th quarter, and now they want to charge me to place it somewhere and will charge me again if I don’t get more in there quick enough. Did I miss something?

Back in the good ole days, when FBA first started, all we had to do was ship everything in one big box, mixed SKUs and to one location. Then Amazon would scan and separate inventory to send to their few warehouses around the country. All I had to pay was a discounted UPS fee to make that one shipment..

Thanks for covering this topic.. I wonder how many people will simply walk away from FBA?