Since the second half of 2018, Amazon has been continuously adjusting its inventory policy. Especially in the last two years, the number of adjustments has been more frequent. This is like a magic spell that is getting tighter and tighter, and sellers have a lot of headaches. Now there are only two weeks left before the Spring Festival. As sellers are actively arranging stocking for the Spring Festival, Amazon’s FBA policy will usher in another major change.

Just after the New Year's Day holiday, there is news that Amazon will launch the service of "paying for storage capacity" around January 10. In this regard, many sellers asked the investment manager for verification, and the investment manager's reply was: the announcement was made on the 10th, and the official implementation was March 1st. And according to internal intelligence, Amazon will launch a storage capacity bidding tool in the future, which is similar to the advertising bidding model, and the storage capacity bidding is about 500 yuan (RMB)/m³. However, the exact calculation method is still unclear. As soon as the news came out, the sellers were all over the place: Wouldn't it be better to have a bidding auction directly!

Compared with the pessimistic reaction of the sellers, the investment manager was more optimistic, and responded that the new policy would give sellers more freedom to choose. At the same time, the policy will be more friendly to new accounts and give new sellers more opportunities for development.

Judging from the relevant information released in the seller community, the specific changes of the FBA storage capacity new policy are as follows:

1. Change the original "replenishment limit (quantity)" and "warehouse capacity limit (volume)" to "storage limit" and cancel the additional replenishment limit. The IPI performance appraisal has been changed to once a month, and the corresponding storage limit change frequency has also been changed to be updated once a month.

2. Whether the storage capacity will be limited in the next month depends on four factors: estimated sales volume, the time required for the shipment to arrive at the warehouse, IPI performance appraisal, and other related factors of the account. In addition, Amazon will also provide estimated storage limits for the next two months. If the storage limit is exceeded, and IPI<400, the seller needs to pay an inventory overage fee and be stopped from creating shipments; if the storage limit is not enough, the seller can apply for additional storage capacity through the "storage limit manager", and can apply for up to 5 times per month.

3. Limit calculation considerations include historical projected sales, ability to store inventory, and IPI scores.

4. Calculation method: inventory in transit + inventory in storage.

If the content of the PPT is true, it will also mean that the competition in the future will be more intense, and it will test the sellers' ability to refine operations and supply chain management capabilities.

Regarding the new policy, Amazon has not yet made an official announcement, but it should be finalized on January 10.

Recently, Amazon was exposed to large-scale layoffs, with up to 18,000 layoffs. There are indications that Amazon is now in a cost dilemma. In order to avoid creating a cost black hole, Amazon is unlikely to easily expand the warehouse area or start a new warehouse. Some sellers speculate that Amazon’s move is to reduce costs and increase efficiency by guiding sellers to use AWD, STAR (satellite warehouse) and AGL services.

AWD service, the English full name is Amazon Warehousing & Distribution, which is Amazon's warehousing distribution network. Simply put, the AWD service can help sellers achieve automatic replenishment. The seller sends and stores the inventory to the Amazon AWD warehouse (near the FBA warehouse) through third-party cross-border logistics or Amazon cross-border logistics service (AGL), and automatically replenishes the goods in time according to the inventory situation of the FBA warehouse.

STAR (satellite warehouse), in simple terms, is Amazon's overseas warehouse, which can also help sellers realize automatic replenishment. First of all, in China, Amazon AGL collects the goods first, and then delivers the goods to the destination country. After arriving in the destination country, AGL delivers the goods to Amazon satellite warehouses. When the system detects that the FBA inventory is insufficient, the shipments can be replenished from the satellite warehouse to the FBA warehouse in batches, and it is free.

The biggest difference between AWD and STAR service is that STAR uses Amazon Cross-border Logistics Service (AGL) for warehousing.

This will mean that Amazon is fully involved in the entire chain of e-commerce to achieve full process control and revenue generation. However, many sellers said frankly: "AWD service is not perfect, and the experience is poor. You can only use Kapi for the tail journey, and the express delivery will be rejected. Some shipments can't even go with Kapai." Some sellers complained: "Amazon Satellite The warehouse application process is too complicated…It is hard to apply successfully, but there are often bugs such as inability to return goods and long replenishment time.”

From this point of view, the road to stocking up for sellers seems to be blocked everywhere.

The editor always believes that "there is no unparalleled road". In fact, third-party overseas warehouses are also a good way for sellers to stock up. Through communicating with many seller friends, the editor found that many sellers are particularly worried about the problem of lost items in third-party overseas warehouses. Objectively speaking, no matter whether it is a platform warehouse or a third-party overseas warehouse, it is impossible to achieve "zero lost parts" 100%. Because warehouse product data management is a very complex and huge systematic work. If the warehouse product data is well managed, the probability of lost items is very low; otherwise, the probability of lost items is relatively high. The quality of warehouse product data management depends largely on the degree of warehouse system management. This includes whether the operation and management system of the warehouse itself is strong enough, as well as the design and execution level of the operation process matching the system. In addition to this problem, many sellers also feel quite a headache about the return processing problem. This issue is also closely related to the execution level of the underlying process design of the warehouse. At present, the return acceptance rate of many third-party overseas warehouses is only 70%~80%, and some overseas warehouses even do not accept return processing. In response to the above two problems, Saiyi Technology has done a particularly good job in this regard. Saiyi Technology has a strong technical team, and has independently developed and designed a relatively complete logistics and overseas warehouse management system. Relying on strong technical advantages and rich experience in overseas warehouse operation and management, Saiyi overseas warehouse can almost do To "zero lost parts", and the return acceptance rate is nearly 100%. This undoubtedly helped sellers greatly reduce cost losses.

Facing the ever-changing market environment and various challenges, Saiyi Technology is willing to give full play to its own value with its unique advantages, and escort Chinese cross-border enterprises on the road to realize their brands going overseas!