At the end of April, citing rising costs, Amazon began charging sellers fuel fees on top of FBA delivery fees. In the face of rising operating costs, some sellers could only choose to either cut off SKUs or increase prices. In early May, Amazon issued another notice to sellers about charging long-term storage fees.

Amazon said: In order to help sellers and friends, before the arrival of the annual Amazon Prime Day, to maximize the release of inventory space, save inventory management costs, maximize the recovery of residual value of slow-moving inventory, and help sellers simplify the inventory management process.

From April 15th to May 15th, the over-age inventory and idle inventory of sellers in the United States in the Amazon fulfillment center do not need to be manually set, they will be automatically set to "automatic removal", and the value recovery option has been added.

If by the May 15 deadline, Amazon US sellers still have not set the automatic removal of available inventory, and the inventory may be automatically cleaned up. If sellers want to avoid their inventory being automatically removed, they can consider getting as much money back as possible through clearance.

01

what is

Overaged inventory, idle inventory

Overaged inventory: Products that have been in an Amazon fulfillment center for more than 365 days and are subject to long-term storage fees.

Idle Inventory: Products with an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN ) that have not been sold for six months or more and have been in an Amazon fulfillment center for more than 180 days.

02

Amazon Bulk Clearance Program

The program helps sellers digest excess inventory and buyer-returned inventory, recover funds (about 5% to 10% of their average selling price), avoid storage fees, and prevent inventory from being abandoned.

It's important to note, though, that this is a fee-based plan. Amazon charges sellers two fees for each item that sellers clear in bulk:

①The bulk clearance processing fee is charged per piece, depending on the size and weight of the item; ②The sales commission for bulk clearance is 15%, which will be calculated based on the total recovery value. Therefore, sellers need to evaluate the actual situation of the seller's inventory and whether it is cost-effective to use the program.

03

Automatically remove available inventory settings

By default, the automatic removal service for saleable inventory is enabled. To check your seller's status or update your settings, follow these steps:

① Under [Settings], select [Fulfillment by Amazon]. ②Scroll down to [Automatically remove available inventory settings], and then click [Edit].

③ If you want to quit the service at any time, please select [Disable], and then click [Update]. Sellers can also opt out of either of the two automatic removal services on this page.

The first: If you want to regularly clean up your overage and idle inventory through "Automatic Removal" and return it to the specified address, you need to provide your return address on this page, and then click [Update] to complete the setting.

The second type: If you do not have a return address, you can clear your over-age and idle inventory through the "Automatic removal" method of [Batch Clearance]: you need to select [Clearance] on this page, and then click [Update] ] to complete the setting.

If you want to opt out of the automatic removal of sellable inventory, please select Disable on the above [Automatic Sellable Inventory Settings] page.

The imminent implementation of the over-age inventory surcharge this time will undoubtedly put more pressure on sellers selling seasonal products and sellers of fine shop SKUs. In addition to the above-mentioned handling methods, sellers can also choose to transfer redundant inventory to overseas warehouses. The storage fee will be more cost-effective than Amazon.

Products returned from Amazon to overseas warehouses can also be restocked to avoid inventory overage, but the cost needs to be weighed by the seller.