Amazon has made a number of adjustments to logistics costs this year, the most troublesome of which is the newly added warehousing configuration service fee.

In the past, sellers often thought about how to merge warehouses to reduce costs. But now, although there is an option of not dividing warehouses, the corresponding transfer costs need to be borne by themselves. Sellers are complaining that Amazon’s greed is too ugly!

The new fees will take effect on Friday, March 1, 2024. Currently, sellers can foresee the fees associated with inbound configuration options when creating shipments, and this change undoubtedly brings new challenges and considerations to sellers.

Amazon warehousing configuration service fee

1. This is the first time this fee has been mentioned in history. What is the warehousing configuration service fee?

2. What will the charging standards be after March 1, 2024?

The cost depends on four factors:

(1) Product size: whether the product is a small standard product, a large standard product, or a large oversized product.

(2) Weight: The product weight for small standard-size products. For large standard-size and large oversized products, the greater of the volumetric weight or product weight.

(3) Location quantity segmentation: minimum, partial, or Amazon-optimized shipment split.

(4) Warehouse location: The fee range varies depending on the warehouse location (i.e. the location of the Amazon fulfillment center).

For example, a shipment to a western region inbound location may cost more than a shipment to a location elsewhere in the country.

The fees are as follows:

△Standard size product fee

△Large-sized item fees

Assuming your product is a standard-sized large item weighing no more than 12 ounces, and you ship it to the western region, the cost is $0.34/piece, and you choose to ship to only one warehouse location, then the cost is 100*0.34=34 US dollars.

The logistics inbound configuration service selects two locations. If the partial shipment of each item is split, the cost is $0.24. One location sends 40 items and the other sends 60 items, then it is 40*0.24+60*0.24=24 USD.

This fee is generally charged to the seller 45 days after receiving the shipment. When creating a shipping plan, the seller can also see the estimated cost of selecting the corresponding shipping configuration option.

How can I view the specific cost of the warehousing configuration fee?

Method 2: Go directly to the income calculator - enter ASIN for query

Direct link: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/revcal

The operation is as follows: backend inventory - logistics costs - income calculator drop down.

You can also directly enter your product ASIN code in the lower right corner to check your warehousing configuration service fee in advance.

In the calculator below, you can choose three different warehousing methods (shown in the red box), and then select the warehousing area, and your warehousing configuration service fee will be calculated.

According to sellers' tests, choosing the western region and the smallest shipment splitting location (that is, 1 warehouse) has the highest cost; choosing the eastern region and Amazon-optimized locations (that is, 4 or more inventories) has no charge.

Similarly, the costs are from high to low: West > Central > East, 1 warehouse > 2 warehouses > 3 warehouses > 4 warehouses and above.

How can I avoid this charge?

There are two possible ways to avoid this fee:

(1) Use Amazon Global Logistics (AGL), which can reduce costs without paying the Amazon Logistics inbound configuration service fee. If your inbound plan is eligible, you can use this service, and Amazon Global Logistics will optimize the distribution of inventory at the destination on your behalf, allowing you to send inventory to one location. We will then distribute the inventory to multiple operation centers to achieve the best in-stock configuration, and will not charge the Amazon Logistics inbound configuration service fee.

(2) If you want to ship more goods, you can use separate warehouses. Some sellers actually think this is the best solution. However, if you have less goods, the cost of shipping to the US East may not be affordable.

To put it bluntly, if sellers want to reduce or avoid paying the warehouse configuration service fee, they can only use the partial shipment split option or Amazon's optimized shipment split option to reduce the head-leg cost or ship in multiple batches to multiple warehouses. For shipments sent outside the West Coast of the United States, the warehouse configuration service fee is usually lower.

In the future, if sellers want to achieve long-term success and stable development on the Amazon platform, they must adopt a rapid and efficient operation strategy to achieve rapid commodity turnover and improve the utilization rate of storage space. Meeting the platform's high requirements for efficiency and response speed can also effectively reduce operating costs and enhance market competitiveness, thereby standing out in the fierce e-commerce environment and winning more business opportunities and profit space for themselves.