Amazon's warehouse distribution is abnormal! Sellers: Forced charges

With the implementation of the warehousing configuration fee in Amazon's FBA service, many sellers feel powerless when faced with pressures such as rising costs and a huge increase in inventory.

Especially with Prime Day, an important sales node, approaching, abnormal problems with warehouse distribution are frequent, making sellers even more miserable . They don’t know how to ship goods normally to avoid high fees, which has caused a lot of discussion on the forum recently.

Abnormal warehouse division, sellers are strongly dissatisfied

Recently, many Amazon sellers have found that warehouse distribution is abnormal. Even if a large amount of goods are sent at one time, the goods are only distributed to a very small number of warehouses , or sometimes only to one warehouse . Such problems are not isolated cases.

Some sellers reported that they sent as many as 200 cartons and more than 5,000 boxes of products, but they were not distributed to multiple warehouses for decentralized storage as expected, but were only split into one shipment. Another seller said that he sent 100 cartons last week, but was not given a warehouse.

Some of our peers have to pay more than $2,000 for warehousing because Amazon does not provide them with warehouse space! This is really... Amazon is starting to "rob"!

Source: Screenshot from netizens’ Weibo

After this incident, many sellers were in a dilemma, not knowing whether to choose not to split warehouses and pay the warehouse configuration fee, or to split warehouses. In the forum, many sellers raised questions, hoping to get a solution with the fastest timeliness and lowest cost. Some sellers said that it is still necessary to make specific judgments based on different actual situations.

A US seller expressed strong dissatisfaction with Amazon's FBA warehouse distribution strategy on the seller forum. He even suspected that Amazon was forcing sellers to pay more fees through unreasonable warehouse distribution strategy .

According to the seller on the US site, his logistics plan has become extremely complicated since Amazon introduced the new configuration fee. He would have chosen 3 warehouse addresses in the West Coast based on cost-effectiveness and paid the configuration fee to arrange truck delivery, or chosen 5 warehouse addresses without adding the configuration fee for express delivery. In the past, when he chose 5 warehouse addresses, Amazon backend would usually reasonably allocate them according to the distribution of " 2 in the East Coast + 1 in the Central Coast + 2 in the West Coast " to ensure logistics efficiency and cost optimization.

However, the recent situation surprised him. When he tried to create a new shipment, the FBA system actually assigned all five addresses to the East Coast warehouse . This abnormal warehouse allocation caused his first-leg freight to increase significantly, because the cost of shipping from the East Coast warehouse to the whole country is usually higher than shipping from the West Coast or other regions.

Source: Shared by netizens

Sellers share their experience in warehouse splitting

According to Amazon's warehousing configuration service fee rules, if you want to be exempted from the warehousing configuration service fee, the number of warehouses must be greater than four. If you do not have warehouses, it means you have to pay high fees.

Faced with the current situation where warehouse division is impossible, many sellers complained that the platform is "forcing fees" . In fact, this may not be the case. Perhaps some sellers do not understand how warehouse division works .

Amazon's warehouse distribution rules are to ensure that a product is available in every warehouse, ensuring that the product is closer to the customer. The specific points are as follows:

1. If the quantity of goods sent by the seller is less than 4 boxes, it will basically not be divided into warehouses, and the configuration fee is inevitable;

2. If the goods shipped are more than 4 boxes or a lot, but the goods are the same product, they may be divided into warehouses. The more boxes there are, the greater the possibility of division;

3. If the quantity of goods shipped is greater than 4 boxes or is a lot, for example, 5 boxes of goods are shipped, which are 5 different products, they will not be divided into warehouses in most cases.

Regarding warehouse division, it seems that many sellers have also summed up their own experience.

1. If you cannot split the warehouse, you can try the following methods:

"Adding a sku together can achieve warehouse division."

"We sent out 100 boxes last week, but they didn't allow us to split the warehouses. Later, we just split them up and sent them out."

“Try to put one small product in each box, so that it is mixed and can be divided into warehouses.”

2. How to decide whether to split warehouses? It depends on different situations:

• First, make a reasonable calculation based on the size and weight of the products. Some products are light and numerous, so it will be a loss to ship them via the West Coast because the configuration fee is charged according to quantity. On the contrary, if the products are heavy but few, it will be more cost-effective to ship them via the West Coast.

• Second, see if the seller is in a hurry to ship the goods. If not, it’s okay to ship slowly via the East Coast of the United States.

3. Sellers’ experience and insights on warehouse splitting strategy (in terms of freight costs).

1. If you do not pay the configuration fee, the FBA system will usually allocate the goods to warehouses in the eastern and central regions of the United States. This allocation method may lead to an increase in the first-leg freight, because the cost of shipping from these two regions to the whole country is relatively high. However, through careful analysis of product characteristics and transportation requirements, some sellers have found that in some cases, it is more cost-effective to choose to split the warehouse and pay the configuration fee.

2. When the seller chooses to distribute the goods to three warehouses in the western United States and pays the corresponding configuration fee , the advantage of this is that the distance between the western United States and the main market is relatively close, and the transportation cost is relatively low. At the same time, through truck delivery (card delivery), the transportation cost can be further reduced and the logistics efficiency can be improved. After calculation , this warehouse distribution strategy is more cost-effective in terms of freight costs.

When choosing an FBA warehouse distribution strategy, sellers need to consider factors such as product characteristics, transportation requirements, and freight costs. Different products may require different warehouse distribution strategies to achieve the best logistics effect and cost-effectiveness.

4. Practical shipping tips from some sellers

1. For mixed boxes, basically only one warehouse will be allocated, and the only warehousing configuration method that can be selected is "minimum cargo splitting".

2. Increase the proportion of SKUs packed separately. Then you may be assigned to "Amazon optimized shipment split".

3. If light and small products need to be stored in more than 4 locations:

5. Optimal solution for storage configuration fees of different products

1. It is more cost-effective to divide small and light products into 4 or more warehousing locations. If this is not possible, 2-3 warehousing locations will also be sufficient. The increased first-mile costs can be compensated by the reduced FBA delivery fees.

2. Products weighing between 12 ounces and 1.5 pounds are considered to be stored in no warehouse or divided into 4 warehouse locations;

3. Products weighing 1.5-3 pounds should be considered not to be divided into warehouses or divided into 4 warehouse locations;

4. You can consider using overseas warehouses, calculate the increased cost, compare it with the increased cost of warehousing configuration fees, and choose the best one.

More inventory and higher costs

In addition to the warehousing configuration fee, another point that sellers need to consider is the warehousing defect rate.

According to the policy, sellers need to ensure that the shipments assigned to each warehouse arrive within a specific time to maintain inventory stability and meet customer demand. Specifically, when sellers choose to distribute goods to different warehouses, they need to ensure that the last shelf arrives within 30 days after the first shelf arrives .

This requirement is a challenge for sellers, especially when choosing a shipping method. For example, if you choose to ship goods to a warehouse in the eastern United States by sea (slow ship), it is likely to exceed the 30-day warehousing period due to factors such as the long voyage and customs clearance. Once this time limit is exceeded, Amazon may charge the seller an inventory defect fee.

With this calculation, the possible difference between the warehousing defect fee and the warehousing configuration fee is not much!

In addition, inventory management has become more complicated for sellers. During the peak season (prime is coming soon), if the goods are all assigned to remote warehouses and it is difficult to enter the warehouse for a while, low inventory fees may also be incurred.

In general, Amazon's warehouse distribution strategy still needs to be carefully studied. For sellers, how to choose a warehouse distribution strategy should be based on product characteristics and freight costs. Sellers need to carefully analyze their product characteristics and transportation needs, and flexibly adjust the delivery plan through calculations to achieve the best logistics effect and cost-effectiveness. This is the right way.