Amazon has a new plan, and these sellers are laughing...

As February 2021 begins, Amazon has introduced a lot of new policies.

Recently, Amazon issued an announcement stating that it will further expand its FBA new product selection plan starting from April 1 this year .

Seeing this, many sellers thought that Amazon was going to lift the limit on the number of shipments, but in fact it was only referring to the FBA New Product Subsidy Program. As we all know, the New Product Subsidy Program is a subsidy program for newly-built products shipped by Amazon using FBA. The first 50 pieces of each new ASIN shipped to the FBA warehouse can be exempted from 90 days of monthly storage fees.

Previously, each seller could not register for more than 500 ASINs to participate in the new product subsidy program. Now this has been cancelled. Sellers can now create an unlimited number of eligible new ASINs to enjoy the new product subsidy, which is still very useful.

In addition, after the update of the new product subsidy plan, large products can also participate in the subsidy . The storage fee is high, and the cost exemption is very considerable.

The most attractive thing is the 4-month free storage fee for clothing and footwear categories ! Because clothing is a category that relies heavily on new product development, and there are so many SKUs, when there was a total limit of 500 in the past, maybe a dozen new products would use up the quota. Therefore, the biggest beneficiary of this new product subsidy is clothing, which can enjoy both the unlimited number of new ASIN subsidies and the extended monthly storage subsidies, killing two birds with one stone.

Some sellers said that when they launched the 10 latest SKUs, they were automatically registered for the program, hoping to save money through the program.

Some sellers are also very interested in sponsored ads, and speculate that the benefits for advertising in the announcement may encourage sellers who have not yet advertised to start advertising, and may also prompt existing advertisers to turn their attention to ASINs that have not yet advertised.

Recently, Amazon issued a notice to inform sellers that the Amazon Logistics ASIN quantity limits in the UK and the EU have been split !

Following the split of inventory storage in the UK and EU, sellers’ ASIN quantity limits (AQLs) have also been split, reflecting the quantity of products that sellers can warehouse in the UK and EU respectively.

Although sellers can still manage their European business through their UK Amazon accounts, the European logistics network will no longer be responsible for sending UK inventory to EU buyers, and the FBA pan-European logistics network will no longer include the UK.

When creating a shipping plan with ASIN quantity limits, you cannot exceed the maximum quantity specified . Therefore, you may need to look at your UK ASIN quantity limits, as they may be significantly reduced from before, which will also affect everything from your long-term storage fees to your Inventory Performance Index (IPI score).

It’s also important to note that from 1 August 2020, Amazon introduced an inventory overage fee of £7.80 per cubic foot per month (excluding tax), which is in addition to regular FBA fees and long-term storage fees .

How to manage inventory in the UK and EU respectively?

Plan replenishment quantities appropriately and maintain appropriate amounts of inventory in the UK and EU respectively.

Based on the respective sales forecasts and current inventory levels of the UK and the EU, and taking into account factors such as the first-leg logistics timeliness, the impact of the Spring Festival on the supply chain, potential storage capacity limitations, and restrictions on the quantity of individual goods shipped, the replenishment quantity and rhythm are reasonably planned.