FBA warehouse crash! Stop accepting this type of shipment?

Recently, a big news about FBA replenishment was revealed. Multiple channels stated that when Amazon FBA warehouses accept shipments, they require the real-name information of the delivery person, and the FBA number of the shipment delivered to the warehouse must correspond correctly, otherwise it will not be able to be put on the shelves.

There were many different interpretations of this news at the time, and many sellers expressed doubts about various points in this news. Is the FBA number the shipment number or the tracking code? Why is it suddenly required to use real-name registration and a corresponding number when sending goods to the warehouse? Is there going to be some big move again?

When most of the sellers in our communication group saw this news, their first reaction was to guess that it was related to the cancellation of the shipment. Generally speaking, the FBA number will not be invalidated easily. Generally, sellers who really want to ship will not and do not need to provide false FBA shipment numbers/tracking codes. The only possible invalidation situation is that the shipment plan was cancelled, but the seller still sent the product.

Because the current policy of restricting warehousing has always existed, even if the goods can be shipped today, we don’t know whether they can be shipped tomorrow or how much goods can be shipped. Therefore, many sellers have created a lot of shipping plans while they can still create plans, and will send inventory according to the information in this shipment plan when needed.

However, such shipping plans are easily cancelled by Amazon officials , and when they are cancelled, Amazon tightens its shipping policy, and sellers are in urgent need of these backup plans. Some sellers take risks and confront customer service to restore the cancelled shipments, while sending inventory with the information of the cancelled shipments, making it appear that the shipments are in transit, so that Amazon will not refuse to accept them when they enter the warehouse.

This is one of the few possibilities that the shipment number may become invalid. In addition, this method has a low threshold and most sellers have used it to some extent, so many sellers associate it with this matter.

This operation has always been risky, but Amazon accepted most of the illegal shipments. However, the number of restricted shipments dropped sharply, and many sellers simply did not have extra shipment quotas to create a shipment in reserve, so this operation became less and less common. Therefore, the recent requirement for real-name delivery and a correct and valid FBA number is not closely related to the fake creation plan.

So I collected some other information, and it has been confirmed from our internal channels that this incident did happen , but the angle is different, and to a large extent it is not the fault of our sellers.

I found several other channels that confirmed this news. Amazon does require that the shipments sent to the FBA warehouse must have the correct shipment number, but there is no need for sellers who really ship to use fake shipment numbers. This involves a question: which link has a deviation, resulting in the mismatch between the shipment number of the seller's shipment and the shipment number received by the warehouse ? The following leaked information is very interesting.

Let me first share a small point with you. When the freight forwarder arranges the local FBA goods to enter the warehouse, it is necessary to use the FBA shipment number to make an appointment with the warehouse, inform the warehouse that I will deliver the goods with the number xxxx, and the warehouse will give the time schedule for entry. Because there is a waiting time problem for making an appointment, most freight forwarders will make an appointment with the warehouse in advance before unpacking the container or even before the goods arrive at the port. For example, if there are multiple goods in a container, all sent to the same warehouse, the freight forwarder will use the FBA numbers of several of them to make an appointment first. When the products arrive, the container is unpacked, and the appointment number from FBA is obtained, they can be directly loaded and shipped away.

If you wait until the container is unpacked and then book warehouses one by one according to the real FBA number, you will have to wait for more than a week, and you will also have to pay for the storage of the goods at the port during this period, which is definitely not worth it. Therefore, the freight forwarder uses some of the shipment numbers to book warehouses in advance to save time and cost, and there is no big problem in operation. But now Amazon has jumped out, and the number provided by the warehouse is different from the actual goods that have arrived, and the warehouse is the most confused.

The reservation mechanism is to allow the warehouse to prepare for the entry of this batch of goods in advance. As a result, the freight forwarder did not abide by the rules and gave two or three codes and dozens of boxes of goods when booking the warehouse. The warehouse arranged the corresponding processing capacity (idle personnel). As a result, on the day of entry, there were more than a dozen parcels and hundreds of boxes. The warehouse was dumbfounded and could only pile them up there and process them slowly. How could the warehouse not be overwhelmed?

Therefore, requiring real-name delivery and the correct code for incoming goods is essentially one of Amazon's means to strengthen the warehouse reservation mechanism and prevent warehouse overflow. At the moment when Prime Day goods are gradually entering the warehouse, this operation is normal. However, if it is really strictly enforced, the timeliness of channels such as Haika Haipai will definitely be greatly affected.

Please note that the codes involved in this incident are all FBA shipment numbers, not tracking codes. Because there was an issue with tracking codes at Kapai these days that is easy to confuse, I would like to mention it here.

The news also broke out in the past two days that Amazon requires freight forwarders (carriers) to provide truck tracking numbers, UPS order numbers and other information for the card delivery channel. The degree of missing information will affect subsequent tracking rates and other performance , but the official has not admitted that it will refuse to accept shipments due to missing tracking numbers.

The tracking code requirement actually existed several months ago, and it is a secretly changed rule. All Amazon shipments that are subject to claims must be correctly filled with valid tracking codes, otherwise the claim will not be established. Sellers should also pay attention to the tracking code. If the freight forwarder can provide it, it must be filled in, otherwise there will be no way to file a claim with FBA if there is a difference in quantity.

In comparison, the issue of shipment coding has a greater impact, as it is related to the seller's warehousing and shelf life. If it is affected, you may not even be able to sell your goods. Amazon will not acknowledge that it has received your goods, and the entire shipment will be treated as missing.