Inventory restrictions lifted in April?! Here comes the truth...

Yesterday, a picture went viral among sellers. The screenshot showed that Amazon announced that it would lift inventory restrictions from April 1st!

Many sellers thought that Amazon would lift the shipping quantity restrictions and told others about it in ecstasy. However, when they really read the original text of the announcement, they found that it was not the case at all. The announcement Amazon issued yesterday was actually an update to the FBA new product subsidy program.

We have talked about the New Product Subsidy Program many times before. It 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 , and these 50 pieces of inventory are also exempt from removal fees and return processing fees (required for some categories).

The program has no entry threshold. As long as the IPI score is over 400 (or there is no IPI score), you can directly register to participate . There are no conditions for the product. As long as the parent ASIN is a new FBA product other than a media product, the size of the standard part and it is put into the warehouse after April 1, 2020, you can participate. Because of this low threshold, and the free storage fee in the first 3 months greatly reduces the cost of testing models, many sellers participate in this program and use it to develop and test the performance of new models.

Before this update, there was a limit that each seller could not register more than 500 ASINs for the new product subsidy program . This update removes the 500 new ASIN limit. Sellers can now create an unlimited number of eligible new ASINs to enjoy the new product subsidy , but it does not remove the shipping or inventory quantity limit .

But don't be discouraged, this is not completely unrelated to the inventory quantity limit. In fact, it sends a very good signal.

Previously, Amazon limited each seller to register only 500 new ASINs to participate in the subsidy program, simply out of consideration for warehouses. If there were no limit, it would definitely cause huge storage and distribution pressure on the warehouses. However, after the update, it has opened the door to unlimited new ASINs , which can only mean that the warehouse is in very good condition now , and the transportation capacity and processing capacity are at least much higher than in April last year, otherwise my brother-in-law would not easily open unlimited subsidies.

So this news does not mean that the inventory restrictions have been lifted, but it also indirectly reflects that the overall pressure on FBA warehouses is not great now, and Amazon may lift restrictions in the near future, or have a more relaxed delivery policy. Sellers can also take advantage of the new product plan update to make some development plans, so that when the delivery quantity is really relaxed later, new products will be the first to benefit.

Especially after the new product subsidy plan was updated, large products can also participate in the subsidy. The storage fee is high, and the cost exemption is very considerable. Of course, the number of large items that can participate is relatively small, and each parent ASIN is limited to the first 30 pieces. However, the inventory of large items itself is not large, so they can basically be used.

The most attractive thing is that there is no storage fee for clothing and shoes for up to 4 months! Because of the epidemic, the sales of clothing products were hit hard last year. In Q2, sales continued to shrink for a month and did not recover until the end of the year.

Clothing is also a category that relies heavily on new product development, and there are so many SKUs that when there was a total limit of 500 in the past, a dozen new products might have used up the quota. Therefore, the biggest beneficiary of the new product subsidy this time is clothing, which can enjoy both the subsidy for an unlimited number of new ASINs and the extended monthly storage subsidy. It is simply an update tailored for the clothing category.

Therefore, the clothing category will enter a very good entry window period. If you can find a vertical category where the competition is not so fierce, it will be very comfortable to launch products and test styles.