FBA Liquidations is designed to help you recover value from excess and customer-returned inventory, avoid storage fees, and prevent the disposal of inventory.
Instead of paying to remove or dispose of excess or customer-returned FBA inventory, you can choose to use FBA Liquidations to have the inventory liquidated through a liquidator. By liquidating inventory, you recover a portion of your inventory cost (net recovery value) while avoiding monthly storage fees and aged-inventory surcharges, formerly known as long-term storage fees. The net recovery value should appear in your account within 90 days of submitting your order.
By participating in this program, you agree to the FBA Liquidations program terms and conditions.
Amazon determines the value of your inventory by evaluating several factors, including:
Based on contracted rates, liquidators will purchase this inventory for a gross recovery value, which is about 5% to 10% of the product’s value. Amazon will then deduct fees and pay you the net recovery value.
Amazon will apply two separate fees to each item you liquidate:
Table 1: Processing fee
Item weight | Fee | |
---|---|---|
Standard-size items | 0–0.5 lb | $0.25 |
0.5–1.0 lb | $0.30 | |
1–2.0 lb | $0.35 | |
over 2.0 lb | $0.40 + $0.20 per lb above first 2 lb | |
Oversize and special handling items* | 0–1.0 lb | $0.60 |
1.0–2.0 lb | $0.70 | |
2.0–4.0 lb | $0.90 | |
4.0–10.0 lb | $1.45 | |
over 10.0 lb | $1.90 + $0.20 per lb above first 10 lb |
*Special handling items may include apparel, shoes, watches, jewelry, and dangerous goods.
Table 2: Example comparing recovery value for removal order options
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Product category: Wireless accessories (Mobile device case) Standard-size inventory weight: 0.2 lb Recovery fee percentage: 15% |
Key | Example | Liquidate | Dispose | Ship-to address |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | Item average selling price (ASP) | $20.00 | $20.00 | $20.00 |
B | Contracted liquidator rate | 7.5%1 | - | - |
C = A*B | Gross recovery value | $1.50 | - | - |
D = C*Fee % | Liquidations referral fee (15%) | $0.23 | - | - |
E | Liquidations processing fee (per item based on size and weight) | $0.25 | $0.32 | $0.32 |
F = C-D-E | Net recovery value | $1.02 | ($0.32) | ($0.32)2 |
1May vary based on contracted rates with the liquidators.
2You can continue to recover value yourself by having Amazon return your inventory to you.
Eligibility is subject to legal, safety, and regulatory guidelines. Products not eligible for liquidation include:
Amazon liquidations are subject to various macroeconomic conditions, periodic negotiations with buyers, and sales data. Demand for specific products may fluctuate and if Amazon cannot find a buyer for your product(s) type, they may be marked ineligible for FBA Liquidations. Additionally, ineligibility reason may also indicate legal or policy restrictions. Examples of items currently under these are:
Submit inventory to be liquidated by creating a removal order. You can create a removal order from an inventory planning page or the Recommended Removal report:
To create a liquidation order, follow these steps:
You can set up automated liquidations removals for your inventory at fulfillment centers. Automated liquidations removals are available for both fulfillable and unfulfillable inventory.
For more information, including how to enable automated settings, go to Remove inventory automatically.
Estimated timeline | Track status |
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Day 0 |
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Days 0–30 |
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Day 30 (or before) |
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Day 60 (or after) |
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You may receive an error message if there is a problem with the order you created. The chart below provides resolutions to common errors in liquidation orders:
Error Message in Seller Central | Details | Resolution |
---|---|---|
Product is not eligible. | Items you are trying to liquidate are not eligible for the Liquidation Channel | To learn more about eligible items, go to the Product eligibility section on this page. |
Inventory is classified as Hazardous Material (Hazmat) - please contact us | Dangerous goods, or hazmat items, are ineligible for Liquidations | To learn more about eligible items, go to the Product eligibility section on this page. |
Inventory ineligible for liquidation due to legal restrictions or Amazon policies. | Per FBA policy, restricted items are not available for Liquidations. | To learn more about restricted items, go to FBA product restrictions. |
Inventory in location that cannot process removals - please contact us. | Your products are currently stored at a fulfillment center that doesn’t process removals. |
We recommend you wait until the units are transferred to a fulfillment center that can process removals. Contact us if you have further questions. |
Liquidation partner could not be found for inventory. | Currently no Liquidations partner has the capacity to receive the items you selected, or we are unable to arrange a buyer for your items. | Amazon currently doesn’t have a Liquidator to purchase these units. We’re constantly working on expanding our liquidation network for a wider range of product categories. Until then, please choose another recovery value option, such as Amazon Outlet, or another removal option, such as Return. |
Inventory temporarily unavailable for removal as a result of an in-progress transaction or other process – please check again in a few days. | The units you are trying to liquidate are currently unavailable for FBA Liquidations. They may be a part of another liquidation order. | Please wait for two days and try again. If the message persists, contact us for further support. |
Inventory is not available for removal; please try again in two days or contact Seller Support. | We may be transferring your inventory within fulfillment centers, or your inventory is still being processed by a fulfillment center. | Please wait for two days and try again. If the message persists, contact us for further support. |
To view liquidator resale certificates for the liquidation orders you’ve submitted, see Tax-exemption certificates.
For more information on FBA Liquidations, watch the following videos on Seller University.
We have contracted with liquidators who resell both Amazon-owned and FBA inventory to downstream consumers. Liquidators are contractually restricted from reselling FBA liquidated products directly on Amazon. These liquidators resell liquidated inventory through other ecommerce or brick-and-mortar channels. Liquidators cannot return liquidated inventory back to you.
No. When you submit a liquidation order, Amazon will attempt to arrange a liquidator for this inventory. If arranged, a liquidator will purchase this inventory for a gross recovery value, which is typically about 5% to 10% of the product’s value. Once Amazon receives payment from a liquidator—approximately 60-90 days after submitting the liquidation order—the net recovery value will be available on your Payments page.
IPI measures how efficient and productive you are in managing your FBA inventory, and excess inventory adversely affects your IPI score. Once you submit a removal order to FBA Liquidations, the order will show as Pending on the Removal Order Detail report. Inventory that is pending removal does not influence or adversely affect your IPI score. This is the case for other removal options as well, such as Dispose and Ship-to address. Therefore, liquidating inventory can help improve your sell-through rate by reducing excess or aged inventory and positively influence your IPI score.
After submitting a liquidation order, the order will move to pending status in the Removal Order Detail report, and the inventory moves to reserved status. This status change typically happens on the following day after placing a liquidation order. Once the status changes, the inventory will no longer contribute to your storage volume. For more information, go to FBA capacity limits.
After you submit a liquidation order, there is a short window of time between submitting a liquidation order and when the inventory is moved to reserved status. During this period of time, customer orders can be fulfilled with your inventory. If your inventory is used to fulfill a customer order while liquidation is pending, you will receive the proceeds of sale rather than a liquidation payment.
You can find liquidation payments in the Payments section of Seller Central. In the Transaction View, you may filter your Transaction Type to Liquidations to view all associated liquidation revenue and fees. You may also associate these transactions to the corresponding shipment ID or customer order ID.
Amazon may have different contracted liquidation rates by fulfillment center. If you submit a liquidation order for multiple units of a single ASIN and the units are located among multiple fulfillment centers, Amazon will attempt to process the units that provide you with the greatest recovery value first.
We may cancel a liquidation order if the inventory isn't available for removal (for example, if it is part of a pending customer order). The items will display as Canceled in the Removal Order Detail report and will be returned to your inventory. Note that monthly storage fees and aged-inventory surcharges will resume. If your order was canceled, submit a new one.
Any items canceled within a liquidations order are still subject to monthly storage fees, aged-inventory surcharges, or both. Submit a new removal order for the canceled items. You can have your items returned or disposed of, or choose a value recovery option such as Grade & Resell or Liquidations.
When you submit a liquidation order, we’ll attempt to fulfill your order within 30 days. Once the order is fulfilled, liquidators have 30 days to pay you for your liquidated items.
For more information, go to the Track your Liquidations orders section on this page.
Most commonly, you’re seeing incoming revenue from previous liquidation orders that were placed before you disabled Liquidations from your Automated unfulfillable settings. Watch the FBA Liquidations: Payments Reporting video in the Resources section on this page to validate if what you see is a new liquidations order, or is revenue from a previous order.
In cases where your inventory is damaged, lost, or not suitable for liquidation, Amazon might perform a reversal of the initial payment. Typically, this adjustment will be followed by an updated revenue payment for a new amount.
For more information, go to the Track your Liquidations orders section on this page.
It can take up to 90 days from when the order is complete to when you receive revenue for items in a liquidation order. Contact Selling Partner Support if you don’t see revenue after 90 days from the completion date.
No. Such restrictions apply only to inventory you have returned to yourself (using the Ship-to address in Seller Central) and do not apply to liquidated ASINs. For more information about restrictions, visit FBA aged-inventory surcharges, formerly known as Long-term storage fees.
In addition to participating in the FBA Liquidations program, you can also earn recovery value for your excess inventory by enrolling it in Amazon Outlet.
You can use Amazon's Tax calculation services to calculate tax on orders that are not destined for a Marketplace tax collection jurisdiction. You can see your tax calculations in the Sales Tax report in the Tax document library.
Your Seller Central Tax report determines which period to report your sales based on the date of cash receipt and the date of shipment. Liquidation sales will be reported in the period based on the shipment date of your items, but the sales will not appear in the report until the liquidator has transmitted payment to Amazon.
Your item-level PTC is assigned based on the status of the product listing at the time your item is shipped to a liquidator:
If you do not have a default PTC assigned in your Tax Settings, we will calculate tax at a zero rate using a PTC of “A_GEN_NOTAX” per the Product tax codes.