Update to low-inventory-level fee
In December 2023, we announced our plans to launch a low-inventory-level fee to improve inventory health and maintain sufficient inventory levels. Having sufficient inventory that is spread across our fulfillment network ensures that we have enough product close to customers so we can deliver it faster. We’ve seen that when products have sufficient inventory levels they will, on average, generate measurably more sales.
On April 1, 2024, the FBA low-inventory-level fee went into effect, and we announced any low-inventory-level fees charged in April would be credited back. We’re extending this transition period through May 14. By May 31, you’ll be credited back for any low-inventory-level fees incurred between April 1 and May 14. We hope this transition period has helped you get more familiar with the fee and fee management tools. We've seen that the additional time has enabled even more sellers to achieve healthy inventory levels and avoid this fee entirely.
We’ve continued to listen to your feedback and are making three additional changes that are designed to better target these low-inventory-level fees to where you have the most control to ensure healthy inventory:
- Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
- Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to you by the 15th day of the following month. For example, May charges with excessive inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
- Prime Day is an important sales driver for your business that is coming up soon, and we want to ensure that you are set up for success. For Prime Day 2024, we'll provide a time-bound exception on low-inventory-level fees for products that are included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. The fee exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day when inventory levels may be more unpredictable based on Prime Day sales.
We appreciate your partnership as we continue innovating for you and our shared customers. We’re committed to providing you the right resources and tools so, together, we can get products to customers faster than ever.
You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees. Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator. To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report.
For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee.
For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary.
129 replies
Seller_M4NWRaRnU1uDM
we do not know how much we will make off a product because we do not know HOW long it take to get it checked in and received and unsure when the fee will apply andwhen not. We need a certain time frame. This is ridiculous. This fee does not make any sense to apply.
They gave a random number of 20 units a week lol. So, a person who stocks an item more and sells more of an item but cannot get it from the distributor would be punished more than a person who only buys a little and sells a little every week.
Seller_LtMC18hHbjrDD
Before adding new fees you should clean up the entire FBA system FIRST.
FBA ONGOING ISSUES:
Lost (Stolen) Inventory that sits in transit status over 100 days....and you have no policy on this. No official after 90 days we refund the seller. Your policy right now is delay delay delay and do nothing for as long as possible.
Wrong Item Sent routinely from FBA warehouses to customers Amazon at fault sellers get hit with inventory fees, return fees, customer service fees etc and Amazon takes no hit.
Late shipments to customers - all of our negative feedback is FBA related and while you wipe it out because it is your fault the facts are that under regional prime the merchant controlled this and did it better. The negative feeling of the customer is aimed at the merchant and not at Amazon who refunds at will and makes the merchant file claims for reimbursement that get denied and again turn into a headache for merchant for Amazon's mistakes. Merchant is out inventory, sale and fees.
No first in first out systems in place for products with expiration dates.
Removal Orders that are over 120 days old. How is that okay and why is it acceptable to take over 4 months to send back inventory that you have identified as expired? And while you say we are not charged storage fees on this inventory we are you still show it on the books and you charge for it even though it shouldn't be in the warehouse at all.
Duplicate removal orders.for same items. The merchant creates a removal order. It sits for over 120 days. Amazon also generates it's own removal order for same item.
If you are wondering why merchants are talking class action lawsuits, and have extreme frustration with Amazon these are just some tip of the iceberg issues with FBA warehouses that are ongoing and adding new fees to a broken system isn't the answer.
Do better Amazon.
Seller_Cxhg8nqYX0Hww
ok, so if I sell over 20 units of a product for 6 weeks straight and then my product is sold out and we won't be getting any more for 6 months- If I am able to avoid the fee for the 6 weeks, will I then be charged a low inventory fee for a full 7 days until Amazon realizes I am out of stock? So, if I go from selling 30 items a week, to selling none (because we sold out), will we still be punished with a low inventory fee?
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
What about products that expire. We have to keep inventory levels low. Can those be exempt?
Seller_pbwdEolcVi709
What about when amazon damages and loses our inventory? Why should we pay fees or charges when Amazon is at fault.
I really dislike this fee and is forcing us to move more business away from Amazon.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
@Jim_Amazon This a fact? Not doubting @May_Gray_LLC However, this change would be a big change to the amount of time we spend making sure we fit our products to FBA. Frankly, we have been going to 0 units FBA on many of them. And stocking up on the units we sell more of.
Exempting listings that sell less than 20 units in 7 days, is a very reasonable solution.
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
This is a fact! Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
-Jim
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
Thank you @Jim_Amazon We can work with that. We could not do it the way it was originally structured.
Our Brands have a large variety, for that reason, many could have a need to stock 2-20 per month. The reason they do well is the variety.
We also have seasonal products that will "ramp up" as the season comes upon us. Not worrying about the low inventory tax, would work with the 20unit/7day rule. As the sales in the season pick up, we would want to be selling over 20 units a week, and we would stock appropriately.
We have been running units out of stock at FBA, and were going to fulfill them through FBM. Something we call FBUs. These would all fall under the "... the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days."
We are increasing stock on our items that will apply to products that have sold more than 20 units in the past 7 days. In other words, those items that are taxed by the low-inventory fee. That is also something we can do.
Jim, thank you for the confirmation if it had been announced I missed it. I will share the information with others sellers asking about this.
Seller_QYdaUlbXtPUXn
To see Low Inventory Fees in the Sku Economics report, you need to select both "Fee Data" and "Fulfillment base rate and surcharges." No idea why, but the LI column doesn't show up in the report unless I have both of those boxes checked.
Seller_JKIXE95CHdjVT
My top complaint when Amazon makes official statements are the number of new technical terms they use without actually defining what they mean.
Take for example "Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times". This has never been mentioned before, but Amazon doesn't define what excessive inbounding and processing times are, in terms of how many units, quantity of items or shipments. For all we know they are the same thing, too many items getting sent in means we slow things down on Amazon's end, they fee us for it. Ok, but nothing is written out clearly, as others have noted, to determine when these fees will be charged and under arbitrary criteria.
There is still no part of the website that shows you exactly how this low-inventory-level fee will apply to our accounts. The notice about seeing a fee on our account has come up several times, but I haven't seen the fee. I think Amazon has been really hyping up this fee, but I don't see any evidence they even understand it, from a purely "example" math based standpoint.
Seller_oNwQIArLmzljP
So to understand how the fees are calculated and keep an eye on the fees we need to go to all 5 of the reports and pages that you sited? Can you make 1 report or page that has all of the information in 1 place? This sounds way underbaked and complicated. Listen to the sellers and get rid of this ridiculous fee.
These are all the reports/pages we need to use?
1. "You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees."
2. "Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator."
3. "To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report."
4. "For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee."
5. "For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary."
Seller_oljVSaeMvWjqE
We need more clarity on this..
1. Is this 7 days span Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday?
2. What is considered excessive inbounding and processing times? This seems very arbitrary and up to random employee determination. Does the waiving of fee apply to all of the units in that shipment? How will we reconcile if we were charged appropriately?
Seller_qS4hi6SmsLLix
This fee can bring a lot of headaches for Amazon and potential problems with FTC.
1st- amazon will receive more items that they can handle because people will do everything to avoid this fee by sending more inventory and it will delay FBA processing. I bet Amazon people didn't see that coming when they thought this would be a good idea to get more money from sellers, right?
2nd- Amazon controls the number of days for the items. Let's say you sell 1 unit/day and if you have 30 units, Amazon bot will calculate 30 days inventory, buuuut, since amazon controls it, this can be manipulated to a different estimate and say 20 or 25 days, so now you pay low inventory fee.
3rd- Since many sellers are shipping tons of inventory, amazon does not count the day you ship, they count the day they receive the goods, so even if you follow the recommendations and ship the quantities on time to avoid the low inventory, the slow processing time will make you pay this ridiculous fee and, again, FTC may not like this.
So low inventory fee was a terrible idea. I know it can be extra money to impress shareholders, but this may cause a lot of trouble.
I hope they make changes. At least start counting the day you ship the inventory. Just so you know, sometimes we ship and we don't see the boxes in the INBOUND information, so it's like we didn't ship any box and then bummm...items are there. They need to fix this too.
You guys can do better than this.
Update to low-inventory-level fee
In December 2023, we announced our plans to launch a low-inventory-level fee to improve inventory health and maintain sufficient inventory levels. Having sufficient inventory that is spread across our fulfillment network ensures that we have enough product close to customers so we can deliver it faster. We’ve seen that when products have sufficient inventory levels they will, on average, generate measurably more sales.
On April 1, 2024, the FBA low-inventory-level fee went into effect, and we announced any low-inventory-level fees charged in April would be credited back. We’re extending this transition period through May 14. By May 31, you’ll be credited back for any low-inventory-level fees incurred between April 1 and May 14. We hope this transition period has helped you get more familiar with the fee and fee management tools. We've seen that the additional time has enabled even more sellers to achieve healthy inventory levels and avoid this fee entirely.
We’ve continued to listen to your feedback and are making three additional changes that are designed to better target these low-inventory-level fees to where you have the most control to ensure healthy inventory:
- Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
- Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to you by the 15th day of the following month. For example, May charges with excessive inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
- Prime Day is an important sales driver for your business that is coming up soon, and we want to ensure that you are set up for success. For Prime Day 2024, we'll provide a time-bound exception on low-inventory-level fees for products that are included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. The fee exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day when inventory levels may be more unpredictable based on Prime Day sales.
We appreciate your partnership as we continue innovating for you and our shared customers. We’re committed to providing you the right resources and tools so, together, we can get products to customers faster than ever.
You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees. Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator. To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report.
For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee.
For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary.
Update to low-inventory-level fee
In December 2023, we announced our plans to launch a low-inventory-level fee to improve inventory health and maintain sufficient inventory levels. Having sufficient inventory that is spread across our fulfillment network ensures that we have enough product close to customers so we can deliver it faster. We’ve seen that when products have sufficient inventory levels they will, on average, generate measurably more sales.
On April 1, 2024, the FBA low-inventory-level fee went into effect, and we announced any low-inventory-level fees charged in April would be credited back. We’re extending this transition period through May 14. By May 31, you’ll be credited back for any low-inventory-level fees incurred between April 1 and May 14. We hope this transition period has helped you get more familiar with the fee and fee management tools. We've seen that the additional time has enabled even more sellers to achieve healthy inventory levels and avoid this fee entirely.
We’ve continued to listen to your feedback and are making three additional changes that are designed to better target these low-inventory-level fees to where you have the most control to ensure healthy inventory:
- Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
- Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to you by the 15th day of the following month. For example, May charges with excessive inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
- Prime Day is an important sales driver for your business that is coming up soon, and we want to ensure that you are set up for success. For Prime Day 2024, we'll provide a time-bound exception on low-inventory-level fees for products that are included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. The fee exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day when inventory levels may be more unpredictable based on Prime Day sales.
We appreciate your partnership as we continue innovating for you and our shared customers. We’re committed to providing you the right resources and tools so, together, we can get products to customers faster than ever.
You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees. Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator. To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report.
For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee.
For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary.
129 replies
129 replies
Seller_M4NWRaRnU1uDM
we do not know how much we will make off a product because we do not know HOW long it take to get it checked in and received and unsure when the fee will apply andwhen not. We need a certain time frame. This is ridiculous. This fee does not make any sense to apply.
They gave a random number of 20 units a week lol. So, a person who stocks an item more and sells more of an item but cannot get it from the distributor would be punished more than a person who only buys a little and sells a little every week.
Seller_LtMC18hHbjrDD
Before adding new fees you should clean up the entire FBA system FIRST.
FBA ONGOING ISSUES:
Lost (Stolen) Inventory that sits in transit status over 100 days....and you have no policy on this. No official after 90 days we refund the seller. Your policy right now is delay delay delay and do nothing for as long as possible.
Wrong Item Sent routinely from FBA warehouses to customers Amazon at fault sellers get hit with inventory fees, return fees, customer service fees etc and Amazon takes no hit.
Late shipments to customers - all of our negative feedback is FBA related and while you wipe it out because it is your fault the facts are that under regional prime the merchant controlled this and did it better. The negative feeling of the customer is aimed at the merchant and not at Amazon who refunds at will and makes the merchant file claims for reimbursement that get denied and again turn into a headache for merchant for Amazon's mistakes. Merchant is out inventory, sale and fees.
No first in first out systems in place for products with expiration dates.
Removal Orders that are over 120 days old. How is that okay and why is it acceptable to take over 4 months to send back inventory that you have identified as expired? And while you say we are not charged storage fees on this inventory we are you still show it on the books and you charge for it even though it shouldn't be in the warehouse at all.
Duplicate removal orders.for same items. The merchant creates a removal order. It sits for over 120 days. Amazon also generates it's own removal order for same item.
If you are wondering why merchants are talking class action lawsuits, and have extreme frustration with Amazon these are just some tip of the iceberg issues with FBA warehouses that are ongoing and adding new fees to a broken system isn't the answer.
Do better Amazon.
Seller_Cxhg8nqYX0Hww
ok, so if I sell over 20 units of a product for 6 weeks straight and then my product is sold out and we won't be getting any more for 6 months- If I am able to avoid the fee for the 6 weeks, will I then be charged a low inventory fee for a full 7 days until Amazon realizes I am out of stock? So, if I go from selling 30 items a week, to selling none (because we sold out), will we still be punished with a low inventory fee?
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
What about products that expire. We have to keep inventory levels low. Can those be exempt?
Seller_pbwdEolcVi709
What about when amazon damages and loses our inventory? Why should we pay fees or charges when Amazon is at fault.
I really dislike this fee and is forcing us to move more business away from Amazon.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
@Jim_Amazon This a fact? Not doubting @May_Gray_LLC However, this change would be a big change to the amount of time we spend making sure we fit our products to FBA. Frankly, we have been going to 0 units FBA on many of them. And stocking up on the units we sell more of.
Exempting listings that sell less than 20 units in 7 days, is a very reasonable solution.
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
This is a fact! Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
-Jim
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
Thank you @Jim_Amazon We can work with that. We could not do it the way it was originally structured.
Our Brands have a large variety, for that reason, many could have a need to stock 2-20 per month. The reason they do well is the variety.
We also have seasonal products that will "ramp up" as the season comes upon us. Not worrying about the low inventory tax, would work with the 20unit/7day rule. As the sales in the season pick up, we would want to be selling over 20 units a week, and we would stock appropriately.
We have been running units out of stock at FBA, and were going to fulfill them through FBM. Something we call FBUs. These would all fall under the "... the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days."
We are increasing stock on our items that will apply to products that have sold more than 20 units in the past 7 days. In other words, those items that are taxed by the low-inventory fee. That is also something we can do.
Jim, thank you for the confirmation if it had been announced I missed it. I will share the information with others sellers asking about this.
Seller_QYdaUlbXtPUXn
To see Low Inventory Fees in the Sku Economics report, you need to select both "Fee Data" and "Fulfillment base rate and surcharges." No idea why, but the LI column doesn't show up in the report unless I have both of those boxes checked.
Seller_JKIXE95CHdjVT
My top complaint when Amazon makes official statements are the number of new technical terms they use without actually defining what they mean.
Take for example "Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times". This has never been mentioned before, but Amazon doesn't define what excessive inbounding and processing times are, in terms of how many units, quantity of items or shipments. For all we know they are the same thing, too many items getting sent in means we slow things down on Amazon's end, they fee us for it. Ok, but nothing is written out clearly, as others have noted, to determine when these fees will be charged and under arbitrary criteria.
There is still no part of the website that shows you exactly how this low-inventory-level fee will apply to our accounts. The notice about seeing a fee on our account has come up several times, but I haven't seen the fee. I think Amazon has been really hyping up this fee, but I don't see any evidence they even understand it, from a purely "example" math based standpoint.
Seller_oNwQIArLmzljP
So to understand how the fees are calculated and keep an eye on the fees we need to go to all 5 of the reports and pages that you sited? Can you make 1 report or page that has all of the information in 1 place? This sounds way underbaked and complicated. Listen to the sellers and get rid of this ridiculous fee.
These are all the reports/pages we need to use?
1. "You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees."
2. "Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator."
3. "To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report."
4. "For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee."
5. "For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary."
Seller_oljVSaeMvWjqE
We need more clarity on this..
1. Is this 7 days span Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday?
2. What is considered excessive inbounding and processing times? This seems very arbitrary and up to random employee determination. Does the waiving of fee apply to all of the units in that shipment? How will we reconcile if we were charged appropriately?
Seller_qS4hi6SmsLLix
This fee can bring a lot of headaches for Amazon and potential problems with FTC.
1st- amazon will receive more items that they can handle because people will do everything to avoid this fee by sending more inventory and it will delay FBA processing. I bet Amazon people didn't see that coming when they thought this would be a good idea to get more money from sellers, right?
2nd- Amazon controls the number of days for the items. Let's say you sell 1 unit/day and if you have 30 units, Amazon bot will calculate 30 days inventory, buuuut, since amazon controls it, this can be manipulated to a different estimate and say 20 or 25 days, so now you pay low inventory fee.
3rd- Since many sellers are shipping tons of inventory, amazon does not count the day you ship, they count the day they receive the goods, so even if you follow the recommendations and ship the quantities on time to avoid the low inventory, the slow processing time will make you pay this ridiculous fee and, again, FTC may not like this.
So low inventory fee was a terrible idea. I know it can be extra money to impress shareholders, but this may cause a lot of trouble.
I hope they make changes. At least start counting the day you ship the inventory. Just so you know, sometimes we ship and we don't see the boxes in the INBOUND information, so it's like we didn't ship any box and then bummm...items are there. They need to fix this too.
You guys can do better than this.
Seller_M4NWRaRnU1uDM
we do not know how much we will make off a product because we do not know HOW long it take to get it checked in and received and unsure when the fee will apply andwhen not. We need a certain time frame. This is ridiculous. This fee does not make any sense to apply.
They gave a random number of 20 units a week lol. So, a person who stocks an item more and sells more of an item but cannot get it from the distributor would be punished more than a person who only buys a little and sells a little every week.
Seller_M4NWRaRnU1uDM
we do not know how much we will make off a product because we do not know HOW long it take to get it checked in and received and unsure when the fee will apply andwhen not. We need a certain time frame. This is ridiculous. This fee does not make any sense to apply.
They gave a random number of 20 units a week lol. So, a person who stocks an item more and sells more of an item but cannot get it from the distributor would be punished more than a person who only buys a little and sells a little every week.
Seller_LtMC18hHbjrDD
Before adding new fees you should clean up the entire FBA system FIRST.
FBA ONGOING ISSUES:
Lost (Stolen) Inventory that sits in transit status over 100 days....and you have no policy on this. No official after 90 days we refund the seller. Your policy right now is delay delay delay and do nothing for as long as possible.
Wrong Item Sent routinely from FBA warehouses to customers Amazon at fault sellers get hit with inventory fees, return fees, customer service fees etc and Amazon takes no hit.
Late shipments to customers - all of our negative feedback is FBA related and while you wipe it out because it is your fault the facts are that under regional prime the merchant controlled this and did it better. The negative feeling of the customer is aimed at the merchant and not at Amazon who refunds at will and makes the merchant file claims for reimbursement that get denied and again turn into a headache for merchant for Amazon's mistakes. Merchant is out inventory, sale and fees.
No first in first out systems in place for products with expiration dates.
Removal Orders that are over 120 days old. How is that okay and why is it acceptable to take over 4 months to send back inventory that you have identified as expired? And while you say we are not charged storage fees on this inventory we are you still show it on the books and you charge for it even though it shouldn't be in the warehouse at all.
Duplicate removal orders.for same items. The merchant creates a removal order. It sits for over 120 days. Amazon also generates it's own removal order for same item.
If you are wondering why merchants are talking class action lawsuits, and have extreme frustration with Amazon these are just some tip of the iceberg issues with FBA warehouses that are ongoing and adding new fees to a broken system isn't the answer.
Do better Amazon.
Seller_LtMC18hHbjrDD
Before adding new fees you should clean up the entire FBA system FIRST.
FBA ONGOING ISSUES:
Lost (Stolen) Inventory that sits in transit status over 100 days....and you have no policy on this. No official after 90 days we refund the seller. Your policy right now is delay delay delay and do nothing for as long as possible.
Wrong Item Sent routinely from FBA warehouses to customers Amazon at fault sellers get hit with inventory fees, return fees, customer service fees etc and Amazon takes no hit.
Late shipments to customers - all of our negative feedback is FBA related and while you wipe it out because it is your fault the facts are that under regional prime the merchant controlled this and did it better. The negative feeling of the customer is aimed at the merchant and not at Amazon who refunds at will and makes the merchant file claims for reimbursement that get denied and again turn into a headache for merchant for Amazon's mistakes. Merchant is out inventory, sale and fees.
No first in first out systems in place for products with expiration dates.
Removal Orders that are over 120 days old. How is that okay and why is it acceptable to take over 4 months to send back inventory that you have identified as expired? And while you say we are not charged storage fees on this inventory we are you still show it on the books and you charge for it even though it shouldn't be in the warehouse at all.
Duplicate removal orders.for same items. The merchant creates a removal order. It sits for over 120 days. Amazon also generates it's own removal order for same item.
If you are wondering why merchants are talking class action lawsuits, and have extreme frustration with Amazon these are just some tip of the iceberg issues with FBA warehouses that are ongoing and adding new fees to a broken system isn't the answer.
Do better Amazon.
Seller_Cxhg8nqYX0Hww
ok, so if I sell over 20 units of a product for 6 weeks straight and then my product is sold out and we won't be getting any more for 6 months- If I am able to avoid the fee for the 6 weeks, will I then be charged a low inventory fee for a full 7 days until Amazon realizes I am out of stock? So, if I go from selling 30 items a week, to selling none (because we sold out), will we still be punished with a low inventory fee?
Seller_Cxhg8nqYX0Hww
ok, so if I sell over 20 units of a product for 6 weeks straight and then my product is sold out and we won't be getting any more for 6 months- If I am able to avoid the fee for the 6 weeks, will I then be charged a low inventory fee for a full 7 days until Amazon realizes I am out of stock? So, if I go from selling 30 items a week, to selling none (because we sold out), will we still be punished with a low inventory fee?
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
What about products that expire. We have to keep inventory levels low. Can those be exempt?
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
What about products that expire. We have to keep inventory levels low. Can those be exempt?
Seller_pbwdEolcVi709
What about when amazon damages and loses our inventory? Why should we pay fees or charges when Amazon is at fault.
I really dislike this fee and is forcing us to move more business away from Amazon.
Seller_pbwdEolcVi709
What about when amazon damages and loses our inventory? Why should we pay fees or charges when Amazon is at fault.
I really dislike this fee and is forcing us to move more business away from Amazon.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
@Jim_Amazon This a fact? Not doubting @May_Gray_LLC However, this change would be a big change to the amount of time we spend making sure we fit our products to FBA. Frankly, we have been going to 0 units FBA on many of them. And stocking up on the units we sell more of.
Exempting listings that sell less than 20 units in 7 days, is a very reasonable solution.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
@Jim_Amazon This a fact? Not doubting @May_Gray_LLC However, this change would be a big change to the amount of time we spend making sure we fit our products to FBA. Frankly, we have been going to 0 units FBA on many of them. And stocking up on the units we sell more of.
Exempting listings that sell less than 20 units in 7 days, is a very reasonable solution.
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
This is a fact! Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
-Jim
Jim_Amazon
@Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
This is a fact! Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
-Jim
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
Thank you @Jim_Amazon We can work with that. We could not do it the way it was originally structured.
Our Brands have a large variety, for that reason, many could have a need to stock 2-20 per month. The reason they do well is the variety.
We also have seasonal products that will "ramp up" as the season comes upon us. Not worrying about the low inventory tax, would work with the 20unit/7day rule. As the sales in the season pick up, we would want to be selling over 20 units a week, and we would stock appropriately.
We have been running units out of stock at FBA, and were going to fulfill them through FBM. Something we call FBUs. These would all fall under the "... the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days."
We are increasing stock on our items that will apply to products that have sold more than 20 units in the past 7 days. In other words, those items that are taxed by the low-inventory fee. That is also something we can do.
Jim, thank you for the confirmation if it had been announced I missed it. I will share the information with others sellers asking about this.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
Thank you @Jim_Amazon We can work with that. We could not do it the way it was originally structured.
Our Brands have a large variety, for that reason, many could have a need to stock 2-20 per month. The reason they do well is the variety.
We also have seasonal products that will "ramp up" as the season comes upon us. Not worrying about the low inventory tax, would work with the 20unit/7day rule. As the sales in the season pick up, we would want to be selling over 20 units a week, and we would stock appropriately.
We have been running units out of stock at FBA, and were going to fulfill them through FBM. Something we call FBUs. These would all fall under the "... the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days."
We are increasing stock on our items that will apply to products that have sold more than 20 units in the past 7 days. In other words, those items that are taxed by the low-inventory fee. That is also something we can do.
Jim, thank you for the confirmation if it had been announced I missed it. I will share the information with others sellers asking about this.
Seller_QYdaUlbXtPUXn
To see Low Inventory Fees in the Sku Economics report, you need to select both "Fee Data" and "Fulfillment base rate and surcharges." No idea why, but the LI column doesn't show up in the report unless I have both of those boxes checked.
Seller_QYdaUlbXtPUXn
To see Low Inventory Fees in the Sku Economics report, you need to select both "Fee Data" and "Fulfillment base rate and surcharges." No idea why, but the LI column doesn't show up in the report unless I have both of those boxes checked.
Seller_JKIXE95CHdjVT
My top complaint when Amazon makes official statements are the number of new technical terms they use without actually defining what they mean.
Take for example "Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times". This has never been mentioned before, but Amazon doesn't define what excessive inbounding and processing times are, in terms of how many units, quantity of items or shipments. For all we know they are the same thing, too many items getting sent in means we slow things down on Amazon's end, they fee us for it. Ok, but nothing is written out clearly, as others have noted, to determine when these fees will be charged and under arbitrary criteria.
There is still no part of the website that shows you exactly how this low-inventory-level fee will apply to our accounts. The notice about seeing a fee on our account has come up several times, but I haven't seen the fee. I think Amazon has been really hyping up this fee, but I don't see any evidence they even understand it, from a purely "example" math based standpoint.
Seller_JKIXE95CHdjVT
My top complaint when Amazon makes official statements are the number of new technical terms they use without actually defining what they mean.
Take for example "Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times". This has never been mentioned before, but Amazon doesn't define what excessive inbounding and processing times are, in terms of how many units, quantity of items or shipments. For all we know they are the same thing, too many items getting sent in means we slow things down on Amazon's end, they fee us for it. Ok, but nothing is written out clearly, as others have noted, to determine when these fees will be charged and under arbitrary criteria.
There is still no part of the website that shows you exactly how this low-inventory-level fee will apply to our accounts. The notice about seeing a fee on our account has come up several times, but I haven't seen the fee. I think Amazon has been really hyping up this fee, but I don't see any evidence they even understand it, from a purely "example" math based standpoint.
Seller_oNwQIArLmzljP
So to understand how the fees are calculated and keep an eye on the fees we need to go to all 5 of the reports and pages that you sited? Can you make 1 report or page that has all of the information in 1 place? This sounds way underbaked and complicated. Listen to the sellers and get rid of this ridiculous fee.
These are all the reports/pages we need to use?
1. "You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees."
2. "Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator."
3. "To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report."
4. "For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee."
5. "For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary."
Seller_oNwQIArLmzljP
So to understand how the fees are calculated and keep an eye on the fees we need to go to all 5 of the reports and pages that you sited? Can you make 1 report or page that has all of the information in 1 place? This sounds way underbaked and complicated. Listen to the sellers and get rid of this ridiculous fee.
These are all the reports/pages we need to use?
1. "You can use FBA Inventory to track your inventory health and identify products at risk of incurring low-inventory-level fees."
2. "Additionally, to estimate the low-inventory-level fee for affected products, go to FBA Revenue Calculator."
3. "To review historical charges for each product, go to SKU Economics report."
4. "For more information on the FBA low-inventory-level fee and what qualifies, go to Low-inventory-level fee."
5. "For fee updates by type, go to 2024 US referral and FBA fee changes summary."
Seller_oljVSaeMvWjqE
We need more clarity on this..
1. Is this 7 days span Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday?
2. What is considered excessive inbounding and processing times? This seems very arbitrary and up to random employee determination. Does the waiving of fee apply to all of the units in that shipment? How will we reconcile if we were charged appropriately?
Seller_oljVSaeMvWjqE
We need more clarity on this..
1. Is this 7 days span Saturday to Saturday or Sunday to Sunday?
2. What is considered excessive inbounding and processing times? This seems very arbitrary and up to random employee determination. Does the waiving of fee apply to all of the units in that shipment? How will we reconcile if we were charged appropriately?
Seller_qS4hi6SmsLLix
This fee can bring a lot of headaches for Amazon and potential problems with FTC.
1st- amazon will receive more items that they can handle because people will do everything to avoid this fee by sending more inventory and it will delay FBA processing. I bet Amazon people didn't see that coming when they thought this would be a good idea to get more money from sellers, right?
2nd- Amazon controls the number of days for the items. Let's say you sell 1 unit/day and if you have 30 units, Amazon bot will calculate 30 days inventory, buuuut, since amazon controls it, this can be manipulated to a different estimate and say 20 or 25 days, so now you pay low inventory fee.
3rd- Since many sellers are shipping tons of inventory, amazon does not count the day you ship, they count the day they receive the goods, so even if you follow the recommendations and ship the quantities on time to avoid the low inventory, the slow processing time will make you pay this ridiculous fee and, again, FTC may not like this.
So low inventory fee was a terrible idea. I know it can be extra money to impress shareholders, but this may cause a lot of trouble.
I hope they make changes. At least start counting the day you ship the inventory. Just so you know, sometimes we ship and we don't see the boxes in the INBOUND information, so it's like we didn't ship any box and then bummm...items are there. They need to fix this too.
You guys can do better than this.
Seller_qS4hi6SmsLLix
This fee can bring a lot of headaches for Amazon and potential problems with FTC.
1st- amazon will receive more items that they can handle because people will do everything to avoid this fee by sending more inventory and it will delay FBA processing. I bet Amazon people didn't see that coming when they thought this would be a good idea to get more money from sellers, right?
2nd- Amazon controls the number of days for the items. Let's say you sell 1 unit/day and if you have 30 units, Amazon bot will calculate 30 days inventory, buuuut, since amazon controls it, this can be manipulated to a different estimate and say 20 or 25 days, so now you pay low inventory fee.
3rd- Since many sellers are shipping tons of inventory, amazon does not count the day you ship, they count the day they receive the goods, so even if you follow the recommendations and ship the quantities on time to avoid the low inventory, the slow processing time will make you pay this ridiculous fee and, again, FTC may not like this.
So low inventory fee was a terrible idea. I know it can be extra money to impress shareholders, but this may cause a lot of trouble.
I hope they make changes. At least start counting the day you ship the inventory. Just so you know, sometimes we ship and we don't see the boxes in the INBOUND information, so it's like we didn't ship any box and then bummm...items are there. They need to fix this too.
You guys can do better than this.
