choosing Amazon opitimiized shipment splits is more expensive than partial shipment splits and almost same cost as Minimal shipment splits
Amazon tells us we can save money by choosing Amazon optimized shipment splits but that's not always true. Because yes there will be no inventory placement fee, but you will pay more in general for shipping fees to 4 or 5 different warehouses across the country. So in the end, this is just another increased fee that hurts us sellers.
From what I gathered, it seems like the "partial shipment splits" option is actually the cheapest one. ( varies by cases to case) So just be cautious and don't think just because you're not paying the placement fee doesn't mean it's actually cheaper. I have tried to sent in 8 boxes and the partial shipment splits is actually cheaper. I usually ship my items to a warehouse an hour from my house but now I have to do 4 separate shipments across the county and shipping fees for it is more expensive than if i did the partital option and its almost the same cost as if I were to send it to one warehouse. only.
choosing Amazon opitimiized shipment splits is more expensive than partial shipment splits and almost same cost as Minimal shipment splits
Amazon tells us we can save money by choosing Amazon optimized shipment splits but that's not always true. Because yes there will be no inventory placement fee, but you will pay more in general for shipping fees to 4 or 5 different warehouses across the country. So in the end, this is just another increased fee that hurts us sellers.
From what I gathered, it seems like the "partial shipment splits" option is actually the cheapest one. ( varies by cases to case) So just be cautious and don't think just because you're not paying the placement fee doesn't mean it's actually cheaper. I have tried to sent in 8 boxes and the partial shipment splits is actually cheaper. I usually ship my items to a warehouse an hour from my house but now I have to do 4 separate shipments across the county and shipping fees for it is more expensive than if i did the partital option and its almost the same cost as if I were to send it to one warehouse. only.
23 replies
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
There have been LOTS of posts about this issue in the Forum for many months now.
One of the 'joys' of doing FBA is that THEY decide what they want/need in whatever location and they have you ship it there.
That is so that THEIR customers can get things faster and make THEM look good.
If you ship multiple boxes they can/will make you split shipments. There was one recent thread where the seller had to ship to three locations. They were using the ‘placement service’ and said ‘This dramatically increase cost. For me it cost of sending same shipment went from $300 to $1500. ‘
My solution has been (and until I am in a nursing home and can't ship things any longer) to sell FBM. I don't trust Warehouse Wally and their automated forklifts to not run over my stuff.
I pack and ship things better than they do anyway. My last several shipments came in plastic bags. One was the package of socks as sold in stores with just the shipping label stuck on it. At least the mail man didn't laugh at my choices. I'm considering buying some thongs just to get a chuckle out of him.
Unless you simply HAVE to do FBA you will continue having these issues and they will most likely get worse as they 'fine tune' where your items need to go.
Dominic_Amazon
Hi @Seller_wEvxmzpjwJYbA,
Dominic from Amazon here, want to provide some context. TheFBA inbound placement service fee for standard and large bulky sized products reflects the cost of distributing inventory to fulfillment centers close to customers. The fee is effective as of March 1, 2024.
The availability of these inbound placement options is based on several factors, including the product types and quantities that you have in your shipping plan, your existing inventory levels across our network, and the location of customer demand. You can review exceptions in the FAQ section below.
When you create a shipping plan, you’ll see a fee estimate for each available inbound placement option. You’ll be charged the FBA inbound placement service fee 45 days after your shipment is received, based on the inbound location and the quantities received.
When you create a shipping plan, you can select one of the following inventory inbound placement options:
- Minimal shipment splits: You can send your inventory to the minimal number of inbound locations, generally to a single location, and we will spread inventory across our network on your behalf, for a fee. The fee may vary by inbound location—for example, there may be higher fees for shipments sent to locations in the West versus other parts of the country.
- Partial or Amazon-optimized shipment splits: Send your inventory to multiple inbound locations yourself for a reduced or no fee. The reduced fees will depend on the number of shipments and inbound locations that you send your inventory to. For instance, if your shipping plan qualifies, you can select the inbound placement option to send your inventory to the optimal number of inbound locations recommended by Amazon, generally four or more locations, and pay no fee. If you select the placement option in which you send your inventory to a partial number of inbound locations, generally two or three, you will pay a reduced fee.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Dominic
Seller_ewRnjOhW5RRV1
I'm seeing the same thing. The placement fees (while ridiculous) are less than the cost of having me ship items to 3 warehouses in California since I'm in the Midwest.
It's extremely frustrating that they're now charging me an extra $100+ to ship to the places closest to me.
Seller_mjvcfR3bIGOJG
My first LTL shipment that normally cost around $350 to send a pallet now is over $1500
Seller_WO5inWSJlKva5
Mine too. Each unit addition $0.8-$1 when we ship from US to FBA warehouse. This is very unfair to all 3rd party seller.
Seller_9Uf78DYSZ2lcW
Yea, I've been playing with this to see what my options are. It looks like you have to send in at least 4 boxes in order to get the option to split it and avoid the placement fees and so far every way I've tried to sort it out, it comes out costing More than double what it did last week.
When I just ship a single case like I used to do. (used to normally cost $9 and change so under $10 to ship via UPS). So the inbound shipping alone was less than $0.25 per item.
Now if I try to send JUST that one case, They Charge me the Placement fee of over $10 and then the UPS shipping is like $17 and change. So essentially 3 times what it used to cost to ship a case to Amazon.
If I break that amount down into 4 smaller boxes The price seems to go up because each smaller box seems to cost almost as much as the larger boxes and they decide to have me ship 2 or 3 of them to one place and still charge me a partial placement fee.
When I try putting in individual packages to see if they will tell me how many they want to go where, they still want me to say how many I'm packing into smaller boxes before they will tell me that 3 of the boxes are going to one place and the other two are going elsewhere and still they are charging me the partial fee and the shipping on the smaller boxes isn't that low and the three boxes going to the normal place cost more to ship there because they are three small boxes instead of the one large one.
And then when I look up the cost to get another shipment of raw materials to manufacture the products I find that the price of those has jumped up another huge chunk so I don't even want to order enough to send in 4 of the Large cases right now (though from a per piece shipping price, that comes out the best. Though not that great since now the inbound shipping charge is going to be closer to $0.37 per item IF I SHIP 4 times as much product as what I normally would at one time.)
If I ship a smaller box to a single location the per item inbound charge comes up over 87 cents an item.
Seller_mCS4udLB276Ho
i think its time to start over where everyone goes back to self fulfilled orders its days like these that this route seems like the most sane option
