The New FBA Inbound Inventory Placement Service Fee - A Huge Win for Chinese Sellers
I have a small portion of our inventory shipped directly from our supplier in China to Amazon, but the majority is shipped from our location in the US to Amazon since we package the majority of our products in the US. The new inbound inventory placement service is obvious discrimination against the US sellers. I performed a simulation of shipping 15 boxes (18x15x14 inches, 30 pounds each) from our location in the Pacific Northwest to Amazon, and from China to Amazon. As you can see in the screenshots above, if you ship from China, you pay zero placement service fee by paying only $65 more for shipping. US sellers don't have this Amazon Managed Placement option unless you ship multiple boxes of the same items, plus you will have to pay 5 times the fee that Chinese sellers pay. What are your thoughts?
Seller_WO5inWSJlKva5
Dude, AGL is completely different than we ship from US, but yes, AGL is lot cheaper than US sellers. Amazon is just out of mind to charge placement fee, and every sellers knew Amazon do not want to pay extra to spread the inventories that's why we have cover their cost.
Seller_WrMwp7lazozxc
I literally just told my business partner today that I bet the Chinese sellers don't get smacked down with this outrageous increase.
75% of 3rd party sellers are from China now. Amazon is closer to Alibaba than I ever thought would be possible.
Seller_fzvwUzWF9uktn
Just to clarify, Amazon gives Chinses sellers an option to send a shipment to one location and pay zero placement fee as in the screenshot. They just pay $226.29 for shipping per pallet.
Seller_gDktQSA1WFw4Y
I don't have any thoughts, my situation is similar to yours. I plan to close my warehouse in the States.
Seller_3RorP3scToTmC
Looks like ANOTHER reason to stop doing FBA!
TaylorR_Amazon
Hello @Seller_fzvwUzWF9uktn, there are several threads on the Inventory Placement Service Fee in the forums. I wanted to link you to a helpful post from Dominic for more information on the fee. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Seller_WY1FDS1qTfG3S
What is Amazon Managed Placement (AMP)?
I tried to create a shipment from China to Amazon, and Amazon Managed Placement (AMP) isn't available.
Is it a feature you have to be invited to?
Seller_kUQeHGrF4Vkz0
This is not fair, US Sellers are getting hit the hardest. Chinese sellers would just annihilate all the US sellers in no time.
Seller_0dESdgqxjNKix
EVERYONE RAISE YOUR PRICES NOW. We all know we need to raise our prices. This is how we can respond as sellers. Don't expect Amazon to reverse it. Every year its either a new fee or increase fee and this just got out of hand. Literally I have to raise my product prices a $1. That's fine. I can be content with that because Amazon will not be the cheapest platform offering anymore compared to other selling platforms including your own website. Remember this its our business. Not Amazons. We don't need to fund them going to the moon. We need to fund our employees and families first. Suffer a little, gain a lot more of your own. My example is I use to ship for $12-$13 a box. Today its just under $60 a box for $8.99 product (not anymore). Ok, fine amazon don't split my units. Ship it to Illinois and leave it and ship to customers across the US. That's why we pay you an FBA fee. That's your Prime promise to the customer. That's not ours as sellers. We fulfilled our obligations and complied with your guidelines as sellers. You are passing inflation onto us. Well unfortunately we have to pass those down to our customers too. Folks take a risk increase prices. We wont regret it. Its not our first risk we have taken in our life and in business. Believe in our selves lets do it.
One last thought just out of curiosity. Is this impacting sellers in China that ship directly to US warehouses? Interesting.
FYI I just updated my inbound settings to have amazon optimize the shipments where I ship directly. We shall see how it works when I ship out today.
