When Amazon FBA storage fees suddenly increase, sellers can use the following strategies to cope and control costs:
Optimize inventory management
Timely remove overage inventory: For example, Amazon charges an overage inventory surcharge on US sites for items stored for more than 181 days. Sellers should submit a request to remove overage inventory as early as the 15th of each month to avoid this fee. Also, promptly count the number of overage items. Items that have incurred the overage inventory surcharge can be marked as Amazon Outlet items for sale or submitted for removal or disposal.
Establish an inventory alert mechanism: Review the “Inventory Age Alert Table” weekly, mark items between 150 and 180 days old in red, and plan promotional plans in advance to prevent them from becoming overage inventory.
Rationally plan inventory levels: Based on historical sales and market demand forecasts, plan purchase quantities appropriately to avoid overstocking and increased storage costs. At the same time, monitor inventory turnover and adjust inventory strategies promptly.
Optimize Product Packaging
Join the Ship in Your Own Packaging Program (SIPP): Amazon’s Ship in Your Own Packaging Program allows sellers to ship products to customers in their original packaging, eliminating the need for Amazon to provide additional packaging, thereby reducing shipping costs. This can save up to $1.32 per item on the North American marketplace and up to €4 per item on the European marketplace. Sellers must ensure that their packaging meets Amazon’s size requirements.
Reduce Packaging Size: Inspect product packaging, minimize unnecessary packaging materials, and reduce packaging volume to reduce volume-based storage fees.
Choose a Responsible Warehousing Method
Compare Warehousing Costs: For products of different weights, calculate the total costs of single-point warehousing and re-warehousing, including head-leg costs and warehousing configuration service fees, and choose the method with the lowest costs.
Leverage new features for flexible warehouse splitting: Sellers using API ERP to create shipments can leverage the new “Split before packing” feature in Amazon’s new shipping and inbound API. For shipments of five or more units per product, Amazon automatically offers the “Amazon Optimized Shipment Split” inbound option. The system generates a warehouse splitting plan, and sellers then pack as needed, providing a more flexible process.
Adjust sales strategies
Adopt a pre-sale model: For slow-moving products, indicate the estimated shipping time on the product detail page and offer promotional offers like discount coupons to attract buyers. This can both revitalize slow-moving products and avoid long-term storage fees.
Multi-channel sales: Consider selling products on other e-commerce platforms or independent websites to diversify risk, reduce reliance on Amazon FBA, and maintain business stability when Amazon storage fees increase.
Monitor Fee Data in Real Time
Watch for Fee Adjustments: Amazon’s storage fees may change in real time based on product categories, turnover cycles, historical sales, and other factors. Sellers should monitor fee adjustments every Wednesday morning. Log in to the “Inventory Planning” module in Seller Central and use the “Fee Simulator” to view three-dimensional assessment data for each ASIN. Focus on yellow items and adjust strategies accordingly.
Monitor Key Metrics: Refresh the “Inventory Health” dashboard every Wednesday morning at 9:00 AM, focusing on key metrics such as inventory turnover days. If the inventory turnover days for an ASIN exceeds 1.5 times the category average, immediately initiate promotional programs or adjust advertising strategies.
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