5 boxes of goods are divided into 5 warehouses! The seller is going crazy because of the warehouse division

As long as they are still doing business on Amazon, sellers have to deal with different problems. Sellers just cheered for the increased storage capacity, but after a few days, when they were working hard to ship goods, they found that new problems had arisen, that is, unlimited warehouse division for incoming goods. Many sellers said that they were almost tortured by the warehouse division problem.

Sellers complained that Amazon was greedy and the purpose of doing so was to force them to pay warehouse consolidation fees or use AGL to lock warehouses. For sellers, split warehouses mean more transportation costs, so in order to save costs, they have been trying various methods to try to consolidate warehouses without using AGL lock warehouses or paying warehouse consolidation fees.

The two boxes need to be separated, the seller is going to be upset

Recently, I have seen many sellers report that Amazon’s warehouse distribution problem is very serious. In fact, the warehouse distribution problem has always existed, and this wave has appeared at the end of last year and has recently erupted intensively.

"100 pieces of goods are divided into 3 warehouses", "15 boxes are divided into 7 warehouses", "5 boxes are divided into 5 warehouses"... Now the seller circle is full of such complaints. Sellers have found that no matter how many boxes they send, Amazon will divide them into several addresses. Even if there are only two boxes, they may be divided into two warehouses, which makes people frustrated:

“——I recently wanted to send 4 boxes of goods by air freight, but Amazon assigned me 4 warehouses;

——In the past, shipments from a single ASIN were never divided into warehouses, but now several boxes of goods shipped from a single ASIN are also divided into several warehouses;

——Since Amazon launched send to amazon, warehouse division has become more and more crazy. No matter what you do, it’s useless. Amazon is determined to divide the warehouse;

——After working for Amazon for several years, this is my first warehouse division;

——Single box single sku is not distinguished, single box mixed sku is basically distinguished, there is no point in changing the address, just send it directly. ”

Generally speaking, the problem of split warehouses would not cause such a strong reaction from sellers, because in the past, if they encountered split warehouses, they could build the shipment first and then cancel the warehouse that would not be shipped. However, this time they found that this operation had been blocked, and if they wanted to delete it, they could only delete all at once.

Not only that, some sellers have found that if they choose an Amazon-partnered carrier when shipping, the goods will not be separated into warehouses, but if they choose a non-Amazon-partnered carrier, the goods will be separated into warehouses.

Sellers have complained about this, saying that Amazon's behavior is too ugly and the real purpose of this move is to make sellers pay warehouse fees or use AGL to lock warehouses.

Amazon's rules allow for warehouse division, which is called "distributed inventory allocation". The reason why sellers' products can reach consumers quickly in one or two days is precisely because of these warehouses of all sizes distributed across the country. If sellers do not want to be divided into warehouses, they can choose "default warehouse division" in the background settings, but doing so will require paying a higher warehouse division fee.

AGL is Amazon's cross-border logistics service. Sellers can use this service to lock all FBA delivery plans into a certain Amazon warehouse, and avoid the system splitting the entire batch of goods to other FBA warehouses.

It is unknown what Amazon really thinks, but according to sellers’ feedback, some sellers can no longer stand the warehouse splitting problem and have switched to AGL. It seems that AGL has benefited.

For sellers, warehouse division means bearing more transportation costs. Considering the cost issue, they are unwilling to be divided into warehouses, and do not want to pay Amazon's warehouse consolidation fees. So they began to analyze the reasons for warehouse division and tried various warehouse consolidation methods (detailed introduction below).

Find the problem from the root cause. What causes warehouse splitting?

Only by finding the cause can we find the right remedy to solve the problem. So what are the reasons that lead to Amazon’s warehouse division?

Fundamentally speaking, distributed inventory is designed to achieve the goal of fast delivery. This is done to prevent inventory from being concentrated in one warehouse. When it is sent to more distant places, it will take a long time to deliver, affecting the customer's purchasing experience.

In addition, the reasons for warehouse division include:

(1) Size. Generally speaking, standard-sized products are sent to the West Coast warehouse, and large-sized products are sent to the East Coast warehouse. In addition, an Amazon operator said that based on his operational experience, large-sized products are easier to be sent to warehouses.

(2) Matching with sales location. For example, if a seller’s products are mainly sold in New York, but his warehouse is in California, Amazon will distribute part of the goods to the warehouse near New York.

(3) Product storage conditions. Since warehouses are located in different geographical locations, temperatures, and facilities, Amazon will allocate products to corresponding warehouses based on the conditions required by the seller’s products.

(4) Purchasing habits. Different regions have different consumption habits. Amazon will allocate inventory based on the seller’s product type and the shopping preferences of consumers in each region.

Amazon used to adjust inventory internally, but according to the feedback from sellers now, it is clear that it wants to pass the cost on to sellers. As a seller, even if there are many complaints, as long as you are still selling on the platform, all you can do is find the lowest cost delivery method as soon as possible.

Sellers offer suggestions, and here comes the solution

In fact, the problem of warehouse division is not the first time it has occurred, but it has become more frequent and concentrated recently. In order to solve this headache, sellers have also tried many methods. Now the editor will sort them out as follows. If there are sellers who encounter the same problem, they can refer to it.

(1) No matter how many warehouses there are, only one warehouse is used. However, this method is risky, and Amazon has rules that clearly prohibit this operation. A seller said that he had done this before, but was interviewed by customer service over the phone.

(2) Cancel the "Multiple Destination Program". Sellers may have automatically participated in FBA's "Multiple Destination Program". If you receive an email with the subject "Fee discounts and updates to your ship-to locations", you can reply to cancel.

(3) When creating a shipment, the customer reports an over-quantity, betting that the sub-warehouse has the desired number of shipments, and then chooses a warehouse to ship the shipment. However, the extra shipments cannot be deleted, which is equivalent to sacrificing storage capacity.

(4) Use the ERP system to create shipments. Some sellers have tested using the same address, product, and quantity. When creating shipments on the platform, the shipments will be divided into warehouses, but when creating shipments using ERP, the shipments will not be divided into warehouses.

(5) Change the shipping address and re-fill in the shipment information in the first step. Some sellers were divided into warehouses in the West Coast of the United States and changed the address to the East Coast of the United States. Finally, they successfully consolidated all the goods into one warehouse.

(6) When the warehouse is divided, save the shipment without deleting it. After more than 12 hours, re-edit the packing form.

(7) If there are many SKUs, and each product is evenly distributed in each box, the shipment may be sent to one warehouse.

(8) Create one box at a time. This method is effective but very time-consuming. If the number of shipments is too large, it will be very time-consuming to complete them all.

(9) Try different quantities and then send it to one of the warehouses.

In addition, some sellers avoid warehouse splitting by changing the shipment quantity, one SKU per box , unbranded packaging, and choosing to charge for warehouse consolidation and then cancel.

In order to avoid warehouse splitting, sellers have tried all kinds of tricks. Some even suggested changing the shipping address to a location near the FBA warehouse to test whether the warehouse splitting will occur.

Do you have any proven effective methods? Feel free to leave a message to discuss.