Large-scale promotion! Many FBA warehouses are temporarily closed, and the last-mile delivery in the United States is delayed

The latest situation of last-mile delivery!

Recently, many parts of the United States have been hit by extreme weather such as snowstorms, wildfires, and strong winds, which have caused traffic conditions to deteriorate in many places and delayed final delivery. The receipt and stocking of multiple Amazon FBA warehouses have been affected.

Extreme weather in the United States caused delays in final deliveries

"A force 8 gale in Los Angeles caused a power outage at the warehouse; a fire broke out near the LGB8 warehouse; due to road control, the delivery time of trucks transferred from LA is expected to be delayed by about 1 to 2 weeks. FEDEX and UPS pick-up and delivery to cabinets and surrounding areas were affected by weather reasons, and the pickup speed and delivery will be delayed. "

" Recently, many states in the United States have experienced extreme snowstorms , and many highways have been forced to close due to snow and ice on the road . The delivery time of goods sent to Amazon warehouses in the central and eastern United States will be affected to varying degrees, with the impact on Chicago and New Jersey being more serious. "

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In the past two days, the cross-border circle has been flooded with the news of "extreme weather in the United States affecting last-mile delivery". According to foreign media reports, on the evening of January 8, local time , wildfires spread in the Los Angeles area of ​​California, the United States , and the strong winds exacerbated the fire. The Pacific Palisades area, western Los Angeles, northeastern Los Angeles, and San Fernando Valley were severely affected. Tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate. Statistics show that more than 1,000 buildings were destroyed , and even the homes of several Hollywood stars were not spared. Due to the strong wind, the fire is difficult to control, and some areas in Los Angeles are still in "extremely dangerous conditions."

As a result, many highways in the United States have been closed, affecting the normal operation of logistics and transportation. It is worth noting that package delivery in areas such as Southern California (Malibu, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Pasadena and San Fernando) may be delayed by 2-3 days.

Many freight forwarders have issued notices: Amazon's LBG8 and LAX9 warehouses are directly affected. In addition, the relevant terminals in the United States are also experiencing difficulties in operation, and container unloading and pick-up are affected . It is expected that the time for unloading containers at the warehouse will be delayed .

Snowstorms are also sweeping across the United States. Winter Storm Blair is moving through Texas, West Virginia, Illinois, and Missouri. U.S. officials believe the storm is extremely destructive and will produce a large amount of snow and ice.

Under the influence of the extreme weather of the snowstorm , more than 300,000 electricity customers across the United States have suffered power outages and difficulty in using electricity; many highways have been forced to close due to snow and ice on the roads , and traffic on many roads has been "shut down", causing people's travel to be hindered and vehicles to have difficulty driving; flights have been delayed and canceled on a large scale. According to preliminary statistics, 2,000 flights have been canceled and more than 6,500 flights have been delayed.

For this reason, many industry insiders in the cross-border circle have issued a warning: after some roads are restricted , the delivery time of goods sent to Amazon warehouses in the United States, Central China and the eastern United States , especially Chicago and New Jersey, will inevitably be affected.

" Warehouses such as IND9 , FWA4 , MQJ1 , ORF2 , RMN3 , TEB9 , AVP1 , SWF2 , MDW2 , STL3/4 , IGQ2 , and MDW6 are facing crises and may be temporarily closed . Frequent contract jumping and postponement may be inevitable. " said a freight forwarder.

The latest news shows that the US FTW1, DFW6, and STL4 warehouses have been temporarily closed and have begun to cancel contracts on a large scale.

USPS concluded that heavy snow, freezing rain, ice and severe weather events in the central plains to mid-Atlantic region of the United States (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut) may affect transportation and the delivery of mail and packages.

FBA is slow to accept and put on shelves! Sellers’ profits are under pressure

"The FBA timeliness is already very poor, and the bad weather has added fuel to the already uncertain situation! Now there is another excuse for the poor sales!" said Xiao Zhang, an Amazon seller helplessly. It is understood that the recent situation of receiving and putting goods on the shelves at Amazon warehouses is not optimistic. Many of Xiao Zhang's goods have been signed for almost 20 days but have not been put on the shelves. In order to avoid the problem of warehouse explosion, Xiao Zhang specifically learned in detail which warehouses can put goods on the shelves faster before shipping. "I have done so much homework but it is still useless. Now when sending FBA, whether the goods are put on the shelves quickly depends not only on the warehouse, but more importantly on luck," said Xiao Zhang.

Amazon seller Xiao Li also said that the goods shipped through the AGL channel in 2024 have been in a reserved status since they were signed for in October. Now it is January 2025, and there has been no progress. Amazon will investigate the situation and the results will not be available until February.

Currently, many sellers are suffering from warehouse overflow. The latest news shows that warehouses such as FAT2, SWF2, RFD2, SMF3, FTW1, MQJ1, and TEB9 are not approved for direct delivery of full containers to Amazon due to severe warehouse overflow.

Amazon's official data shows that from January 1 to October 31, 2024, the number of Chinese sellers listing FBA products continued to grow, and the number of new FBA products increased by nearly 30% year-on-year. It can be said that almost the vast majority of Chinese Amazon sellers are using FBA warehouses. FBA's slow reception and listing will not only bring the risk of product shortages and ranking declines, but will also bring troubles such as rising costs to the majority of Amazon sellers.

"Before the goods arrived at the Amazon warehouse, I was told that I would be charged storage fees. The goods that had already arrived at FBA could not be received and put on the shelves in time, resulting in low inventory fees. In other words, I had to pay regardless of whether the goods were put on the shelves. It was simply outrageous." Many sellers complained that Amazon FBA logistics ate up a lot of profits, especially after the warehouse was divided, the first-mile fees and warehousing configuration fees rose sharply. Even if the overall performance increased in 2024, the profits would not increase but decrease...

It is also worth noting that after the seller's goods are lost by FBA, the compensation received will be much less. According to Amazon's official announcement: Starting from March 10, 2025, the platform will compensate sellers based on the manufacturing cost of the goods affected by the inventory. "Manufacturing cost" refers to the cost of the seller purchasing goods from manufacturers, wholesalers, resellers or producing goods (if the seller is a manufacturer), excluding freight, handling fees, tariffs or other fees. Sellers can determine the manufacturing cost of goods in two ways: The first is that the seller directly provides the manufacturing cost. The second is that the platform provides sellers with a manufacturing cost estimate. This estimate is based on a comprehensive assessment of comparable goods sold by Amazon, other sellers, and wholesale channels.

Whether it is natural disasters affecting last-mile delivery or FBA timeliness testing operational capabilities, the entry threshold for Amazon sellers is getting higher and higher.

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