FBA costs soar again! Amazon sellers are confused

Amazon sellers found that FBA costs are quietly soaring again...

The warehouse configuration fee, which officially took effect on March 1 this year , has caused widespread discussion among Amazon sellers several times. Surprisingly, the "shock" brought by the warehouse configuration fee to sellers has not disappeared over time, but has once again been widely complained about because of the charging issue.

First of all, for the same quantity of goods, the warehousing configuration fees are very different when they are sent to three different US West Coast warehouses at different times. The price was lower when it was sent to the US West Coast in three batches before , but it has increased significantly now.

Secondly, if the shipment takes more than 30 days to arrive, Amazon will charge the warehouse configuration fee again. Even if there are force majeure factors such as FBA warehouse overflow, customs inspection, etc., the platform still claims to charge fees. The affected sellers will be deducted a few hundred US dollars at least, and thousands of US dollars at most.

The warehousing configuration fee itself has already eaten up a large part of the profits, and now it will cause further loss of profits. Amazon sellers have expressed their incomprehension.

Another price increase! The charging standards for US West 3 warehouses and 2 warehouses are the same

Starting March 1, 2024, Amazon FBA will charge different levels of fees for different warehousing configuration options selected by sellers. The configuration fee for shipments to the West Coast warehouse is more expensive than that to the Central and East Coast warehouses . Single-point warehousing requires higher fees , so the platform encourages sellers to disperse warehousing, and the fees for 2-3 warehouses and 4 or more warehouses are reduced in turn.

Recently, many Amazon sellers have found that the warehousing and configuration fees for goods sent to three warehouses in the West Coast of the United States at different times are surprisingly different. Now the warehousing and configuration fees for the three warehouses in the West Coast of the United States have increased significantly, and are now the same as the prices for the two warehouses↓↓↓

The warehousing configuration fee for the 3 warehouses in the Western United States has increased, and is now the same as the price for the 2 warehouses.

The configuration fee in the West Coast has indeed increased, but it is unclear about the East Coast and Central Coast.

It has risen to $0.48, while the same three warehouses were only $ 0.33 a month ago .

The delivery fee for a shipment was $253 not long ago, but now it is $360.

The same SKU and the same quantity of goods have increased by more than 40% compared to before. I am speechless.

Is Amazon raising prices without any prior notice?

The platform heard the sellers’ complaints and knew they could just rob the sellers of their money, so they did it anyway.

…

Seller Xiao Zhang (pseudonym) said that the same goods were recently divided into three warehouses, GYR3 , LGB8 , and GYR2, with a configuration fee of $ 170. After nearly a week, when the warehouse was re-set up for shipment, the configuration fee soared to $290. Now it has increased by a full $120 compared to before , and the FBA logistics cost has risen sharply.

Seller Xiao Li (pseudonym) also said that the goods were packed in the same boxes and shipped in the same quantity , and were divided into three warehouses in the western United States. A few months ago , each item cost 0.3-0.33 US dollars per item; now it costs 0.42-0.46 US dollars per item . " Amazon has raised prices again, and I was caught off guard. "

After practice, sellers generally believe that the fees for the three warehouses in the West Coast of the United States have increased and are now the same as the two warehouses in the West Coast of the United States . Why did Amazon quietly increase the price without notifying sellers? An industry insider speculated that the recent changes in warehousing configuration fees may be related to the warehouse overflow situation. The warehouses in the West Coast of the United States with higher fees are in a state of overflow . The geographical locations and operating costs of different warehouses are different , so the charging standards have changed .

According to Amazon's warehouse placement fee, sellers can ship inventory to multiple warehouses at low or even free costs , but discounts also depend on a variety of factors, such as the number of shipments and warehouse locations . To a certain extent, it can be understood that the warehouse placement fee is a dynamic pricing strategy . Now sellers generally report that the cost of the three warehouses in the western United States has increased, which is likely to have triggered the price increase.

What do you think about this wave of price increases in FBA warehousing configuration fees?

If the shipment takes more than 30 days to arrive, Amazon will charge you an additional warehouse configuration fee!

Before one pit is over, another one comes.

There are actually far more "confusing" charging practices regarding warehousing configuration fees than the one mentioned above. As early as several months ago, a large number of sellers discovered that "Amazon charges additional warehousing configuration fees if the shipment arrives more than 30 days later."

"The goods were normally optimized and split into 4 shipments, 3 of which were delivered normally, and the other one encountered customs inspection, which caused the shipment to arrive more than 30 days after the first shipment. Amazon actually charged the warehouse configuration fee again! " An Amazon seller complained that this batch of goods should not have been charged the warehouse configuration fee, but because of the force majeure factor of customs inspection, one shipment was delayed, the platform not only charged the warehouse defect fee, but also charged a warehouse configuration fee of up to several hundred dollars. In order to avoid the warehouse configuration fee, I chose to pay the high first-leg freight, but in the end I still had to pay the warehouse configuration fee ...

Currently, many sellers have been charged warehousing configuration fees due to shipment delays caused by customs inspection and other issues . It is understood that when the policy was first released, sellers could successfully appeal to the platform on the grounds of customs inspection. Now, the appeals are basically rejected, and the customer service replied that no matter what the reason is, it will not work.

According to seller feedback, even if the platform makes a mistake, the seller may still have to bear the consequences. Xiao Liu said that due to an operational error at the Amazon warehouse, one shipment was received in advance while it was still floating on the sea, so the other four shipments were charged a warehousing defect fee.

Another seller also said that after the goods were normally split and shipped at the same time, due to reasons at the warehouse, the goods from other goods were received into one goods, resulting in the goods not being delivered within 30 days. The warehousing defect fee and warehousing configuration fee were then "killed", and the logistics cost suddenly increased by hundreds of dollars. When filing a complaint, it was stated that it was the platform's problem and detailed materials were submitted, but it was still useless.

"Even though we were prepared that the warehouse configuration fee would eat up a lot of profits, we were still shocked by its power after the policy was actually implemented." Xiao Liu said that many sellers did not know at the beginning that as long as there were goods with warehouse defects, they would be charged the entire 4 or more fees established at the time (in simple terms, as long as one batch of goods did not meet the regulations, the other goods would be "jointly punished") . Currently, sellers are charged a few hundred dollars in warehouse configuration fees, and some are deducted several thousand dollars in warehouse configuration fees.

Amazon customer service said that if, for example, a shipment is split into 5 destination addresses (5 shipments), and no configuration fee is displayed when creating a shipment plan, and all shipments meet the 75-day delivery requirement, 3 shipments have been delivered, and the remaining 2 shipments and the 1st shipment were checked in more than 30 days, the goods will be charged "warehouse defect fee" + "warehouse configuration service fee" (because in the multiple destination warehouse plan, other shipments were not delivered within 30 days after the first shipment was created, and the shipments may have been abandoned)

The detailed charges are as follows : instead of splitting according to optimized shipments (free of charge), charges will be made for the 3 shipments that have been delivered, and the remaining 2 shipments will also be charged; and since the interval between the remaining 2 shipments exceeds 30 days, they are counted as deleted and discarded shipments, and a warehousing defect fee will be charged.

All these indicate that the warehousing configuration fee is extremely challenging for the timeliness and accuracy of the goods, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty for sellers to ship goods. Sellers need to be more "calculating" when shipping.

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