Inventory overstock, bestselling products out of stock?With just one toolkit, you can solve inventory challenges with precision

Excess inventory, bestselling products out of stock?With just one toolkit, you can solve inventory challenges precisely—Amazon sellers are already using it!

1-Aug-23

Contents:
01/ What is Amazon’s inventory management toolkit?
02/ Is restocking difficult?Schedule your inbound issue self-check diagnostic tool!
03/ Is it difficult to liquidate inventory?Four-step method to eliminate excess inventory

How to restock before peak season and how to clear inventory after peak season have always been topics that sellers care about. The many inventory management tools available—and how to use them—can leave beginner sellers with “choice paralysis”: how can they choose the solution that works best for them?

Get better at inventory management!Better understand restocking and inventory clearance!Amazon Inventory Management Toolkit is now available to help solve your restocking and inventory-clearance challenges precisely!Whether it's a restocking problem or cleaning up inventory, you can find the solutions sellers need at different stages through this toolkit.

01 What is the Amazon Inventory Management Toolkit?

Amazon Inventory Management Toolkit is a tool designed to help Amazon sellers solve inventory management challenges and provide end-to-end solutions. Currently, this toolkit includes two main tools: the Inventory Shortage Self-Diagnosis Tool and the Four-Step Method for Clearing Excess Inventory. It can not only help sellers clear excess inventory in a timely manner, freeing up more space to stock up for the festive season, but also apply for more storage capacity for products to prepare for the festive season!

Three key advantages that help effectively solve inventory’s toughest challenges!

With just one toolkit, solve both restocking and inventory-clearing challenges.

Whether you need to restock or clear inventory, the toolkit provides end-to-end solutions. Sellers using the toolkit only need to answer 1–2 simple questions, and the toolkit can identify the root cause of the issues they’re experiencing and recommend the appropriate solutions based on that.

The mobile toolkit makes it easy for you to find ideas anytime and share them with your operations colleagues.

🔍 You can also copy the following link into your browser to view it:
https://gs.amazon.cn/logistics/inventory/toolkit?ref=wechat

02 Restocking difficult?Inbound problem self-check diagnostic tool is here!

To win during the peak sales season in the second half of the year, you first need a solid plan, and inbound shipments are an important part of replenishing inventory. So when it comes to preparing inventory and shipping it, how can you ensure inbounding goes smoothly?To help sellers quickly find solutions to inbound issues, Amazon created the “Inbound Issue Self-Check Tool.” Just answer 2 questions to easily find a solution!

► Option 1: View backend reports to understand your inventory’s week of cover (WOC)

You can view your inventory’s week of cover, as well as more information, in Amazon Seller Central’s Inventory Health report, Manage FBA Inventory, and Fulfillment by Amazon Shipments report.

🔍 Copy the links below to view the relevant reports:
Inventory Health Report: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ssof/reports/search.html/?ie=UTF8&recordType=INVENTORY_HEALTH
Manage Inventory: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ssof/reports/search.html/?ie=UTF8&recordType=FBA_MYI_UNSUPPRESSED_INVENTORY
Manage FBA Shipments report: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/ssof/reports/search.html/?ie=UTF8&recordType=AFNShipmentReport

►Option 2: review sales forecasts in Seller Central to make better decisions

Week of cover (WOC) directly affects your ASIN sales performance, and good inventory management directly affects your return on investment. At the same time, healthy inventory levels help minimize storage fees, improve IPI, and maintain high inventory capacity.

Therefore, Amazon strongly recommends that sellers make more informed decisions based on your sales plan and sales forecast. We recommend that you maintain at least 4–8 weeks of sales inventory so that your customers can receive your products as quickly as possible.

►Solution 3: Release storage capacity or request additional storage capacity

FBA Capacity Limits combines the original replenishment limits and storage limits into a single storage capacity limit, with the goal of helping Amazon manage surges in storage demand outside Amazon so it can operate the Amazon fulfillment network efficiently and deliver your products to customers faster. 👉 Click to view details of the new Fulfillment by Amazon storage capacity policy

You can release more storage capacity to lift the inbound restrictions in the following two steps:

Step 1: Release storage capacity
*For details, see part 3 of this article, “The Four-Step Method for Clearing Excess Inventory”!

Step 2: Request additional storage capacity
If a seller wants to increase storage space for incoming products and believes this batch of products will be popular with buyers, they can request additional storage space through Capacity Manager to improve their sales performance during the peak season.

►Solution 4: pay attention to inbound shipment precautions

Select a reliable first-mile logistics service provider
Experienced freight forwarders can help you handle inbound shipments more efficiently and transparently. We recommend strengthening communication with your freight forwarders to ensure they process your inbound shipments more efficiently.
Amazon has recommended an effective first-mile logistics solution for you (see Solution 7 for details)

Schedule inbound appointments in advance
Advance appointments are required for inbound shipments by air and sea, and we recommend choosing a logistics company that is more familiar with the FBA inbound process. LTL trucks and container trucks require longer wait times in line to be received at the fulfillment center.
Shipments sent by Small Package Delivery (such as UPS, DHL Express, and FedEx) do not require a delivery appointment, which helps ensure sellers’ goods are received quickly and on time, and helps avoid long waits that could cause them to miss peak-season sales.

*Note: Be sure to select “Small parcel delivery（SPD）” and the correct international courier company name while creating the shipment in Seller Central.

Send inventory to the assigned warehouse
When you create a shipment, Send to Amazon will provide you with a designated inbound address, so be sure to ship your inventory to this address.
Shipping to a fulfillment center other than the designated one may significantly delay the time it takes for your products to become available for sale!To help the warehouse receive and stow your inventory quickly, please send your inventory to the warehouse specified when you created the shipment.

Pay attention to the inbound deadline for major sales events
The inbound cutoff date is the date by which products must arrive at a fulfillment center for a specific promotional event.
Generally, only major promotional events have receive-by dates, such as Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday; if you learn about this type of event with a receive-by date, we recommend that you participate actively so you’re ready for a surge in orders!
Amazon fulfillment centers (that is, FBA warehouses) do not distinguish whether the shipment is inventory for a major sales event or regular inventory. Therefore, under normal circumstances, Amazon fulfillment centers (that is, FBA warehouses) will receive your shipment whether or not your goods arrive before the receive-by date. Products received after this date can still be stocked, but we can’t guarantee they will be eligible to participate in Deals or other events in time.

►Solution 5: Check out the “Replenish Inventory” tool

We recommend that you immediately go to the Replenish Inventory page to review the recommended replenishment quantity and create a shipment plan. The Fulfillment by Amazon restock tool uses your sales history, demand forecast, quarterly sales trends, and some of the data you enter to help you determine how much to restock and when to restock. It can be used for free, tailored to your needs, and directly integrated with the Shipment Creation Workflow in Seller Central.

🔍 Copy the following link to learn more about the Restock Inventory tool:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/restockinventory/recommendations

►Option 6: View the 6 Golden Rules for Replenishment

Amazon fulfillment center 5-step replenishment process: product selection preparation >> create shipment >> shipping and packaging >> first-mile logistics >> FBA receiving.
Based on these 5 steps, Amazon has prepared 6 golden inbound shipment guidelines for you, 👉 Click to see more details

►Solution 3: Release storage capacity or request additional storage capacity

Handling time and transit time together determine the time needed to prepare inventory for shipment to the fulfillment center. Therefore, please keep your inventory preparation on schedule to ensure supply.

If you need to extend your preparation time, we recommend choosing a first-mile logistics option that takes less time, such as air shipping. Amazon recommends the following first-mile logistics solutions:

✔ Amazon Global Logistics (AGL)
Amazon’s official cross-border logistics service provides stable, efficient, and convenient ocean and air cross-border shipping services for FBA sellers who already sell in the US, Europe, and Japan, helping them ship products from the country of origin to Amazon fulfillment centers in the destination country.

✔ Amazon Partnered Carrier program (SEND)
Amazon-selected partner carriers ship sellers’ inbound shipments from China to Amazon warehouses in the destination country, providing sellers with a one-stop FBA first-mile inbound service.

03 Having trouble restocking?Is it hard to clear inventory?Four-step method to eliminate excess inventory

In the “FBA Inventory” tool, you can sort by “Estimated excess product quantity” to identify your excess inventory, and the FBA Inventory tool provides recommendations for each ASIN. Once you know which excess inventory you have, you can quickly reduce inventory through Amazon’s “Four-Step Clearance Method”!

For sellers in North America: you can use the Remote Fulfillment Program (NARF) to sync inventory and sell on the Canada and Mexico Marketplaces.

● Low-cost product testing to quickly identify potential bestselling products in Canada and Mexico;
● Sync your US Marketplace listing to Canada/Mexico with one click to improve listing efficiency;
● No RFC tax ID required (Note: RFC tax ID is only for the Mexico Marketplace);
● Reduce the pressure of managing cross-border logistics and inventory across multiple countries.

For sellers in European Marketplaces: You can use the European Fulfillment Network (EFN) and Pan-EU FBA to send inventory to 1 country and expand to 8 countries!

Amazon sellers with Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) + Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) helps you manage multiple marketplaces from one warehouse and fulfill omnichannel orders.

Sellers with cross-border orders: Join Amazon today to use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) + Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) and reach customers around the world.

🔍 You can copy and paste the following link into your browser to learn more about “Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment”: https://gs.amazon.cn/mcf

business pricing rules and Quantity Discounts

Business pricing and quantity discounts: This pricing and promotion tool lets you set an additional lower price for products that is visible only to Amazon Business customers. One ASIN, two prices, to help increase business customers’ purchase intent. You can also set tiered prices based on purchase quantity to meet the needs of Amazon Business customers buying multiple items.

Deals for events

Every year, Amazon’s special holiday promotions are a great opportunity to boost orders. Sellers can watch for promotion timing across categories, choose products and stock up, and clear out a large amount of inventory!

Outlet promotion

A promotional channel for customers that offers markdowns to clear products and move overstocked inventory, designed to help FBA sellers address inventory backlog issues. Products participating in the Outlet limited-time deal offer buyers a discount of at least 20% (80% of the original price). *Currently, it already covers customers in almost all Amazon Marketplaces.

Prime Exclusive Discounts

A discount promotion for Prime members that shows the strikethrough price and discount information. It is generally displayed on the marketplace customer-facing pages: in product listings on search results pages or on the product detail page Listing.

Amazon coupons

Create a discount for a single product or a group of products, usually displayed on the front end of the Marketplace:
● Dedicated promotions page
● Product listings in search results
● Product detail page listing
● The checkout page and shopping cart where buyers confirm added items

Amazon SPN Service Provider Network: selected overseas warehouses store and sell your excess inventory. Based on service providers’ reputation, service capabilities, brand influence, and more, we comprehensively evaluate and review local service providers, and finally select more than 100 local service providers to offer sellers 6 major service categories, including overseas warehouse services.

To clear excess inventory, sellers can also use the following inventory removal options to maximize available storage space in descending order of recovery value, save on inventory management costs, and maximize the remaining value of slow-moving inventory.

New Seller Onboarding Guide Video

Before entering Amazon, please read the registration guide video, prepare relevant registration materials in advance, understand the specific registration process, and help you start a store smoothly!

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