Time to say goodbye to Amazon? We are seriously considering it
Been a large seller on Amazon since 2004 with sales reaching almost 5 million dollars a couple of years ago. But in the past couple of years, ever increasing fees, huge storage fees, the new inventory placement fees, the new low inventory fee, and abusive Amazon customers who inflict us huge losses due to their numerous and repeated buy, use, and returns, and Amazon's super lenient, almost stupid, return policy that encourages people to just order merchandise and return them for any reason or, in many cases, not even return and get free replacements at our expense is killing our business after almost 20 years. For many items we are now paying Amazon every time we sell one.
Just tonight I tried to make a new shipment of large standard items to be shipped to Amazon FBA. Total of 780 items. But the inventory placement fees are so huge that there is no way to justify sending this inventory to Amazon. Over $2,900 to send 780 items to 3 Amazon warehouses. And these are items that sell for an average price of $35. I doubt I will send large standard items to Amazon any longer and I know doing FBA will kill the items but so be it. We are not in business to just pay commissions and fees and advertising dollars to Amazon and lose money in the process.
I will increase our listings and promotions on eBay and concentrate on our own web site. It's been a tough road all along, but at least we were able to scrounge some profits. It is no longer possible.
Time to say goodbye to Amazon? We are seriously considering it
Been a large seller on Amazon since 2004 with sales reaching almost 5 million dollars a couple of years ago. But in the past couple of years, ever increasing fees, huge storage fees, the new inventory placement fees, the new low inventory fee, and abusive Amazon customers who inflict us huge losses due to their numerous and repeated buy, use, and returns, and Amazon's super lenient, almost stupid, return policy that encourages people to just order merchandise and return them for any reason or, in many cases, not even return and get free replacements at our expense is killing our business after almost 20 years. For many items we are now paying Amazon every time we sell one.
Just tonight I tried to make a new shipment of large standard items to be shipped to Amazon FBA. Total of 780 items. But the inventory placement fees are so huge that there is no way to justify sending this inventory to Amazon. Over $2,900 to send 780 items to 3 Amazon warehouses. And these are items that sell for an average price of $35. I doubt I will send large standard items to Amazon any longer and I know doing FBA will kill the items but so be it. We are not in business to just pay commissions and fees and advertising dollars to Amazon and lose money in the process.
I will increase our listings and promotions on eBay and concentrate on our own web site. It's been a tough road all along, but at least we were able to scrounge some profits. It is no longer possible.
0 replies
Seller_0Kea1ieMQZF8x
We initially only sold 5 products on Amazon and made a lot of money. Of course, we chose to continue expanding. We started selling over 80 products in 2021 and had 300 products by 2024.
Then Amazon closed our account under the guise of uploading counterfeit goods, causing us to lose $200000 in inventory. This makes us want to exit Amazon.
Dominic_Amazon
Hi @Seller_6nOhE4cHNHnq1,
I appreciate you sharing your thoughts here. I understand this can be a frustrating situation, however, please note that both fees are avoidable and actions can be taken so they are not applied.
A low-inventory-level fee will only apply if a product’s inventory level relative to historical demand (known as “historical days of supply”) is below 28 days. We will only charge a low-inventory-level fee when both the long-term historical days of supply (last 90 days) and short-term historical days of supply (last 30 days) are below 28 days (4 weeks). For example, if a product’s short-term historical days of supply is above 28 days but long-term historical days of supply is below 28 days, the low-inventory-level fee won’t apply.
For the Inbound Placement fee, if your shipping plan qualifies, you can use the partial shipment splits option or the Amazon-optimized shipment splits option. With these options, you pay a reduced fee or no fee for sending your inventory to multiple inbound locations across our network.
If you have any additional questions on either of these fees, please don't hesitate reaching out.
Thanks so much,
Dominic
Seller_Qhr2UYIcDPs0Z
I'm on the same boat 7 figure seller here and I have lost half of my catalog this year due to the fee increases.
Seller_OaJzzRPa98Gd3
Amazon's arrogance has reached a point where it feels it has monopolized the e-commerce market and can arbitrarily impose costs on sellers. In the short term, Amazon may benefit, but in the long term, this is damaging to Amazon itself and is shortsighted. We are forced to pass these costs onto consumers or consider exiting Amazon. Now, besides Amazon, more and more e-commerce platforms are emerging and attracting sellers. Amazon can no longer afford to be an ostrich with its head buried in the sand.
Seller_W1tFzATWCqDHQ
They don't care. I believe their long term goal is to make us into TEMU with Chinese sellers dominating sales. Milking US sellers in the process.
Seller_M4NWRaRnU1uDM
this platform is becoming a disaster. I had to sit back and really think about it yesterday. Amazon has shown they do not care about its sellers, whatsoever.
The inbound placement fee is ridiculous. The low inventory fee? Another ridiculous thing. I just thought yesterday if I send a new product in and only send in 5 of them to see if they sell, if they sell quickly when I send in the next shipment I will automatically be hit with a low inventory fee (from the beginning). We do not even know how much we are making because they keep talking about these credits next month. The low inventory fee is so badly thought out and implemented. I just cannot help but think this platform is crumbling.
The seller support is so bad it is almost unfathomable.
Seller_QjYfjZwWH8D0l
Amen.
The useless entity they call Seller Support is worse than it's ever been. Opening cases is an exercise in futility. If I can't fix it myself, it's best to list the product elsewhere and move on.
Return policy abuse is also worsening. We keep raising prices to cover it, but that's not a sustainable solution.
I've never felt as negative about selling on Amazon as I do today. Like you, we are expanding our offerings on other platforms.
Seller_tzb0Adb4whsRu
Imagine what all of these fees do to the smaller sellers who don't reach those kinds of sales?
Amazon says the Inbound Placement fees are to help get products closer to customers, this is false, because they are still transferring 1,000's of our units to different locations NO MATTER where we ship to. We ship to places we've never shipped to before to avoid the Placement fees.
Low-Inventory fees are also a joke. The historical 30 day bs changes weekly.
Why? - Because of sales! Because of FC's taking over 2 months to "receive/scan" in our units!
It's a no win situation with Amazon and they don't care about sellers. Whoever thought of all of these stupid fees shouldn't be in any kind of business because they have no business ethics or care for small business sellers on their platform.
We even noticed our referral fees and FBA fees changing constantly. These fees shouldn't be changing until Peak Season. And you can imagine how much money we'll lose during peak season when fees skyrocket even though we personally don't have "seasonal" products.
I feel bad for all the US sellers who are trying to work hard, stay true to themselves and their business when all the while barely staying a float in the Amazon bs world.
Best of luck to you all! :)
Seller_LQBNImBQN1ZCX
7 figures a year seller. One of our best selling ASINs got blocked, because of a mixup with Amazon Amazon transparency Amazon transparency. The deadline for sending inventory without transparency codes was May 4, one box was delivered on April 25 but did not get checked in until May 6. Now they are holding ALL of our inventory not just the units that arrived after the deadline, blocked the ASIN,not accepting an invoice issued by the manufacturer. I work with the brand directly, even my manager there has no idea why Amazon are claiming all of our inventory for that ASIN is fake. Meanwhile have had zero issues on competing platforms and looks like well he shifting our focus on them.
Seller_6nOhE4cHNHnq1
Well, everyone should also brace for the new and increased Return Processing Fees that are going to be charged to returns. As if we have any margin left and they keep piling up. Here is a link to it if you haven't seen it:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/ZGEQLTM3RZXUV6T
