Low-inventory fee killed my business
My business survived Amazon shutting down inbound shipping during covid.
My business survived having my main listing closed because of some GTIN nonsense.
My business survived me falling off a ladder and ending up with a really bad brain injury.
My business survived me getting covid and nearly dying the week after my mom died.
My business survived the inventory placement fee debacle.
My business survived when a vulture capital firm bought my main supplier and quintupled minimum orders and cut my terms in half.
But the low-inventory fees have done the trick. 12 years of hard work, gone. I'll just sell my remaining product on Walmart and shut down my business. I'm still digging myself out of the hole from the GTIN nonsense, so I'm probably going to end up declaring bankruptcy. Hopefully they don't take my van in the bankruptcy, as that's where me and the pup will be living.
This is what Amazon does. I just don't have the energy to adapt anymore. Every time I think I have a handle on it, Amazon introduces some new way of picking my pocket. I'm done.
Low-inventory fee killed my business
My business survived Amazon shutting down inbound shipping during covid.
My business survived having my main listing closed because of some GTIN nonsense.
My business survived me falling off a ladder and ending up with a really bad brain injury.
My business survived me getting covid and nearly dying the week after my mom died.
My business survived the inventory placement fee debacle.
My business survived when a vulture capital firm bought my main supplier and quintupled minimum orders and cut my terms in half.
But the low-inventory fees have done the trick. 12 years of hard work, gone. I'll just sell my remaining product on Walmart and shut down my business. I'm still digging myself out of the hole from the GTIN nonsense, so I'm probably going to end up declaring bankruptcy. Hopefully they don't take my van in the bankruptcy, as that's where me and the pup will be living.
This is what Amazon does. I just don't have the energy to adapt anymore. Every time I think I have a handle on it, Amazon introduces some new way of picking my pocket. I'm done.
92 replies
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
All sellers have to remember that Amazon is not interested in any one seller's business. or how much profit they earn for their selves. Amazon is a for profit company solely focus is extracting as much of Every seller's profit as they can.
The bottom line is this. Amazon will not come out and say they do not want sellers who send one off, or maintain low volume of a product, to FBA thinking they will get rich. They create too much wasted space in the centers. So, Amazon just charges them more. One by One, sooner or later, the low volume sellers learn there is no real profit in selling on Amazon using FBA. And in the end, Amazon gets what it wants.
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
I've been selling for 10yrs. $15million/yr in amazon sales. Placement fees and low-inventory fees are the last straw for me too. It's crazt how much they raised the fees overnight. I just listened to their earnings call yesterday and they didn't talk about 3rd party sellers and only talked about e-commerce for a few minutes. The whole call was dominated by ai and AWS. So, I think they see e-commerce as a way to suck as much bottom line as they can from it and put it towards further developing AWS.
Seller_lCX40xAkSs1xm
They do not want you on the platform.
In other news: "Amazon Triples Quarterly Profit As Cloud Surges" - Barrons article
Seller_27lQXuZPqUkar
Amazon appears to be passing their costs onto us.
It will make many products not worth selling on Amazon.
Still, it depends what Amazon's strategy is. When it was the "everything store," they had to make it possible for Sellers to make a profit selling on Amazon even if the item was low dollar value.
Hopefully, they are intentionally making the shift to a more limited group of sellers. I doubt it though, as AWS cannot make up for significant losses in revenue caused by lost sellers.
Seller_6nOhE4cHNHnq1
We are in the same situation with many items. Our sales keep falling. Over $5 million in sales just 3 years ago and now more like $2.5 million as we intentionally have been cutting down on items we import and offer as it is no longer profitable to sell on Amazon for a large number of our items. And with that, we will be cutting down on Amazon advertising more and more. Already down from $12K to $15K a month to below $9k and dropping.
This new low inventory fee will force us to cut a lot more items now. We can't control how long it takes to receive inventory from overseas.
The thing is, as someone else said it, Amazon doesn't care if one merchant or another drops out. They are interested in the collective volume that has risen up due to the influx of the Chinese sellers who are heavily subsidized by their government and are on a mission to destroy US retail business and take it over. What Amazon and their CEO is ignoring is that one of these days the US Congress will wake up and put a stop to the influx of Chinese sellers who abuse the international US Postal Service agreements and ship their products to US households cheaper than you and I can at US taxpayers' expense. And they also bypass all customs, duties, and consumer safety rules and regulations by shipping directly to US customers. That will come to an end one day and Amazon will be left with no sellers. Mark my words, but this will happen one day without warning.
Bryce_Amazon
Good evening @Seller_6pdCaLUeDUypQ, and thank you for taking the time to share your experience here in the forums. I understand the challenges you've faced recently, and I admire the way you have faced them.
I also wanted to let you know that there have been some recent changes to the Low-Inventory level fee, announced tonight. From the News announcement thread:
"We’ve continued to listen to your feedback and are making three additional changes that are designed to better target these low-inventory-level fees to where you have the most control to ensure healthy inventory:
Because of the greater unpredictability in managing inventory levels for seasonal, end-of-life, and other low-volume products with varying demand, starting May 15, the low-inventory-level fee will not apply to products that have sold less than 20 units in the past 7 days.
Low-inventory-level fees incurred due to excessive inbounding and processing times caused by Amazon or Amazon-managed services will be credited back to you by the 15th day of the following month. For example, May charges with excessive inbound delays will be credited back by June 15.
Prime Day is an important sales driver for your business that is coming up soon, and we want to ensure that you are set up for success. For Prime Day 2024, we'll provide a time-bound exception on low-inventory-level fees for products that are included in Prime-exclusive Lightning Deals and Best Deals. The fee exception will apply for the four weeks following Prime Day when inventory levels may be more unpredictable based on Prime Day sales."
Thank you again for your feedback. If you have any additional thoughts or questions about these changes, please don't hesitate to ask!
- Bryce
Seller_lDD0jLSfQL7QI
Please tell the Amazon management team that grocery category items and perishables should be excluded from this low-inventory fee. Amazon does NOT deploy a FIFO (first in first out) system for inventory management so Sellers with perishables are at a huge risk to get perfectly good products returned from FC back to Sellers as they get closer to expiration; only for the mere fact that Amazon does not do FIFO system. We have been having perfectly good inventory returned back to us that has been sitting in Amazon FC warehouse for 11 months (12 month expiry) meanwhile Amazon FC fulfills hundreds of these items units per month and only sends the new inbound FC items! These perfectly good inventory items should have been shipped! To make matters worse, sellers are being strong-armed to send in more inventory by the Low Inventory Fee so now we are exponentially compounding this issue. The more new inventory we send, the higher the risk of returns we get because Amazon doesn't do FIFO. This is very unfair that Amazon is cornering Sellers like this.
Seller_6pdCaLUeDUypQ
Hi Bryce,
I appreciate your response. Before the inventory placement fees, I used to send a single box of product per day. Because I'm disabled, that's about the maximum I can send in a single day. Now, in an effort to avoid the inventory placement fees, I have to ship 4-6 boxes at a time. That means I often have to wait almost a week between shipments as I build up product. I'm also down for at least 3 days between treatments, and my treatments are usually every two weeks. That often means my shipments are about 10 days apart. I can't keep enough product in stock like this.
I really rely on this income to sustain me and my dog. These fees make it so I'm making half the prevailing minimum wage when I process my inventory for shipment. I'm still digging myself out of the GTIN hole, which cost me over $2000 I couldn't afford. I literally had to pay my vendor with my personal credit card, and I have no idea how I'm going to pay it off at this rate. I'd rather not exist than to get on food stamps, but that's how dire my situation is.
I have private disability, but they've been slow walking the claim for over a year now. I'm at the end of my rope here.
Seller_Gq2Rk0R0t2rQ2
The Low-inventory-level fees caused so much trouble to sellers. Why just remove it? Amazon and sellers can save the time and energy to work on improving their business in other way.
Seller_iFNOHsxySudcn
Hi Bryce,
According to your announcement Average Daily Inventory units does not include "units being inbounded to the Amazon fulfillment network". Many sellers have units that have been delivered at the fulfilment centers.
Amazon does not start the processing for months. Are those units counted toward the Average Daily inventory. If not, will this be fixed as it is hurting many sellers? Please clarify.
Thanks!
Seller_2nHKMJRUHkO90
What about products that expire? You need to keep the inventory low. Not fair.
Seller_rr45B3vDsauwa
The 20 sales in the last 7 days is a game changer. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seller_QAgIq5btOI9dk
Hey random string,
can i get in touch with you?
Seller_08TZq9sOIaGvv
[Moderator Edit: Removed Off Topic Commentary]
Seller_BNgu0PuNWwhDC
there is a good news for all, amazon just reported profit high than before, now i know who got rip off :<
Seller_Z3SAB32tx2ORv
My heart goes out to you! Congress needs to start implementing a rescue package for 3P seller! that is the only way!
Seller_52pUzzgnsLDGs
Why don't you ship yourself? If you've been at this for 12 years surely you remember how
Seller_HsvKhHKy0Imuk
Amazon destroyed US small businesses when they sold US e-commerce to Chinese factories because it would enrich them. Before then they needed us. Now they need the the space we take to give to the factories which continue to being brought in in hoards. The time of reckoning is coming.
