Amazon reduces FBA storage space again
Updated: Nov 25, 2022
Amazon Sellers have been reporting that Amazon has significantly reduced FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) storage space available to them in its fulfilment centres.
It’s not the first time that Amazon has made a move like this, but that hasn’t stopped Sellers voicing their concern and annoyance on forums.
One post seen by Thompson and Holt sad: “Deja vu. This is exactly what happened last year. Nobody is happy about it, but nothing we can do. Really sucks that Amazon doesn’t treat its sellers with enough respect to hold limits stable this time of year.”
Another added: “My limits dropped on Monday AND again this morning. Now under 2 months of sales. This is getting ridiculous…”
A third poster went further. They explained: “We usually have 95,000-100,000 units in stock at any given moment. Our storage limit was about 200,000 units a few months ago. It was reduced to 130,000 units last month. It was reduced to 99,000 yesterday and now 84,000 today.
“This definitely puts a hardship on us going into Q4. Our warehouse here is going to fill up soon, meanwhile we will also go out of stock with our inventory in FBA.
“I can put in a removal order for some of the inventory and adjust our shipments so we only send 2 weeks of inventory for our SKUs, but it gets extremely time consuming and creates much more work for us here.
"Some direction from Amazon would be VERY helpful. For example: Knowing the schedule of the inventory restock re-adjustments. Dates (or days of the week) when they will change and also provide a preview on the new limits on the bottom of the shipment page. Similar to how it shows your future storage volume limit based on your IPI score. This would help us all plan better and be the better selling partners Amazon claims they want us to be.”
Thompson and Holt managing partner Stuart White can certainly see the point of view of the third poster in particular. He explained: “This is not a one-off move by Amazon. We have seen in past years that they have reduced storage space for FBA Sellers in the lead up to holiday seasons, which have been labelled restock limits.
“The other factor to consider is that Amazon has doubled the capacity of its US fulfilment centres since the start of the Covid pandemic, but then found itself with excess capacity, which led to them subleasing some of those facilities.
“What would definitely help Sellers in situations like this is improved communication from Amazon. If they knew exactly what the restock limits were going to be they can plan accordingly, and at Thompson and Holt we believe that would temper some of the anger we have seen in recent days.”
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