Amazon-Optimized Inbound Shipments

Amazon FBA offers an inbound placement option called Amazon-Optimized. This allows sellers to avoid inbound placement fees by sending their inventory to multiple fulfillment centers (FCs). Sellers also have the option to pay a heftier inbound placement fee for fewer FCs and FBA shipments. As a seller, you need to decide which inbound placement method or strategy is best for your business: fewer FBA shipments at a higher fee rate, or more FBA shipments to avoid placement fees. To learn more review Amazon's Inbound Placement Service Fee policy.

In August 2024, Amazon updated their guidelines for Amazon-Optimized eligibility to include the need for at least 5 identical boxes or pallets per shipment.

From Inbound Placement Fee policy:

"To qualify for the Amazon-optimized inbound option with no inbound fee, your shipments must include at least five identical cartons or pallets per item. Each carton or pallet must contain the same quantity per item and the same item mix. If you select the placement option in which you send your inventory to a partial number of inbound locations, generally two or three, you will pay a reduced fee."

Read the Carbon6 article on the "5 Box Rule" here.

SoStocked Settings for Amazon-Optimized Shipments

While it can prove quite challenging to coordinate the perfect mix of products to conform to these guidelines, we have a solution within SoStocked that will help with this.

Within SoStocked, utilize our MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) or MTQ (Minimum Transfer Quantity) and Packaging Info settings. Packaging Info lets you to set your units per carton and MOQ/MTQ will allow you to set a minimum of the equivalent of 5 cartons or pallets worth of stock per item.

For example, if ASIN B01234567 has 50 units per carton, you would need to send 250 units in order to meet the 5 identical cartons rule and quality for Amazon-Optimized. In this case, you would set the MOQ and/or MTQ at 250 units.

50 units / carton x 5 cartons = 250 units

If your pallets contain 20 of these cartons, each pallet would be 1,000 units. For 5 pallets, you'd need to set MOQ/MTQ to 5,000 units.

50 units / carton x 20 cartons / pallet x 5 pallets = 5,000 units

Word of Caution

You must weigh the pros and cons of the inbound placement fee savings for using Amazon-Optimized against the additional expense of storing extra inventory at FBA or the extra shipping cost to multiple locations.

For example, using the example above, if we sent in 5,000 units (5 pallets) to save money on shipping, but we now have over 180 days of supply at Amazon, we may have just "robbed Peter to pay Paul" because we're going to pay Aged Inventory Fees. We've also tied up a large amount of cash that could have been used to fulfill or launch other products.

If shipping to multiple locations will cost me more than the fees I prevent, this may not be the best choice. Factor in both concerns when making your decision from a profit-and-loss perspective and with a holistic view.

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Slow Selling Products - Remove from Amazon Optimized

If your shipment has even one ASIN with less than 5 identical cartons, your shipment will not be eligible for Amazon-Optimized. Given the note of caution above, you may have lower volume products that would be overstocked if sending in 5 cartons or pallets. In this case, consider sending only your high-volume products in the Amazon-Optimized shipment and creating separate shipments for products you intend to send less in than 5 cartons. This will mean you're only paying inbound fees for a portion of your catalog rather than the entirety. When sellers split orders into ASINs that can send 5+ boxes and those that can’t, they split these shipments to optimize their inventory plans.

Create a tag: < 5 boxes or similar
Identify slow selling products.
Tag them with < 5 boxes
Filter for items with and without this tag to place two types of FBA shipments