AMZ Updates: New Automated Removal Settings for Sellers

On September 22, 2021, Amazon announced two new settings in Seller Central. 

A couple of weeks ago, we covered New Refurbishment & Liquidation Options for Automated Removal of Unfulfillable Inventory. On September 22, Amazon.com announced two more new settings in Seller Central:

1. Automated long-term storage removal: The removal of inventory that has been at an Amazon Fulfillment Center for 365 days or longer (and is subject to Long-Term Storage fees).
2. Automated removal of ASINs with no sale: The removal of units of ASINs that have not sold for six or more months and has been in an Amazon Fulfillment Center for 180 days or longer.

Managing Aged Inventory

Aged Inventory are units that were received at an Amazon Fulfillment Center 365 or more days ago. Amazon starts charging extra fees (Long-Term Storage Fees) after that point in time. Most sellers try to avoid receiving these fees, because chances are, if it hasn’t sold in over a year, it likely won’t sell now. At that point, you’re losing money in the long run – and depending on how large your catalog is, the fees can add up quite a bit.

Traditionally, keeping track of aged inventory was a very manual process. It involves downloading and combining different inventory reports from Seller Central and having to manipulate the data to see which SKUs/Brands have aged inventory. Although a process like this does provide great insight, it involves hours of work and having to adhere to a strict schedule every month, to ensure that nothing gets missed.

With the New Automated Removal Settings for Managing Aged Inventory setting in Seller Central, sellers now have the option to automate the entire aged inventory removal process. This setting can help streamline your aged inventory removal process and take hours of work off your team’s hands at no additional cost.

Automated Removal of ASINs with No Sale

With the new Automated Removal of ASINs with No Sale setting, this allows sellers to automatically remove ASINs that have not sold in six or more months and have been in Amazon Fulfillment Centers for more than 180 days. Unlike with Aged Inventory, there aren’t long-term storage fees (other Amazon fees still apply). However, not having a sale for 6 months is an indicator that an item may not be worth keeping at an Amazon fulfillment center.

Requirements:

• Units in fulfillment centers for more than 365 days.
• Units of ASINs that have not sold in six or more consecutive months and that have been in fulfillment centers for more than 180 days.

Account Settings

To turn these settings on in your account, follow these steps:

1. On the Setting page, click Fulfillment by Amazon. 
2. Scroll down to Automated Fulfillable Inventory Settings and click Edit. 
3. To enable removal settings, select Enabled for either (or both) automated removal options. 

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4. You can select Liquidation if you'd like to recover some value from units that are eligible.

Removal Options:

• Select Return to have your inventory returned to you.
• Select Dispose to have your inventory donated, recycled, or disposed.

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If you are unsure which options would make the most sense for your business, schedule a consultation with our team. 

For more updates on the Amazon marketplace, visit our blog section.