Amazon charges sellers for storing their inventory in its FBA fulfillment centers, but it would much rather have inventory sell quickly than sit on its shelves. That’s why it instituted long-term storage fees – to improve inventory-turn in its warehouses.
Amazon announced a new tool to help sellers identify “aged inventory” in its fulfillment centers. Typically, sellers think of creating removal orders to clear out slow sellers – but Amazon advised sellers to consider using Outlet Deals to “trim” their excess and overstock inventory.
Amazon wrote in a post on Wednesday, “In response to seller feedback, we have launched a new feature on FBA Inventory Age that will let you filter your products by age range to get a clearer look at the ones with aged inventory. This can help you increase sales by improving sell-through and reduce costs by avoiding long-term storage fees.”
It explained how the new Inventory Age filter worked, and wrote the following:
As we move into the busy holiday season, we encourage you to use this new feature to maintain a healthy rolling 90-day sell-through rate by doing the following:
- Removing inventory that has been in a fulfillment center for more than 365 days
- Trimming your excess (overstock) inventory by creating Outlet deals
But sellers should proceed carefully before deciding whether to submit an Outlet deal, and not all Outlet deal submissions will be approved. Amazon states that to participate in Outlet, sellers must have a Professional selling plan and an overall rating of at least 3.5 stars. In addition, it states:
“Sellers submit promotional offers with a minimum discount of 20% via the Create Outlet deal section of the Manage Excess Inventory page, and selected deals are featured on the Outlet page for a fixed period of two weeks. There are no additional fees for using Outlet–only the standard fulfillment and referral fees apply.”
You can find more details about Outlet deals on Amazon Seller Central.
