11 thoughts on “Should I use commingled inventory or inventory placement services when selling via Amazon FBA?”

  1. There may be a twist to this that I was not aware of. Working through an issue with Amazon, but apparently there is also stickered – commingled. WTF?
    I found some “good” hot wheels cars on sale for 60 cents each, and some were selling for $5.5-$10 on amazon.
    Decided the risk was low, why not.
    FYI, any hot wheels car, Amazon’s Min take is $3.57 and if you price below $5n guaranteed status change to an “add-on” item. Some the. Threshold is $5.29, but pleas all you low-ballers, up it to $5, make it prime and sell quicker. Sorry for the divergent lesson.
    To make a short story long, I had a customer get the wrong car. I stickers every single car myself. They got a car I had NEVER had, sceen, sold.
    I snickered my cars, because I realized Matell reuses UPCs and my cars I picked were prestine cards and I left behind anything without 100% perfect packaging too.
    So Amazon does a review and send me pics and says I absolute f’d up and mislabeled.
    Many back and forth, Amazon admitted, that that might not be my car as it was commingled at the ASIN level!
    Really? Plus, the car in question was not sent in by me, (as Amazon originally claimed) but the customer. So 3 scenarios exist and the first appears to be always true:
    1) Amazon co mingles inventory if you first create the item and are signed up for commingled. The FNSKU will begin with X if stickered, if not, your customer can get the wrong item and you WILL be blamed.
    2) if you label when not required, doesn’t matter. Still commingled.
    3) Customer returns item or swaps label, it is still your fault.

    1. That is interesting. I wonder if it was just a mistake on amazon’s end when the wrong item was sent to the customer? As my understanding (and from my experience with returns) it has always appeared to be my item that was sent out.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

  2. Chris Green from Scanpower reckons that co-mingled inventory is on its way out. As there are too many opportunities of mis-use.

    There are stories of people ordering Frozen merchandise direct from Amazon and they received counterfeit products! So the genuine products are getting mixed up with the fake products.

    So to me it seems like its best to always use labelling so you can ensure the quality of your products.

    1. Hi Iqbal,

      I would tend to agree that it may be on the way out, and definitely agree that labeling everything is a good practice.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

  3. Sometimes I use the $.30 option to be able to ship to Tennessee instead of Arizona. ( I am in Indiana) I have a few of the items in stock ( at Tennessee) in 3 days and let Amazon do whatever they do with the rest ( usually multiples of the item)

    1. Hey Jason,

      Thanks for sharing! That sounds like a pretty good deal as you pay the $0.30 per item fee but have some of the items available faster and pay a lower shipping cost to send the items to amazon, I had never considered that benefit.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

  4. Ryan, can you explain your 10 item example a little more?
    Are you saying any time you have a few items, Amazon can have you ship to a few different places?
    Do you find this out when you “register” the item with Amazon?
    Can you ever just put everything in a box and ship to one warehouse without the extra fees?

    Thanks

    1. Hi Ron,

      Yes, anytime you are shipping items to amazon they tell you where to send the item. The way it normally works for me is that if I have 3 of the same item then amazon will have me ship to 3 different warehouses. I am usually shipping around 100 total items with multiples of each when I send to amazon, so this isn’t a big deal for me. Amazon tells you where to ship the items as you create your shipments.

      There is no way that I am aware of to always put everything in one box without an additional fee.

      Best Regards,
      Ryan

  5. Georgene Harkness

    It’s a misconception that all inventory with Inventory Placement will be sent to either the standard-sized warehouse or the oversized warehouse. While that is the way it USUALLY works, the only promise Amazon makes is that all inventory OF THE SAME SKU will go to one warehouse.

    So it is quite conceivable that your inventory will be split between warehouses. Granted: that rarely happens. But just so your readers will know, your inventory CAN be split between skus.

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