A seller called us Tuesday. She’d just eaten $1,800 in Amazon unplanned prep fees on a 3,000-unit shipment \u2014 all because her supplier skipped poly bagging on items that needed it. Four cents a bag at the source. Fifty-two cents a unit at the FC. That’s the kind of math that shows up in this week’s news, and it keeps showing up at our receiving dock in Lebanon, Ohio.<\/p>\n
Amazon updated its packaging and prep requirements for several categories this quarter, with sharper enforcement on liquid items, fragile goods, and products flagged as requiring bubble wrap or poly bags. Sellers who’ve been skirting the rules on older ASINs are seeing compliance warnings they didn’t get six months ago.<\/p>\n
According to Amazon’s own FBA fee schedule, unplanned prep service fees start at $0.52 per unit for poly bagging and can run over $2.00 per unit for bubble wrapping large items. That’s not a fine \u2014 that’s Amazon doing the work and billing you at retail rates for it. We see this weekly. It’s always more expensive than just prepping correctly upfront.<\/p>\n
If you’re sending anything in the grocery, health, or beauty category, double-check the current ASIN-level requirements before building your next shipment plan. Requirements change at the ASIN level, not just the category level.<\/p>\n
Amazon confirmed Q2 monthly storage fee rates hold steady for standard-size inventory at $0.78\/cubic foot (January\u2013September) but sellers with aged inventory are starting to feel the new aged inventory surcharge structure that rolled out in early 2024. Anything sitting past 181 days now carries a surcharge on top of the base monthly fee.<\/p>\n
The practical impact: if you’ve got slow-moving SKUs parked at an FBA warehouse since November, the clock is ticking. Create a removal order or set up an FBA liquidation deal now rather than letting the fees compound through summer.<\/p>\n
At 365PrepCenter, we hold inventory for clients who need buffer stock before sending to FBA \u2014 which gives sellers more control over their IPI score and keeps aged inventory surcharges from hitting on product that just isn’t ready to move yet.<\/p>\n
Walmart Fulfillment Services updated its inbound shipment requirements, specifically around carton labeling and pallet configuration specs. The tolerances are tighter than most sellers expect \u2014 Walmart rejects shipments at the dock for things Amazon would just charge you for and absorb.<\/p>\n
If you’re on both platforms, don’t assume your Amazon-compliant prep workflow covers WFS automatically. It often doesn’t. The box label formats are different. The pallet height requirements are different. We’ve had clients show up here routing shipments to both FCs in the same week and learning that the hard way.<\/p>\n
UPS and FedEx both enacted general rate increases effective January 2025, averaging around 5.9% across most service levels. For FBM sellers running thin margins on bulkier products, that’s not a rounding error \u2014 that’s the difference between profitable and break-even on certain SKUs.<\/p>\n
Honestly, sellers running FBM at volume should be rate shopping every quarter right now. Regional carriers are still undercutting the big two on certain lanes, and cubic pricing tiers are worth understanding if you’re shipping anything lightweight in a big box.<\/p>\n
TikTok Shop’s U.S. fulfillment program keeps attracting Amazon sellers looking to diversify. But the inbound prep requirements, split inventory rules, and real-time order velocity make it operationally messier than most sellers anticipate going in.<\/p>\n
A few of our clients are running TikTok Shop alongside Amazon, routing product through 365PrepCenter so we handle both prep workflows from a single inbound shipment. That saves them redundant freight and lets them hit both platform standards without running two separate supply chains.<\/p>\n
It can work. But go in with realistic expectations. TikTok Shop’s return rates in certain categories are running significantly higher than Amazon’s, which eats into the margin advantage you thought you found.<\/p>\n
Amazon tightened its reimbursement claim window policy in 2024 \u2014 sellers now have 60 days from the end of the removal order or 18 months from the shipment date to file, depending on the claim type. Miss that window and the money is gone.<\/p>\n
Most sellers leave reimbursement money uncollected simply because they’re not auditing systematically. Tools like Sellerboard and Helium 10’s Refund Genie automate most of the discovery. Set a calendar reminder, run a report, file the claims. There’s no reason to donate that money to Amazon’s bottom line.<\/p>\n
If you’re shipping through a 3PL and want a prep and receiving partner who tracks your inbound discrepancies from day one, get a free quote<\/a> from 365PrepCenter in Lebanon, Ohio \u2014 we document everything so your reimbursement paper trail is already there when you need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amazon & eCommerce Weekly News Roundup \u2014 Week 13 A seller called us Tuesday. She’d just eaten $1,800 in Amazon unplanned prep fees on a 3,000-unit shipment \u2014 all because her supplier skipped poly bagging on items that needed it. Four cents a bag at the source. Fifty-two cents a unit at the FC. That’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/365prepcenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}