In late July, Amazon recommended sellers send their FBA inventory to fulfillment centers in August and September in preparation for the holidays. Now some sellers are reporting issues when attempting to send their inventory in October due to storage capacity limits.
In October 2022, sellers reported Amazon had slashed storage space for FBA inventory. Three months later, it launched a new system that combined weekly Restock limits and Storage limits into a single new “FBA capacity limit” applied monthly. It also began allowing sellers to bid on additional space for those who were willing to pay for it.
In responding on Saturday to a thread about capacity issues this year, a seller wrote, “I was also trying to make a request, but Oct wasn’t available. I put one in for Nov. IDK why they estimated my storage to double in Oct, only to have it reduce by 25% when they confirmed the space. Now I don’t have room to send in all my Holiday inventory.”
In another thread, a seller also reported that Amazon had provided them with information in July showing their storage limits were estimated to double in October. Three days ago, they discovered that instead of doubling, their confirmed storage limits had been reduced 25% from their current limits.
The seller had relied on the estimates when placing their holiday inventory orders in July, and wrote: “We are highly seasonal and the storage limits won’t increase until December, after it’s too late to send anything in. How are we supposed to work like this?”
In another thread started on September 10th, some sellers indicated they were perplexed about capacity issues. An Amazon moderator replied, although a couple of sellers said it didn’t help clarify their understanding of the limits:
“If your on-hand inventory plus shipments on the way to our fulfillment centers exceeds your capacity limit, you’ll be blocked from creating new shipments to Amazon. You’ll also be blocked if you are below your capacity limit, but the quantity of units that you’re attempting to ship would result in exceeding your limit.
“To maximize the capacity available within your limits, we recommend that you take the following actions:
“Cancel open shipments that you don’t intend to send: Open shipments count towards your total capacity usage, so close them if you no longer plan to send in those items.
“To view and cancel a shipment, go to Shipping Queue. Click the shipment name and then View shipment or Track shipment to see the shipment details. Then click Cancel shipment or Delete shipment.
“Remove inventory
“Improve sell-through of your FBA inventory
“Let me know if you have any other question.
“Christine.”
Amazon has been pushing sellers to use its AWD service to store inventory in storage warehouses upstream which it could then draw from to populate its regional network of fulfillment centers.
Capacity issues are expected this time of year, however, it’s unclear why Amazon indicated in July to some sellers that their capacity limits would double in October, while that doesn’t seem to be the case.
AMZ is closing some warehouses and distribution centers. I’m wondering if AMZ is having stock & inventory issues. I also wonder how in the world the Chinese suppliers manage to keep capacity at AMZ warehouses. From what I read most American vendors are ordering from the Chinese, that’s how they keep their inventory in warehouses.