Amazon Adjusts FBA Seller Capacity for Peak Season

Amazon explained how it adjusts capacity for the peak shopping season, advising sellers who use its fulfillment services to get their inventory to its warehouses by October 26 in order to be ready for Black Friday, the traditional kickoff to the holiday shopping season.

“As we do every year during September and October, our fulfillment center teams are focused on receive processes to ensure that your products are properly placed in the right fulfillment centers,” Amazon explained.

As part of its preparation, it offers most sellers higher estimated capacity limits for October.

However, most sellers will also see lower estimated capacity limits for November. “In November and December, we’ll focus on processing customer orders,” Amazon explained. “This temporary shift in emphasis from receiving shipments to fulfilling customer orders will ensure faster delivery speed and maximize your sales potential during the holiday season.”

One way Amazon recommends sellers ensure that their inventory remains in stock is to use its Amazon Warehousing and Distribution service so it can replenish fulfillment centers as needed.

We wrote about Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) in 2021 when it was testing the program, and Amazon announced the service in a post a year ago.

AWD is for long-term storage and is accordingly less expensive, and allows sellers to seamlessly replenish their inventory to fulfillment centers – meaning shoppers can continue to buy those products on Amazon even when they go out of stock in Amazon fulfillment centers.

Thursday’s announcement and seller comments are found on Amazon Seller Central.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 – present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 – present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.