Minimize FBA Fees with SellerPulse Inventory Planning

Rising FBA fees are a top concern for many Amazon sellers. The seller forums are full of posts about increased shipping costs and other margin-eroding conditions. Long-time FBA sellers are switching to MFN or even leaving the Amazon platform completely.

But amid all this doom and gloom, many sellers are still successful. Smart inventory planning and tracking can help you preserve as much profit as possible and increase sales.

Tracking and planning your FBA inventory manually is nearly impossible, between the complexity of fees, Amazon's receiving issues, fulfillment center transfers, and more. But a purpose-built software tool can do a lot of this for you, and the amount you spend on it will be easily recouped in the form of reduced fees and increased sales.

Keep reading to learn how the latest SellerPulse features help you monitor and plan your FBA inventory.

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SellerPulse by eComEngine includes inventory and fee reports to simplify FBA inventory planning. Monthly plans start at less than $1/day. Try it free!

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FBA Inventory Alerts

At the most basic level, you need to know immediately if one of your products goes out of stock or is getting close to running out. SellerPulse provides two email alerts for this purpose.

The out-of-stock alert tells you when a SKU you were actively selling recently has run out of inventory at FBA. Buyers can't buy an out-of-stock SKU, so it's imperative to restock quickly.

The low-inventory-level fee alert tells you when a SKU is at risk of incurring Amazon's low-inventory-level fee. Amazon charges a fee on each sale when a SKU's historical days of supply metric falls below 28 days. This is also a great time to restock the SKU to avoid going out of stock soon and paying this extra fee which will eat into your margin. Learn more about avoiding the low-inventory-level fee.

FBA Inventory Planning Dashboard

Of course, it's even better to avoid hitting that 28-day level and the fee by sending enough inventory to FBA at the right time.

You also don't want to overstock your SKU, because Amazon limits your storage space at fulfillment centers, and charges an aging inventory fee each month based on units that have been there longer than 180 days.

Luckily, SellerPulse provides an inventory report with an overview of all your FBA SKUs with their recent sales history, current days of supply at FBA, estimated aging inventory fees, and more. This helps you see how much inventory you have, how many SKUs are getting low in stock or have aging units, and where your margin might be going to excess fees.

Better yet, switch to the Plan Inventory tab to get highly actionable insights.

Here, all your FBA inventory is broken down by days of supply in a visual graph. All your FBA inventory is also shown in a list in the SKU table below, with many useful data points about each SKU.

Use the highly flexible filters and sorting capabilities to create a custom view for analysis or even a to-do list. Download it as a CSV to save it for yourself or send it to your team. (P. S. Agencies and consultants can also view this FBA inventory planning report or provide it to their clients for better insight to enable restocking and advertising decisions.)

Deep Dive: Low-inventory-level Fees and Aged Inventory Surcharge

The SellerPulse inventory report also includes two other tabs specifically designed to help you minimize unnecessary FBA fees and preserve profit. Amazon charges extra fees for having too little or too much inventory at FBA, so it's important to keep an eye on both and strike the right balance.

The Low Inventory Level Fee tab shows a graph of your SKUs broken down by historical days of supply (the metric Amazon uses to charge the fee), plus a handy table of the fees for reference. Below is a list of your SKUs with data about their historical days of supply, units currently available, and recent sales history.

Click a bar on the graph to filter the SKU list. For example, see which SKUs will incur the highest fee by choosing 0-14 historical days of supply (HODS). Or, sort the SKU table by lowest HODS to prioritize what to restock, or what to discontinue from your inventory permanently.

The Aged Inventory Surcharge tab summarizes the SKUs that are incurring the aged inventory surcharge (formerly known as the long-term storage fee), which starts when a unit has been at FBA for at least 181 days and increases as the units hit different milestones: 211 days, 241, 271, and so on.

This tab lists the relevant SKUs with detailed data on units in each age bracket, plus the total estimated fees for this month, so you can see which SKUs are doing the most damage to your profits right now and plan how to move them out of FBA more quickly.

How to Use the SellerPulse Inventory Report

Here are some concrete examples of how this SellerPulse report can help you.

Inventory Replenishment To-do List

See top-selling SKUs that are very low in stock and need to be replenished urgently.

First, filter the Plan Inventory page (including the SKU table) by clicking the red 0-7 day bar in the "SKUs by Days of Supply" graph, so you're only seeing SKUs that are either out of stock already or getting close.
Then, filter out SKUs that already have units on the way to FBA by setting the Inbound Quantity drop-down to 0. This prevents you from sending unnecessary, duplicate shipments.
If desired, sort the now-filtered SKU table by 90-day sales, greatest to least, so that you can prioritize your best-selling ASINs that meet the other criteria.

Promotions List

Find SKUs that have plenty of stock but are selling slowly so that you can promote them with advertising, coupons, etc. This can help you increase sales overall and avoid or reduce the aged inventory surcharge.

Sort the SKU table on the Aged Inventory Surcharge page by total units, greatest to least, then by estimated fees, greatest to least. (These may or may not be the same list of SKUs, but both will give you valuable insights.)
Next, filter the Plan Inventory page for SKUs with more than 180 days of supply by clicking the green 180+ bar in the "SKUs by Days of Supply" graph. These are the SKUs most likely to have individual units that remain at FBA for more than 180 days and incur the aged inventory surcharge soon.
See which of these SKUs are selling the slowest by sorting the SKU table by 90-day sales, least to greatest.

Removal Lists

Find SKUs that might need to be removed from FBA, if promotions can't move the units fast enough and removal orders won't cost too much. Submit removal orders in order of priority to address the biggest profit leaks first. This can help avoid more aged inventory surcharge fees and save your FBA capacity for better-selling products.

See SKUs that are costing you the most by sorting the SKU table on the Aged Inventory Surcharge page by estimated fees, greatest to least. (If desired, download this list for easy reference.)
Then, see the SKUs with the oldest units by sorting the SKU table. You can do so by clicking on 365+ Days above the table, which shows you SKUs with any units older than 365 days, sorted by number of units in that age bracket. Again, if promotions aren't able to move these oldest units, it may be time to remove the SKU from FBA to avoid losing more money on it.

You can also opt to receive a weekly inventory summary email from SellerPulse. The email includes an overview of FBA inventory, sales, SKUs by days of supply, recent stockouts, and fee details.

Getting Started

Want to try SellerPulse? Connect it to your Amazon account and activate at least one alert so that the reports will populate. Then, explore your FBA inventory data and create the custom inventory planning to-do lists you and your team need.