Amazon has set a date for third-party sellers to ensure their products are available in time Black Friday sales—pushing the deadline up a week earlier than last year.
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According to a post on Amazon’s seller central forum, inventory must arrive at the e-commerce giant’s fulfillment centers by Oct. 19, to guarantee it is Prime badge-ready by Black Friday. Last holiday season, inventory had to be in Amazon warehouses by Oct. 26.
In the post, Amazon recommends sending Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory to fulfillment centers in August and September to ensure they have enough products in stock for the peak holiday shopping season.
From there, fulfillment center teams will be focused on receiving inventory in September and October to ensure products are placed in the right fulfillment centers before the holiday season starts.
Amazon said it would then shift its focus in November and December to processing customer orders, given it is the tech titan’s busiest time of the year. The company says it has limited slots to accept shipments to its fulfillment centers during the two months.
“This seasonal shift helps us ensure faster delivery speeds and maximizes your sales potential during the holidays,” the post wrote. “Also, you may see lower estimated capacity limits for October and November. On average, the estimated capacity limits for October and November can help provide enough storage for six months of inventory.”
Amazon also offers a Capacity Monitor tool aimed at helping sellers stay up to date on the company’s capacity limits. Sellers can currently view estimated capacity limits for October, and November capacity limits will be available starting August 20.
All date recommendations are subject to change.
To help sellers simplify operations and manage inventory more efficiently during the peak season, Amazon eliminated the overage fee for storage effective July 1, 2024. This means if any merchant’s on-hand inventory exceeds their capacity limit, they will not incur the overage fee.
Last year, Amazon hosted a Black Friday event starting on Nov. 17 that lasted 11 days, resulting in the sale of more than 1 billion items on the marketplace, including 500 million items from independent sellers.
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The company has not indicated when this extended holiday sale would return in 2024.
Amazon has continuously improved its delivery capabilities across its network over the past year, making a major rural push in 2024 a year after regionalizing its fulfillment network into eight distinct hubs. A Wall Street Journal report said Amazon has set a target to deliver to roughly 90 percent of U.S. consumers.
As such, the company touted its “fastest Prime delivery speeds ever” in a recent blog post—a claim that it has been making consistently since early 2023 when the regionalization was complete.
The company said in the post that in the first half of 2024, Amazon cut the distance for items traveled between its U.S. sites and the customer by nearly 10 percent compared to the year prior.
Although it is August, logistics companies are aiming to prepare for the onslaught of goods expected to be shipped. UPS and DHL already both announced demand surcharges for the holiday season, with the former noting that a shorter season requires more spending to help move packages efficiently. As for DHL, the company had similar rationale on spending during the season, particularly as it anticipates a flurry of packages out of Asia from e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu.
Amazon sellers will be competing in an environment where more retailers are expected to offer shipping promotions, which could bring a hit to margins. A recent Forrester survey said 22 percent were adding shipping promotions—with those promotions ranging from more days of free shipping to a lower threshold on free shipping to more products covered by free shipping.
Roughly one-third of the respondents to the Forrester survey expect to get packages to consumers in more than five days, with another 20 percent citing a four-day window. Only two percent could do same-day or next-day—an advantage Amazon sellers still have significantly over most of retail.
Amazon’s earlier inventory requests come as more shoppers are finding excuses to go holiday shopping earlier. A recent survey from user-generated content solutions provider Bazaarvoice said 23 percent of shoppers worldwide will be holiday gift shopping by August, with 37 percent plan to start by September. By October, the number will increase to 55 percent.
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