New Amazon FBA programmes give unsold inventory new life

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Amazon AI

Two new Amazon FBA programmes have been launched which are designed to make it easier for businesses selling on Amazon to resell customer-returned items or overstock inventory while also giving more products a second life. These programmes are part of Amazon’s commitment to both sellers and sustainability.

“Customer returns are a fact of life for all retailers, and what to do with those products is an industry-wide challenge. These new programmes are examples of the steps we’re taking to ensure that products sold on Amazon—whether by us or our small business partners—go to good use and don’t become waste. Along with existing programmes like FBA Donations, we hope these help build a circular economy and reduce our impact on the planet. And we’re excited that these programmes will also help the businesses selling on Amazon reduce costs and grow their businesses—it’s a win for our partners, customers, and communities.”
– Libby Johnson McKee, director, Amazon WW Returns, ReCommerce and Sustainability.

Selling partners who want to resell returned items can take advantage of “FBA Grade and Resell,” which is now available in the UK, and will be available in the U.S. by end of year, and in Germany, France, Italy and Spain by early 2022. This programme gives third party selling partners the option to sell returned products on Amazon as “used” items instead of having them sent back to them or donated.

When an item is returned, sellers can choose to automatically route it through the new Amazon FBA programmes. Amazon will then evaluate the item and assign it one of four standard conditions: Used – Like New, Used – Very Good, Used – Good, and Used – Acceptable. Sellers then set the price for items based on the condition and manage pricing, advertising, and sales using their existing processes, just as they do for their new items.

One Response

  1. Can see this being a complete disaster.
    a) Amazon allows customers to return items at will even if they are over 2 years old and have a low market price. Our argument has always been that Amazon should test returns and if they are not actually faulty the customer should not be eligible for a refund as they are just abusing the system. When you create an FBA removal order you have no way of knowing which customer has returned which item so if there is a serious abuse you have no way to pinpoint this.
    b) Are Amazon now saying they will test these returns or are they just visually just going to “evaluate” them If a customer has returned say a speaker saying it is faulty and they do not test it then all that will happen is that the next person who receives it will return it also and therefore the seller will incur more fees, negative feedback and continuous emails from Amazon about a drop in performance metrics.

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