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Every year or so Amazon makes significant changes to it's inbound inventory rules to help them streamline their business in order to make more profit and to help improve the buying experience for the customer. These changes usually mean a small amount of discomfort as sellers adapt to new workflows in order to comply with these changes.
All 3rd party listing applications (software) must conform to these changes as they are cutting off the old API access in order to force the changes effective 01/20/25.
The new API endpoint is called: Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20
Amazon's customers are "our" customers and is the only reason our businesses exist, we cannot forget this.
What's changing with the Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20?
The Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20 introduces the ability to choose from multiple inbound placement service options, which is a significant improvement over previous versions.
This feature allows sellers to optimize their FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) inbound shipments in several ways:
Placement Options: After generating placement options using the
generatePlacementOptionsoperation, sellers can view and select from various placement scenarios for their inventory.Optimization: These options are designed to optimize inventory placement within Amazon's fulfillment network, potentially reducing costs and improving efficiency.
Flexibility: Sellers can choose the most suitable option based on their specific needs, such as minimizing shipment splits or selecting the most cost-effective distribution.
Multiple Shipments: Some placement options may involve splitting inventory across multiple shipments to different fulfillment centers, while others might consolidate items into fewer shipments.
Fee Variations: Different placement options may have varying fees associated with them, allowing sellers to balance costs with other factors like speed and distribution.
Decision-Making: Sellers can compare these options to make informed decisions about how to send their inventory to Amazon's fulfillment centers.
This new API endpoint provides greater control and flexibility for sellers in managing their inbound shipments to Amazon, potentially leading to more efficient and cost-effective inventory management.
What use cases are supported by the new Fulfillment Inbound API v2024-03-20?
The Fulfillment Inbound v2024 API supports several ways to create shipments:
Small Parcel Delivery (SPD) with an Amazon-partnered carrier (PCP): Sellers can create inbound shipments using Amazon's partnered carriers for small parcel deliveries (that is, individual boxes).
Small Parcel Delivery (SPD) with a non-partnered carrier (nPCP): Sellers can use non-partnered carriers (that is, their own transportation carriers) for small parcel deliveries. Sellers can choose their preferred shipping carriers and still have access to the benefits of FBA.
Pallets (LTL/FTL) with an Amazon-partnered carrier (PCP): For larger shipments, sellers can create pallet deliveries using Amazon's partnered carriers. This method is ideal for bulk shipments that require less-than-truckload (LTL) or full-truckload (FTL) services.
Pallets (LTL/FTL) with non-partnered carriers (nPCP): Sellers have greater control over the logistics of larger shipments by using their own non-partnered carriers.
Pallet deliveries with the Pack Later option: Sellers can create pallet deliveries even when carton or box packing information isn’t provided upfront. This “Pack Later” flexibility enables sellers to finalize packing details later.
Retrieve inbound plan details: Sellers can retrieve detailed information about their inbound plans through GET operations, which allows them to track and manage their shipments.
Pros and Changes
Pros | Changes |
Box content information is now handled in the background. No need for 2D barcodes or uploading Excel Files. The seller just packs the products in the boxes and then Amazon tells you where it goes. | FBA labels can no longer be printed at the initial scan (unless it is a replenishment item). Labels will be printed during the packing phase (old box content process) |
You can now list up to 1000 SKUs in a single shipment (no more 200 SKU limit) | Creating new FBA shipments can take 15-60 minutes, especially for lower-ranking items (e.g., books ranked above 500,000). Replenishing existing SKUs is instant. |
No need to finish on Seller Central. Box and Shipping Labels are now available within AccelerList. | This is a change in workflow and process and nobody likes change...but change is the only thing consistent with an evolving enterprise such as Amazon. |
New Vocabulary
With every major Amazon update we seem to get new terms or vocabulary we need to come familiar with so here is a list of those that we have found throughout are testing of the new API calls:
New Terminology | What is means | Tips |
Packing Groups
| Amazon will analyze what you are attempting to send in and then tell you how to pack your boxes into | This is done by Amazon so you don't mix hazmat items with books (for example) or kitchen utensils with large bulky items. This is the first step in Amazon optimizing your shipment for you before you ask for shipment options |
Placement
| Refers to the process of determining the Amazon fulfillment center(s) where your inventory will be stored. | You now have the ability to pick from different placement options and fees. |
Transportation
| Refers to the process of physically shipping your inventory to Amazon fulfillment centers. It encompasses various aspects of the shipping process | If you are shipping SPD (Small Parcel Delivery) then you will want to most likely look for the UPS (United Parcel Service) option in the list of transportation results (when presented) and drop your packages off there as usual. |
List - Pack - Ship Updates (Feb 17th, 2024)
As this new workflow continues to evolve for Amazon with a mix of bugs and new error messages that all listing software applications are reacting to, we will use this help article page to update sellers on new features we introduce to help sellers with a smoother listing experience.
Better Restricted View
We have introduced a new restricted items pill box notification for sellers to help keep listing while still accepting restricted items into their batch. In a lot of cases (not all) a seller can apply to be unrestricted and then continue on with the batch at a later time. At a minimum, we're are helping sellers quickly identify their restricted items so they can remove them from the batch and include on their next one.
if you click on the yellow alert button you can then see your item to the right and request approval from there.
Refreshing your screen, or clicking in and out of the batch, or viewing your restricted items.... will prompt us to ping Amazon and see if they are ready to send in since you have requested approval. Sometimes this works and the item will be approved to sell and you can keep it in your batch. Regardless however, we will continue to check the status of restricted items every 15 mins for you.
Product Demo