Ask Amazon: FBA Send To Amazon
About the Event
Send to Amazon is our most efficient workflow for FBA Selling Partners that focuses on helping you save time creating shipments by requiring fewer steps to replenish your Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) inventory. Amazon invites you to watch the videos and read the resources provided by the Product Team below, to deep dive the benefits of the newest FBA Shipping workflow 'Send to Amazon' and answer some frequently asked questions including the replacement date of the Send/Replenish workflow, September 1, 2022. After watching the video portion of the event, click the "Join Ask Amazon" button at the top of the page to join your Amazon Seller Community and the Partner Team for an in-depth Ask Amazon discussion on the Seller Forums. Meet us there for the opportunity to ask the Product Assurance Team questions specific to your experience. Be sure to read through the Seller Questions from the forums, that have already been answered by the Product Team, below.
Seller FAQ From The Forums
Seller Question: Will Upload Shipping Plan File still work? This currently creates a shipping plan in the Send/replenish inventory workflow. Will this be replaced by another option to upload a file based on Merchant SKU and QTY?
Answer: Send to Amazon has a file upload functionality. Sellers can upload a file with list of SKUs and quantity, provide box packing information for case-packed SKUs, have a mix of case-packed and individually packed SKUs, and provide prep and label owner details. Learn more here .
Seller Question: What happens if your shipment is split between multiple fulfillment centers and you’ve already packed your boxes?
Answer: Sellers have the flexibility to pack their boxes based on what works for them, as long as they adhere to Amazon’s recommendations on what SKUs can be packed together. This is especially useful if each box of their shipment is different and has custom SKUs, units, or dimensions. Sellers can choose ‘Individual Units’ under Packing details column in Step 1, and they can provide their custom packing details in Step 1b. Our shipment splits will be based on the boxes Sellers pack, and not at a unit level. Hence, Sellers will not have to unpack and repack. Learn more here .
Seller Question: Can we see which carrier is scheduled for pickup in the shipment details?
Answer: On Shipment Summary page, Sellers can click show more to view carrier information. On Send to Amazon, Sellers can choose between Amazon-partnered carrier and their own carrier for small parcel and LTL. For LTL, Sellers will provide carrier information on Step 4 of the workflow. Learn more here
Seller Question: As reported by @SELLER, the new system does not show the shipping destination during shipment creation, which is important information to know if shipping costs are too high at a certain point of time and put the product below margin.
Answer: We provide the shipment splits and corresponding shipping destinations in Step 2 of the workflow. Sellers can choose the “Ship date” and select the shipping carrier suitable for their shipments. The carrier charges can be viewed at this stage and Seller can decide to either proceed with the shipments by clicking on “Accept charges and confirm shipping” or decide to delete the workflow by clicking on “Void this workflow” at the bottom of the page. Learn more under “Cancel a shipment” section here.
Seller Question: There looks like there is no prompt to enter name for a newly created shipment, which is easily overlooked and can create confusion when trying to locate one.
Answer: Sellers can rename shipments after they confirm them. The “Rename” link is next to each shipment name in Step 3. Learn more here.
Seller Question: They already know the size and weight of each item and the size and weight of the box they are being sent in. Why do we have to enter all this info again?
Answer: Sellers can make use of reusable case-pack templates when they prep/label and pack single SKUs in identical boxes for every shipment. Once they have saved the details in a template, they can reuse the templates for future shipments. Sellers can save up to three case-pack templates per SKU. Learn more under “ Create a case pack template” section here.
Seller Question: “Who labels” does not appear, which is a problem when the warehouse needs to check whose responsibility it is to label the products.
Answer: In Send to Amazon, Sellers can view prep and label owner under the Information/action column in Step 1. Additionally, Sellers can download the ‘Pick list’ from Steps 1b and the ‘Pack list’ from Step 2 by clicking on ‘view contents’ to see the prep owner and label owner details for each SKU. Learn more on Step 1b here and about Step 2 here
Seller Question: In the same vein, you cannot change the quantities by 5%, as the current workflow allows. This is very important for the reasons explained above. Are you planning on allowing a modification of the quantities up to 5% after shipments are created?
Answer: Yes. Send to Amazon allows for quantity changes limited to 5% or 6 units, whichever is greater, per SKU per shipment. Sellers can edit quantities even after shipment confirmation by clicking on “View or edit contents” in each shipment card in Step 2. Learn more under “Changing shipment contents after shipment creation” section here.
Seller Question: With “Send to Amazon,” when shipments are split up into several FC destinations, you cannot adjust the shipping mode for the split up shipments. If you select LTL, then you are stuck sending all split up shipments LTL, even if it is just 1 or 2 boxes. That makes no sense and it has to be fixed.
For example, I create a shipment of 100 boxes. Amazon splits it into 2 FCs. 98 boxes go to 1 FC via LTL. The remaining 2 boxes I rather send UPS. However, I am stuck sending it via LTL. It makes no sense booking a truck for a pallet of 2 boxes! Please fix this!
Answer: This functionality was recently launched. Sellers can choose to send each shipment using a different shipping mode. In Step 2, Sellers will see a check box, “ Shipping mode will be same for all shipments “. To use different shipping modes, Sellers need to uncheck the option and proceed to individually choose small parcel or LTL for each shipment. Here is a video on how to choose different shipping modes.
Seller Question: This workflow is a nightmare for small boutique/niche sellers with an agile inventory control system. Every box is different - gotta always watch restock levels and storage fees. Horribly complicated and frustrating
Answer: Sellers have the flexibility to pack their boxes based on what works for them, as long as they adhere to Amazon’s recommendations on what SKUs can be packed together. This is especially useful if each box of their shipment is different and has custom SKUs, units, or dimensions. Sellers can choose ‘Individual Units’ under Packing details column in Step 1, and they can provide their custom packing details in Step 1b. Here is a video on how to pack multiple/custom SKUs/units in one box.
Seller Question: I hit a dead end the last time I used this new workflow - it told me that the box sizes I entered were too small for the items I was sending. It seems to have added up the volume of all of my individual items and then compared that to the volume of the boxes I was sending, and it thought there was no way that the items would fit in the boxes so it wouldn’t let me continue. Apparently the new workflow has never played Tetris. Has this problem been fixed?
Answer: We provide a notification in case the box volume may not be sufficient for the SKU quantity. This is just a warning and Sellers can choose to ignore it and continue working on the shipment. Additionally, we have implemented the guardrails for box weight and dimensions in line with our box weight and dimensions policy. Learn more here.
Seller Question: So I just went to look at the new “workflow” and immediately there is a problem that creates a ton more work on our end. Previously you could do Prep and Labeling Details all at once to every item you are shipping. Yet unless I am missing something, you have to do this for each individual SKU on the new workflow. For those of us with a lot of SKUs this can be a ton of work and apparently this is not going to carry over and every new shipment you will have to do it for every item? Serious question, does Amazon have any actual sellers beta test this stuff? Because holy moly. Also the dropdown looks like it was created by a 4 year old with only having the ability to see 1.5 items at a time.
Answer: We recently launched the feature for Sellers to bulk apply values for prep category, prep owner and label owner across SKUs on a page in Step 1. Sellers can do this by selecting the checkboxes to the left of the SKUs and click on the bulk edit buttons that is displayed on the table header. Additionally, these settings will carry over for every new future shipment. Learn more under “Edit prep category and ownership in bulk” section here.
Seller Question: Sometimes a single SKU, a total of 20 pieces shipped, box 1: 5 , box 2: 10
How do I operate your new process? ? ? ?
Just tried it, and I got 6 boxes to send out
If anyone knows how to do it, please let me know, thanks!
Answer: Sellers can choose “Individual units” option if the inventory is not being packed in identical boxes. They can pack their inventory in their suitable box configuration and then provide the box weights and dimensions in Step 1b. Learn more here.
Seller Question: As reported by @SELLER, one of the great benefits of palletizing is not having to measure and weigh every box, but Send to Amazon is currently asking for the box size and weight, which is making the process much more cumbersome and much less efficient. Please eliminate this requirement.
Answer: We have consciously designed the workflow to help sellers supply necessary details at the right steps to receive seller inventory more efficiently at our fulfillment centers. This includes Sellers providing box weight and dimensions details even when the shipment is palletized. Learn more under “ Create a case pack template” section here.