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Amazon FBA
Amazon FBA sellers can materially cut supply chain and fulfillment costs by diversifying sourcing beyond China while recognizing that dependency often persists deep in the supply chain, by using trade mechanisms like Section 321, and by proactively managing FBA storage and inventory fees through the FBA Inventory Report, days-of-supply monitoring, and packaging/cubiscan optimization.
Sellers are diversifying sourcing away from China, but many 'new' suppliers in Mexico, Taiwan, and other countries are actually Chinese suppliers that opened satellite locations there.
State of the Amazon Seller report data: sellers sourcing from China dropped from about 74% to 71% over the last two years; India is now over 10% and the fastest-growing; Vietnam nearly doubled to about 5%.
Jungle Scout recently overhauled its supplier database, integrating with almost a dozen sources, to help sellers search for suppliers by industry.
Section 321 is a US customs exclusion: shipments under $800 sent directly to customers can avoid tariffs/customs, a tactic used by Temu and Shein and increasingly by DTC/Shopify brands shipping from Mexico or Canada warehouses.
AWD lets sellers without their own warehouse buildings fill inventory into Amazon (for multi-channel fulfillment) or into other 3PLs like Deliverr.
Multi-channel fulfillment uses the same Amazon warehouses as FBA with a different delivery promise; it's more expensive and offers less branding control than other 3PL options, but is more reliable, meets higher SLAs, and scales better for spikes.
The FBA Inventory Report (under Fulfillment > Inventory, requires clicking 'more' to see it) is described as an underused report containing historical days of supply and inventory age data.
Days-of-supply guidance: start watching around 42 days of supply, treat under 28 days as the point to be proactive, and don't let supply drop below roughly 35 days as a minimum.
Amazon announced new low-inventory-level-fee concessions: waived for products being retired that sold only ~20 units in the last 7 days, a 4-week grace window after Prime Day deals, and refunds when Amazon's own inbounding/processing delays caused the low inventory.
For aged inventory fees, use the inventory age data to identify and liquidate only the specific aged units incurring fees rather than pulling an entire ASIN's stock.
Resizing/compressing product packaging (even by half an inch to an inch) can move a product into a smaller Amazon size tier and meaningfully cut fulfillment fees.
Amazon's cubiscan process (using lasers, ultrasound, or camera depending on the machine version) measures products on first receipt, and its 'contribution score' overrides seller-entered dimensions for fee purposes; sellers must manually request a re-scan via Seller Central after changing packaging.
Section 321 — A US customs exclusion letting shipments under $800 into the US avoid tariffs and customs duties, used by Temu and Shein and cited as growing among DTC/Shopify brands. Apply: Ship individual orders under $800 directly to customers from overseas warehouses or from Mexico/Canada warehouses to avoid tariffs (e.g., a 30% duty) while storing bulk inventory at lower cost.
AWD (Amazon Warehousing and Distribution) — A service that lets sellers without their own warehouse buildings fill inventory into Amazon for multi-channel fulfillment or into other 3PLs like Deliverr. Apply: Use AWD to maintain a single inventory pool across sales channels if you're not yet at the scale to operate your own warehouse buildings.
Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) — Amazon fulfills orders from non-Amazon sales channels using the same warehouses as FBA but with a different delivery promise. Apply: Choose MCF when you want a single inventory pool and higher reliability/SLAs across channels, accepting higher cost and less branding control versus other 3PL options.
FBA Inventory Report — An Amazon report, found under Fulfillment > Inventory (click 'more' to reveal it), containing historical days of supply and per-unit inventory age data. Apply: Check the historical days-of-supply and inventory-age columns regularly to catch low-inventory and aged-inventory fee risk before it hits, rather than reacting after fees appear.
Historical Days of Supply — A metric within the FBA Inventory Report showing how many days of supply each ASIN has on hand. Apply: Start monitoring an ASIN around 42 days of supply, treat below 28 days as the point to act proactively, and avoid letting supply fall below roughly 35 days at minimum.
Low Inventory Level Fee (and its waivers) — An Amazon fee triggered when an ASIN's inventory level runs low relative to sales velocity, with new waivers for retiring slow SKUs (under 20 units sold in 7 days), a 4-week window after Prime Day, and refunds when Amazon's own inbounding/processing delays caused the shortfall. Apply: Slow down sales deliberately when retiring a low-velocity product to qualify for the fee waiver, and know the Prime Day grace window and delay-refund policy so you don't overreact to fees outside your control.
Aged Inventory Fee — A fee based on how long inventory has sat in an Amazon warehouse, visible per-unit through the FBA Inventory Report's inventory age data. Apply: Sort inventory by age (e.g., over a year) and liquidate or market down only the specific aged units driving the highest fees, rather than pulling an ASIN's entire stock.
Cubiscan — Amazon's automated measurement process (using lasers, ultrasound, or camera depending on machine version) that measures a product on first receipt and whose resulting dimensions override seller-entered ones for fee purposes. Apply: After changing packaging, sell through old-packaging inventory first, then submit a Seller Central ticket requesting a re-cubiscan so the new smaller dimensions (not an old unit) get measured and applied to fees.
Product/Packaging Resizing — A cost-reduction tactic of shaving size off packaging to move a product into a smaller Amazon size tier and lower fulfillment fees. Apply: Review products near FBA size-chart breakpoints or with unnecessary empty packaging space, and compress the packaging (even by half an inch to an inch) to drop into a cheaper size tier.
Moving manufacturing outside China doesn't necessarily reduce China exposure — non-China factories often still source raw materials from China (or from 10-15 other countries), so full decoupling requires auditing several tiers deep into the supply chain.
Manufacturers outside China are described as less experienced, especially in newer product categories, raising the risk of quality issues and supplier communication problems that need to be planned for in forecasts.
Section 321 is framed not just as a marketplace tactic (Temu, Shein) but as something DTC/Shopify brands are adopting via Mexico or Canada warehouses to store bulk inventory cheaply and ship individual sub-$800 orders tariff-free.
Cubiscan re-measurement is a double-edged sword: requesting a re-scan after resizing packaging can backfire if mixed old/new inventory means Amazon measures an already-scanned old unit, and random quality-check re-scans (e.g., a folded t-shirt now measured flat) can unexpectedly spike fees rather than lower them.
The strategic framing of aged inventory is to treat fee liability as a cash-flow opportunity: liquidating or marketing down only the specifically fee-incurring aged units converts an ongoing cost into recovered cash.
«ultimately less is more so the smaller your profile you're able to get your product into more you're going to save»
— 00:00
«so China is still very well-developed as a country and everybody wants to leave China»
— 00:31
«it's called section 321 and it's essentially an exclusion»
— 03:27
«my favorite report on uh Amazon is the FBA inventory report»
— 05:53
«you're looking at anything below 28 days of Supply being proactive which I think is really important versus reactive»
— 06:33
«if that product has only sold um 20 units in the last seven days they're not going to charge you those fees»
— 07:35
«the first time they see that product they actually Cub scan it and it's a machine where they place your product in there and it measures it»
— 10:56
Reception
Viewers are engaged and appreciative of Jungle Scout's helpfulness, asking detailed follow-up questions about PPC, taxes, and profitability that the team patiently answers.
This is a dense, practitioner-level FBA operations briefing that stacks several concrete, immediately actionable levers (Section 321, FBA inventory report thresholds, cubiscan re-measurement, packaging compression) rather than generic advice, though it's promotional in framing (webinar teaser, tool plugs) and time-bound to Amazon fee policies and sourcing-trend data as of late 2024.
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