Overview
FBA inventory is comprised of the products sent to Amazon Fulfillment Centers and can be used for multi-channel fulfillment as well. To set up FBA inventory, you will need an FBA-type warehouse set under the channel warehouse settings.
FBA Inventory Update
Inventory in the FBA-type warehouse cannot be updated manually. Sellercloud receives automatic inventory updates from Amazon through the FBA Manage Inventory Report. To view this report, go to Settings > Companies > Manage Companies > select a company > Toolbox > Amazon Settings > Reports.
By default, Sellercloud pulls fulfillable inventory from the report’s Column K “afn-fulfillable-quantity.”
However, you may want to have the total quantity (even unfillable quantity) updated in your Sellercloud FBA warehouse. This is useful if you want to report the true value of inventory at FBA or are willing to sell inventory that will become available. If so, you can change how Sellercloud FBA warehouse inventory is updated by ajdusting the relevant client settings (navigate to Settings > Client Settings > General Client Settings):
For a detailed explanation of each setting, refer to the definitions below:
- Use FBA warehouse-quantity – Pulls inventory from the report’s Column J “afn-warehouse-quantity” to update your Sellercloud FBA warehouse with inventory that FBA determined as unfillable (“afn_unsellable-quantity” in the report). This is useful for including inventory in transit. If the warehouse is sellable, all inventory will be available for sale and included in the inventory feeds.
- Always Consider FBA Total Supply Quantity (auto-checks Use FBA warehouse-quantity box upon save) – Pulls inventory from the report’s Column J “afn-warehouse-quantity” but excludes unfillable inventory in the inventory feeds. This updates your Sellercloud FBA warehouse with inventory that FBA determined as unfillable, but this inventory will not be included in the inventory feeds even if the FBA warehouse is sellable. The inventory will include total quantity for inventory reporting and value purposes only.
- With this setting, you can also set the report to consider pending FBA orders and transfers, as well as deduct those values from the available quantity in Sellercloud. To do so, select Download FBA Reserved inventory breakdown.
- FBA Inventory Consider Non-Sellable Qty – When enabled, non-sellable qty (afn-reserved-quantity) received in the report will also be visible in Sellercloud. This does not affect the overall available qty.
Amazon Unified Account FBA Inventory
If you have integrated an Amazon Unified Account in Sellercloud, there are some further considerations needed for tracking FBA Inventory. In order to receive accurate data for quantities across international marketplaces, you will need to enable Enable Single North America FBA Marketplaces Inventory Report or Enable Single Europe FBA Marketplaces Inventory Report Client Setting. This way, Sellercloud will have access to Amazon’s FBA Multi-Country Inventory Report and be able to update FBA inventory accordingly across your listings.
FBA Inventory Changes
In Sellercloud, you can track the inventory imported from FBA.
- Go to Inventory > Manage Inventory > select a product.
- In Toolbox, select Warehouse.
- Click the Physicals tab to see the inventory changes.
Inventory is added to FBA by creating and shipping FBA inbound shipments. Amazon receives the shipment, counts the inventory, and enters it into its FBA Inventory reports.
Amazon may not receive all of your inventory at once. They may also decide to ship some inventory to a different Amazon fulfillment center, so some inventory may be available at a later date.
Pull Inventory Manually
You can pull inventory for the individual product if it’s fulfilled by Amazon.
- Go to Catalog > Manage Catalog > select a product.
- On the Amazon Properties page, select Actions > Check Amazon FBA Quantity.
The quantity will update and a grid will show the status of the product’s availability, including the earliest available time to pick. FBA inventory gets pulled with the FBA Manage Inventory report.
At times, the shipped quantity may not match the amount received by Amazon, resulting in either an increase or decrease in the original quantity. To address this, Sellercloud handles this discrepancy as follows:- By default, if Amazon over-receives, Sellercloud assumes that the shipper erred and automatically adjusts the shipped quantity to match the higher received quantity. However, to prevent any errors with over-receiving that could have happened on Amazon’s side, you can enable the Client Setting Do not adjust FBA Qty shipped even if over received. This prevents the shipped quantity from adjusting.
- If Amazon under-receives, Sellercloud will assume that Amazon will still receive more inventory in the future and will not make any adjustments to the shipped quantity.
How FBA Quantities Work and How to Track Them
As stated above, all available inventory from Amazon FBA is imported regularly in Sellercloud via the FBA Inventory reports.
- When the FBA Warehouse is marked as Non-Sellable – In this case, inventory will only show as aggregate inventory for products that are set as FBA-fulfilled. You can track physical inventory from the Product Warehouse link on the product’s Summary Page by checking the FBA quantity shown on the dedicated FBA warehouse. You can track inventory movement from the product’s Summary page by clicking Inventory Movement > View FBA Movement. Here you can also check for reserved quantities that will not be included in the aggregate inventory.
- When the FBA Warehouse is marked as Sellable – If you set your FBA Warehouse as sellable, the inventory inside will be included in the aggregate quantities for the same products set as FBM (if they have the same ASIN). This workflow is often used when you are selling FBA-fulfilled products to other channels than Amazon and requires a specialized post-order plugin on your server(FBA Format). Inventory Movement will include these multi-channel orders and the Product Warehouse quantity calculations will include FBA inventory.
- A common mistake is setting different FBA integrations to the same FBA warehouse. This causes the FBA Inventory reports to overwrite each other. Because Sellercloud is regularly importing inventory, each Amazon FBA integration must be set in a separate FBA-type warehouse.
Overview
FBA inventory is comprised of the products sent to Amazon Fulfillment Centers and can be used for multi-channel fulfillment as well. To set up FBA inventory, you will need an FBA-type warehouse set under the channel warehouse settings.
FBA inventory update
Inventory at Amazon’s fulfillment centers is stored in a warehouse that has been set as an FBA-type warehouse. Inventory in this warehouse is updated periodically through the FBA Inventory Reports that Sellercloud receives from Amazon.
By default, Sellercloud pulls fulfillable inventory from the report’s column k “afn-fulfillable-quantity.”
However, you may want to have total quantity – even unfillable quantity – updated in your Sellercloud FBA warehouse. (Perhaps you want to report the true value of inventory at FBA or you are willing to sell inventory that will become available.) If so, you can change how Sellercloud FBA warehouse inventory is updated by setting the report to pull inventory in a different way (click Client Settings> Amazon Settings):
- Use FBA warehouse-quantity – Pulls inventory from report column j “afn-warehouse-quantity” to update your Sellercloud FBA warehouse with inventory that FBA determined is unfillable (“afn_unsellable-quantity” in the report). For example, this could be inventory in transit. If the warehouse is sellable, all inventory will be available for sale and included in the inventory feeds.
- Always Consider FBA Total Supply Quantity (auto-checks Use FBA warehouse-quantity box upon save) – Pulls inventory from report column j “afn-warehouse-quantity” but excludes unfillable inventory in the inventory feeds. This updates your Sellercloud FBA warehouse with inventory that FBA determined is unfillable, but this inventory will not be included in the inventory feeds even if the FBA warehouse is sellable. The inventory will include total quantity for inventory reporting and value purposes only.
- With this setting, you can also set the report to consider pending FBA orders and transfers, and deduct those values from the availability quantity in Sellercloud; select Download FBA Reserved inventory breakdown.
Amazon Unified Account FBA Inventory
If you have integrated an Amazon Unified Account in Sellercloud, there are some further considerations needed for tracking FBA Inventory. In order to receive accurate data for quantities across international marketplaces, you will need to enable Enable Single North America FBA Marketplaces Inventory Report or Enable Single Europe FBA Marketplaces Inventory Report Client Setting. This way, Sellercloud will have access to Amazon’s FBA Multi-Country Inventory Report and be able to update FBA inventory accordingly across your listings.
FBA inventory movement
Inventory will not update based on regular inventory movement, as with the FBA Orders Report or Shipping via FBA, and there will be no regular inventory movement history for FBA orders. This is to avoid duplication to adjustments in inventory levels.
However, on the Inventory Movement page, you can click the FBA Movement tab to see FBA order movement history. Inventory is added to FBA by creating and shipping FBA inbound shipments. Amazon receives the shipment, counts the inventory, and enters it into its FBA Inventory reports.
Amazon may not receive all inventory at once. They may decide to ship some inventory to a different Amazon fulfillment center, so some inventory may only be available at a later date.
Inventory can be manually pulled to update individual products. On the Amazon Properties page, click Check Amazon FBA Quantity from the Action Menu. The quantity will update and a grid will show the status of the product’s availability, such as the earliest available time to pick.
At times, the shipped quantity may not match the amount received by Amazon, resulting in either an increase or decrease in the original quantity. To address this, Sellercloud handles this discrepancy as follows:
- By default, if Amazon over-receives, Sellercloud assumes that the shipper erred and automatically adjusts the shipped quantity to match the higher received quantity. However, to prevent any errors with over-receiving that could have happened on Amazon’s side, you can enable the Client Setting Do not adjust FBA Qty shipped even if over received. This prevents the shipped quantity from adjusting.
- If Amazon under-receives, Sellercloud will assume that Amazon will still receive more inventory in the future and will not make any adjustments to the shipped quantity.
How FBA quantities work and how to track them
As stated above, all available inventory from Amazon FBA is imported regularly in Sellercloud via the FBA Inventory reports.
- When the FBA Warehouse is marked as Non-Sellable – In this case, inventory will only show as aggregate inventory for products that are set as FBA-fulfilled. You can track physical inventory from the Product Warehouse link on the product’s Summary Page by checking the FBA quantity shown on the dedicated FBA warehouse. You can track inventory movement from the product’s Summary page by clicking Inventory Movement > View FBA Movement. Here, you can also check for reserved quantities that will not be included in the aggregate inventory.
- When the FBA Warehouse is marked as Sellable – If you set your FBA Warehouse as sellable, the inventory inside will be included into the aggregate quantities for the same products set as FBM (if they have the same ASIN). This workflow is often used when you are selling FBA-fulfilled products to other channels than Amazon and a specialized post-order plugin should be installed on your server (FBA Format). Inventory Movement will include such multi-channel orders and the Product Warehouse quantity calculations will include FBA inventory.
- A common mistake is setting different FBA integrations to the same FBA warehouse. This causes the FBA Inventory reports to overwrite each other. Because Sellercloud is regularly importing the inventory, each Amazon FBA integration must be set in a separate FBA-type warehouse.