Supply chain challenges and product stockouts, recession and inflation-induced shifts in consumer spend: the past few years have been a wild ride for FBA sellers. To rise above the changes and unpredictabilities brands continue to face in the ecommerce space, it’s important to keep your eye on the prize with an effective inventory forecasting plan in place—one that ensures you have enough product available during Amazon's peak shopping seasons and proactively reduces surpluses and stockouts throughout the year.
As you prepare your marketplace strategy for 2023, a key question to ask is: “When should I send in my FBA inventory to ensure it’s received on time?” To make things easier on you, our logistics team created this calendar outlining the most important dates to know and when to send your product inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Centers (FCs).
This should help keep your stock levels on track, but be sure to anticipate and accommodate seasonality or specific trends related to your brand, customers, and product assortment, too:
As we continue to rebuild from the previous pandemic economy, retailers have learned to expect fluctuations with Amazon fulfillment and ever-changing consumer shopping habits. While some industries have started to recover to predictable production and ship times, we expect supply chain and production bottlenecks and worker shortages to continue, leading to delays in fulfillment and risking inventory stockout. Be sure to stay alert, flexible, and adapt your inventory forecasting strategy accordingly.
Shipping Method & QuantitiesWhen it comes to FBA inventory receiving and processing times, shipment types, shipment origins, quantities, and the number of Amazon FCs receiving your inventory all come into play. For example, we’ve found that Parcel shipping usually takes an average of one week to deliver and receive, while Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) shipments take quite a bit longer—about two to three weeks to deliver and receive, sometimes longer depending on the fulfillment center’s capacity.
If you’re experiencing issues with FBA storage limits and stockouts, Amazon launched AWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution) as a 3PL and bulk storage solution for sellers. The solution allows FBA sellers to avoid stockouts and auto-replenish inventory into Amazon FCs.
Seasonality, Consumer & Macroeconomic TrendsAs you plan your Amazon inventory line up for 2023, take a look at how seasonality impacts your customers’ behavior—and remember that Amazon category sales can fluctuate based on the season as well as the evolving macroeconomic environment.
Spring often spurs sales increases in Sports & Outdoor, Luggage & Travel Gear, Tools & Home Improvement, and Patio, Lawn & Garden products as shoppers get ready for spring break vacations or prep their yard for warm-weather activities. On the other hand, categories like Toys & Games, Handmade, and Sports & Fitness shine during the winter months as consumers purchase holiday gifts and prep for their New Year’s resolutions. Be sure your inventory forecast accounts for any seasonal shifts to avoid the risk of stockouts or accumulating aging inventory.
Amazon Prime Day EventsIn addition to maintaining the standard mid-summer Prime Day 2022, Amazon kicked off the Q4 2022 holiday shopping season by surprising shoppers (and sellers) with a Fall Prime Day/Prime Early Access Sale. These 48-hour events took place for Prime members in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., and more.
We predict they’ll follow suit for 2023, hosting two distinct Prime Day events to propel summer and winter peak shopping seasons, but Amazon is notorious for announcing official dates just weeks before the big sales events—keeping brands, retailers, and other ecommerce marketplace competitors (Target, Walmart, Home Depot) on their toes and scrambling to shift plans ahead of schedule. Be sure to check out this Prime Day seller guide for strategies to quickly pivot and capitalize on increased platform traffic and Prime Exclusive Discounts. When prepping for Amazon Prime Day events, take a look at your performance and sales data from previous Prime Events—and fine-tune your strategy with a focus on inventory forecasting, keyword research, listing optimization, and advertising performance.
Winter Holiday Shopping SeasonSpeaking of top-selling seasons, consumers seem to start their holiday shopping earlier each year—and we expect that trend to continue, with the holiday shopping season kicking off well before Black Friday and even Halloween, as early as October 1. Keep in mind that almost half of Amazon consumers say they shop for themselves during the holidays—so even if you don’t offer giftable items, be sure to take advantage of increased platform traffic and consumer spend throughout Q4. Track customer behavior and big box retailer promotions, and plan your inventory send-in, competitive pricing and coupon strategies, packaging inserts, and Amazon Ads budget accordingly. Find more logistics, advertising, and marketing tips to increase Amazon sales in Q4 here.
Whether it’s the winter holiday season or your brand’s busy season, success on Amazon means building a holistic, well-thought out logistics, pricing, marketing, advertising, and customer service strategy. Use this checklist to stay on track, implement best practices, and set yourself up for success ahead of time.
Whether you’re currently selling FBA or looking to switch from Vendor to Seller Central, SupplyKick can help create an optimal inventory strategy for your brand—either as a trusted third-party seller of your products, or as an Amazon agency consultant serving as an extension of your team. With hundreds of partners and over a decade of marketplace experience, SupplyKick specializes in working with brands who want to achieve more but don’t have the time, expertise or resources necessary to excel on today’s leading marketplaces.
Our inventory forecasting analysts help you navigate any supply chain challenges you’re currently facing and track trends to keep up with demand and reduce stockouts. Selling on Amazon can get complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Connect with our team.
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