Amazon Inbound: Monitor Your Shipments & Get Refunded for Errors

Amazon inbound shipment has become an important factor of  the everyday business for many third-party sellers on Amazon marketplaces.

Unfortunately, even with this highly coordinated process, products can still get lost.

In this post we’ll show you how you can detect and get your money back for these errors.

Read on!

Smooth Amazon Inbound Shipment | Potential Sources of Error

Up to 89% of third-party sellers on the online giant’s marketplaces use the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program because they rely on its high quality and reliability.

Amazon takes care of warehousing, pick & pack, shipping, customer service and returns management.

However, to ensure that products are consistently available for purchase, FBA sellers still have to ensure that fresh goods arrive at the logistics centers on time.

The effort seems quite manageable.

However, for a smooth inbound shipment to Amazon, there are actually quite a few guidelines and requirements that sellers must follow.

These include – among others – guidelines regarding:

• packaging,
• preparation,
• the provision of information on the contents of the box,
• shipping, and
• delivery planning.

Related content: Amazon Shipping Label Requirements | Tips For FBA Sellers

How to Handle Violations

On the one hand, violations of these can lead to immediate consequences, ranging from refusal to accept goods to additional charges to blocking future deliveries.

On the other hand, non-compliance increases the likelihood that this complex process will be delayed, with further errors occurring along the way.

There are a number of issues identified and reported to sellers as early as the receiving process.

According to Amazon, these include the following:

• missing tracking information,
• missing or wrong labels,
• missing packaging,
• unacceptable packaging materials,
• wrong number of pieces,
• damaged products,
• expired best before dates,
• etc.

By taking the time to understand the guidelines and requirements, salespeople can already eliminate many sources of error and enable a smooth inbound process for Amazon FBA.

How to Report Inbound Shipment Errors to Amazon

If sellers have done their best and fully complied with all of Amazon’s terms and policies, discrepancies can still arise over which they themselves have no control.

For example, a booking error may be caused by a logistics center employee. Another possible scenario is the loss of products during inbound shipment to Amazon.

If such discrepancies go undetected, it can turn out to be quite costly for sellers at the end of the day.

That’s why it’s essential to check shipments received and booked at the logistics center – and claim a refund if necessary.

Related content: How to Use the FBA Calculator for Your Product Research on Amazon

How to Check Shipments on Seller Central

To do this, the shipment needs to be shown as eligible for investigation on the “Reconcile” tab of the Summary page in your shipping workflow.

Follow these steps:

1. Select the shipment that is to be checked in Seller Central under “Inventory > Manage FBA Shipments” and call up the “Contents” tab under “Track Shipments” in the shipping workflow.
2. The status of all units as well as possible discrepancies between the products sent – according to the delivery schedule – and actually posted products can be viewed.
3. If you notice that items are missing or even damaged, you can request an investigation.

Important!

Sellers can read various status messages for each product.

The “Action required” message, e.g., indicates existing discrepancies and entitles sellers to an investigation.

The request for investigation also usually requires uploading proof of ownership (e.g., a purchase receipt or invoice from the supplier) showing the date of purchase, the product names of the missing products, and their quantity. 

For matching purposes, a waybill must be provided for truckloads as proof of delivery, showing how many packages were included in the delivery and the total weight of the delivery when it was picked up by the transport service.

If all the necessary information is included, sellers can check the request in a preview and submit it to Amazon.

Automated Analysis of Inbound Shipment Errors

The described manual check for lost products in the inbound shipment to Amazon is most likely to be time-consuming and staff-intensive.

Especially with higher order volumes and large numbers of SKUs, it is hardly possible to thoroughly check the details of all shipments after the receipt of the goods has arrived. But one thing is clear: every undetected error in inbound shipment means lost money for Amazon FBA sellers.

It therefore makes sense to automate the analysis of errors in the inbound process as much as possible.

Suggested Tools

SellerLogic’s Lost & Found tool can automatically monitor and analyze all inbound shipments to Amazon. For all found errors, the tool creates a new case containing all the necessary information. Therefore, it can be transferred to Amazon in just a few clicks. In addition to inbound shipments, Lost & Found also covers other error types:

• items damaged or lost in the warehouse;
• items lost in an Amazon warehouse because a customer return was scanned at receipt but not posted to inventory;
• items in saleable condition that were nevertheless destroyed without the express consent of the seller and prior to the expiration of the 30-day period;
• etc.

The tool also provides texts for the applications and subsequent communication with Amazon. In addition, depending on the case type, the tool can detect errors up to 18 months retrospectively and significantly minimize financial losses of FBA sellers.

With SellerLogic Lost & Found, all the analysis runs in the background while you have time for more important things without giving away five or six figures to Amazon. Try Lost & Found now!

Conclusion: Dealing with Lost Products in Inbound Shipments to Amazon

Many third-party merchants on Amazon use the FBA program – and rightly so, because it saves time as well as capacity and offers customers the best service. FBA sellers “only” have to ensure that their goods arrive at the logistics centers on time. 

Even if perfectly prepared for shipment, the complexity of the inbound shipment process means a number of errors can occur, such as products being lost.

If such cases are not detected, no refund is given and sellers lose money.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to rely on automated solutions such as SellerLogic Lost & Found and thus efficiently perform the error analysis and corresponding claim.

About SellerLogic

SellerLogic Repricer and Lost & Found are two dynamic tools in the SellerLogic portfolio that can be connected to an Amazon seller account with a few clicks. Our dynamic and intelligent solutions help our customers achieve efficient and consistent profit maximization on Amazon while also saving time and money. 

SellerLogic Tools

SellerLogic Repricer:

90% of all Amazon sales take place in the Buy Box. Our modular designed tool SellerLogic Repricer for Amazon offers different strategies and reacts quickly to price changes on Amazon.

The price optimization tool helps you win and keep the Buy Box not with the lowest, but with the highest possible price. I

t grants you full control through the specification of your minimum and maximum prices. By automatically determining the minimum price, this tool ensures that you will never sell with a negative margin. 

SellerLogic Lost & Found:

A lot of money is lost due to unclaimed FBA errors. Without intelligent automation, FBA errors can only be identified with great effort.

This tool automatically analyzes all FBA transactions and shows hidden reimbursement claims without exception.

With our help, you can get your money back with a minimum investment of time and effort – and even up to 18 months retrospectively.

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