When selling on Amazon as a FBA seller, do you want to set your settings to stickerless commingled inventory or not. There really are pros and cons of doing this so I will explain what stickerless commingled inventory is and let you decide.
First things first, where is the option to set it your inventory to commingled or not? On your dashboard at seller central in the top right corner under settings in the drop down box, go to settings, then to the last one that says fulfillment by Amazon, to inventory settings. It’s there under options where you chose to be stickerless commingled or not.
When you commingle your inventory it means just that. Your inventory that you send in is mingled with all inventory of the same product. Someone buys from you, but that does not mean that they get the exact item that you sent in. Amazon pulls from the pile of like inventory. Eligible units are treated as identical to units of the same product from other sellers who have also enabled Stickerless Commingled Inventory.
Stickerless, Commingled Inventory means you don’t need for to label your inventory products with FBA labels. It also helps Amazon to place your inventory closer to customers which helps to get your orders to customers faster. If you have inventory labeled in California, and the order comes from Florida, it’s not going to be as speedy of a transaction.
I suppose the risk here is if other FBA sellers aren’t packaging quality as high as yours. For example, what if your fellow commingler has left the price tag on an item, a low low sale price and the customer paid way more for it. It may have been ordered through you, yet the actual item sent to the customer came from someone else. Guess who gets the negative feedback? You.
Personally I prefer the stickerless commingled inventory simply for the ease of the shipping. I don’t have to print labels and as of yet, I have had no issues with this. If I am shipping large volumes, printing labels for all of my inventory would be very time consuming and shipping is my least favorite part of selling on Amazon FBA.
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It is easier, the issue is when fraudulent inventory comes in, like the case of the Frozen fake Elsa Dolls. Also, media items like dvd’s or cd’s can easily be bootlegged so I would avoid commingling those. Amazon assumes no responsibility for these items so if someone sends in a fake and sues it falls on the seller. That’s why they “recommend” insurance. I’ve always labeled mine but I totally agree, not labeling is WAY easier.
Yep Lesley I have thought about that too and some items I guess I just won’t sell because I am too lazy to label. Some electronics are also risky so I have been told.
Great post. I’ve encountered the scenario you describe, with poor quality commingled inventory being sent on my behalf, leading to customer support issues or negative feedback.
However, it’s been relatively easy to help customers resolve those issues, and have the negative feedback removed since it’s not due to a problem I caused.
Like you, I think the time savings alone from not labeling everything make commingling worth it.