Here it comes! These are the tips that I share with Amazon sellers regarding how to prepare Amazon FBA inventory for the Q4 rush, and things to avoid.

Place Your Big Holiday Order in Q3

Pretty self-explanatory.

I’ve been selling my own brand on Amazon since 2015 and I always found that if we wait until Sep-Oct to place our Q4 order, it always comes down to the wire. We were even OOS for Christmas week one time which was a fuckin nightmare.

The number 1 mistake is placing your Q4 order too late and being out of stock for Black Friday and/or Christmas week. Avoiding this is your #1 priority. For Amazon SEO services, you can check from here.

Staying IN-STOCK for BF-CM-XMAS is your #1 job. 🎄💰🎅

So I always mark August as the time to make our big Q4 order… and this was before all the new global supply chain issues….

So now more than ever, don’t leave it up to chance — place your Q4 order soon so you have plenty of timein case there are unexpected delays this season. At your supplier’s end, at the ports, or at Amazon FBA’s end. It’s always some shit show somewhere these days… 🙄

Might as well get there early if you can.

Use the Twin FBA-FBM Method if Facing FBA Storage Limits

This is an easy trick when there is an FBA storage limit hindering you.

Just click next to the ASIN > Add Another Condition > Everything the same except Make up a new SKU (I just put the same SKU with -FBM to the end) > keep it as Fulfilled by Merchant.

This is the same ASIN, just FBM.

So whenever FBA is out of stock, orders will automatically go to your SKU that is FBM.

Of course, have FBM fulfillment set up and ready to go! In the meantime, work on sending more to FBA

Before the Q4 rush begins, start shopping for 3PL with prep centers, or at the very least, have some excess inventory at your office that you can ship yourself if ever needed. Here’s a list of our recommended 3PL Warehouses in the US.

Make Sure All Products Are Compliant & Category Approved

The last thing you want to happen is to get flagged right before Christmas for some sort of category approval or another regulatory issue. So if you know there are approval documents required, get them submitted early.

For example, for supplements, Amazon has started to require CoA documentation. Here is our article on getting approved to sell supplements on Amazon.

Have Enough Left for Jan-Feb

January is actually typically not that bad in terms of shopping numbers.

Chinese new year is February, when all factories are off for 2-4 weeks. So don’t forget to calculate to have enough Q4 inventory left for January.

Place your next order in January before the CNY factory break so you’re good for Q2.

Use a Chinese Warehouse if needed

Your sell-through percentage is predicated on shipping, therefore you may want to consider having access to units kept in China if you are concerned that your manufacturing firm won’t be able to fulfil smaller orders in shorter time spans.

This will keep your shipping costs down. Naturally, this isn’t always a wise financial decision, but crunch the statistics to see if it’s worthwhile.

Look into improved shipment times

It’s possible that your freight forwarder sucks.

If you are frustrated with high shipping fees and long shipping times, you may want to consider hiring a supply-chain audit expert or agency to look into this for you.

I’ve seen situations where just knowing the right shipping company turns sea shipping from 40 days to 20 days! Because there are many complicated ways that brokers can get cheap space on boats.

I have a contact of a good supply-chain audit agency if you are looking for one.

OK hope that helped! If so, feel free to share with a friend.

What are your tips? Leave a comment if you have tips.