Is Amazon FBA not operating First in First Out?
We are a seller of pet treats on Amazon and our expiration of products is 2 years. Two years into selling on Amazon, I just noticed there are some negative reviews coming from clients that there is a bad smell in our products and the cats not liking the treats. Until then we were all Five Stars averaging 4.6 rating. First I thought these were deliberate bad reviews from competitors but 4 bad negative comments later I am suspecting that Amazon is not shipping products FIFO (First-In-First-Out) and they might be shipping expired or close to expired products to customers hence the bad reviews. I don't think it is fair to the sellers to receive these bad reviews because of Amazon's oversight.
My suggestion to Amazon is makes sure you use FIFO when shipping FBA and if you can't do that check the expiration date on the product EVERY time you send a perishable product so the sellers don't unfairly get impacted.
Is Amazon FBA not operating First in First Out?
We are a seller of pet treats on Amazon and our expiration of products is 2 years. Two years into selling on Amazon, I just noticed there are some negative reviews coming from clients that there is a bad smell in our products and the cats not liking the treats. Until then we were all Five Stars averaging 4.6 rating. First I thought these were deliberate bad reviews from competitors but 4 bad negative comments later I am suspecting that Amazon is not shipping products FIFO (First-In-First-Out) and they might be shipping expired or close to expired products to customers hence the bad reviews. I don't think it is fair to the sellers to receive these bad reviews because of Amazon's oversight.
My suggestion to Amazon is makes sure you use FIFO when shipping FBA and if you can't do that check the expiration date on the product EVERY time you send a perishable product so the sellers don't unfairly get impacted.
3 replies
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Amazon has never used nor promised any sort of FIFO. Logistically, it's nearly impossible, as the inventory could be scattered over 100+ different FCs. Workers do not have the time to check expiry dates on your products to determine which to send.
It is up to you to control this; when you get a new batch, assign it a new SKU, and you can have some degree of control over which batch of product is being sold.
Seller_NbYSGJ8Tehgbv
One time, I received a lot of complaints for potato chip bags.
I was concerned they were expired so I did a bin check to see.
The response from the bin check was that the items were fine.
The listing was suspended 2 days later due to expired product.
In the 10 years I have been on this platform, I have not known Amazon to be efficient enough to apply a methodology such as First In First Out. That is why I send inventory to cover 60 days of selling and if it falls under 60 days of selling, i send another 60 days at that point. This resolves issues for me.
