I am creating a shipment of five boxes of inventory through FBA. However, I would like to send three boxes now from my prep center and the remaining two boxes later, after a month, when they arrive from China.
Additionally, will this approach affect the placement fee for the two boxes I send later? I would appreciate your clarification and any recommendations regarding the process.
You can first create 3 FBA shipments to be shipped from your preparation center and then create 2 boxes of FBA shipments to be shipped directly from China. Separate shipments will not affect storage charges. According to the current FBA rules, the first batch of 3 boxes will be allocated to different Amazon warehouses, and the second batch of 2 boxes may even require additional storage costs or stock replenishment restrictions. I have clients who have shipped like this. Have you started the Inventory Placement Service?
No, the inbound placement fee doesn’t depend on the quantity of your boxes. However, it is based on total cubic volume of the shipment contents.
Also, please note that your storage capacity changes on a monthly basis. This is why it would make sense for you to create each shipment beforehand to ensure you are not blocked from finalizing open shipments, once the stock becomes available.
I hope this helps. Please feel free to post here whenever you need help.
If you send three boxes now and the remaining two later as separate shipments, Amazon will likely treat them as distinct inbound shipments, which means you could still be charged a placement fee for the second batch. The FBA placement fee applies when Amazon redistributes inventory across fulfillment centers, and splitting your shipments this way does not necessarily avoid the fee. One possible workaround is to create a single shipment plan for all five boxes, send the three available boxes now, and then send the remaining two under the same shipment plan once they arrive. However, if Amazon marks the shipment as “closed” after a certain period, you may need to create a new shipment, potentially triggering another placement fee. To minimize costs, you can consider shipping everything together or checking whether Amazon’s auto-suggested fulfillment center allocations are cost-effective. If the placement fee is too high, you might also explore third-party fulfillment alternatives for the later batch.