As of the 1st of September, Amazon has retired the existing Send/replenish inventory process and replaced it with a more streamlined shipment-creation workflow called Send to Amazon. The stated goal of the change was to simplify shipment creations while maintaining adequate flexibility.
Now when you create shipments using the two Manage Inventory screens or Restock Inventory, you’ll go straight to Send to Amazon, which is also accessible through the Shipping Queue. As an alternative, you can still send in FBA shipments utilizing the Amazon Marketplace Web Service API or Selling Partner API as well.
For those who perform the inventory management role, some of the key changes include:
- Shipment IDs will not be known upfront – they will be known after the pick/pack stage
- Shipping plans, and the entire process are now called workflows
- Prep requirements are set at the upload stage
- Shipments sent via Send/Replenish Inventory will only be available for view through November
- Templates can be created for case-packed products
- Products are viewed and edited by workflow instead of shipments
As with the rollout of any new process, there are already a set of known challenges that will need to be accounted for in your internal processes:
- Using an ERP to pick/track each shipment is difficult because the Shipment ID and details are not known until the end
- Tracking each shipment is more difficult as it is tracked by workflow
- More challenges in the upload – if you have any suppressed/stranded inventory, it won’t get added to the workflow
- More communication back and forth between any third-party inventory management service and you on each workflow
- When a box content template is used, you must be within 10 boxes of actual count to use that template
- ERPs/Outside Reimbursement Softwares are still adapting to new workflow
Hopefully at this point your warehouse team or inventory leaders had already prepared for this change. However, if it flew under the radar, now is the time to dig in to understand the changes to reduce the risk of any Amazon stock-outs for your next replenishment cycle.