Inventory management for Expiration-Dated Products
Hi, I'm looking for some insights on how to manage FBA inventory for products with expiration dates.
We're finding it challenging to decide how to handle this. It may sound easy at first, just by having different SKUs for each unique expiration date.
However, issues arise when units get customer-returned or lost in various fulfillment centers, only to reappear after months. You might think you've sold all your stock, but then you realize you have inventory that sits around indefinitely, and Amazon eventually asks you to remove it because it's expired.
Additionally, adopting this method means you are stopping an SKU from selling, affecting organic rankings, as products may go missing in specific geographic areas because older stock is only available in a handful of fulfillment centers.
I'd be really grateful for any quick tips.
Thank you!
Inventory management for Expiration-Dated Products
Hi, I'm looking for some insights on how to manage FBA inventory for products with expiration dates.
We're finding it challenging to decide how to handle this. It may sound easy at first, just by having different SKUs for each unique expiration date.
However, issues arise when units get customer-returned or lost in various fulfillment centers, only to reappear after months. You might think you've sold all your stock, but then you realize you have inventory that sits around indefinitely, and Amazon eventually asks you to remove it because it's expired.
Additionally, adopting this method means you are stopping an SKU from selling, affecting organic rankings, as products may go missing in specific geographic areas because older stock is only available in a handful of fulfillment centers.
I'd be really grateful for any quick tips.
Thank you!
15 respuestas
Seller_oJY2X570rx42E
My products have a 2 year expiration date and I've set automatic liquidation at 1 year.
I don't want to pay the long-aged storage fee anyway.
I've had almost no expired products ship this way. I just have to do a little more inventory planning.
Seller_YjQOCGcKhMlRI
I advise using different skus and when the date is coming closer to 90 days etc. sell out and close that sku so there will not be any popping in later. The skus that you are replenishing, keep the price higher until you are ready for new btach to be sold
Jameson_Amazon
Hi @Seller_xLs4owMnhY7cZ,
Thank you for reaching out about this!
I see you've received some great advice and insights from other sellers in the replies here - so happy to see this! Did these responses help answer your question? If you haven't done so already, I'd also recommend reading through this help page about expiration dates on FBA products.
If you need any additional assistance on this, please let me know.
All the best,
Jameson
Seller_obaXbOzWLSmF6
The right forecasting software is a great start. We sell a ton of expiration dated stuff and SellerMobile helps keeps in stock by forecasting a more frequent order schedule with a smaller amount of units to keep product fresh and within date ranges.
