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Amazon Prime delivery time is now 29 days!

biophase

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Amazon has made most of its FBA stuff have an April 21st delivery. Now we will see what happens when your Amazon channel goes away. I expect to see my sales drop 99% from Amazon. I doubt anybody will order tomorrow with a 28 day lead time! This is the big control issue Armageddon that we probably all thought would never happen!
 
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MoneyDoc

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Amazon has made most of its FBA stuff have an April 21st delivery. Now we will see what happens when your Amazon channel goes away. I expect to see my sales drop 99% from Amazon. I doubt anybody will order tomorrow with a 28 day lead time! This is the big control issue Armageddon that we probably all thought would never happen!
Luckily this hasn’t happened in Canada.

I’m not surprised it happened in the USA. 330 million population.
 

AllenCrawley

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Some of my products are still showing the normal delivery dates but it’s likely rolling out to all non essential products.
 
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AllenCrawley

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MoneyDoc

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https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/2...delivery-delays-april-21-coronavirus-C0VlD-19
All of our products are in health and household. Our delivery dates are still 1-2 days. I guess it’s category dependent (not product) as our products are not “essential” per se.
 

sinj

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Amazon has made most of its FBA stuff have an April 21st delivery. Now we will see what happens when your Amazon channel goes away. I expect to see my sales drop 99% from Amazon. I doubt anybody will order tomorrow with a 28 day lead time! This is the big control issue Armageddon that we probably all thought would never happen!

Crazy times indeed. Do you think some business might try to compensate by dumping inventory with aggressive discounts?
 
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Benedict

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Any thoughts on what to do about the situation?

Maybe it is time to look at some other resalers or maybe even start sending them your own - at least to customers with high price orders... just let them know you care.
 

Antti

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All of our products are in health and household. Our delivery dates are still 1-2 days. I guess it’s category dependent (not product) as our products are not “essential” per se.

Are you able to send more inventory for those listings?

I sell products in the home&kitchen category that I suppose could be considered at least semi-essentials. They have been selling like crazy since the emergency was declared and the listings still show normal delivery times.

Only problem is that I cannot create new shipments to Amazon warehouse because Amazon doesn’t consider them essentials. Almost all my listings will soon be out of stock.
 

MHP368

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Here south of tucson its gone to about a week , so I think the breakdown in my area is simply too much volume for the available drivers.

I was thinking though , bezos could probably buy the korean or japanese rapid tests out of pocket for his warehouse workers and also spray each warehouse with ozone once daily through the worst of this without breaking a sweat.

How fast can he ramp up hiring from the displaced service industry workers though?
 
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MoneyDoc

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Are you able to send more inventory for those listings?

I sell products in the home&kitchen category that I suppose could be considered at least semi-essentials. They have been selling like crazy since the emergency was declared and the listings still show normal delivery times.

Only problem is that I cannot create new shipments to Amazon warehouse because Amazon doesn’t consider them essentials. Almost all my listings will soon be out of stock.
Yeah. That news literally destroyed thousands of sellers souls. But I can understand why they had to do it.
 

Kung Fu Steve

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Tried to order my mother a Roku yesterday and that was the case. April 28th.

Then of course I call her and she's not even home so I yelled at her :rofl:

Target and Best Buy are doing "online order, in-store pickup" where they bring it out to your car. Whatever it takes, right?
 
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Tourmaline

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@Kung Fu Steve Yup, never expected to see the day when Best Buy has curbside pickup lol
 

ChrisV

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maybe they'll give you 1 prime video credit if you choose the '36 day' option
 

Charnell

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Dropshippers everywhere are excited they can finally compete with Amazon's delivery time...
 
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D

DeletedUser0287

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As a consumer, I still purchase knowing that the lead times are now long. Even off Amazon. Sometimes they give discount for delay. If your product is good, it will still sell even with long lead times. If something like this kills your sales, then your product is poor. So people are only going to buy your product if it has fast shipping? Says a lot about the desirability (if that is a word) about your product.
 

AgainstAllOdds

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As a consumer, I still purchase knowing that the lead times are now long. Even off Amazon. Sometimes they give discount for delay. If your product is good, it will still sell even with long lead times. If something like this kills your sales, then your product is poor. So people are only going to buy your product if it has fast shipping? Says a lot about the desirability (if that is a word) about your product.

No one's waiting a month on a non-essential good.

They'll go to a local store and pay more, find it on another site that can ship right away, or give up on the purchase.

The problem isn't the product and the value of the product. It's the distribution channel - which is a vital component of the value chain.
 

million$$$smile

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That is the name of the game. This allows Merchant Fulfillment or dropshipping (if available) to be that much more of an incentive.

Know that this is all new territory for all of us. I sell both online and in my B&M's and have seen over a 50% drop in sales in both areas. But currently we are still open.

No one knows exactly when and how this is going to end.
My recommendations are to:
  1. Protect your health foremost
  2. Hold on to your cash as much as possible
  3. And begin to ask yourself what is most important.
Because EVERYTHING could very well change, and quickly.

I don't think I will have my stores open that much longer. We will continue to ship our online orders
with a skeleton crew if at all possible.
I am primarily concerned about my employees and want to make sure they are taken care of financially at least into mid April.
Part of our business is regarded as 'essential' but it may not mean we will be able to keep everyone working even at reduced hours.

Deliveries and supplies may end up being sporadic. That is something to consider.

I also am trying to think of all the what-ifs, even if they sound crazy now, they may not sound crazy in the near future. Ideas like, will I need to board up my windows of my store to discourage looting or will I need to pick up my shipments rather than wait for delivery, etc.

Just some random thoughts.
 
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D

DeletedUser0287

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No one's waiting a month on a non-essential good.

They'll go to a local store and pay more, find it on another site that can ship right away, or give up on the purchase.

The problem isn't the product and the value of the product. It's the distribution channel - which is a vital component of the value chain.

Looks like we are talking about two different things. Commodity, nobody waiting on that and there are tons of options on other sites/stores like you said. It is clear that most people that are getting hit by this Amazon longer shipping times have commodities, aka products nobody gives a damn about.

Non-essential doesn't necessarily mean commodity. Another reason to avoid the commodity markets and make something remarkable. Yes, I am still waiting over month for non-essential goods. Why? They remarkable products. Can't really get anywhere else.

If a product is remarkable, people will wait. Too bad many on here just sell commodities.
 
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ChrisV

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No one's waiting a month on a non-essential good.

They'll go to a local store and pay more, find it on another site that can ship right away, or give up on the purchase.
Except (at least where I live) most businesses are closed now by law and many cities and states have shelter-in-place orders where residents can't leave the house aside from groceries.

With Amazon prioritizing essential items, we might see other sites start popping back up shipping other items.
 
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biophase

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I switched over to FBM on my top sellers, about 100 SKUs. Had a few orders come in already (they chose FBM over FBA on the same product) so people are looking at the shipping dates.

But I also had 80 FBA orders this morning before switching over. I'm going to guess that those people did not look at fulfillment times and will be complaining to us around Friday.
 
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steelandchrome

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I've had some of my best sales the last 4 days over the last 30 for comparison but dried up around 5pm yesterday. I expect them to drop off pretty significantly with these new lead times and today have zero sales so far. I only have about $8k in inventory tied up at FBA right now but seems like it will be stuck there for quite a while. Ebay and Mercari however have been solid and I just packed and shipped 20 orders.
 

Vigilante

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Amazon has made most of its FBA stuff have an April 21st delivery. Now we will see what happens when your Amazon channel goes away. I expect to see my sales drop 99% from Amazon. I doubt anybody will order tomorrow with a 28 day lead time! This is the big control issue Armageddon that we probably all thought would never happen!

I converted all of our listings to FBM and immediately got a lift over nearly all competitors. Sales increased immediately and dramatically.
I am also noticing other channels increasing as Amazon yields marketshare.
 

samuraijack

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I converted all of our listings to FBM and immediately got a lift over nearly all competitors. Sales increased immediately and dramatically.
I am also noticing other channels increasing as Amazon yields marketshare.

Why this as opposed to having both FBA and FBM offers?
 
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biophase

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I converted all of our listings to FBM and immediately got a lift over nearly all competitors. Sales increased immediately and dramatically.
I am also noticing other channels increasing as Amazon yields marketshare.

Did you also close your FBA listings?
 

samuraijack

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Because the FBA listing will still have the buy box, and you want your FBM listing to get the buy box.

What will happen to FBA inventory then?

I've read there's 2 ways. You can convert your current FBA listing to FBM (FBA inventory becomes stranded?)

Or you can go to edit -> add new condition to set up a concurrent FBM offer. You won't get the buybox but it will be an option for buyers. Never did FBM so not sure how delivery dates will show up. Some say to raise FBA price to lose buybox to your FBM.
 
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biophase

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What will happen to FBA inventory then?

I've read there's 2 ways. You can convert your current FBA listing to FBM (FBA inventory becomes stranded?)

Or you can go to edit -> add new condition to set up a concurrent FBM offer. You won't get the buybox but it will be an option for buyers. Never did FBM so not sure how delivery dates will show up. Some say to raise FBA price to lose buybox to your FBM.

I add a new condition, then close the FBA listing. The inventory stays there. I think it is easier to close than to raise the price. I have 300 SKUs, I'd rather close them all and then reopen them.

Definitely, do not convert your FBA to FBM. That's alot of work to switch back and forth.
 

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