What is Amazon FBA Reimbursement?
Whenever Amazon makes mistakes in managing your FBA inventory and customer orders, you are owed FBA reimbursement. Amazon literally handles millions of orders daily, so mistakes are likely to occur. The problem this presents to Amazon FBA sellers isn’t that these mistakes happen, the problem is that FBA reimbursement doesn’t happen automatically. In fact, it is your responsibility to track possible errors for FBA reimbursement and submit documentation with the proper claims. And to submit claims within certain deadlines.
Errors for which you are owed FBA reimbursement can represent anywhere between 1% to 3% of your annual revenues. If you are a million-dollar-a-year business, that could mean you are literally throwing away $30,000 owed to you. Such a significant amount of money can easily affect your overall profitability. In addition, you have fewer funds available to source new products and sustain your business.
This guide explains the types of Amazon FBA reimbursement and the best way to get your FBA reimbursement in the most economical—both in terms of your time and your expenses—and efficient way.
- Amazon FBA Reimbursement Categories
- Where to Look for Potential FBA Errors
- How to Perform an FBA Reimbursement Audit
- The GETIDA FBA Reimbursement Solution
Amazon FBA Reimbursement Categories
You are owed FBA reimbursement when any of the following occurs:
- Your products are lost during shipping or at the fulfillment center.
- Your products are damaged and no longer saleable
- Customer returns are incorrectly credited and/or not properly returned to your inventory.
- Amazon exercises its right to destroy and dispose of products without your authorization
- Inaccurate product dimension overcharges. FBA storage and shipping charges are based on product size and weight. A product that is categorized as larger and/or heavier than it actually is gets assessed a higher and incorrect FBA fee.
Where to Look for Potential FBA Errors
- Lost products: Review inventory reconciliation reports for possible discrepancies.
- Damaged products: Review the Damaged Inventory Report in Seller Central that report details products lost or damaged at the Amazon fulfillment center, en route to or from the fulfillment center, or missing at the fulfillment center for the past month.
- Returned products: Only a complete FBA audit of all your transactions can determine when refunds are not properly paid, customers do not return the product but are refunded for the product, customers refunded more than the product price, Amazon accepted incorrect returns damaged returns, and/or returns accepted after the stated return date.
- Destroyed and disposed products: since Amazon does not notify you when your products are destroyed or disposed of, you must continually track inventory within your Amazon seller account.
- Incorrect product measurements: Check product dimensions against Amazon listings to document when Amazon charged for higher product weight and size.
How to Perform an FBA Reimbursement Audit
As you probably gathered by now, there’s a lot to keep track of to determine how much FBA reimbursement you are owed. The more SKUs you have, the more labor-intensive this manual process becomes. And that’s just half the issue. Once you’ve identified instances of possible FBA reimbursement, you have to submit the proper claims with the proper documentation to the proper departments within specified deadlines.
You need to concentrate on running your business and promoting your brand. One option is to hire a virtual assistant (VA) to track and submit your FBA reimbursement claims. The drawback is this adds an overhead expense that may or may not cover what you are owed. You also have to train the VA on what to look for and trust them with access to your Seller Account.
There is a better way to get your FBA Reimbursement.
Need help with this topic? our partners at Getida are at your service, send us an email via our contact form and we will refer you to them.
