If you sell through FBA, there's no getting around removals: customer returns, damaged items or excess stock build up in the Amazon warehouse – and rack up storage fees there month after month. With a removal order you get this stock back or have it disposed of. We'll show you how it works and what to watch out for.
What a removal order is.
A removal order tells Amazon to remove stock from the fulfilment centre. You have two options here: the Return to an address of your choice, or Disposal by Amazon. For a while now there have also been programmes like "FBA Grade and Resell", where returned stock can be resold as graded goods.
Step by step in Seller Central.
1. In Seller Central, open the menu item Inventory → Manage Inventory.
2. Select the affected ASINs and click on "Create removal order".
3. Choose return or disposal, and for a return enter the destination address.
4. Check quantity and condition (sellable / unsellable) – for unsellable stock in particular, a return is worth it so you can inspect the goods.
5. Confirm the order. Depending on capacity, processing takes a few days to several weeks.
A tip from experience: set up automatic removal settings in Seller Central. That way unsellable stock is removed automatically on a regular basis – before long-term storage fees kick in.
What a removal costs.
Amazon charges a fee per removed item based on size and weight – for standard items that's usually a few pence up to around a pound. Disposal costs about the same as a return. Always weigh that against the long-term storage fees: stock that hasn't shifted in months is almost always more expensive sitting in the Amazon warehouse than removing it.
When you should remove stock.
Sensible triggers are: customer returns marked as unsellable, damaged outer packaging (check the goods, repack, send back in), expiring products with a best-before date, excess stock ahead of the long-term storage fee cut-off dates, and product changes or relaunches where old variants need to come out of the warehouse.
High-volume Prime sellers in particular should build removals firmly into their monthly routine. If you let it slide, you pay twice: first storage fees for dead stock, then time pressure when you come to sell it off.
Why removals belong in your monthly routine.
Stock in the Amazon fulfilment centre costs money – and on a sliding scale. On top of the standard storage fee come long-term storage fees for goods that sit too long, plus surcharges for a poor inventory index. If you leave unsellable stock lying around for months, you're paying for items that will never bring in revenue again.
On top of that comes the less obvious effect: a high proportion of unsellable stock worsens your inventory metrics. And those help determine how much storage capacity Amazon grants you in the first place – a real competitive disadvantage, especially in the run-up to Christmas.
Return or disposal – which and when?.
Setting up automatic removals.
Be careful with the automatic rules for sellable stock: too aggressive a setting can clear out running bestsellers from the warehouse. In our management work we deliberately use them for unsellable stock only.
The special case of selling from abroad.
Amazon only sends removals to addresses in the country of the warehouse – so with a German FBA warehouse, to a German address. Sellers based outside that country therefore need an intermediate step: an address in the country of the warehouse or a service provider that takes in the goods, inspects them and forwards them on.
If you haven't prepared for this, you suddenly face the choice of either having everything disposed of or improvising a solution under time pressure. That's exactly why we sort this point out with clients from the very start – details are in our Amazon seller guide.
When we handle Fulfillment this route runs through our warehouse in Enns – removals, inspection and resending included.
Frequently asked questions.
How long does a removal order take?
Can I cancel a removal order?
Is a return or disposal worth it?
What is FBA Grade and Resell?
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