Recommended Resources Page

Money Saving Post-Long-Term Storage 

Fee Strategy

By Stephen Smotherman

As you’re probably aware, twice a year (February 15 and August 15) Amazon charges a long term storage fee (LTSF) for all items that have been stored in a FBA warehouse for 6 months or longer. This fee can be very high as it’s currently $11.25 per cubic foot for the 6-month fee and $22.50 per cubic foot for the 12-month fee.

With Amazon charging this big fee twice a year for any item in their warehouse over six months, it’s a good strategy to possibly wait until after long-term storage fees are calculated on February 15 to send in items you think might take longer than six months to sell (or sell out if you have multiples). Here’s my thinking on why:

When Amazon calculates long-term storage fees on February 15 and August 15, they look at all of your inventory and charge you a fee for anything that’s been in an Amazon warehouse over six months. But here’s what many people forget: If you send your inventory to Amazon right after February 15, then when Amazon calculates long-term storage fees on August 15, they will only charge you the fee for any items that were stored in Amazon since before February 15 (the long-term storage fee calculation date). Here’s an example:

Scenario 1 – Sending inventory to Amazon right before February 15:

Send an item to Amazon FBA on February 10. When August 15 comes around, if you have not sold that item, then you’ll be charged a six-month long-term storage fee since you have been storing that item at an Amazon warehouse for over six months (6 months and 5 days to be exact).

 Scenario 2 – Sending inventory to Amazon right after February 15:

Send an item to Amazon FBA on February 17. When August 15 comes around, if you have not sold that item, then you won’t be charged a six-month long-term storage fee since you have been storing that item at an Amazon warehouse for under six months (5 months and 29 days to be exact). You won’t be charged a six-month long-term storage fee until February 15 of the following year.

In summary, the few weeks after Amazon calculates long-term storage fees are the absolute best days to send your potentially slow moving inventory (long-tail items) to Amazon, since you’ll be buying more time to sell your items without incurring long-term storage fees.

Keep this strategy in mind as you source for inventory throughout the year. During the summer, if you come across some items  you think might take longer than six months to sell, or if you find multiple items you think might not sell out in six months, then consider holding on to them and don’t send them to Amazon until after August 15. That way, you’ll be buying even more time before the long-term storage fees are calculated. You could even merchant fulfill these items you are storing at home before you send them in after the long-term storage fees are accessed.

Of course, this strategy is not for everyone. Hopefully, your sourcing skills have gotten so good that most of your inventory sells within the first few months of hitting the FBA warehouses. If you’re looking to learn more about how to know exactly how long it might take for an item to sell on Amazon, be sure to watch my free tutorials on how to understand Keepa, and how to understand CamelCamelCamel or check out my book/video course, The Reseller’s Guide to How to Keepa Camel: Using Amazon Sales History to Make Smart Sourcing Decisions.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Do you have any strategies that help you gain more time to sell your inventory without long-term storage fees? Do you have some helpful tips on quickly selling your inventory so that long-term storage fees aren’t even an issue?

(SOURCE)