Amazon Announces Huge Changes to Small & Light and Extra Large Items
Amazon on Monday fired a double-barrel announcement affecting FBA sellers—it announced significant changes to the FBA Small and Light Program as well as a brand new Extra Large storage type for large items.
Small and Light Threshold Bumped Up to $10
Amazon will increase the US Small and Light price threshold to $10 starting April 28, 2022 (The previous threshold was set at $8). This means that products priced at up to $10 could now be eligible for the FBA Small and Light program, provided they hit other eligibility requirements like weight and dimensions, all of which remain unchanged.
Items enrolled under FBA Small and Light receive fulfillment discounts that allow for a higher volume of low-cost goods to be sold at a faster rate. This change is huge news for FBA sellers who are not able to enroll their small products due to the previously very low price threshold. It could also give sellers who are already enrolled in Small and Light more wiggle room to adjust their prices, especially after Amazon recently tacked an additional 5% fuel and inflation surcharge across the board.
Feedback from sellers has been generally positive, with some suggesting that a logical next step to improve the Small and Light Program would be to make enrolled items available to be sold to Canada and Mexico through remote fulfillment or NARF.
Also Read: The Truth About Ecommerce Inflation
New Extra-Large Storage Type
In a separate announcement, Amazon introduced a brand new storage type: Extra Large, which we assume is wholly distinct from the already existing Oversize category. The category was added on April 18, 2022.
Amazon claims that this change benefits sellers who sell large and expensive items, as the added storage type could make it easier to manage inventory and get around quantity limits for these large items—the limits will be determined separately for extra-large and oversize items. On the other hand, a number of FBA sellers selling oversized items were caught off guard by the change, as the restock limits for this new extra-large category seems to be significantly lower than the limits for oversized items. One seller observed that their products were reclassified from oversized to extra-large overnight, with the maximum inventory level having been reduced to a mere 1/6 of the previous limit.
Sellers who have existing inventory that qualify under this new storage type will have their items automatically reclassified as extra-large. You can check your current storage limits and maximum capacity on the Inventory Performance Dashboard within Seller Central. If you want to check it out yourself, the Extra-large FBA inventory page specifies how items are classified, shown below:
| Longest side | Median side | Shortest side | Girth | Unit weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra-large | 96 inches or more for non-TV items; 40 inches or more for TVs | N/A | N/A | 130 inches or more | 50 lb or more |
| Oversized | 18 inches or more | 14 inches or more | 8 inches or more | N/A | 20 lb or more |
Also worth noting is that these two storage types also differ in terms of fulfillment. Per Amazon, orders for these items are handled through separate fulfillment networks.
Although both changes were made by Amazon for better inventory management and more efficient fulfillment, always remember that the ecommerce giant always puts the customers first. Whether or not these updates actually benefit FBA sellers in the long run remains to be seen.
