Inbound Placement Optimizer

When to use this

• Preparing an inbound shipment and not sure which placement to choose.
• A past shipment cost more than expected and the seller suspects placement.
• Comparing Amazon-optimized routing vs minimal splits across recurring shipments.
• High-volume SKU where pennies per unit add up.

The framework. The Three Splits

1. Amazon-Optimized Shipment Splits (four or more locations). Amazon picks the destinations and the inventory goes to four+ locations. lowest placement fee, and for qualifying shipments it is free. the trade is that the seller ships to the most destinations.
2. Partial Shipment Splits (two or three locations). Inventory goes to two or three locations. a reduced per-unit placement fee, fewer destinations to ship to.
3. Minimal Shipment Splits (single location). The seller sends to one location and Amazon spreads the inventory across the network on the seller's behalf for the highest per-unit placement fee.

Step by step

1. Collect inputs. SKU(s), units per shipment, current shipping cost per unit to each option Amazon offers, and the seller's own freight rate.
2. Pull the placement quotes. Amazon's Send-to-Amazon flow shows the per-unit placement fee for each of the three splits for this specific shipment. Use those numbers, not estimates. they vary by size tier, weight, and region.
3. Compute total landed. For each split: (Amazon placement fee + seller's own outbound freight to that number of destinations) x units. The tradeoff runs the two costs against each other. more destinations (Amazon-Optimized) means a lower or zero placement fee but higher outbound freight, since the seller's carrier ships to more places with less consolidation. one destination (Minimal) means the cheapest outbound freight but the highest placement fee. Compare total dollars per shipment, not per unit, because outbound freight per unit changes with the destination count.
4. Factor speed. With Minimal, Amazon receives at one location and then redistributes across the network, so full in-stock can lag. shipping the inventory directly to more locations can get it sellable across the network sooner. For a fast-moving SKU, days out of stock at the locations you did not seed has a sales cost.
5. Pick the lowest landed. Amazon-Optimized often wins because the placement fee it removes (frequently down to zero) outweighs the extra outbound freight, especially for light, low-cube units. Minimal can win when the seller's outbound freight to multiple destinations is expensive relative to the placement fee, for example heavy or bulky SKUs. Partial is the middle ground. run the numbers, do not assume.
6. Repeat across the shipment plan. Decision per shipment, not a fixed policy.
7. Run the quality check, then deliver.

Output format

## Inbound Placement Decision. [shipment ID]

Units: [N]   SKU(s): [list]

### Splits compared
1. Amazon-Optimized (4+ locations). Placement fee/unit: [$]. Outbound freight/unit: [$]. Total: [$]
2. Partial (2-3 locations). ...
3. Minimal (single location). ...

### Winner: [option]
[reasoning + dollar comparison]

### Speed implication
[days to in-stock per option, sales-cost estimate if relevant]

Worked example

Quality check

• All three splits are quoted from Amazon's Send-to-Amazon flow, not estimated.
• Total landed is computed per split, adding the seller's outbound freight to the placement fee, with the tradeoff (lower placement vs higher outbound at more destinations) made explicit.
• Speed to in-stock is factored, especially for fast-moving SKUs.
• The decision is per shipment, not a fixed policy.
• The math is dollars per shipment, not per unit (because outbound freight scales with the destination count).

Common mistakes

• Defaulting to Minimal Shipment Splits. Sellers pick the single-location option for convenience and pay the highest placement fee per unit, often more than the outbound freight they saved.
• Ignoring outbound freight. Amazon-Optimized cuts or zeroes the placement fee but adds outbound freight, because the carrier now ships to four+ destinations. netting the two is the whole exercise. comparing placement fees alone is wrong.
• One-off thinking. Picking once and applying to every shipment. each shipment gets its own quote, and the quote varies by size, weight, and region.
• Forgetting speed. Minimal can stockout a fast SKU while Amazon redistributes from one location, costing more in lost sales than the freight it saved.

Built by Jay GPT Pro