How AWD can make your supply chain and FBA work better

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A key part of selling in the HAQM store is providing customers with good delivery service. Fast shipping and Prime eligibility can help, but it’s also important to have the right amount of inventory in stock.

When you don’t have enough inventory, you can lose sales and disappoint customers. When you keep too much inventory, high storage costs in certain locations can reduce your profits—especially during holiday seasons.

What if you could optimize your fulfillment without constantly monitoring inventory levels?

HAQM Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) can help you maintain Prime eligibility while reducing your storage costs. This program can offer cost-effective long-term storage and automatically sends products to Fulfillment by HAQM (FBA) when needed to help keep products replenished and ready for delivery. It can also distribute to sales channels beyond the HAQM store to help further grow your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

• What AWD is and how it differs from FBA
• What AWD can do for your business
• How AWD can fit into your existing FBA strategy
• How to send your first shipment to AWD
• How to manage your AWD inventory

What is HAQM Warehousing and Distribution (AWD)?

HAQM Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) is a bulk, long-term storage solution that can help replenish your inventory even before it’s needed for customer orders. Think of AWD as a warehouse where you can store large quantities of your products at a lower cost.

Here’s what AWD does:

• Stores your bulk inventory for longer periods at cost-effective rates
• Sends inventory to the HAQM fulfillment network automatically—or manually, if you prefer—when stock runs low
• Distribute to non-HAQM sales channels
• Connects your manufacturing supply chain to the HAQM fulfillment network

Unlike fulfillment centers that focus on shipping directly to customers, AWD warehouses hold your inventory until it’s needed. For example, if your FBA inventory starts running low, AWD can replenish it without you having to monitor stock levels constantly.

Learn more about HAQM Warehousing and Distribution

AWD vs. FBA: What’s the difference?

The main difference between AWD and FBA is their primary purpose: AWD is for long-term bulk storage, while FBA is for near-term order fulfillment.

Here’s a table that shows other differences and how they complement each other:

Feature	AWD	FBA
Primary purpose	Long-term bulk storage and inventory management	Direct-to-customer order fulfillment
Enrollment process	No enrollment needed	Requires enrollment and approval
Product storage	Upstream inventory before it’s needed	Customer-ready inventory for immediate sales
Key benefit	Lower storage costs, without holiday season surcharges	Prime eligibility with fast shipping to customers
Better for	Long-term storage, seasonal inventory, bulk orders	Fast-moving inventory with quicker turnover

Why use AWD?

Potential costs savings

AWD can help cut storage costs, especially during holiday seasons. AWD pricing includes FBA inbound placement at no extra charge. This means you avoid seasonal surcharges and benefit from more predictable expenses year-round.

Automatic FBA replenishment

AWD’s auto-replenishment feature can help reduce FBA stock-outs. This system:

• Can help maintain optimal FBA inventory levels
• Doesn’t count against FBA storage limits
• Can help keep products Prime-eligible during high-demand periods

One inventory pool, multi-channel distribution

Manage everything from a central location. With AWD, you can distribute your products to the HAQM FBA fulfillment network—and you can distribute to non-HAQM sales channels, including your own or 3PL warehouses, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers like Walmart.

How AWD can fit into your existing FBA strategy

Although you can use AWD and FBA separately, you don’t have to choose between them. The ideal approach for many sellers is to use both: AWD for cost-effective long-term storage and FBA for near-term customer fulfillment.

Here’s how you could use both strategically:

Simplify your supply chain

With AWD, you can create a simple inventory flow, from manufacturer to AWD, then to FBA and the customer. This system can help remove the need for outside warehouses, which could mean fewer shipping addresses and simpler product tracking.

Optimize inventory levels year-round

Set minimum and maximum FBA inventory levels and let AWD automatically replenish when needed. During slower seasons, keep most inventory in AWD to help reduce costs. As busy seasons approach, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, gradually increase FBA levels while maintaining safety stock in AWD.

Prepare for growth opportunities

AWD’s flexible storage capacity allows you to take advantage of bulk ordering discounts from suppliers. You can negotiate better terms for larger orders, knowing you have cost-effective storage available while maintaining only optimal levels in FBA.

Know which products to send to AWD or FBA

With both AWD and FBA available, how do you decide which products to send where? Your strategy could vary based on product characteristics and sales patterns.

Here’s a view of some variations:

Product type	Send to AWD	Send to FBA
Seasonal products	Store off-season products—Christmas decorations in January, summer products in winter	Send during or just before their holiday selling season—holiday products in Q4
Sales velocity	Slow-moving inventory with predictable, steady demand	Fast-selling products with 30 to 60-day turnover rates
Inventory stage	Bulk purchases, overstock, or safety stock	Just enough inventory for near-term customer orders
Product lifecycle	Established products with predictable demand	New product launches to gauge initial demand
Special requirements	Products with longer shelf life	Products requiring special prep or handling
Demand pattern	Predictable, consistent demand	Products that might experience sudden demand spikes

What products are eligible for AWD?

Before sending inventory to HAQM Warehousing and Distribution, check your products’ eligibility. AWD accepts most standard product categories, with some exceptions.

Eligible product categories (at time of publication)

Most retail categories including apparel, beauty, books, electronics, home goods, toys, and sports products are eligible. Recent additions include shoes, expiration-dated products, and non-sort conveyable products.

Products not eligible for AWD

· HAQM devices
· Gift cards and high-value products
· Jewelry and watches
· Meltable products (chocolate, gummies)
· Refrigerated goods
· Dangerous goods (hazmat)

In addition, AWD doesn’t support lithium-ion batteries at this time.

Size and weight limits

Products must be in boxes smaller than 25” x 25” x 25” and weigh less than 50 lbs. Each box must contain only one SKU.

For expiration-dated products, they must have at least 185 days remaining shelf life when sent to AWD.

Learn more about AWD product eligibility

Learn more about FBA product restrictions

How to send your first shipment to AWD in 6 steps

To create an AWD shipment, first access the program page in Seller Central. From the Inventory menu, select Warehousing and distribution (AWD). Then navigate to the Manage service tab and select Create shipment. This will open the Send to HAQM Warehousing and Distribution workflow, which guides you through these steps:

1. Choose inventory to send: Select which products you want to send to AWD.
2. Confirm shipping: Review your shipping plan and destination details.
3. Print box labels: Generate and apply labels to each box in your shipment.
4. Confirm carrier: Select between HAQM partnered carrier or seller-managed carrier options.
5. Print pallet labels: For pallet shipments with an HAQM partnered carrier, print and apply pallet labels.
6. Tracking details: Provide tracking information for your shipment.

The workflow will adjust based on your shipping method. Some steps only apply to pallet shipments, or when using HAQM partnered carriers.

Learn how to send products to AWD

Learn how to send products to FBA

Send inventory to AWD

How to manage your AWD inventory

Access your AWD inventory page

Within 2 to 3 days after sending your first shipment to AWD, you’ll gain access to the HAQM Warehousing and Distribution inventory page. This becomes your central dashboard for monitoring all your AWD inventory.

Quick access path:

1. Select Inventory from the Seller Central main menu.
2. Choose Warehousing and distribution (AWD).
3. Select the View inventory button.

View your AWD inventory dashboard at a glance

The AWD inventory page provides a comprehensive view of your stored products. Here’s what you can track:

Details	What you can see
Inventory summary	View your total SKUs in AWD, SKUs in transit, SKUs with errors, and blocked SKUs.
SKU details	Track product information including SKU, ASIN, and product name.
Inventory quantities	Monitor units available in AWD (with case counts), inbound to AWD, and reserved in AWD.
FBA inventory status	See available units in FBA and days of supply for each product.
Replenishment settings	View which products use auto-replenishment or manual replenishment, upcoming replenishment quantities, and any errors.
Discount eligibility1	Check which SKUs qualify for “AWD Smart Storage Discount” rates—new for April 2025.
Quick actions	Access direct actions like “Send to AWD” or “Fix errors” for each product.

The dashboard also includes filtering options to view specific inventory segments like “SKUs in AWD” or “All eligible FBA SKUs” to help you manage your inventory more effectively.

Manage auto-replenishment settings

One of AWD’s best features is that it can automatically send products to FBA when you’re running low.

Here’s how to manage auto-replenishment:

1. From your AWD inventory page, locate the product you want to manage. In the FBA Replenishment column, select Auto-replenishment or Manual replenishment to access replenishment settings.
2. Choose from three replenishment options:
   
   • FBA auto-replenishment with HAQM recommended quantity: HAQM determines how much inventory is needed in FBA and automatically creates shipments and replenishes on your behalf.
   • FBA auto-replenishment with quantity limit: You specify the minimum and maximum units that FBA will hold, and AWD replenishes up to that amount.
   • Turn off FBA auto-replenishment: You manually control inventory movement from AWD to FBA.
3. If selecting the quantity limit option, enter your desired minimum and maximum FBA unit limits.
4. Select Update to save your settings.

Note that for products with multiple seller SKUs under the same ASIN, HAQM uses the highest value set across all SKUs to determine replenishment quantity. Updates to these settings can take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Complete your fulfillment strategy with AWD

If you’ve been searching for the missing piece in your HAQM fulfillment strategy, you’re likely struggling with balancing inventory costs and availability. Storing too much inventory in other locations can lead to high costs that eat into your profits, especially during holiday seasons. Store too little, and you risk missed sales opportunities.

AWD can help solve this problem by providing cost-effective storage for seasonal or bulk inventory, while automatically replenishing your FBA stock as needed.

This means lower overall storage costs and optimal inventory levels without constant management.

Create your first AWD shipment

*A Professional selling plan is $39.99 a month + selling fees. Learn more
¹ Eligibility for HAQM managed rate:

1. You must meet the auto-replenishment ratio of 70%+ and combined historical days of supply of 70+ days criteria.
2. When you use the Supply Chain by HAQM Managed Service for your SKU—use HAQM Global Logistics, Partnered Carrier program, or HAQM Global Selling SEND—the SKU would be eligible for the discounted rate.