If your stock has ever gotten stuck in FC Processing in Amazon then you must have wondered what does this mean. This is why I recommend all to understand Amazon inventory workflow which is important for all Amazon sellers.
This blog post is for all old, new sellers and virtual assistants who have recently joined Amazon marketplace and need to understand the FBA workflow.
While selling on Amazon most sellers use the FBA services of Amazon. In FBA after creating shipment, sellers do not have control of their inventory therefore they need to know what is the status of their inventory. Let us understand how Amazon controls sellers’ inventory.
To understand this we need to understand what Amazon inventory statuses mean at each stage. Following are the statuses, FBA sellers can see on Amazon seller central regarding their inventory.
- Inbound (FBA Inventory is not available to customers at this stage)
- Reserved: FC Processing (FBA Inventory is not available to customers at this stage)
- Reserved: FC Transfer (Inventory is available to customers at this stage but prime delivery is not)
- Available (FBA Inventory is available to customers at this stage along with prime delivery)
- Reserved: Customer Orders (FBA Inventory is reserved for the customer)
- Unfulfillable (FBA Inventory has to be disposed of or removed from the Amazon fulfillment center)
- Researching (FBA Inventory is misplaced or damaged, an investigation is undergoing)
What Does FC Processing Means in Amazon?
FC stands for Fulfillment Center. Amazon FC Processing is the next stage of inventory when it reaches in Amazon Fulfillment Centers. This stage denotes a process where Amazon’s team checks the units such as weight, dimensions, pending investigations, etc
After Amazon FC Processing, inventory moves to Available status.
Let us understand the whole process of inventory flow till the end.
Inbound
The first status is Inbound. This status denotes that the inventory is in transit to Amazon’s Fulfillment Center. The seller is required to create a shipment to replenish the stock of specific ASIN and when the seller enters the tracking number of the shipment Amazon knows that stock is on the way.
Reserved: FC Processing
This is the second stage where Inventory has been received by Amazon’s Fulfillment Center and the inventory is undergoing the checks such as weight, dimensions, pending investigations, pending removal, etc.
Reserved: FC Transfer Status
Amazon has got 1,137 fulfillment centers of various types in the U.S.A. Amazon distributes the stock of all Amazon sellers to all centers to enable smooth prime deliveries to customers.
Amazon FC Transfer status is the third stage where inventory is undergoing a transfer process to another Amazon fulfillment center. At this stage, inventory is available for delayed deliveries and Amazon shows the late delivery date to customers which means customers will see a future ship date for their orders.
Available
This is the fourth stage where prime delivery of inventory is enabled. All units of inventory will be shown as available to customers.
Reserved: Customer Orders
This is the fifth stage of the inventory when inventory units have been reserved for specific customers and cannot be sold to any other customer. This happens after the order has been confirmed by the customer.
Unfulfillable
This status denotes a condition of units when inventory can not be delivered to the customer.
Amazon provides only 2 options to the seller in this scenario. The first option is to dispose of the inventory and the second option is to provide a shipping address and Amazon delivers the unfulfillable inventory to the seller.
Researching
This status is a new classification that is shown on the inventory dashboard which denotes any specific units that might have misplaced or damaged. In this stage, the Amazon team is investigating the units.
Units remain under this status for a maximum of 30 days.
How long does FC Processing take
FC Processing timeline depends on the type of products. Smaller products take 2 days while larger products can take up to 2 weeks.
Inventory stuck in FC processing
It is frustrating when your stock is stuck in FC processing status because Inventory is not available for sell when it is stuck in FC processing.
Usually, FC processing is quick and takes around 48 hours until the product is large which takes around 2 weeks. FC processing took longer in Covid 19 period.
Conclusion:
All inventory statuses have been discussed in this blog. FBA Sellers and service providers can easily understand all these statuses moving forward. If you would have any queries related to FBA stock flow, you can let us know by commenting below.
