FBA Returns & Removals: the Time of Truth

If you sell on Amazon, FBA removals are not a side topic.

They are traveling inventory. Traveling cash. Traveling risk.

And for most sellers, they are completely invisible.

The Blind Spot in Most FBA Businesses

Ask yourself:

Do I really know how much money came back from FBA to my warehouse this year?

Most seven-figure sellers can't answer this. That's the problem.

FBA Removals are the bridge between:

• FBA returns
• FBA evaluation process
• FBA Reimbursements
• YOUR own warehouse
• YOUR resell opportunities

If you don't understand removals, you don't understand your true profit.

But before we go deeper, we need to clarify a couple of important concepts.

Removal Orders vs. Removal Shipments

Amazon uses two different concepts:

1. Removal Orders

A removal order is your request to take inventory out of FBA and have it delivered to your warehouse.

It is either:

• Sellable
• Unsellable

No mix of the twos in the same order.

You can create removal orders manually or automatically through appropriate FBA settings.

2. Removal Shipments

A single removal order can be fulfilled in multiple shipments.

Why? Because Amazon ships from different fulfillment centers.

One order → Many shipments → Many boxes → Many risk points

Stop thinking of removal orders and start considering removal shipments.

Sellable vs. Unsellable

Every removal falls into one of two categories.

1) Sellable Removals

Characteristics:

• Units are still in customer-ready condition
• Often come from overstock automated settings
• Or manual cleanup

This is first-quality capital. If managed well, it goes back to profit. If ignored, it quietly depreciates.

2) Unsellable Removals

For the most part this are FBA customer returns:

• In some cases, they are almost as-good-as-new, but Amazon didn't take the responsibility of putting them back to sale.
• "Genuine" returns, either damaged or defective.
• Fraud returns - the worst - involving shady customer behavior on which you are 100% eligible for refunds.

The only way to save this capital is to make it come back home.

The Travelling Capital

Why FBA Removals Are "Traveling Capital"

Peter Drucker famously said:

What gets measured gets improved.

But most sellers never measure FBA removals.

Think about it. When inventory is:

• In FBA → You track it
• In your warehouse → You track it (and you can physically inspect it)
• In transit to FBA → You track it (and make sure everything is loaded properly)

But when it comes to FBA removals? Most sellers stop tracking.

Yet that inventory still has:

• Cost
• Opportunity value
• Reimbursement potential

It is capital in motion. And unmanaged capital leaks.

The Question That Changes Everything

Before optimizing anything, one question matters:

How much money is really at stake with removals?

Which brings us to the real question: how do you actually measure it?

The Hard Way

Some sellers try to calculate this manually. They use a combination of Seller Central reports:

• Removal Order Report
• Inventory Adjustment Report
• Reimbursement Report
• Return Report

With a complex combination of Google Sheets formulas, it is possible to get partial results. But it is time-consuming and is error-prone.

There is a better alternative.

The Smart Way

We built a simpler approach. A focused audit to answer:

How much money is my removal game worth?

And can I get reimbursements for Amazon errors?

No spreadsheets. No manual work. No guessing.

Get your numbers in 2 minutes →

Real Question: Were You Aware of Your Number?

When sellers see their audit results, reactions are similar:

• "I had no idea."
• "I thought it was much lower."
• "We've been missing this for years."

Which reaction will be yours?

What Top Sellers Do Differently

High-performing sellers treat FBA removals as a system, they:

• Track removal shipments
• Inspect contents in a standard, repeatable way
• Automate reimbursements using trusted partners

They don't "hope" removals work.

They use systems that guarantee consistent outcomes.

Your Next Step: Run Your Free Audit

If you are ready to get serious about FBA removal and want to improve your margins, start here.

Run your free FBA Removal & Returns Audit →

P.S. No mail required.

Further Reading: FBA Profits at Risk: The Amazon Holiday Return Trap