In mid December of 2018 I received an email from the FBA team inviting me to participate in Amazon's Outlet Deals "to drive sales of your overstocked inventory."
It came with restrictions: only specified ASINs that they select would be eligible, and if you opt in, you must drop the price by a certain amount for the duration of the deal.
After read the email, it basically sounded like an invitation only, free Lightning Deal.
Either way, I was definitely going to opt in and test it out, if not sheerly out of curiosity.
Fortunately I also had a pretty large margin built into the ASIN they selected for me as well (probably why it wasn't selling all that well), so I could afford to take the hit after lowering the sale price.
Here's some more info about my experience with Outlet Deals.
The Invitation To Participate
Hello from Fulfillment by Amazon,
You're invited to take part in Amazon's Outlet Deals to drive sales of your overstocked inventory.
This invitation-only opportunity can help you reduce your excess inventory without paying additional fees. If selected, your products will appear on Amazon's Outlet page for up to three weeks. Outlet Deals provides Amazon shoppers with product offers of at least:
- 30% off the previous day's lowest Buy Box price and
- 30% off the average Buy Box price from the previous 30 days
How to participate:
- Review the eligible ASINs in the attached file called, "itemlist.csv."
- Enter your proposed title and deal price into the Amazon Outlet Deals Template (attached).
- Submit the completed form within one week of receiving this invitation to omitted@amazon.com
| Eligible ASIN | Price |
|---|---|
| B01ABCD234 | $27.99 |
You can use Outlet Deals only for offers on inventory currently available for sale in Amazon fulfillment centers. If your Outlet Deals submission is selected, it may affect the ASIN's eligibility and deal pricing for other Amazon deals such as Lightning Deals and Deal of the Day. Submissions will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, and a deal submission does not guarantee acceptance. To be featured in Outlet Deals, please follow the deal price, deal title, and image guidelines on the Outlet Deals help page. If your deal has been selected, we will notify you via email.
Thank you for selling on Amazon.
Sincerely,
The Fulfillment by Amazon Team | Amazon
You can download the template here if you're interested in it:
I filled it out & sent it back to them.
Next Steps For Outlet Deals
Upon receiving my submission, I was sent the following email with the next steps before my deal went live on https://www.amazon.com/outlet
Hello from Fulfillment by Amazon,
Your deal(s) have been accepted and will be featured in Outlet. You will find your approved deal(s) below. Please change the "Sale Price" of your Approved ASIN(s) to the Deal Price below within 24 hours:
| Eligible ASIN | Price |
|---|---|
| B01ABCD234 | $27.99 |
Your deals will begin on 12/19 at 12:00 PST and end on 01/09 at 23:55 PST on this page: https://www.amazon.com/outlet. If the price is not updated within 24 hours of this notification, it may not be featured.
The Sale Price will not update automatically and will need to be changed to the Deal Price you submitted. Please note that if the price is increased at any time after the deal starts, it will be removed from the event without notice. Also note that the Outlet Deals event is limited to the quantity of the item that is currently available for sale in our fulfillment centers. Outlet Deals are deals of at least 30% off from the price listed on Amazon.com from the previous day and 30% off the average price from the previous 30 days.
See the FAQ section below and refer to the following Help Page for more information: Outlet Deals. Please reach out to Seller Support for general inquiries.
Sincerely,
The Fulfillment by Amazon Team
FAQ:
Are there additional fees associated with this?
There are no additional fees for this event. Normal fulfillment fees will be charged based on the price the orders are sold.
Why do I not see my item featured on the Outlet page?
- Please allow 48 hours after changing your Sale Price for your item to appear on the page.
- Your item may not meet pricing requirements to be featured. If the deal price was increased after the deal started, your deal was removed.
- The ASIN may have been manually removed due to non-compliant images. You can review product image requirements here.
- If the discount reflected is not based off of the previous 30 days average price, your deal may be removed without notice.
May I end my deal(s) early?
Yes. To end your deal early, please email omitted@amazon.com. Please include "Please remove deal" in the subject line, and include the ASIN(s) you wish to remove from the Outlet Deals.
May I limit the quantity?
We may not set a specific quantity for these deals. However, you can email omitted@amazon.com if you wish to cancel your deal(s).
The Fulfillment by Amazon Team | Amazon
I complied, and waited for the deal to be featured.
My FBA Outlet Deal Results
For context, the product featured in my FBA outlet deal had no sales over the 3 weeks leading up to it being featured as an outlet deal.
When I initially launched it, the niche was not nearly as saturated as it is today. I still consistently have 2 of the top 5 products on the primary keywords, but sometimes you throw something at a wall and it misses, hence this product.
It was actually an experiment with an increased quantity of the goods, that apparently most people didn't need.
So at the end of the day, I'm really just looking to get my money out of the product and kill it off, & Amazon FBA Outlet Deals ended up being a GREAT way of doing that!
Here's my sales data for the duration of the deal:
Ultimately, sold 27 units resulting in a net loss of -$3.84 but got $755.73 back of dead inventory - I'll take it!
