Offers and fulfillment: FBA and FBM, pricing, the Featured Offer, and inventory age

One offer, two channels. With FBA you ship units to Amazon's fulfillment centers; Amazon stores and ships them, handles customer service and returns, and the offer is Prime-eligible. With FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) you store and ship under your handling time and shipping template; Prime comes only through Seller Fulfilled Prime, when enrollment is open.

Switching. Manage All Inventory's action menu offers Change to Fulfilled by Amazon or by Merchant. The stock does not move with the setting: switch an FBA SKU to FBM with units in a fulfillment center and they land in Fix Stranded Inventory under the Merchant fulfilled reason (change it back, or remove them); switch FBM to FBA and the offer shows no quantity until a shipment is received.

Both at once. Two SKUs on one ASIN, one FBA and one FBM, keep it buyable while a shipment is inbound, each with its own price and limits.

The Featured Offer sits behind Add to Cart, the "Buy Box".

Who can win it. Amazon used to screen sellers first (plan, performance, stock, condition). In July 2026 it announced that screen is going, store by store through the end of 2026, with selection unchanged: performance still counts, as a ranking input, not a gate. FBM can win it; FBA and Prime help.

What decides it: total price with shipping, fulfillment and Prime, performance and inventory depth. The price checks have two outcomes: far outside Amazon's band, the offer deactivates with a pricing error, the Inactive reason Reports and catalog health listed; merely well above recent prices on Amazon or elsewhere, it stays Active but unfeatured — how a sole seller lands under 100%.

Triage each child ASIN the business report flags, in this order:

1. Confirm the offer was Active and in stock throughout.
2. Compare the price with the SKU's limits and recent prices.
3. Check fulfillment, Prime and performance.
4. Look for a competing offer.
5. Choose the fix from the bucket it landed in.

The price fields (edit page, Manage Pricing, price and quantity file, or rule):

• Your price, the standard price. Lowering it is a hard markdown: no reference price, nothing ends it.
• Sale price with start and end dates: a soft markdown. The standard price stays, the offer reverts on the end date, and Amazon can show a strikethrough once it accepts the sale. Either markdown, left for weeks, becomes the recent price the high-price flag measures against: keep promotions short and dated.
• Minimum and maximum price per SKU, guardrails you set: outside them the offer deactivates with a pricing error; left blank, Amazon applies its own threshold.
• Business price and quantity tiers: Amazon Business buyers only.
• Automate Pricing: rules that reprice between a floor and ceiling, most following the Featured Offer price, others the lowest or an external price. A rule needs the SKU's minimum price first, its only protection, so set it from cost.

The price that counts is on the live page: check it after every change, as you would a title.

The Inventory Age view buckets each SKU's units: 0–90, 91–180, 181–270, 271–365 and 365+ days. Amazon ages stock first-in, first-out: new shipments never make old units younger.

Aged-inventory surcharges start at an age threshold and step up at later ones. Thresholds and amounts change; check the current schedule. Days of supply (how long the units last at today's rate) and sell-through (units sold against units held) say whether stock sells before it costs more. The Inventory Performance Index scores sell-through, excess and stranded stock and in-stock rate; a low score can cut storage capacity. An Inactive SKU that still holds units is always an offer fix.

The actions. If a shipment is booked, hold it: new units deepen the problem. Then, in value-preserving order:

• lower the price or run a deal on part of it;
• bundle slow units with a fast seller (Virtual Bundles, in Brand programs and gating);
• create a removal order for what will not sell in time.

Whose units ship. FBA tracks a unit by its manufacturer barcode or an Amazon barcode, the FNSKU label tied to your SKU. Manufacturer-barcode stock used to be commingled with other sellers' identical units: their defective unit could fill your order, the complaint landing on your listing. Amazon ended commingling for inventory shipped in on or after 31 March 2026 (check the current help page); earlier units stay pooled. Manufacturer barcodes now need the Brand Representative selling role in Brand Registry; resellers, and products without one, use Amazon barcodes. The preference in FBA settings covers new offers only: an existing SKU keeps its type, so switching means a second offer on the same ASIN under a new seller SKU, labeled from its first shipment.

The signals. Performance Notifications lists removals and policy actions. Voice of the Customer rates each listing, Excellent to Very poor, on the share of its orders with a negative experience, with the comments: wrong item or not as described is a content fix (or, on older manufacturer-barcode stock, another seller's unit); defective is a product fix.