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Outlet and clearance stores are great places to find bargains, but not easy to find online. Amazon Outlet is the place where you’ll find all markdowns, closeouts, and overstock deals for items from all categories.

You can find anything from Ziploc bags to designer clothing.

Sellers can now take advantage of Outlet deals to recover some of the investment on products that maybe don’t sell as much as they had hoped.

In this post, we’ll explain how this awesome program works.

Amazon Outlet Deals in a Nutshell

outlet by Amazon

Image: Amazon Outlet

Not to be confused with Amazon Warehouse, where shoppers can find open-box and refurbished products at lower prices.

At Amazon Outlet you’ll find new products that were overstock or undersold. 

This program is pretty convenient for shoppers who are looking to get unopened items at a cheaper price.

These are some of the benefits of listing your products on Amazon Outlet:

  • Improving cash flow,
  • reducing storage fees,
  • increasing sell-through, and
  • optimizing inventory levels

How Amazon Outlet Works

While sellers can manage Amazon Outlet from Seller Central, posting your Outlet deals is a little different from posting your regular listings.

You will need to have a Professional Seller Account to be able to sell at Amazon Outlet and a minimum star rating of 3.5.

First, you’ll have to go to the Manage Excess Inventory tool, where you’ll find Amazon Outlet.

First, you’ll find that Amazon helps sellers out by giving you recommendations for Outlet deals. Of course, the decision is up to you and you’ll be able to create an Outlet deal at the Outlet page.

There are a few boxes you’ll have to check for Amazon to approve the deal before you can post it.

What are Outlet Deals?

On the Create Outlet deal section of the Manage Excess Inventory page, sellers are able to submit promotional offers that have a 20% discount as a minimum.

Once Amazon approves the deal, it stays on the page for a fixed period between one and two weeks.

This way, shoppers can get different deals depending on the day they’re purchasing.

Criteria for Outlet Deals

This is what Amazon will look at to approve your listings:

  • Inventory should be at least 90 days in an Amazon Fulfillment Center
  • There should be more than 10 units available.
  • A sales history
  • The items must be unopened and in new condition.
  • Product should have a 3-star rating or no review.

Sellers enrolled in the following programs cannot participate in Amazon Outlet:

  • Subscribe & Save
  • Lightning Deals

Follow Amazon’s customer product reviews policies and price policies.

outlet deals products on Amazon

Image: Amazon Outlet

What role does customer demand play?

As mentioned above, Amazon will show you recommendations for eligible products that you already have in stock.

Customer demand and inventory storage time are factors that Amazon considers when making these recommendations.

Another way to decide on which products to list is by visiting the Manage Excess Inventory page.

There, you’ll see a label that says Outlet deal eligible displaying below your product’s current price. When clicking on the drop-down menu to the right of the Buy Box Price you’ll find the option to Create Outlet deal.

However, not all eligible products will get an Amazon Outlet recommendation.  This is due to the dynamic nature of the Outlet platform.

A product that is recommended one day may not be recommended the next.

If you have an item featured as an Outlet deal, it will be eligible again 60 days after the deal ends.

You can try to update your products settings to get a recommendation. This way your product can make it back to the Outlet page again.

How to Create an Outlet Deal

Here’s a step-by-step guide to start posting Outlet deals:

1.    Go to your Seller Central and select Inventory Planning from the Inventory drop-down menu.

2.    Go to Manage Excess Inventory. Another way to get there is by clicking on the Improving Your Cash Flow button which is in the Seller Central homepage.

3.    Click on Create Outlet deal and choose the setting Show recommendations to see what items from your inventory are eligible.

4.    Once you select an eligible item, choose Create Outlet deal from the drop-down menu on the right.

5.    You’ll get a pop-up window where you’ll see the Outlet deal price box, where you have to enter your price. The maximum price is filled by default, so the price you enter must be equal or lower than that.

The maximum deal price is estimated by considering the lowest price in new products offered by other sellers.

6.    Decide on your Outlet deal’s start and end dates.

7.    Submit your listing and wait for Amazon’s approval.

You’ll know your deal was submitted when you get the message Outlet deal submission successful. There could be times when you get a message that says Maximum deal price is $x, which means the maximum price changed last minute before the deal started and you have to adjust your price accordingly.

How often will they review my submission?

Twice a week.

The submission will remain in a pending status until scheduled. This can give you an idea of how long it takes for them to successfully post a submission.

Although you may have submitted your deal correctly, this doesn’t mean that it will make it to the Amazon Outlet page.

If they approve your Outlet deal submission, the discounted price will appear automatically.

After the deal it’s over it will change back to the price it had before.

You want to avoid increasing the price above the maximum deal price while the deal is taking place, because Amazon will not only cancel your promotion, but it could also hurt your eligibility to participate in Outlet deals in the future.

Outlet Fees

There are no extra fees for sellers that want to use Amazon Outlet.

However, the standard fulfillment and referral fees will continue to be in place.

So, participating in the program doesn’t mean fees will be waived while the deal is up, but it can help with your storage fees.

Best Practices for Amazon Outlet

outlet deals categories

Image: Amazon Outlet

To make sure that your ASIN’s product drops automatically, remove any price rules that you have before submitting your deal.

If you don’t, your product will be removed from Amazon Outlet and recommendations might be lower in the future.

Amazon features products with enough overstock and high-quality images in their marketing campaigns, so make sure to step up your game.

Those products that are highlighted on Outlet deals have a higher sell-through rate.

You can increase conversion by combining Outlet deals and Coupons.

Try going below the recommended price. If you have a deal that is under $10 can make it to the Under $10 page and therefore it will be seen by more shoppers. If you’re a top seller, then you’ll make it to the Best Sellers page, so keeping sales coming means more sales.

There is no way to stop the deal once it starts. So, if you’re not sure that you’ll be able to actually run it for two full weeks, don’t do it. There is no quantity limit for products sold.

Final Thoughts

While you should be on point of how your inventory is doing, participating in Amazon Outlet is not difficult at all. This feature of the Manage Inventory Tool practically hands you everything you need to start planning your deals.

If you’re a seller that has overstock seasonal items, Amazon Outlet deals are a great way to make sure you’re not stuck with that inventory at the Fulfillment Center and to keep your storage fees balanced.

It’s worth a try, if the stock is already there.

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