AWD is Amazon's own bulk storage. You send inventory to an Amazon warehouse instead of your own 3PL, and Amazon distributes it into FBA from there.
The reason to care is narrow and worth stating plainly: the end product is identical either way — units sitting in FBA. So the only question that matters is which route gets them there most cheaply.
Prefer to watch? One hundred and thirty-seven seconds on the two fees AWD avoids, the four it charges, and how much you save depending on your current route.
Where the savings actually come from
Two fees do most of the work.
The inventory placement fee, charged when you send stock to too few fulfilment centres and Amazon redistributes it.
The low inventory level fee, charged when your stock runs persistently thin relative to demand.
AWD can avoid both. And because it also replaces a 3PL for everything except direct-to-consumer shipping, the saving often stacks.
How much you save depends on where you are now
| Current route | What AWD can save |
|---|---|
| China → 3PL → FBA | placement fees plus the 3PL-to-FBA leg |
| China → FBA | placement fees |
| Already on AWD | optimising carton size and units per case |
The first row is where the money is. If you are paying a third party to store and then paying again to move stock into FBA, AWD collapses two costs into one.
The third row is worth noting — sellers already using AWD frequently leave meaningful savings in how their cases are packed. See Working Out Whether AWD Is Cheaper.
What AWD charges
Four fees, and you need all four to compare honestly:
Inbound processing — per case, to take stock into AWD.
Outbound processing — per case, to send it out.
Transportation — moving stock from AWD into FBA.
Storage — monthly, on cubic feet occupied.
Compare that total against shipping directly to FBA, including the placement fees you would pay on that route. It is not obvious in either direction without the arithmetic.
What AWD will not take
Availability is still restricted, and the restrictions have tightened.
Not accepted: dangerous goods and hazmat, with an exception for small and medium lithium batteries. Meltable and heat-sensitive products. Heavy or bulky items over 49 lbs or longer than 25 inches on any side.
Now sortable items only. Since 31 July 2026, AWD accepts only items smaller than 18" × 14" × 8" and under 20 lbs. Anything larger goes directly into the fulfilment network through the standard send-to-Amazon workflow.
That change removed a lot of products from AWD, so check your dimensions before planning around it.
Expiry-dated products are now allowed, including health supplements, provided there are at least 185 days until expiration when the shipment is created.
Where it fits with everything else
Inventory planning. AWD is a stage in the pipeline, not a replacement for forecasting. It sits between production and FBA in the same cover calculation — see Inventory Forecasting and Purchase Orders.
Low inventory fees. Avoiding these is a stated benefit, but the underlying cause is holding too little stock relative to demand — see Reducing FBA and Referral Fees.
Large B2B orders. AWD works at case level rather than unit level, which suits customers buying full cases — see B2B Fee Discounts, Certifications and Fulfilment.
Do the sums before committing
AWD is not automatically cheaper. It is cheaper for some products on some routes with some packing configurations, and more expensive otherwise.
The next article is the arithmetic — see Working Out Whether AWD Is Cheaper, and AWD Rate Tiers and Eligibility for the discounts that change the answer substantially.
Related
- AWD Rate Tiers and Eligibility — the three discount tiers and what they require.
- Working Out Whether AWD Is Cheaper — the comparison, step by step.
- Inventory Forecasting and Purchase Orders — where AWD sits in the pipeline.