This blog post was originally published by Deliverr, which is now Flexport. The content has been adjusted to fit the Flexport brand voice and tone, but all other information remains unchanged. With the merging of Deliverr’s services (DTC fulfillment, B2B distribution, and Last Mile delivery) into Flexport’s existing international freight and technology services, we’re now able to provide merchants with true end-to-end logistics solutions spanning from the factory floor to the customer’s door.

Updated October 30, 2023.

During peak season (October through December), it’s crucial that your products are readily available to purchase and ship in time for the holidays. This means having the right inventory (and enough of it) on the shelves of your fulfillment center(s) to meet heightened customer demand.

To help make space for prime peak season inventory, Flexport recommends merchants remove any slow-moving inventory from our fulfillment centers. We provide your business with two options when it comes to removing your inventory so you can avoid surcharges on ecommerce storage fees:

1. Use one of Flexport’s inventory removal services including shipping excess SKUs to a U.S. address of your choice, disposing of the excess inventory, or liquidating it.
2. Move inventory to a downstream storage facility for use at a later date (additional charges apply).

No matter which approach is right for your business, you’ll want enough lead time to get the job done. Read on to learn more about changes to deadlines, pricing, and service-level agreements (SLAs) for Flexport’s inventory removals and ecommerce storage services during the 2023 peak season.

Adjustments to Inventory Removal Services

Deadlines: For merchants looking to remove, dispose of, or liquidate inventory before BFCM, requests must be submitted to our team by October 15, 2023. Flexport will still accept requests for removals, disposals, and liquidations after this deadline but with a longer processing window (see below for more info on updated SLAs).

Pricing: Inventory removal fees will not incur any surcharges, remaining at $0.36 + $0.39 per lb, per unit. This covers the cost of picking, packing, and shipping the excess inventory to a single given location within the contiguous U.S.*

*At this time, Flexport cannot customize removal orders to adhere to other fulfillment services’ packaging specifications.

SLAs: Removal orders will be fulfilled within 30 business days (typically 10-14 business days outside of peak).

Services impacted: The above pricing and SLA changes apply to removals, disposals, and liquidations. Additionally, you can expect processing delays during Flexport Fulfillment’s peak out-bounding week (November 23-30, 2023) for these services.

We recommend removing any units meeting long-term storage (inventory that has been in our ecommerce network for 365 days or longer) between November 2023 and January 2024. Applicable merchants will be notified by our Support team via email with more information if action is needed.

Learn more about how to start a removal order in Flexport’s platform here.

Changes to Ecommerce Storage Fees

From October 1 through December 31, 2023, ecommerce storage fees for ALL units in our ecommerce network (including those meeting long-term storage) will cost $0.08 per cubic foot per day ($2.40 per cubic foot over 30 days). These storage fees are typically $0.81 per cubic foot over 30 days outside of peak season months.

Visit our Help Center article to see how Flexport calculates its standard storage fees.

*Please note that the above fees only apply to inventory stored at our fulfillment centers. More information regarding storage fees for Replenishment inventory at Reserve Storage sites can be found here.

These fees are dependent on the length, width, and height of each SKU and the number of units of said SKUs in your inventory. Follow these steps in your account to calculate the estimated monthly storage cost for a specific SKU:

1. Navigate to the inventory tab from the left navigation bar
2. Click on a specific product to see the product’s details
3. Select the ‘Ecom Fulfillment Storage Fees’ tab to review fee details

Looking for a storage solution to easily replenish inventory levels at a later date? Store your excess inventory upstream with reduced costs to avoid excess inventory penalties with Flexport’s Replenishment solution.