Amazon has started two new programmes after British television showed the company was engaged in the large-scale dumping and destruction of unsold products.
Amazon introduced two new Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) programmes to make it easier for businesses selling on Amazon to resell customer-returned items or overstock inventory.
“These programmes are part of Amazon’s commitment to both sellers and sustainability,” the company said in a blog post.
“These new programmes are examples of the steps we’re taking to ensure that products sold on Amazon – whether by us or our small business partners – go to good use and don’t become waste. Along with existing programmes like FBA Donations, we hope these help build a circular economy and reduce our impact on the planet,” said Libby Johnson McKee, director, Amazon WW Returns, ReCommerce and Sustainability, in Seattle.
“FBA Liquidations” gives sellers the option to use the company’s wholesale resale channel and technology to provide sellers with a way to recover a portion of their inventory cost from their returned or overstock inventory. The programme is live in the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and went live in the United Kingdom in August 2021.
Selling partners who want to resell returns can use “FBA Grade and Resell,” now available in the UK. It will also become available in the United States by end of year and in Germany, France, Italy and Spain by early 2022, the company said in a statement. This gives third-party selling partners the option to sell returned products on Amazon as “used” items instead of having them sent back to them or donated.
Amazon had been broadly criticized after a report on British broadcaster ITV had shown a ‘destruction zone’ at its Dunfermline facility in Scotland. The report showed things ranging from the latest consumer products to books and still-in-wrapper PPE listed to be destroyed. The broadcaster tracked some to a local landfill.
Michael Mackey
