Amazon AWD Launches in Western Europe! Local Inventory Replenishment System Now Covers UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain

[Ebrun Exclusive] July 24th, Amazon has officially announced that it will launch its Amazon Warehousing and Distribution (AWD) service in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom starting August 20th. This marks AWD's debut in the European market, signaling Amazon's expansion of its warehousing and replenishment system, which has operated in the US for several years, to five of Europe's core marketplaces.

According to Amazon, AWD offers long-term bulk storage, automated replenishment, fixed storage rates, and integrated supply chain management. Sellers can store eligible inventory in AWD without being constrained by FBA storage capacity limits. The system automatically schedules replenishment to FBA based on inventory levels to mitigate out-of-stock risks.

Additionally, AWD employs fixed storage rates with no long-term storage duration requirements. Sellers can combine it with other eligible Amazon logistics services to enjoy discounts on certain storage and transportation fees and manage both long-term storage and FBA fulfillment through a unified system.

In reality, AWD is not an entirely new service. It began piloting in the US in 2022, gradually opened to more US sellers in 2023, and has since been integrated with other supply chain services like Amazon Global Logistics and Amazon Freight.

Currently, the US market has a relatively mature AWD operation, while Europe represents its first regional expansion. To date, marketplaces like Japan, Canada, and Australia have not yet launched AWD.

For European sellers, the launch of AWD signifies a shift in inventory management practices.

In recent years, Amazon has continuously tightened FBA storage management, including increasing long-term storage fees, imposing storage capacity limits, and strengthening Inventory Performance Index (IPI) management. FBA warehouses are increasingly focused on order-centric fulfillment, while long-term, high-volume inventory storage needs a new dedicated system.

In this context, AWD provides sellers with the option to store bulk inventory in Amazon's long-term warehouses in advance, automatically replenishing FBA based on sales data. For sellers needing to stock up ahead of time, especially before peak holiday seasons, this model helps alleviate the pressure from FBA storage constraints and reduces the manual workload of planning replenishments.

Concurrently, with AWD's entry into Europe, Amazon is further consolidating its supply chain service ecosystem. Previously, sellers often relied on third-party overseas warehouses for long-term storage and replenishment to FBA. With AWD, both inventory management and replenishment can be handled entirely within the Amazon ecosystem.

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