Amazon to end commingling of inventory effective March 31, 2026

[anotherlab]

This is kind of old news, but a month ago, Amazon announced they are ending the practice of commingling inventory, effective as of March 31st, 2026.

This means that if you purchase a DJI Mini 5 Pro from one vendor, you will not receive a DJI Mini 5 Pro from another vendor. In the past, Amazon treated identical products from different vendors as identical inventory. This allowed Amazon to ship the closest item to you, saving time and money. This also meant that you could order from a reputable seller but receive counterfeit products sent by a shady one, and Amazon wouldn't even inform you that they had sent it from a different vendor.

After March 31st, if you order a Mini 5 Pro (for example) from a vendor, it will be shipped by the vendor, or it will come from the vendor's inventory that is managed by Amazon.

This will make ordering items a little safer on Amazon

 

[mavic3usa]

Couple of opinions on this topic, we've had this discussion before regarding commingling when it comes to another popular product purchased by drone owners, the microSD card. It's the primary reason why counterfeit cards are freely circulating around the king of counterfeit microsd cards sellers: Amazon. Good for them to finally start addressing that particular problem.

But never forget, this isn't being done to help the customer or the seller; this is being done to help Amazon. They've found new ways to make a profit and manage inventory without commingling because it may no longer necessary; not that it was problematic. As you can see, the vendor barcode is still being used and we've had examples of DJI drone buyers saying their drone purchase from Amazon had a seller barcode which means Amazon likely never has been commingling DJI drones lately. It's probably true back in the day when Amazon use to sell drones (not anymore) that 3rd party seller drones got mixed in with theirs (especially returns) but that hasn't happened recently. The problem would be you bought a drone sold/shipped by Amazon and you end up getting a (risky) drone sold by China seller, shipped by Amazon due to "commingling." Even today, when someone returns a drone and it's been opened or the box destroyed (i.e. no seller barcode) or not even though the system is tracking, that drone may not go back into the correct inventory especially if it goes to Resale. Maybe this will change.....only time will tell.

For sure DJI drone commingling is not happening because I have an early December NEO 2 order from Air Foto that still hasn't yet shipped by Amazon and it's unbelievable that Amazon hasn't shipped a NEO 2 in months. The new process starting in April will allow them to have more control over the shipping based on price rather than by seller. The number #1 they won't grab one of those NEO 2 already sitting in the Amazon inventory and send it to me is because I paid the lower price and everyone else who paid higher (from Air Foto or anyone else) is getting their drone before me. All DJI drones are the same and there's no way they haven't received that drone (sku) from Air Foto in 2 months. Ultimately it sounds like a mix of issues where commingling mostly affects the Amazon specific inventory. Again, keep in mind, Amazon does not have any original inventory of the latest DJI drones, they are all 3rd party sellers. And everyone sells off the same listing, will that continue to happen?

As a customer and not a seller on Amazon, I don't pretend to know exactly what is going on here and the impact on the overall process; I'm sure it's pretty complex.

"Commingling is when we fulfill customer orders using exact product matches from the closest available inventory in the Amazon fulfillment network, even if that inventory belonged to a different seller, to achieve faster delivery speeds. Now that most sellers maintain inventory levels that keep products close to customers, we can achieve fast delivery without commingling."

 

[GadgetGuy]

The so called Amazon "Buy Box" is Amazon's deliberate commingling of third party sellers, replacing reputable sellers with shyster sellers, while hoping to trap the unwary, foolishly thinking they are buying directly from Amazon, when, in fact, they will only have a worthless A to Z Guarantee!

Amazon needs to completely eliminate this deceptive and misleading "Buy Box" so, when sharing deals, we can directly link to the seller of our choosing, who is offering the exact price and shipping method we found when we linked to it! Anything else is FRAUD!

 

[offtheback]

The so called Amazon "Buy Box" is Amazon's deliberate commingling of third party sellers, replacing reputable sellers with shyster sellers, while hoping to trap the unwary, foolishly thinking they are buying directly from Amazon, when, in fact, they will only have a worthless A to Z Guarantee!

Amazon needs to completely eliminate this deceptive and misleading "Buy Box" so, when sharing deals, we can directly link to the seller of our choosing, who is offering the exact price and shipping method we found when we linked to it! Anything else is FRAUD!

Generally I don't buy anything from Amazon that they don't"fulfill".

 

[anotherlab]

Amazon is driven by lowering the costs borne by Amazon. The commingling was to save time and expenses for shipping, and it eliminated the need for the seller to attach identifiers to the inventory. It seemed like a good idea, until it wasn't.

Amazon didn't intentionally allow counterfeit sellers to hide inferior goods with reliable sellers, but that's what happened. And that's why they are ending that practice.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

[GadgetGuy]

Amazon is driven by lowering the costs borne by Amazon. The commingling was to save time and expenses for shipping, and it eliminated the need for the seller to attach identifiers to the inventory. It seemed like a good idea, until it wasn't.

Amazon didn't intentionally allow counterfeit sellers to hide inferior goods with reliable sellers, but that's what happened. And that's why they are ending that practice.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I respectfully disagree. Amazon is deliberately sanitizing the horrible customer reviews of shyster sellers that it is currently promoting in the Buy Box by fraudulently claiming that Amazon was responsible for the fulfillment of the order, so the seller is not to be blamed, when reading the specifics of each of the 1 star complaints being eliminated from the sellers' ratings by Amazon make it very clear that the orders were not fulfilled by Amazon, because if they had been, the very complaints being sanitized in this way would not exist. Shame on Amazon!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Generally I don't buy anything from Amazon that they don't"fulfill".

Exactly. Unless the shipper is explicitly listed as Amazon, DO NOT BUY, even if is listed as Prime!

Unless Amazon is listed as the shipper, your only recourse is Amazon's worthless A to Z Guarantee, where they allow the seller to set their own returns policies with restocking fees of up to 50% and where the shyster sellers will claim you were the one who damaged the product, when they sent you a defective used item as new! Good luck getting any of your money back, as the seller will claim they never received your return, or that you returned it too late.

 

[anotherlab]

I respectfully disagree. Amazon is deliberately sanitizing the horrible customer reviews of shyster sellers that it is currently promoting in the Buy Box by fraudulently claiming that Amazon was responsible for the fulfillment of the order, so the seller is not to be blamed, when reading the specifics of each of the 1 star complaints being eliminated from the sellers' ratings by Amazon make it very clear that the orders were not fulfilled by Amazon, because if they had been, the very complaints being sanitized in this way would not exist. Shame on Amazon!

The other way to look at it is that Amazon is protecting legitimate sellers from the one-star complaints caused by fraudulent sellers. Amazon isn't doing this out of the goodness of its heart; it is eliminating a point of pain to it, at the additional cost of more expensive shipping.