wiki/knowledge/amazon-strategy/doudlah-farms-fba-fulfillment-optimization.md · 451 words · 2026-04-05

Doudlah Farms FBA Fulfillment Optimization

Overview

Doudlah Farms shifted from Amazon Warehouse Distribution (AWD) to direct-to-FBA shipping, saving approximately $3,500 per shipment. The change was driven by AWD's failure to reliably fulfill FBA orders, which caused stockouts during the 2025 holiday season. The increased operational complexity is considered worthwhile given the cost savings.

Problem: AWD Was Failing to Fulfill FBA Orders

Amazon's AWD service is designed to act as an intermediate warehouse — sellers ship product into AWD, and Amazon then distributes inventory to the appropriate FBA fulfillment centers. In practice, AWD was not fulfilling FBA replenishment reliably.

During the 2025 holiday season, Amazon also cut storage limits in half to manage capacity, compounding the problem. The result was stockouts of Doudlah Farms products at a time of peak demand.

Solution: Ship Directly to FBA Centers

Rather than routing through AWD, shipments now go directly to FBA fulfillment centers. This requires:

Multi-destination shipments — a single product run must be split across multiple FBA centers based on Amazon's placement requirements.
More detailed tracking — each sub-shipment must be tracked individually.
More coordination effort — both the Asymmetric team and the Doudlah Farms team carry additional administrative load.

Despite the complexity, the approach is saving approximately $3,500 per shipment compared to the AWD route.

Why the Workload Increased

The increase in Amazon-related work volume (roughly double the prior baseline) is explained by two compounding factors:

Backfilling holiday stockouts — inventory that should have shipped during the holiday season is now being sent, on top of normal replenishment.
Direct-to-FBA complexity — each shipment now involves multiple destinations and tracking records instead of a single AWD inbound.

Sales growth contributed modestly but was not the primary driver.

Division of Responsibilities

Area	Owner
Digital inventory, shipping, FBA logistics	Karly Oykhman (Asymmetric)
Amazon cases, complaints, listing issues	Gilbert Barrongo (Asymmetric)
Amazon advertising, sales, listings	Gilbert Barrongo (Asymmetric)
Physical product prep and pallet staging	Jason Doudlah

Key Decision

AWD is not reliable enough to use as the primary fulfillment path. Direct-to-FBA is the preferred strategy despite the added complexity, because the cost savings (~$3.5k/shipment) justify the overhead.

This decision was confirmed in the February 6, 2026 strategy call and is considered standing policy until AWD performance materially improves.

Open Items (as of 2026-02-06)

[ ] Karly to email Jason Doudlah to confirm the Amazon pickup date for the next shipment — coordination needed before pallets can be staged and picked.

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