Amazon is ending all inventory commingling as of March 31, 2026

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Nature of commingling & why it was harmful

  • Amazon treated all inventory for a given SKU/ASIN as interchangeable, regardless of which seller supplied it.
  • This enabled:
    • Counterfeiters to inject fake goods that would be shipped under the “good” seller’s name.
    • Return fraud (customers swapping items, Amazon restocking them) to poison the shared pool.
    • Sellers to dump refurbished/used goods as “new,” externalizing bad reviews and returns onto others.
  • Result: product reviews and seller ratings became largely disconnected from what any particular seller actually shipped.

Why Amazon might be changing (speculation)

  • Many see it as a response to mounting legal, regulatory, warranty, and trademark liability as Amazon’s physical presence expands.
  • Others suspect pressure from major brands or large buyers burned by fakes (e.g., electronics, PPE, SD cards).
  • Another thread: logistics have matured (regionalized warehouses, relaxed “2‑day” expectations), so commingling’s speed benefit no longer outweighs reputational and operational costs.

Customer experiences & trust erosion

  • Numerous anecdotes of obvious counterfeits: books, monitors, HDMI adapters, flash cards, batteries, water filters, cosmetics, clothing, respirators, dental products, pet meds, bike tires, etc.
  • Several people stopped buying high-value or ingestible items from Amazon entirely, preferring direct-from-brand, local stores, or competitors (Walmart, Costco, B&H).
  • Some long‑time customers canceled Amazon altogether; many say this change is “years too late” to win them back.

Scope, timing, and implementation doubts

  • Policy applies to inventory shipped to Amazon by sellers after March 31, 2026; existing commingled stock will mostly just sell through.
  • Questions remain about:
    • How they’ll handle current mixed inventory and date-sensitive products.
    • International sites (e.g., EU/UK) and whether the policy is global.
    • Preventing resellers from posing as “brands” to bypass extra barcoding.

Logistics, costs, and marketplace effects

  • Ending commingling likely increases warehouse complexity, inventory duplication, and shipping variability, and may raise prices.
  • Some expect more visible differences in delivery time per seller.
  • Others view this as Amazon shifting from a “distributed liquidity pool” optimization to stricter per-seller tracking as it leans on its dominant position.

Problems this doesn’t fix

  • Fake or incentivized reviews; product listings being repurposed or swapped to lower-quality items while keeping old ratings.
  • Misleading “replacement for OEM X” parts and grey/parallel imports.
  • Safety/regulation issues (e.g., uncertified electrical products) and opaque provenance.
  • Overall sense that Amazon’s marketplace still resembles a higher-priced, faster AliExpress unless these adjacent issues are addressed.