In no way would adding an extra logistic step to every single package entering amazon’s warehouse something of ”minimal” cost, but it might be worth it.
Even if Amazon needs 10 billion stickers and it has to buy a sticker manufacturer, the profitability is what matters.
How much does adding one the sticker cost relative to the average Amazon product? 0.1%? How much does it cost relative to the cost of the counterfeiting problem?
They could require the vendors attach the stickers to uniquely determine the shipment. Upon receipt, just scan to ensure the barcodes match/aren't duplicates. They already require vendors using Fullfillment by Amazon to have their shipment contain a shipping summary. Adding per item barcodes wouldn't be a huge change (and Amazon itself wouldn't bear the cost).
You're right. The items have to be scanned for inventory management anyway when they arrive and are put in the bins at Amazon. Might as well just scan a second bar code to note where it came from. Or do it as a combined QR code. Lots of room for extra data in there.
I believe the labeling obligation falls on the FBA seller today, not Amazon. So I don't think the cost of the extra sticker would impact Amazon at all beyond the process changes needed to ensure that two labels are scanned vs one.
I should say minimal cost per item. Even if it were $0.25USD per item, most wouldn't even notice, and if they took action against vendors with heavy return requests or counterfeit notifications, it could at least help.
There are already shipping labels placed on every outbound item, tiny little tags per item would be minimal by comparison.
In no way would adding an extra logistic step to every single package entering amazon’s warehouse something of ”minimal” cost, but it might be worth it.