Managing Massive Shipments: Strategies for Grocery and Food Vendors with More Than 2,000 Cartons

If you’re a grocery, food, pet, or vitamin brand selling through Amazon Vendor Central, you already know that scaling up shipments is a whole different challenge. Once you start moving more than 2,000 cartons at a time, Vendor Central forces you to split shipments. That often means duplicated work, unnecessary admin, and more chances for errors. A single slip, whether it’s a missed label, poor batch tracking, or a late PO window can spiral into chargebacks, stock issues, or even Amazon slowing down your supply chain.

At this level, the fundamentals aren’t the problem. The real challenge is keeping everything under control without burning out your team or your margins.

Get Batch and Expiry Tracking Right

For categories like pet food, supplements, canned goods, or coffee, batch and expiry tracking isn’t optional. Amazon is demanding more accurate data than ever before, and with thousands of cartons in a single order, the pressure is high.

The issue isn’t usually collecting the data, it’s making sure it’s accurate and consistent at every stage. Problems creep in when ASN details don’t match the actual goods, expiry dates are missed, or batches aren’t tracked properly on the outbound.

What helps:

• Capture batch and expiry data at production or inbound receipt, not just at despatch.
• Sync data automatically between ERP, warehouse, and Vendor Central.
• Use dashboards to spot products nearing expiry so you can act before they become a problem.
• Send lot and expiry information through the EDI 856 Dispatch Advice to keep Amazon’s records aligned with your own.
  

Get this right and you’ll reduce waste, avoid relabelling costs, and keep vendor performance scores looking healthy.

Push Past the 2,000-Carton Limit

Vendor Central’s interface caps shipments at 2,000 cartons, but that doesn’t mean your growth has to stop there. By using EDI 856 Dispatch Advice, you can bypass the limit and ship thousands of cases under a single ASN. Many vendors comfortably manage up to 15,000 cases this way, essentially a full truckload.

To succeed, your EDI and warehouse systems need to handle not just batch tracking but also the full packaging hierarchy (item, package, pallet, and shipment). With ASN version 2, having up-to-date systems in place is essential.

Case Packs, Margins, and Compliance

When you’re shipping at scale, even small inefficiencies add up. Case pack configuration is a classic example: one poorly designed pack can mean wasted space, extra prep work, or rejected loads.

Keep case packs under control by:

• Auditing them regularly for compliance issues.
• Planning pallet density and minimum order quantities together, so one doesn’t undermine the other.
• Checking deduction patterns if the same SKU keeps triggering chargebacks, the case pack might be the culprit.

A small tweak to a barcode or case size can make the difference between repeat deductions and smooth deliveries.

Chargebacks: Don’t Accept Them as Normal

Every vendor gets chargebacks, but at high volumes they can drain margins fast. The key is to stop seeing them as unavoidable and start treating them as a fixable part of the process.

Vendors who manage this well tend to:

• Categorise chargebacks by type: labelling, ASN, timing.
• Identify repeat offenders by SKU or warehouse.
• Put alerts in place so problems are flagged before they repeat.

The more visibility you have, the easier it is to challenge unfair charges and prevent avoidable ones.

Move Beyond Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets might work for small operations, but once you’re handling shipments in the thousands, they hold you back. Updates get missed, batch records don’t line up, and your team spends more time fixing mistakes than preventing them.

The fix is straightforward:

• Automate connections between ERP, warehouse, and Vendor Central.
• Use dashboards for real-time visibility on POs, expiry dates, and deductions.
• Free your team from firefighting so they can focus on running the operation.
  

Scaling Without Losing Control

Volume alone isn’t the problem. It’s the pressure of managing expiry, packing rules, and deductions all at once, while every mistake costs more the bigger you grow.

The good news: with the right systems, you don’t have to let the 2,000-carton rule hold you back. By centralising your data, automating your tracking, and making EDI 856 Dispatch Advice the backbone of your operation, you can move shipments at scale, stay compliant, and protect your margins all without piling on admin.