What is Amazon FBA Selling and What Can It Do for Your Business

Last updated on March 19th, 2023

Written by Ken Zhou

Order fulfillment requires businesses to accomplish different duties and responsibilities. Businesses need to:

1. Be in charge of their inventory with third-party warehouse providers or with their private storage units.
2. Be responsible for uniform packaging and labeling of products.
3. Book reliable logistics partners or personally deliver the items.
4. Be ready to answer customer concerns including returns of products.

If you are performing all these duties personally, it is called Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM). And it’s manageable provided you have a low volume of orders or cater to a limited audience. But, if you’re expanding and getting more orders, the process can be tedious without effective management and a dedicated team.

How is FBM different from FBA?

FBM is different from FBA because, with FBA, you’re outsourcing the order fulfillment duties to Amazon. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) refers to Amazon’s Order Fulfillment Services that include packing, labeling, shipping, and addressing customer concerns. And one of the features of FBA is that they do order fulfillments for products outside Amazon.

What are Amazon FBA Selling Features and Services

Fulfillment by Amazon is packed with features and is a constantly evolving program. Amazon has invested heavily in infrastructure, technology, and shipping partners; all to continually improve order fulfillment and customer service. 

If you choose to become an FBA seller, you’ll get access to the extensive list of features and services they can provide. Just take note of the charges like storage fees, shipping fees, fulfillment fees, etcetera in your Shipping Plan. Choose one or all according to your budget and need. 

FBA features

1. Customer Services  - Amazon handles all inquiries, returns, and refunds at no additional cost to you for products under the FBA program. Your product listing will bear the FBA logo to alert potential buyers that Amazon will handle their concerns regarding the product. 
2. Global Fulfillment - Sell globally with FBA export and Amazon Global Selling. Both programs allow you to ship to countries with Amazon partners and fulfillment centers. Amazon partners like SEKO Logistics ensure rapid deliveries at a global scale.

FBA services

1. Partner Carriers - SPD (small parcel delivery), LTL (less-than-truckload), and FTLs (full-truckload) shipping are all possible with Amazon Partners with discounted prices
2. Multi-Channel Fulfillment or (MCF) - If you still want to sell via your website or other channels, you can still use FBA for your order fulfillment needs
3. Label Services - Amazon FBA can apply barcodes for you for a per-item fee, provided your item is eligible for the service.
4. Prep Services - Amazon will prepare and package your products in the fulfillment centers for a per-item fee. Prep Fees vary depending on the prep category: fragile, baby product, etcetera.
5. Repackaging and Refurbishment Services - Amazon will assess product returns and repack them if they are resellable. For additional fees, Amazon can also remove stains and odors via refurbishment services.
6. Inventory Placement Services - Shipping plans usually involve multiple shipments to multiple receive centers. But with Inventory Placement, Amazon will receive and redistribute your FBA Inventory for you so you only need to ship to one receive center.
7. Manual Processing Services - If you do not wish or have no time to create your box information, Amazon FBA will manually process one for you for a per-item fee.
8. Scan & Label Services - This prevents mislabeling of units as your products will have a scannable barcode. After scanning, the corresponding label per unit is printed and attached.

Take note that all services have corresponding fees. Check with Amazon Marketplace and Amazon Seller Central regularly to see an updated list of charges per service. It’s best to work with Amazon Account Managers who know the ins and outs of selling with FBA.

How FBA Selling Works

Setting up an FBA is easy. If you're new to the Amazon Store, just create an account. If you're already an Amazon Seller you can shift your regular inventory to an FBA inventory.

Simply follow these steps:

1. FBA Set-up - Create a Seller Account, if you don’t have one yet. Once you do, add FBA to your account.
2. Product Listings - there are two ways to do this.
   1. Create a new listing and choose FBA Inventory - you can do this by adding to your catalog one by one, in bulk, or by uploading your inventory with Amazon API
   2. Change an existing listing or listings by going to your “Manage Inventory” page and choosing Fulfilled by Amazon in the drop-down menu.
3. Product Preparation - Make sure to check the packing guidelines and requirements of Amazon so that your orders are received safely in their assigned fulfillment centers. 
4. Product Shipment - Send your inventory to FBA centers by creating your shipping plan, printing your Amazon shipping ID labels, and shipping your products.

Managing Your Orders

Technically, Amazon manages your orders for you. Your items are already in the capable hands of the Amazon Fulfillment Center or Centers assigned to you. But you can still view the statuses of those orders. When using FBA, you can view the orders’ status on the “Manage Orders” page. The order status can either be “Pending” or “Payment Complete”. 

While orders for Multi-channel Fulfillment are classified as “Non-Amazon”.  Multi-channel Fulfillment order status can be:

1. Unfulfillable - either the product is out of stock or the address is invalid.
2. Planning - the product order has been received.
3. Shipping - the product is being prepared for shipping.
4. Complete - the product has been shipped.

Many successful businesses work with an Amazon FBA Agency so that they could focus more on product and branding. And leave the order fulfillment to the experts.

Why FBA Selling on Amazon is Good for Business

Now you know what FBA is and how it works. Now, let’s see why FBA is good for your business. 

As mentioned before, FBA means Amazon will handle your orders. This means your products are eligible for Prime Shipping, a two-day shipping program that gets the orders to Amazon Prime customers in approximately 48 hours. Remember that Amazon Prime members tend to buy more than standard Amazon users.

If you’re a wholesaler, you can take advantage of a wholesale partnership with Amazon that also uses the FBA system. Using FBA also gives you more chances to win the “Buy Now” button on your product listings. Since it’s the preferred shipping method of many customers. Lastly, you can’t beat the 24/7 Customer Service and Free Returns offered by FBA. Returns and refunds take time and finances. And yet, they are necessary for building customer loyalty and trust.

With so many benefits of having an FBA account, it’s easy to see why Amazon keeps leveraging technology to make order fulfillment better.

Conclusion

Online selling just got a whole lot easier with Amazon FBA services. You can outsource order fulfillment responsibilities to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. And concentrate on other areas of your business. Amazon FBA receives, packs, and ships your products globally with efficiency and at a reasonable fulfillment fee. They are also able to deliver Customer Service and Free Returns.

So what are you waiting for? Create an FBA shipping plan with Seller Interactive today! Then, book a free call with us through this number (1-800-820-3746) and fulfill your dreams of a well-managed business.