This post covers the topic of how to sign up for Amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) and get started in outsourcing your order fulfillment activities. Amazon sellers who are currently merchants fulfilling Amazon orders, or brands and manufacturers that have not sold on Amazon will find this post helpful. Amazon customers expect a reliable shipping experience, and utilizing a best in class tool like Amazon FBA can give your business a competitive advantage by offering free Prime shipping to Amazon customers and outsourcing a task that is likely not a part of your core business. Failing to properly fulfill orders, shipping damage, or lost packages can result in Amazon customers not continuing to repurchase from your brand. In this post we will cover how to sign up for Amazon FBA, what is Amazon FBA, benefits of Amazon FBA, and how to send in an Amazon FBA shipment.
How to Sign up for FBA?
Signing up for FBA is quite simple. If you do not sell on Amazon, you will need a professional selling account first. Once you have a professional selling account you will need to sign in and register for Amazon FBA. This will enable your account to use the FBA service, but there are few important tasks you need to understand before sending in your first shipment including:
Understanding Amazon policies for FBA including dangerous goods identification, restricted products, and category requirements.
Create the product listing and FBA offer on Amazon.
Have inventory on hand, packaged and labeled appropriately.
Before we get into how to ship inventory to FBA warehouses, lets first review what Amazon FBA is and the benefits it provides to see if it is a good fit for your brand.
What is Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)?
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service provided to Amazon sellers, brands, and manufacturers that allows businesses to outsource order fulfillment activities to Amazon. Sellers will ship inventory to Amazon warehouses or fulfillment centers, and when a customer buys your product, Amazon picks, packs, and ships the item to the end customer. Amazon helps with general customer service and can process returns for those orders. Brands and manufactures can even utilize FBA to fulfill orders outside of Amazon (such as Shopify or other marketplaces) using FBA multi-channel fulfillment. Sellers pay a fee to use this service which is generally based on the size and weight of the product being sold.
Benefits of FBA
Utilizing an outsourced tool like FBA can provide benefits to both your business operations and Amazon customers.
Reduce Costs for Amazon Sellers - Order fulfillment can be a costly business activity as it requires a warehouse, employees to receive, pick, pack, and ship each order, and materials for shipping. As a single brand owner you are unable to negotiate competitive rates with shipping carriers as Amazon does based on the scale of the business. These costs make your business less profitable or will require you to charge a higher price to your customers. Amazon FBA can be a more cost-effective approach to order fulfillment than shipping yourself.
Outsource Non-Value Added Activities - Your brand or manufacturing business core competency is likely not shipping orders. It can be in product development, branding, or selling your product. By outsourcing order fulfillment, you can focus on the tasks that bring value to your business and what you are good at, while outsourcing to what Amazon is best at - which is inventory management and fulfillment.
Prime Shopping Experience - Products enrolled in Amazon FBA will be eligible for Amazon Prime two-day free shipping. Free and fast shipping are important factors for customers making a purchase. If you offer two-day free shipping and your competitors are not, this is a reason that customers may purchase your product over your competition.
Free Returns for Customers - Returns can be a costly and time consuming process when you are growing your sales on Amazon. With Amazon FBA, their team will handle the return process from start to finish, creating the labels and ensuring that the item is returned back to the warehouse. This not only saves your business time and money but also gives the customer a piece of mind knowing that every item sold through Amazon FBA can be returned for free.
How to Send in an FBA Shipment?
Once you have registered your professional account for FBA, prepared your product, understand the FBA program and benefits it offers, it’s time to send in your first FBA shipment. This section will go step by step how to send in an FBA Shipment:
Create a Shipping Plan - You as the seller decide what products and how much inventory to send in. In your Manage Inventory, select Send/replenish inventory to either create a new shipping plan or add to an existing shipping plan.
Shipping Plan Settings - Ensure to enter accurate shipping plan settings including the ship from Address and the correct marketplace.
Product Settings - For each product you are required to input the packing details whether there is a case pack or individual units, product prep tasks and requirements (specific packaging tasks or labeling requirements), and the number of units you would like to send in
Confirm Shipping - Enter the date you will ship these items and the mode of shipping to Amazon (small parcel or LTL shipping) and accept changes and confirm shipping
Print and Affix Shipping Labels - You will then be able to print out shipping and Amazon labels for the boxes being sent to Amazon.
Ship the products - Once all of the boxes are labeled and secured, either drop off the boxes for shipping or schedule a pickup.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service that can help you sell more products by offering a better shipping experience for your customers on Amazon. FBA is often a more cost-effective solution when considering all of the costs associated with storing and shipping products yourself. We hope that this article has helped you understand how to sign up for Amazon FBA and the steps to send in an FBA shipment. If you have any questions or need guidance for signing up or sending products into Amazon, please reach out to Goat Consulting using the contact us form below: