Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a special program for Amazon sellers or business owners to sell their products without worrying about storage facilities.
All the handling, shipping, sending, and receiving of the packages will be done by Amazon itself from its warehouse.
Continue reading the article to learn more about FBA shipment and how to proceed with its application in order to grow your business on Amazon.
Table of Content
- What is FBA Shipment?
- Common Mistakes To Avoid While Amazon FBA Shipment
- Incorrectly Labeled Products
- Improper Packaging
- Not Complying With Amazon’s Guidelines
- Not Managing Inventory Properly
- Shipping The Products To The Wrong Warehouse
- Step By Step Guide On Sending Your Inventory To Amazon
What is FBA Shipment?
Amazon FBA Shipments are a popular way for Amazon sellers to send their items to Amazon’s warehouses. These shipments help Amazon sellers improve customer satisfaction by reducing buyers’ time to receive their orders.
With Amazon FBA Shipment, you can ship your inventory directly to one of Amazon’s warehouses near you, meaning that you don’t have to worry about packing or shipping items yourself. You can then track your shipment on the Amazon Seller Central dashboard and see real-time updates on the status of your order.
Common Mistakes To Avoid While Amazon FBA Shipment
One must also know how to improve listing quality on Amazon, there are a few common mistakes that Amazon FBA sellers should avoid while shipping their products.
Incorrectly Labeling Products
As an Amazon FBA seller, you should keep in mind that wrong or misguided labeled products can badly impact your business. A false-guided product label can hinder your order fulfillment and also leave a negative impact on your customers.
You should also apply UPC or Amazon ID stickers correctly to ensure that Amazon delivers your products at the right address.
Improper Packaging
Although after becoming a part of the Fulfillment by Amazon program, you’re allowed to skip the packaging part for your delivery. You have to make sure that your inventory reaches the warehouse in perfect condition.
Also, keep a note that your supplier uses the right packaging materials for the en-route protection and safety of the product.
After Amazon delivers you the sticker to apply on the box, ensure that you stick it in the right place on your product’s box, so it doesn’t get damaged.
Not Complying with Amazon’s Guidelines
Amazon is quite strict in its policies and guidelines, and it has a list of certain restrictions regarding the products you can’t sell on Amazon. Also, Amazon has listed a few necessary requirements regarding inventory, packaging, and labeling.
In any circumstances, if you fail to meet these requirements, Amazon may cancel your listing and end your selling rights with the company.
While listing your products and sending them to Amazon’s warehouses, always ensure that you meet Amazon’s guidelines.
Not Managing Inventory Properly
For an Amazon FBA seller, the warehouse is an extremely valuable place. To manage your inventory better, you must know your market well and be aware of quantities of the supply and demand chain for maximized returns and minimized costs.
Amazon charges a certain fee to store the products in their warehouses. So you should know the right time of shipping your products from your inventory to the warehouse. If the products are kept for a longer period of time, you need to pay more.
Shipping The Products To The Wrong Warehouse
One of the most important factors to nullify shipping problems is ensuring that you send your inventory to the right warehouses. It avoids delays, confusion, and cancellation of the order.
Amazon has numerous warehouses worldwide, so you must carefully track that your products reach the right warehouse.
Step-By-Step Guide on Sending Your Inventory To Amazon
Shipping your inventories for the first time can be hectic and confusing. But once done, you’ll gradually enjoy the process. Follow these steps a couple of times to become familiar with them. Learn about SKU & ASIN on Amazon before you proceed
- Go to your Amazon seller central account, open “Manage Inventory,” and find your listing.
2. Now click from the drop-down button, click “edit,” and select “Send/Replenish Inventory.”
3. The next step requires you to enter your “Ship from address.” If your inventory is your house or business, kindly enter that address.
You’ll find two options stating “Individual products” or “Case-packed products,” which you’ll need to select accordingly.
If you’ve multiple products for shipment with different SKUs, select “Individual products.”
But if your products for shipment consist of one SKU, select “Case-Packed products.”
At last, click on “Continue to Shipping Plan.”
4. In this step, you’ll enter the number of units of your product that you’re shipping with its exact number of cases. For example, in the image below, the seller is sending 50 units with 25 units in each case. The number of cases here will be 2.
5. This step requires you to enter your packaging details. Based upon your product, you’ve to select whether your item will be shipped with a polybag, labeled, or bubbled wrapped.
Select your product type from the drop-down menu, and Amazon will automatically suggest what prep type you’re required for your product packaging.
6. You need to enter your labeling details depending upon your product type in your next step. If there is a requirement for Amazon (FNSKU) barcode, you can apply it yourself or let Amazon do it for you.
7. This step requires you to know where Amazon wants to send your inventory.
By default, Amazon itself decides where to send your products depending on their demand.
Although, you can change your settings under FBA shipment settings in your seller account and let all your units be stored at a single warehouse.
8. The final step is to select your shipping service and decide how your items will be packed. After entering the details like the size and volume of your product, Amazon will give you the pricing.
After completing the payment, your products will be ready to ship.
Conclusion
Fulfillment by Amazon is a program for sellers to sell their products via Amazon and have Amazon handle the fulfillment, customer service, and shipping for you.
This means that you can store and manage your inventory on Amazon and in its warehouses and ship them out to customers.