As an online retailer selling on the Amazon marketplace, a key decision you will need to make is whether to use Fulfillment by Amazon, or whether to handle your fulfillment either in house or through an additional service.
Fulfillment by Amazon, also often referred to as FBA, gives you access to Amazon’s next-day delivery options and trusted customer service.
In other words, FBA is a service available to all of Amazon’s third-party sellers, where you can hand over fulfillment – packaging, sorting and shipping – of any listing to Amazon.
Basically, you sell it, Amazon ships it.
There are huge benefits to any online seller looking to use Amazon FBA.
For starters, it helps increase your sales, which can ultimately maximize business growth.
In fact, a 2014 survey showed that 71% of FBA respondents reported a 20% increase in unit sales since joining FBA.
Several other reasons Amazon FBA can boost your retail company’s growth include;
FBA eliminates any fulfillment shipping efforts for sellers, by handing over warehouse management and packaging to Amazon, not to mention the associated fees.
With FBA, you’ll have access to Amazon’s acclaimed customer service, and you can rest easy knowing that they’re providing your customers with the best service possible.
The best part is that while this is happening, you can invest your time elsewhere, and you don’t require the need for customer service specialists.
In addition to 24/7 customer service, FBA enables quicker shipping rates, and is eligible for Amazon Prime shipping and delivery tracking.
As FBA inventory is shipped by Amazon, orders can be processed and shipped faster than products sent directly from the retailer.
FBA is a great way to boost your chances of achieving buy box placement (the box on a product detail page where customers can begin adding items to their shopping cart).
There are several factors that influence this, such as speed of shipping, seller rating, competitive pricing, and of course, order fulfillment status.
FBA goes way beyond being solely a fulfillment solution, and is being leveraged worldwide as a marketing tool.
At the most basic level, FBA gives you instant access to Amazon Prime customers, who are among some of the eCommerce giant’s most loyal and active customers.
Your product listings are also seen as more competitive, and you will have access to all international marketplaces on Amazon.
FBA is integrated with your selling account, offering a flexible, pay-per-use model without minimum inventory requirements, making it easier to sell in Europe depending on your comfort levels.
Start by determining which type of Amazon FBA program is right for your company:
FBA Export is a program available through FBA which enables you to extend your offers to customers in up to 26 European countries, at the simple click of a button.
This approach is ideal for all FBA sellers, and is at no extra charge or risk to you as the seller.
It’s important to be aware, however, that FBA Export doesn’t list your products on other Amazon marketplaces. Instead, it enables your products to be shipped directly to international customers who are shopping on your home Amazon marketplace.
By using European Fulfillment Network, you can sell on all of Amazon’s European marketplaces from UK inventory, and benefit from them dealing with the customer service and returns handling in the customer's local language.
This is a great program to leverage in order to test which products will perform will across the European Union, however there will be a single ‘EFN fees’ structure across Europe.
When using Multi-Country Inventory, you are able to send your most popular inventory directly to Amazon Fulfillment Centers in each of the countries your products are listed, and they will be stored close to local customers.
This program helps improve your company’s sales conversion by getting your international orders to customers faster, and at a reduced cost, which is ideal for sellers who have a clear growth plan for Europe.
It may come as a surprise, but FBA can fulfill other orders outside of Amazon.
The reason being is that Amazon’s FBA program has multi-channel fulfillment, allowing you to list and sell your FBA inventory on other channels such as eBay and your own website, and fulfill those orders through FBA.
That said, in order to scale your online business effectively, you'll eventually need to invest in inventory and order management software to support your continued growth.
Keep in mind that FBA won’t be appropriate for every company, and it’s important that you determine your budget, margin and profitability for using Amazon as a whole, as well as for specific products.
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