Discover Fulfilment by Amazon in 5 steps
How does "Fulfilment by Amazon" work?
FBA can help you increase sales in UK and across Europe, leaving you with more time to focus on your business.
1. You send your inventory to an Amazon Fulfilment Centre.
When listing your products on Amazon, select Fulfilment by Amazon to fulfill them. More information about uploading products to be fulfilled by Amazon.
Sourcing product packaging supplies is easier than ever. You can now get Amazon-preferred polybags, boxes, stretch wrap, bubble wrap and more directly from Amazon here.
There are no minimum inventory requirements, you can send one unit up to your entire inventory. More information about how to create a Shipment to our Fulfilment Centres.
Select your own carrier to ship your product to our Fulfilment Centres or use Amazon's discounted shipping with trusted Carriers who are familiar with Amazon delivery appointments and inbound procedures. Amazon FC's will be able to process shipments and make inventory available for sale faster than before with very competitive pricing.
Please note that there are some products restrictions.
You can change your settings for Fulfilment by Amazon at any time in the Section Settings > Fulfilment by Amazon in your Seller Central account.
2. Amazon stores your products-from a single unit up to the entire inventory.
Amazon receives and scans your inventory at the Fulfilment Centre.
We record Item dimensions for storage.
You monitor inventory using our integrated online tracking system.
Our fulfilment centres are secure.
3. FBA helps your offers to become more visible and more competitive.
FBA may also help you compete for the Buy Box. With FBA you can obtain immediately Featured Merchant status and FBA can help you improve your Seller performance.
Your FBA products are eligible for Prime and in many cases FREE Delivery options so you gain access to millions of our most loyal and active customers.
In a recent Amazon survey done in 2014 among active FBA Sellers in the UK, 85% reported enjoying a sales increase, and 53% reported a sales uplift of over 20% or more after they started using FBA!
Customers can combine your orders with other items fulfilled by Amazon or sold directly by Amazon which can help you sell more.
4. Amazon picks, packs and ships your products to customers in the UK and across Europe.
Amazon locates your products using our advanced web-to-warehouse, high-speed picking and sorting system.
Amazon ships customer orders using the method they choose.
We provide tracking information for customers.
We can deliver your orders not only to your UK customers but also to your customers in other Amazon EU marketplaces as well as to customers EU wide who order via other sales channels with our Multi-channel Fulfilment option.
From a single seller account and inventory pool, you can list and sell your products throughout the EU and let FBA fulfill your products in any of Amazon's other European Marketplaces (Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es).
5. Amazon provides customer service in local language and handles returns.
For orders on Amazon.co.uk and on other Amazon Marketplaces in the EU, Amazon provides customer service for delivery related issues in the local language and handles refunds and returns. You can now expand easily to Germany, France, Italy or Spain.
Benefit from the FBA Furbishing Service which gives you the opportunity to convert some the units your customers have returned back to be sellable again.
Upload listings
Fulfilment by Amazon offers you 3 ways to upload your listings to accommodate the number of products you wish to list.
Add a Product
If you have a small number of items you want Amazon to fulfill for you, you can list them one at a time. This online tool in your seller account enables you to select items in the Amazon.co.uk catalogue or add new ones. When listing your products, select “I want Amazon to dispatch and provide customer service for my items if they sell” in the section “delivery method” in the Offer tab.
Flat File Feeds
If you have a large number of items you wish to list, you can list items by uploading a flat file through the Upload tool in your seller account. We provide an Excel spreadsheet template that you can use to build the file. The template can be downloaded from the Add Products via Upload tab under the section Download inventory file templates. Insert in the column “FulfilmentCenterID” “AMAZON_EU”. You don't have to provide quantities in the quantity column. Finally, save the file as a .txt file and upload it in the Add Products via upload tab under the section Upload inventory files.
API Integration
If you have large volumes of inventory and development resources available to you, you can integrate your own website or inventory management software with Amazon's inventory catalog using Amazon's MWS API.
Create a shipment
Once your listings have been converted to Fulfilment by Amazon, the shipping workflow will walk you through the process of creating a shipment.
Enter item quantities and select your carrier. The workflow will identify inventory that needs to be labeled and provide item labels, packing slips and shipment labels that you can print. We'll also notify you of any errors and provide tips along the way to help you streamline the shipment process. Once your items are packed and your shipment is labeled, you can hand your shipment over to your carrier. For the inbound shipment you can use our Amazon's discounted shipping with our Partner Carrier programme or select your own carrier.
Product restrictions
Before listing products for Fulfilment by Amazon, it's important to know what is suitable for our fulfilment process and what is not. There are four criteria that can make products unsuitable for Fulfilment by Amazon:
Categories Requiring Approval
For some product categories, Amazon limits the addition of new sellers and closely monitors seller performance to ensure a high-quality experience for buyers. These measures are taken because of the types of products sold in the category, and often reflect concerns about consumer safety, product quality, branding, or import and export restrictions.
To see which categories require approval and ask permission to sell on them you need to contact Seller Support* inside your Seller Central account and select inventory->permission to sell new products.
Restricted Products
Certain products are not allowed for sale on Amazon's websites under any conditions. Some products may not be sold as a matter of compliance with legal or regulatory restrictions, for example, prescription drugs. Specific product content is prohibited as a matter of Amazon policy, for example, crime scene photos.
Please see our Restricted Products pages for more information about prohibited and permitted products.
Hazardous Materials
In addition, materials that pose a health risk due to toxic chemicals or volatile substances are not permitted. For a complete list of products restricted in our fulfilment centre, see our Product Restrictions and Packaging Requirements page.
Improper Packaging
Amazon has established packaging requirements that help provide a safe working environment in the fulfilment centres while enabling an efficient fulfilment process. Included with the packaging requirements are physical limitations on the products we will handle in our fulfilment centress. Large or heavy items can pose dangers to employees and interfere with the fulfilment process. See Packaging and Prep Requirements.
Receiving Inventory at the Fulfilment Centre
Inventory you send to an Amazon fulfilment centre is generally scanned and made available for sale within three business days of being received. You can track the status of your shipment in the Shipping Queue with the status cycling through In Transit, Delivered, Checked-In, Receiving and finally Closed. During the Receiving process, your item barcodes are individually scanned and entered into the tracking system, the dimensions and weight are captured for storage and fulfilment purposes.
Grazie ai report dell'inventario hai sempre la situazione sotto controllo. Ad esempio, puoi seguire giornalmente l'inventario nei centri logistici Amazon (inclusi dati come quantità, posizione e stato), nonché seguire il processo di ricezione e l'inventario ricevuto presso i centri logistici Amazon. Per maggiori informazioni sugli altri report delle attività aziendali a tua disposizione, accedi al link della pagina di aiuto di Seller Central.
Amazon Buy Box
The “Buy Box” is the box on a product detail page where a customer starts the purchase process by adding an item or items to their shopping basket.
A key feature of the Amazon platform is that the same product can be sold by several sellers. If several sellers offer the same product in “new” condition, they may be eligible to compete for the Buy Box for that product.
Eligibility to win the Buy Box is tied to specific seller performance criteria that identify the sellers who have consistently provided customers with a great buying experience on the Amazon.co.uk site.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is an increasingly popular membership programme for Amazon customers, it gives them fast and unlimited One-Day delivery on eligible purchases plus additional advantages for an annual membership of £79.
When you join FBA, your products are automatically eligible for Prime, which can increase your product exposure and competitiveness.Amazon Prime subscribers are among Amazon's most loyal customers and often order more frequently, making their purchasing decisions based on the delivery options available to them. They often filter products they consider purchasing so that they just see items which are eligible for Prime.
Only items fulfilled by Amazon are eligible for Prime benefits.
Customer Service
One of the advantages of Fulfilment by Amazon is the use of Amazon’s customer service to handle customer inquiries, refunds and returns. For orders from the Amazon.co.uk website that Amazon fulfils, we will manage all customer service associated with fulfilment of your products in the programme. Our online returns centre provides customers with help pages and details about how to contact us. If the customer wants to return a product, we direct the customer to our online Returns Centre.
Restricciones de productos
Antes de publicar productos para que sean gestionados por Amazon, es importante que sepas cuáles son aptos para nuestro proceso de gestión logística y cuáles no. Existen diferentes criterios para determinar si los productos no son aptos para Logística de Amazon:
Categorías sujetas a autorización
Para la venta de productos de algunas categorías, Amazon pone límites a los nuevos vendedores y controla atentamente su comportamiento para asegurar al cliente una compra de alta calidad. Las medidas que se aplican vienen dadas por el hecho de que estos artículos requieren mayor atención en términos de seguridad para el consumidor, en la calidad del producto, en el control de la marca o porque presentan restricciones a la importación o exportación.
Para conocer las categorías que requieren aprobación consulta nuestra sección de Ayuda. Si quieres solicitar permiso para vender en ellas, ve a la sección "Contactar con Atención al vendedor" desde la página principal de tu cuenta de Seller Central y seleccionar Inventario->Permiso para vender productos nuevos.
Productos restringidos
Hay ciertos productos que no pueden ser vendidos en Amazon.es. En concreto, no se permite la venta de algunos productos sujetos a restricciones legales, por ejemplo, medicamentos con receta médica. La política de Amazon prohíbe también la venta de determinado tipo de contenido, por ejemplo, fotografías de escenas de crímenes.
Consulta nuestras páginas dedicadas a productos restringidos para obtener más información sobre los productos que se pueden vender y los que no.
Receiving Inventory at the Fulfilment Centre
Inventory you send to an Amazon fulfilment centre is generally scanned and made available for sale within three business days of being received. You can track the status of your shipment in the Shipping Queue with the status cycling through In Transit, Delivered, Checked-In, Receiving and finally Closed. During the Receiving process, your item barcodes are individually scanned and entered into the tracking system, the dimensions and weight are captured for storage and fulfilment purposes.
Storage fees
The unit dimensions are measured and the accumulated cubic feet of all your inventory is recorded each night for the total volume of your stored inventory. You pay for the average daily volume you have in storage during the month; this means you only pay storage for what is in our fulfilment centres while it is there. More about FBA fees.
Inventory reports
You can track the daily inventory in Amazon's fulfilment centres including quantity, location, and disposition and also track the received inventory that has completed the receive process at Amazon’s fulfilment centres among other inventory reports. To know more about other business analytical reports at your disposal please access to the Seller Central help link.
Protecting your Inventory
Our Fulfilment Centres offer a secure modern environment. We store inventory either in bulk or in individual “pickable” locations. Media products are stored on library-type shelving in vertical, spine out positions with loose stacking to avoid “shelf wear.” Specialty items like high-value goods may be placed in specific secure areas of the fulfilment centre as appropriate. If inventory is damaged or misplaced while in Amazon’s control in the fulfilment centre, we will purchase the inventory from you.
For more information, go to Fulfilment by Amazon Replacement Value Schedule.
