There are no two ways about it: if you want your ecommerce business to be a success, you need to ensure your shipping and delivery are top-notch.
Delivery quality is important to customers, and has an undeniable effect on brand loyalty. 84% of customers say that they are unlikely to purchase from a brand again once they’ve encountered a poor delivery experience. That leaves little to no margin for error.
Luckily, ecommerce business owners today can have their orders delivered and fulfilled by Amazon. Simply by enrolling in the Amazon FBA program, you too can easily offer fast, reliable, and affordable shipping and tracking for your customers.
What is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA, meaning Fulfillment by Amazon, is a service that allows third-party sellers (like you) to leverage the logistics capabilities of Amazon for their own businesses.
As an Amazon FBA seller, your products will be searchable on the Amazon Marketplace, and you’ll even be able to offer free, unlimited shipping for Prime-eligible products.
You will need to ship your inventory – whether from a manufacturer or supplier – to be stored at an Amazon warehouse or Fulfilment Center. When a buyer places an order, Amazon will take care of the packing, shipping, returns, and even customer service for you.
You can see an example of an Amazon FBA business below. It is indicated on the product page that the item is sold by BeikeMar’s Shop but will be shipped from Amazon.
Access to the Amazon FBA service is not limited to orders placed on the Amazon Marketplace. You can also have orders placed on your ecommerce website or other sales channels be fulfilled by Amazon, as long as your inventory is stored at one of their warehouses or fulfillment centers.
What are the benefits of starting an Amazon FBA Singapore business?
Amazon FBA is a great way for ecommerce business owners to expand their sales channels, access cost-effective shipping, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
Global reach
Amazon FBA allows your products to be listed on the Amazon Marketplace, which means you can now reach out and sell to customers worldwide with minimal effort on your end.
Amazon’s global scale and international logistics capabilities allow you to diversify your markets for steadier business growth. For example, you can take advantage of peak sales seasons in other countries to balance out low sales periods at home.
Reliable shipping
Speedy and reliable shipping is key to customers’ overall shopping experiences and can go a long way to helping you earn customer trust.
Since Amazon handles packaging, handling, and shipping, customers who buy your products are assured of a minimum standard of quality. This includes management of basic customer service, inquiries about shipping status and tracking, and even returns and refunds. Prime-eligible products can even be delivered for free on the same day.
Lower costs
If you were to handle logistics yourself, you would likely have to consider multiple factors, including the packaging materials, volume, delivery destinations, fuel costs, carrier agreements, and more. For small packages, these costs can add up quickly per parcel, eating into your profit margins.
Amazon FBA’s easy-to-calculate, pay-as-you-go fee structure means that you are only charged for storage space and any orders that Amazon fulfills. There’s also no extra charge if your orders are eligible for Amazon Prime or free shipping.
That's why ecommerce sellers may find that the overall fees for Amazon FBA are lower than managing everything on their own, especially when you consider that services include packing, tracking, and returns management. By letting Amazon take care of the nitty-gritty of fulfillment, you can focus more time and effort on growing your business.
Multi-channel sales
Amazon FBA is not just confined to items sold on the Amazon Marketplace. You can also have orders placed on other sales channels like your own ecommerce website or social media channels be fulfilled by Amazon – these are referred to as Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) orders on the Amazon platform.
MCF orders allow you to diversify your sales channels while keeping your ordering, shipping, and returns processes consistent and high quality.
Improved customer experiences
The combined effect of fast and reliable shipping, Amazon-standard 24/7 customer service, and easy return processes means a better overall shopping experience for your customers. This contributes a significant amount of brand equity to your business – retailers who are willing to invest in quality delivery and tracking services are perceived as more trustworthy as they prioritize customer satisfaction.
Three steps to becoming an Amazon FBA seller
Step 1: Register your account
Becoming an Amazon FBA seller requires that you first create an Amazon Seller Account.
Once that’s done, you will need to choose between an Individual or Professional Selling Plan.
- Professional Selling Plan: S$29.95 (S$32.05 with GST) subscription per month. No per-item fee.
- Individual Selling Plan: No monthly subscription fee, but a per-item fee of S$1.00 (S$1.07 with GST) for each product sold.
Consider how many sales you tend to close per month – if you regularly sell more than 30 items per month, you can save on per-item fees with the Professional Selling Plan. But if your sales volumes are lower than 30 per month, the Individual Selling plan would make more sense.
Note that the per-item selling fee is separate from the Amazon referral fee, which varies based on the category and value of your products sold.
Step 2: List your products
With your Amazon Seller Account up and running, you can now enroll in Amazon FBA and start listing your products to sell. Based on a report of the fastest-growing ecommerce categories in Singapore, some of the best products to sell on Amazon FBA are:
- Baby products
- Food and personal care
- Fashion and beauty
- Toys, DIY & hobbies
- Electronics and media
- Exercise apparel and equipment
- Furniture and home appliances
- Video games
If you’re a Shopify user, you can sync your Shopify store to Amazon and easily create new product listings without manually re-entering all your information on the Amazon seller platform. To do so, however, you will need to have a Professional Selling Plan and upgrade to an Amazon Seller Central Professional Account (additional fees apply).
Step 3: Prepare your products
Make sure your products are "ecommerce ready” before shipping them to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. This step is important because Amazon requires that all products be prepared according to specific requirements before a fulfillment center can receive them. Select which items are to be fulfilled by Amazon and which you will take care of on your own. Do note that certain products cannot be fulfilled by Amazon FBA at the moment, such as oversized items.
Here is a list of guidelines and video tutorials from Amazon about the proper way to prepare fragile items, liquids, textiles, and small items.
Once you've completed all three steps, you're ready to start selling on Amazon FBA. You can create shipping plans, track your sales and shipments, and monitor your inventory all via Amazon’s online seller tools.
FAQs about Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
How does Amazon FBA work?
With Amazon FBA, sellers can access a range of fulfillment services, including packing, shipping, tracking, customer service, and returns. Most importantly, Amazon FBA sellers have their products listed on the Amazon Marketplace, allowing them to expand and reach international customers while offering fast and free shipping for any Prime-eligible products.
How much does it cost to sell on Amazon FBA?
- Selling fee: Choose between the Individual or Professional Selling Plan, which charges based on the per-item sold basis or a monthly subscription fee.
- Referral fee: Calculated based on the value of the item sold and varies according to which category the product falls under.
- Fulfillment by Amazon fee: Shipping and handling are charged on a per-use basis, while storage is charged on a monthly basis. Check if you're eligible to enroll in the FBA New Selection Program, which offers free storage and removals for new FBA sellers for a limited time.
What are the benefits of being an Amazon FBA seller?
FBA also gives you access to the Amazon Marketplace to reach out more easily to international customers, allowing you to grow your business quickly and cost-effectively.
What are the best products to sell on Amazon FBA?
- Food and personal care
- Fashion and beauty
- Electronics and media
- Furniture and home appliances
- Toys, DIY & hobbies
- Video games
Tap into Amazon multi-channel fulfillment with Shopify
There are many ways for ecommerce business owners to start selling on Amazon with Shopify, and FBA is only one of them. Amazon FBA mainly offers fast and reliable shipping and fulfillment services for third-party ecommerce sellers, but additional benefits include access to a global marketplace and a massive audience.
With the Amazon sales channel app, you’ll be able to easily sync your Shopify store to the Amazon platform for more straightforward product listing and inventory management. And because Amazon FBA services aren't limited to products sold via the Amazon Marketplace, you can still keep your online store as your home base and diversify your sales channels to reach massive new audiences. All while ensuring consistent, high-quality shipping and returns processes for the best customer experiences possible.
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