How can I quickly introduce my products to 416 million customers in the UK?
You can reach Amazon’s large customer base in the UK much faster and easier with Amazon FBA. You can find answers to questions such as what is Amazon FBA, how to use it, why Amazon FBA, etc. in the rest of our article.
What is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is a service offered by Amazon as a tool for professional sellers to automate their order fulfillment and shipping services. It’s a pretty simple concept: Sellers sell, Amazon ships.
For anyone who signs up for Amazon FBA, Amazon ensures that returns and refunds are handled by Amazon, as well as all shipping, including product storage in Amazon’s warehouses, handling, picking, packaging, and more.
Sellers ship their products to Amazon warehouses, which store everything and process all incoming orders. In other words, you handle the sales and as long as you ensure the availability of your products, the rest is done for you by Amazon.
Of course, you need to pay for Amazon FBA services. So, what do you get in return?
- 24/7 Amazon customer service
- All fulfillment and shipping costs included (picking, packing and shipping)
- Access to one of the world’s most dynamic fulfillment networks
- Management of returned products
Most people are familiar with the fact that Amazon is a giant in online retail and fulfillment. COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic have only served to increase usage of Amazon’s platform, which has more than 300 million active customer accounts worldwide.
Note that FBA may not be ideal for low-value items, oversized or heavy items, or other circumstances. Although it offers a lot, it is not a suitable solution for every product. What should you pay attention to when making decisions? That’s exactly why we’re here.
Let’s take a quick look at the history and evolution of this platform, and then we’ll dive into the features and more.
Evolution of FBA
Amazon started its FBA program in 2006. Despite its humble beginnings in the 1990s, the brand was dominating the world of online sales and fulfillment and saw an opportunity to help others do the same.
Amazon decided it wanted to help small businesses benefit from Amazon’s large customer base and leading customer service infrastructure. Essentially, the brand wanted to share its business model with others and help third-party sellers learn how to make huge profits by doing the “Amazon model.”
The FBA program, like Amazon itself, is constantly evolving and changing to meet the needs of the evolving consumer landscape and online retail environment. This is both a blessing and a huge competitive problem for those selling on Amazon. It will be easy to stay current with current trends and market demands, but it can also be difficult to keep up with constant changes and updates to the process, guidelines, and other aspects of the program.
Fortunately, here are all the details about the Amazon FBA program, including its future potential, to help you decide your next move.
Amazon FBA's latest changes and features
FBA is constantly changing and adapting to meet the needs of both its customers and the sellers using the platform. Staying up to date with the latest changes and additions helps brands meet consumer demand and stay at the top of their game with FBA service. For example, one of the big changes in 2020 is that if Amazon barcodes are used, the allowed stock of 1 product is stored together and shipped to buyers by sellers independently.
Regardless of the seller, Amazon stores each unit of a single product together or in different warehouses according to the regions requested by the customer and sends the ordered quantity to the buyer.
Another new change as of August 2020 is the Inventory Performance Index (IPI), which measures various elements to determine how your inventory is performing and helps you improve it by getting rid of excess inventory, increasing your sell-through rate, and more. A score above 400 is important for Amazon to give you enough space, calculated based on the following factors:
- Inventory in stock
- Excess inventory
- Stranded (idle) inventory
- Sales rates
Amazon has quantity limits at the ASIN level to help ensure sellers have a variety of products, and its new inventory performance dashboard makes it easy to track everything. You can track your inventory activity, monitor your IPI score, and even get advice and tips from Amazon on how to make better use of your inventory.
Amazon changes and updates its FBA program all the time. Fortunately, they have a very communicative system that keeps vendors informed of new changes and features as they become available. The biggest problem here is to stay up to date and make the necessary changes in line with the updates.
FBA's costs
Here’s the part everyone always wants to know, the cost. Amazon FBA will cost some money, but it doesn’t have to be a small fortune. For starters, with Amazon warehousing, items are charged based on size and weight, not selling price.
With the Amazon FBA program, you pay storage fees and fulfillment fees. The more inventory you store, the more it will cost you.
In addition, Amazon keeps track of inventory that is stored in an Amazon warehouse but is not listed for sale or is idle. Stranded inventory costs you money, but Amazon provides an inventory report and advises you on recalling, destroying, or selling these items as an outlet.
Also keep in mind that you’ll pay higher storage fees to store your inventory during the busy holiday season than during the rest of the year. You should do this when it’s time to double-check your FBA listings and remove anything that won’t sell.
Pros of FBA
You may want to take a look at this list when deciding whether Amazon FBA is the right solution for you.
- Pros of FBA.
Hassle-Free Shipping and Logistics: Amazon does all the work for you. You just keep track of your listings, make sure the product is stocked, and keep track of what needs to be fulfilled from start to finish. A big burden will be taken off your shoulders for a small fee.
Discounted Shipping Rates: Since you’re working with Amazon, a global fulfillment giant, you’ll also spend less on your shipping costs through the FBA platform. So even if you’re paying the fee, it may be lower than you think when you factor in shipping savings.
Return Management: In addition to sales, FBA also handles returns and refunds as they are considered part of the order fulfillment process.
Customer Service Management: Amazon offers its own customer service for FBA sellers. You can also use FBA platforms to meet your own customer service needs, directing all your services through a single platform for easy management.
Fast Shipping: Products on FBA automatically receive the Prime badge and are eligible for Prime free shipping (to the customer) and shipping times. Plus, you won’t have to pay or be charged premium shipping fees to do so since it’s included with the service.
More Storage Space: Without FBA, how much inventory can you realistically store? Do you have a warehouse or a vehicle to rent? Do you have the ability to move and manage inventory at this scale? This is where the FBA program really wins. You basically have access to unlimited storage because Amazon has warehouses all over the country that can hold a lot of goods.
Omni-Channel Fulfillment: Not only does FBA allow you to sell to targeted customers through the Amazon platform, you also have access to new omni-channel fulfillment solutions. MCF service (Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment) enables Amazon to fulfill your products as you sell them across various platforms and channels (such as eBay).
In this article, we tried to inform you in detail about how you can manage your e-export process with Amazon, with our years of experience and knowledge. We are ready to help you manage your processes regarding Amazon UK and e-export. You can reach Envoyo for anything you wonder about e-export with Amazon UK. You can benefit from the services we provide in many areas, from marketing to accounting, from logistics to consultancy, from law to sales. To get more information about Amazon UK and e-export and to benefit from our support, you can follow us on our social media accounts and contact us easily.
What should you do for categories that require approval?
If you want to get category approval;
– invoices of products,
– if you make some claims, test results and certificates proving them,
– If you want to sell products of another brand, you need a seller authorization certificate,
– If regulatory compliance is required, you will need consultancy services.
Amazon may also request extra documents depending on the product you want to sell and the features of the product.
In this article, we have tried to inform you in detail about how you can make product selection and market analysis at the beginning of your e-export process with Amazon, with the experience and knowledge we have gained over the years. We provide support to complete your deficiencies in regulatory compliance. As Envoyo, we help you if choosing a product category and performing product analysis seems to be a complicated and time-consuming task that you cannot handle on your own.
To benefit from the services we provide in many areas of e-export, from marketing to accounting, from logistics to consultancy, from law to sales, and to get more information, you can follow us on our social media accounts and easily contact us by filling out the form.
