Shipping orders can be daunting for online businesses. It’s a relatively complex process involving various forms, packing, and dispatch. Sellers face different challenges before and after a product reaches the customer. These challenges include hefty shipping fees, lofty customer expectations, and other external factors out of the seller’s control. Thankfully, Amazon offers programs like Amazon FBA that ease businesses’ struggles with shipping. In this article, we’ll talk about five reasons to sell on Amazon using the FBA program.
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What Is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is Amazon’s order fulfillment program for ecommerce businesses.
This program allows online sellers to store their products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers.
With FBA, Amazon packs and ships your products to customers whenever they place an order. On top of that, Amazon handles customer service and returns for your products.
Using Amazon FBA, you won’t have to deal with the hassles of packing and shipping your products.
Without the need to sort, pack, and ship your items, you avoid dealing with late shipments and after-shipment support.
Amazon FBA makes selling more manageable and will give you fewer worries. You’ll have more time to focus on product opportunities and business exposure.
However, using Amazon FBA means paying per-item fulfillment fees. Considering the effort and costs involved in fulfilling orders yourself, Amazon can be a worthwhile long-term investment.
How Does Amazon FBA Work?
The FBA process is pretty simple.
First, you must choose your product and conduct market research.
Amazon has prohibited products, while some items require approval before you can list them. Verify your chosen product isn’t banned or requires approval before selling it.
Once you’ve chosen a product, you can send your inventory to Amazon fulfillment centers.
To know the ins and outs of the process, you must learn how to ship to Amazon FBA.
When a customer purchases your product, Amazon will take the item from the fulfillment center, pack the order, and ship it to the customer.
If a customer wants to return your product, Amazon also handles the return and refund process.
As the seller, Amazon will give you your earnings weekly. The FBA fees are deducted automatically from your total sales.
Why Should I Use Amazon FBA?
Here are five reasons you should sell on Amazon using the FBA program.
- Amazon’s Reach
According to recent Amazon sales data, the ecommerce marketplace gained $469,822 billion in annual revenue in 2021.
With the FBA program, you can take advantage of Amazon’s global reach and send orders to various countries.
Remember, Amazon also handles international shipping under the FBA program.
- Fast and Reliable Shipping
Amazon is known for fast and reliable shipping.
Customers receive their orders two to three days after ordering. They also offer benefits to Prime members, where customers can receive packages in one or two days.
You can boost your sales by offering customers prefer fast and reliable shipping.
- Low Shipping Costs
Using FBA is much cheaper than fulfilling orders yourself. Amazon has shipping discounts from all major carriers, which benefits sellers like you.
They also provide export programs that handle custom regulations when you want to ship your products internationally.
- Eliminates Warehousing
Another advantage of starting an Amazon FBA business is you don’t have to worry about paying for warehousing costs.
You don’t need a warehouse because Amazon stores your inventory for you. Amazon ensures the secure storage of your products in their fulfillment centers.
Amazon will give you unlimited space in their warehouse if your products perform well and have tons of orders.
For slow-moving items, Amazon also provides an inventory management system. It helps track surplus inventory to know how long they have been sitting in the warehouse.
- Availability of Online Selling Tools
Running a business with Amazon FBA is more straightforward than processing fulfillment yourself.
However, it doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. You’re still responsible for your business operations outside of fulfillment.
To simplify your other processes, leverage the best Amazon seller tools.
Various Amazon selling tools can help you with analytics, sales monitoring, and payment tracking.
How To Start Selling Using Amazon FBA
Here’s how to sell on Amazon using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program.
- Set up a seller account on Amazon.
- Choose the FBA option for fulfillment.
- Prepare your products for shipping to an Amazon fulfillment center.
- Create product listings on Amazon.
- Send your products to the Amazon fulfillment center.
- When someone places an order, Amazon handles the product’s picking, packing, and shipping to the customer.
- Amazon also takes care of customer service and product returns for FBA orders.
Your products must meet Amazon’s FBA product guidelines to be eligible for Amazon FBA.
The Bottom Line
The Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) program offers many benefits.
The service saves you money by eliminating warehousing costs and minimizing shipping fees. Amazon FBA also ensures speedy and reliable shipping of your orders.
It allows you to maximize sales without worrying about shipping and fulfillment.
However, you must still choose suitable and profitable products for your business to grow.
