It is not a hidden secret that Amazon is the biggest online retailer with millions of goods that are sold and purchased by tons of merchants and shoppers every day. From items as small as toothpicks to items as complex as automotive parts, you can sell anything on this huge platform. To make things easier for you, Amazon offers a program known as FBA. If you want to find out what it is and how about fba selling is helpful for merchants, keep reading this Amazon fba review.
What is FBA
It is a service or program offered by Amazon through which it takes the responsibility of storage, packaging, and shipping of your goods. It also provides support service to your consumers after their order has been delivered. This is a great way to get rid of the inconvenience of finding an appropriate warehouse for your goods, packing them securely, and finding ways to deal with their shipping.
With this service, your goods become eligible for prime shipping that is totally free and they have more probability of winning the buy box. Moreover, you get a full refund if your goods get damaged while they are in Amazon’s warehouse. Typically, this is a more economical way of delivering your goods as compared to other methods.
However, you should keep an eye on your inventory level and send more units to the warehouse when the level is low.
How does amazon fba work
To become an amazon fba seller, you must make an account and specify the types of goods you intend to offer and their category as well. This will make it easy for Amazon to determine which storehouse you need to send your goods to. Next, you have to fill a packaging sheet to ship your goods to the storehouse.
When your goods are received, they will be stored and whenever an order is placed, they will be packed and delivered to your consumer. Your transactions and refunds will also be managed. The availability of your goods is updated every time a unit is sold.
Costs of FBA
For amazon fba business, different fees have to be paid by merchants.
- FBA Fees
- Monthly Fees
- Referral fees
- Monthly Charges
- FBA Fees
This is the fee that merchants pay to Amazon for taking care of their goods, packing them, and shipping them. It also includes the costs of support services provided to your consumers. How much you have to pay depends on the size and weight of your items and the category it belongs to. Small and lightweight items have less fees compared to big and heavy items. This fee is paid on each unit.
- Storage Fees
You pay this fee every month if your stock is stored in the Amazon storehouse. It is charged per cubic feet.
- Referral fees
This fee is paid by every merchant who wishes to do business on Amazon regardless of whether they are using fba services or not. It is paid on every unit you sell and for most of the categories and goods, it is no more than 15%. However, some categories do have a higher percentage so you must choose the category very carefully. For beginners who have limited investment, it is wise to choose a category with a low referral fee.
- Monthly Charges
These charges are also paid by every merchant who uses this platform to sell items. Two plans (individual and professional) are offered to merchants. The individual plan asks you to pay $0.99 every time you sell a unit while for the professional plan you pay $39.99 every month and no fee is taken on the sale of any unit. You should select the plan according to the no. of units you have predicted to sell every month.
Best Tools For Sellers
IO Scout
Equipped with a variety of important features, IO scout is definitely a tool every merchant needs. It consists of a calculator tool which is totally free and gives you the estimates of fees you need to pay for offering a particular item. By just proving the ASIN of the item, you can get all the costs associated with it.
The tool is capable of bringing you useful details of more than 200 million goods and these details are updated on an hourly basis to give you real-time info. Tons of filters are also available so you can quickly find the right item.