Amazon has quickly become the epicenter of the digital commerce world. With over 2.5 million sellers, 150 million mobile users, and a whopping 221 billion dollars in transaction value in 2019 alone, there’s simply no comparison to the size and scope of Amazon’s marketplace. For someone looking to sell their products online, there’s simply no better place to be. Every month, nearly 200 million people (that’s more than the entire population of Japan) shop online with Amazon. No other marketplace comes close to this type of visibility for your products.
If you have an Amazon seller account, you already know about the fantastic benefits and advantages of selling on Amazon. But what if you want to see even more profits, enough to also potentially become a full-time seller? If this sounds like you, you might want to consider what Amazon’s FBA offers. With FBA, Amazon does what they do best in managing the shipping and fulfillment of your products through their unmatched logistics system. But it can be intimidating when thinking about making the switch over to FBA. You might be wondering: what exactly is FBA? What are some of the benefits and primary reasons for signing up with FBA? Here, we look into Amazon’s FBA program to help you determine whether this is the right decision for you as a seller. The growth potential is there, the only question left is whether or not you’re ready to kick it into high gear with Amazon FBA.
WHAT IS AMAZON FBA?
FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon, is one of the fastest-growing methods for making money in the world of e-commerce. Essentially, FBA means that you’re turning over the shipping and fulfillment tasks to Amazon themselves (for a fee, of course). This means that you can save time, energy, and focus more on your actual products. FBA is, like most services offered by Amazon, amazingly direct and straightforward: simply list your products, send them to one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and when a customer purchases a product, Amazon takes care of the rest. What’s even better, Amazon also takes care of a lot of the stress that can occur on the back end of a transaction, such as returns and customer service needs.
BENEFITS OF FBA
Now that you know a little bit about FBA, why should you consider it as an option for your selling needs on Amazon? There are many reasons to look into FBA, but we’ve highlighted just a few of them to show you what FBA is all about.
TIME IS MONEY
At its core, FBA is a trade-off: by paying Amazon’s FBA fee, you’re getting a lot of your time and energy back by not having to deal with shipping, fulfillment, returns, and customer service. Ideally, this time and energy can then be reinvested into other aspects of your role as a seller (or, hey, just go out and enjoy yourself).
EASY RETURNS
While no seller wants to see their products returned, returns are an inevitable cost of doing business in the online marketplace. Customers may be quick to buy, but it’s often difficult to really get a feel for a product until you’re opening the box. With FBA, Amazon handles your shipping and fulfillment needs and all your returns, guaranteeing to make your life easier and your customers happy.
AMAZON PRIME
One of the most significant advantages of FBA is that it qualifies you for inclusion in the popular Amazon Prime program. Amazon has over 300 million active customers and over a third of those are Amazon Prime users. What makes this number significant is that Prime users tend to be more loyal and spend more money. One recent analysis showed that while the average customer on Amazon spends about 700 dollars a year, a Prime user spends about 1,300. That’s nearly double the dollar amount of a standard shopper. What does this mean to you? It’s all about access. With FBA, you gain access to the most valuable Amazon shoppers out there.
STORAGE
As you grow as a seller on Amazon, it’s only natural that your stock will also expand. Unless you’ve got a few spare rooms in your house to store all your products, this quickly becomes a problem. However, with FBA, Amazon’s got you covered for all your stock needs. With FBA, Amazon will store and sort your entire product line. You’ll never have to worry about misplacing an item again with Amazon’s expert warehouse services.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
You might love listing and selling your products but hate the idea of talking directly with customers and handling complaints—and that’s okay. Amazon’s FBA takes over for you by directly handling all your customer service needs. Whether it’s customer questions, complaints, returns, or any other type of communication need, let the Amazon experts step in for you to focus on the products you love.
STEPS TO GETTING STARTED WITH FBA
Getting started with FBA is surprisingly quick and easy. By allowing Amazon to handle the complicated shipping and fulfillment logistics, you can focus more on your products. If you’re curious about FBA, you can join the party in as few as four steps.
- Set up an account with Amazon’s FBA
- Write up your product listings, specifying FBA inventory
- Get your products ready for shipping
- Ship your products to Amazon—they’ll handle the rest
Four easy steps and look—you’ve just become a part of Amazon’s global logistics framework. Signing up for FBA will allow you to hand over the shipping and fulfillment tasks to those who do it best so you can focus on your own products. While there is a fee involved, it’s hard not to see the extensive benefits you’ll receive as a seller by becoming a part of FBA. List your products, ship them off to your local Amazon fulfillment center, and let Amazon do the rest. As a seller, you know your products better than anyone. But no one ships and performs fulfillment more effectively and more quickly than Amazon. The world of e-commerce is vast, and it’s only getting bigger. Amazon’s FBA is a quick and surprisingly easy way to get ahead of the competition in this dynamic, digital marketplace.