Choosing a Shipping Method: Amazon FBA or Amazon FBM
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfilment by Merchant (FBM) are the two shipping options available when selling on Amazon. While these concepts offer similar advantages, each has its own set of logistical support and methods that influence how many brands you can stock and how many sales you can expect. If your business requires it, you may want to take a hybrid approach and use both FBA and FBM in some cases.
This blog will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of both the FBA and FBM models. It will also look at the pros and cons of each depending on your Amazon business. Following this article, you should be capable of determining which shipping model is best for your company’s needs, as well as the following stages you should take to grow your Amazon business.
FBA
The Fulfilment by Amazon method, also known as “FBA,” is the first delivery model you can use. Fulfillment by Amazon is a shipping method that enables sellers to buy products in bulk (wholesale, private label, or arbitrage) and ship them directly to Amazon’s fulfillment centers worldwide. These institutes will accept the goods and store them for the sellers in their warehouses. If a customer purchases an item from a third-party seller, Amazon will track down the asset, package it, and ship it to the customer.
Advantages of Amazon’s FBA Business
For third-party sellers, the advantages of using FBA appear to be limitless. First and foremost, FBA sellers benefit from significant time and energy savings. The most taxing aspect of selling on Amazon is often fulfilling orders. Paying for shipping, shipping items to buyers, and even choosing a shipping company can be a time-consuming and exhausting process, especially if you’re selling many products at once.
The second is to save money on storage and inventory management. Renting out storage space and keeping an inventory system in a room or storage facility takes up space and money. To manage all of the physical stock products, some sellers may require employees or a management system.
Productivity is the third advantage. Shipping and fulfillment productivity and efficiency are enhanced to the most significant level with Amazon FBA. At each Fulfilment Center, Amazon employs hundreds of people and has established methods to reduce shipping times.
The fourth benefit is Prime shipping from Amazon. Customers and buyers can get same-day, 1-day, or 2-day shipping with Prime shipping. As a seller, these added benefits are insignificant, but a buyer may appreciate them and purchase more products due to the quick shipping times.
Last but not least, managing buyer returns is a fifth advantage of using FBA. If a customer is unhappy with a product, Amazon FBA will handle all returns and even send a replacement.
Cons of Amazon’s FBA Business
There will have to be some drawbacks to using Amazon FBA, regardless of the benefits. Here are some of the issues you might encounter when using FBA:
One disadvantage is that the FBA model isn’t free, and you’ll have to pay Amazon to use their services. These fees can eat into your profit margins for some sellers and products, leaving you with little to no profit from selling on Amazon.
Another negative aspect of the FBA model is that you have no control over the products. Because sellers are not required to handle any goods, they cannot detect any problems or issues with product quality unless a buyer returns a faulty item.
The third issue with Amazon FBA is that keeping track of your inventory can be difficult. It will be more challenging to forecast the ideal inventory to buy for your company or organization because you will not have any direct contact with the stock.
The fourth disadvantage of the FBA model is that Amazon has very stringent shipping guidelines for its Fulfillment Centers. When delivering products to one of the warehouses, they have the packaging, labeling, and authentication code guidelines for all suppliers and sellers.
FBM
The FBM, or “Fulfilment by Merchant,” model is another widely accepted model for delivering goods for your Amazon business. Self-shipping is another term for the FBM model, in which sellers have complete control over their stock and shipment fulfillment. Ordering and storing inventory, using a warehouse, packaging and delivering individual items to sellers, and managing returns for defective products are all examples of this.
Advantages of Self-Shipping
Although this method is less popular than Amazon’s FBA counterpart and may require more work from individual sellers, it offers several advantages that the FBA model does not.
For starters, self-shipping gives sellers complete control over the purchasing and shipping processes. Unlike FBA, sellers can perform quality assurance on their inventory, resulting in fewer returns and a lower likelihood of shipping out defective products. This is also safer in protecting your Amazon business because you can prevent wrong products from reaching customers, thereby protecting your brand and personal reputation.
Second, unlike FBA, sellers do not have to pay any upfront costs, which would reduce profitability. Sellers who use FBM do not have to pay FBA fees, so their profit margins may be higher for the items they do sell.
The third benefit that comes with FBM is customer service. We’ve already touched on this subject, but with greater power comes greater responsibility. Because FBM sellers handle all returns, they have direct access to the customer.
Disadvantages of Self-Shipping
Of course, any advantage of using FBM comes with its own set of disadvantages.
Because sellers must ship items individually, self-shipping will often be more expensive for FBM. Finding the exemplary delivery service and paying their fees becomes a logistical challenge as well. This also entails dealing with shipping issues such as late shipments, missing packages, and even stolen goods.
Second, we return to FBM’s increased agency and responsibility. Because you deal directly with merchandise, you’ll have to deal with more work and the struggles of managing high inventory levels.
Third, when you ship yourself, you lose access to Prime shipping. Amazon is currently working on a solution with their new Prime program, but for the time being, FBM sellers don’t have many options for same-day, 1-day, or 2-day shipping.
What happens now that I’ve chosen my Amazon business model?
It’s time to start building your Amazon business now that you’ve decided on your Amazon business model and shipping method. Go to Amazon’s Seller Central and sign up for an account right now!
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