Does Amazon pick up FBA orders?
According to Amazon: “You sell it, we ship it”, means that when you use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), the eCommerce giant bears the responsibility of storing your products in their state-of-the-art fulfilment centres, which includes picking, packing, shipping and providing customer service for the said products, once they have been shipped.
How does FBA Shipping work?
The workflow system introduced by Amazon – Send to Amazon – for FBA shipping is very straightforward and easy to follow:
- Go to Amazon Seller Central to create an account.
- After successfully creating an account, you need to set up FBA.
- Next, use the appropriate packing methods to package the items which will be sent to Amazon’s fulfilment centres.
- Ensure that you are in line with the packing guidelines and the shipping & routing requirements.
- Create the shipping plan, which includes printing your Amazon shipment ID details and then send your shipments to the fulfilment centre. You can learn more about sending inventory to Amazon here.
Even though the above steps are fairly easy to follow to get set up with FBA shipping, if you have any questions at all about “how does FBA shipping work?” – you should get in touch with a reputable Amazon marketing and consulting agency to guide you.
How to pack items for FBA shipping
It’s important to understand how to pack items for FBA shipping because Amazon requires sellers to follow ALL general requirements for shipping inventory to their respective fulfilment centres. If these are not followed, Amazon reserves the right to refuse, return or repackage any of your products that do not meet the packaging criteria:
General packaging criteria
An FNSKU (Fulfilment Network Stock Keeping Unit) identifies your product as a ‘Fulfilment by Amazon’ product through an SKU. Each FNSKU must be unique and correspond to one product only. In addition, every product must have a clear and readable label or barcode which Amazon can scan for easy tracking.
All loose products, if sold together, must be contained inside a single package. Any units sold as sets must be clearly labelled “Do not separate” or “Sold as set”.
Shipments sent in boxes need to be six-sided and properly sealed in a way that they are difficult to reopen or tamper with. Boxes must also be able to take a normal amount of pressure on any side.
Any poly bags having openings larger than 5” must have suffocation warnings which need to be printed either on the bag or attached as a label where it can be clearly spotted. The bag must also be transparent and have a barcode which can be easily scanned. All poly bags must be fully sealed.
If shipping any items with expiration dates, the date needs to be printed on not just the container but also every individual unit, and in the standard ‘MM-DD-YYYY’ format.
In addition, keep the following checklist handy to ensure that your shipment is adequately prepared for Amazon FBA:
- All boxes must be rigid with their flaps intact
- Each item must be wrapped individually
- Avoid using paper or string over-wrap
- Strong shipping tape must be used
- Incorporate a single address label which has clear delivery/return information
- Have minimum 2” of cushioning between each item and inside the box’s boundaries.
- Avoid bundling several boxes together
Will Amazon accept glass bottles for shipping?
Yes, they will but sellers must package them in a way so that they do not break and/or create a safety issue during storage, shipment preparation or final shipment to the recipient.
The article is by no means a comprehensive one on “Does Amazon pick up FBA orders?” or “How to pack items for FBA shipping”, for instance – to fully understand Amazon’s FBA shipping requirements, get in touch with us to ensure that you are 100% complaint.
