Online shopping has changed the whole dynamics of the shopping industry. It has created a flood of customers reaching out to catch all the excitement of shopping from the comforts of their homes. Well, the buying aspect of customers is evident but what about the process at the other end i.e. the seller’s end. What if one wants to sell his/her product on Amazon? How to go about it? What are the formalities of this process? Large scale manufacturers fond it easy to register on multiple platforms for selling their product but what about small scale sellers like in-house seller or someone who doesn’t have a formal space for any official process. Here comes the role of FBA into play. FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. Amazon processes millions of orders a year. It is ranked among the top e-commerce companies of the world in terms of trust and customer satisfaction ratings. It is highly necessary to maintain that standard and even more important is to grow from this level of satisfaction and trust. Hence, Amazon has developed one of the most advanced order processing and fulfillment operations in the world for this very purpose. They have extended this expertise to merchant’s product purchased on Amazon.com, their own websites or other online or offline marketing channels. Now we might want to know how one can enrol for Amazon FBA. You need to have an Amazon seller account for this purpose. Keep in mind that you need to get Amazon FBA approval through a small process which might take up to 10-15 days. After that it’s all unicorns and rainbows for you and your business. Figuring out the kind of product you offer on Amazon is also a difficult choice. You need to properly analyse the top selling categories and products in order to get maximum profits.
It is basically meant for people who want to sell their product or products on Amazon. It makes your product more visible to millions of people trying to buy something that you offer. The more the visibility of your product, the more the favourable chances of it getting bought. This is significant for even those who are already actively involved in selling but want to widen their customer base and reach out to more and more people. One thing that small sellers need to note is that the product will have to be delivered to the inventory in advance which might be a problem for small scale manufacturers as they basically cater to a need based approach. Though, it overshadows the fact that all of the stock will be kept with Amazon, so one doesn’t need to worry about any dedicated space like a shop or a warehouse for storage of your products. Safe storage would have taken up a lot of time and money of small sellers, if not for Amazon. FBA centers charge a nominal fee in accordance with the quantity of your product or the space it requires for storage. FBA lets you maintain all the aspects of selling in an easier way, be it sourcing product, trying to grow, calling potential customers, delivering the product on time, to enhance customer satisfaction and take it to greater heights than usual. To sum up, it lets you
- Make more money
- Grow your business fast
- Save time
- Delight your customers,
all at the same time. Along with providing world class fulfillment, it also offers fast shipping and acclaimed customer service that can help bring your business to the next level.
Now, getting to understand the basics of this process is a must if you want to reap its benefits. Here’s how it works,
- You send products to Amazon – You need to notify Amazon of the status of your inventory at their state of the art fulfillment centers. The quantity of product that you have has to be listed for obvious reasons. These centers are located close to your customers around the world. You have real time access of your inventory with Amazon online corner called seller central. Here they create their shipment to Amazon with tracking information using small parcel delivery or sending in high value shipments in the form of truck loads.
- Amazon stores your products – Your products will then be stored securely at these centers. You can send whatever amount, of the product, you are comfortable in, as little or as much as you want. These facilities are highly secure, climate controlled and have a highly automated pick, pack and ship processes. All the items and their labels are scanned whenever a shipment arrives. The inventory is maintained in such an efficient manner as to have the product ready to be delivered within an hour of an order being placed.
- When you use FBA, the products listed by you on Amazon become eligible for Amazon prime and thus, can avail of the free super saver shipping. This helps rope in the maximum number of customers. It guarantees them a sense of secure and time bound delivery.
- Whenever someone orders from Amazon, they become your customers. Thus giving your product a world class accessibility. Amazon will pick, pack and ship your product. It will also manage customer services and even returns and that too 24 hours a day.
- You can focus on growing your business as many of the back end processes are taken care of by Amazon. You can even use FBA to sell products from your website and other online channels. This ends up giving you an ever evolving customer base.
Thus, any kind of a seller, be it a small scale or a large scale manufacturer, can utilise FBA to its potential. It gives you all the necessary tools to manage your business more effectively. It takes care of pricing optimization, business analytics and personalised business recommendations as well. You can even manage your inventory from any device and any location. FBA is thus an innovative way that is changing how merchants provide a level of customer service, at par with Amazon service, for their online shoppers.
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