Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): eCommerce has made many people rich overnight. The remaining people have taken notice of that, and can’t wait to replicate that success for themselves. Amazon is the platform of choice for most retailers, as being the biggest online marketplace in the world, Amazon provides access to more than 300 million built-in customers to any sellers who choose this platform to sell their products. However, when retailers subscribe to the Amazon Seller Central (ASC) service and initiate their online store, they are presented with many complex issues they have to sort out in order to get their business up and running. One of the main issues for new startups is the fulfillment of their products. Fulfillment refers to the complete process of manufacturing/procuring products, labeling, branding, storing, and eventually shipping to the customers, as well as post-sale customer service. To that end, Amazon Seller Central offers two options to prospective retailers: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and FBM.
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What is Amazon FBM?
FBM means Fulfillment By Merchant is a fulfillment method on Amazon, wherein the sellers are responsible for manufacturing, branding, shipping, and customer service aspects themselves. Retailers using FBM procure the product, apply their desired labels, package the product, store it in their own warehouses/storehouses, ship the product to designated customers, and then deal with the customer service issues, all by themselves.
How to Access Amazon Fulfillment by Merchant?
Fulfilled by Merchant service on Amazon is available to all subscribers of Amazon Seller Central. You can sign into your Seller Account. You can choose one of the two subscription plans: Basic and Advanced.
The basic plan limits sellers to 40 sales per month and charges a fee for each item sold. The Advanced plan, on the other hand, does not put any hard limits on monthly sales, costs $39.99 per month, and allows access to a number of useful tools and features by Amazon.
Once an ASC account has been created, proceed to create a product listing as you would normally do. In the ‘Fulfillment Channel’ field, select the option which says ‘I will ship the item myself’. And that is how you use Prime Fulfilled by Merchant method on Amazon to fulfill your orders.
Conclusion
FBA and FBM are two fulfillment services offered by Amazon to aspiring sellers looking to capitalize on the huge customer base of this online marketplace. Both services have their pros and cons. FBA is generally considered to be a safer bet because it tasks Amazon with most of the heavy duties of fulfillment, wherein the retailer is free to spend their energies and resources on only marketing the product. However, those sellers who have access to top-notch 3PL services, fully trust the quality of their product, and want to control the whole selling experience themselves, should go with the FBM option.
Frequently Asked Questions
