What do you need to know about Amazon shipping and Shopify fulfillment?

Fulfilment-by-Amazon (FBA) sellers have the choice to ship their products directly from their supplier to Amazon's warehouses or to ship them to another location first, before they go to Amazon, after conducting market research, selecting a successful product, and working with a supplier to develop a private label product.

Why wouldn't retailers ask their suppliers to provide Amazon with their stock directly? Some sellers prefer to check the goods personally, ship a small amount of stock to Amazon at a time to keep FBA storage expenses under control or have a variety of additional preferences.

Sellers that choose this strategy must understand how to get their goods to Amazon's warehouses once they are ready. To get your merchandise into an Amazon warehouse, how do you set up Amazon FBA shipping?

Navigating Seller Central and putting up your first FBA shipment might be challenging for a brand-new Amazon seller.

Amazon FBA Explained:

If you are already familiar with Amazon FBA, move on to the next step.

The quick response:

• You make your product listing or page

• You deliver your merchandise to Amazon's fulfillment facility

• Amazon chooses, packs, and ships your goods when a consumer places an order

• You split the sale's proceeds with Amazon

• Rinse, wash, and repeat

Amazon’s strategy is still very much in use, particularly with smaller retailers or those that specialize in selling handcrafted goods or niche products.

However, convenience, speed, and volume are the focus of Amazon FBA. Since you don't have to personally handle and transport the items or even deal with the majority of the customer service, it's more hands-off in many respects. Some vendors even have their goods shipped directly to Amazon from the manufacturer, which means they never see or handle the goods themselves!

When using Amazon FBA shipping, you build your product listings (or product pages), but you send your inventory to Amazon's warehouses and fulfillment centers rather than packaging and sending the items to consumers yourself. When a consumer buys from you, they choose, pack, and ship the products that were stored there.

Shopify Fulfillment Network Explained:

Accepted participants in the program can use a network of fulfillment centers spread out across the South –Eastern Asian countries. These fulfillment centers are made up of numerous warehouses that are either owned by Shopify or by other parties.

Shopify will store its merchandise there before shipping orders to the clients of its merchants. In addition, the business will handle additional supply chain tasks including inventory control, packaging, and bundling.

For e-commerce companies, it's designed to be a hands-off fulfillment solution. You can contact Shopify to handle your fulfillment needs if your order volume isn't high enough to warrant having your warehouse.

Simply choose which of your SKUs or goods you wish to include in the Shopify Fulfillment Network, and send them to a warehouse that is a member of the network. After that, the fulfillment procedure is out of your control.

Plans by Shopify for SFN:

Many firms have been thinking about the Shopify Fulfillment Network because of recent news regarding the program. Shopify terminated its agreements with a handful of the Shopify Fulfillment Network's fulfillment partners in January 2022.

The business soon stressed, though, that this wouldn't result in a decrease in capacity. Instead, Shopify is working to limit the number of outside fulfillment companies it employs by reducing its relationships.

What are the prices for the Shopify fulfillment network?

Only one person may oversee fulfillment details on Shopify's basic account, which costs $29 per month. You must subscribe to the $299 premium plan if you wish to grant access to order details and other SFN data to more persons.

Real-time shipment updates are another feature of the premium program, making it simpler for your customer support staff to inform customers of the status of their purchases.

Similarly to that, you can simply keep track of your inventory levels with all the data and updates available so you don't have to hazard a guess as to when replenishment is necessary.

Additionally, you must budget separately for the costs of storage, selection, packaging, and shipping. Depending on your merchandise, where you're delivering to, and other factors, their rates change.