Fulfillment by Amazon
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Help Boost Your Sales with
Amazon's World-Class Fulfillment
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How It Works
With five quick and simple steps, FBA can help eliminate your fulfillment headaches and help you scale your business.
Step 1: You send your products to Amazon.
You send your new or used products to Amazon's fulfillment centers.
- Upload your listings to Amazon's system - choose as many or as few products as you like.
- Print PDF product and shipment labels provided by Amazon.
- Use Amazon's discounted shipping or select your own carrier.
Fulfillment by Amazon offers three channels for uploading your listings to accommodate the scale of your business.
If you have a small number of items you want Amazon to fulfill for you, you can list them one at a time. This online tool in your seller account enables you to select items in the Amazon.com catalog or add new ones if you have a Pro Merchant account. Once you have your inventory listed, you can simply convert it to be fulfilled by Amazon. For more information, go to Listing Your Item .
If you have large volumes of inventory, you can list items by uploading a flat file through the Upload tool in your seller account. We provide an Excel spreadsheet template that you can use to build the file. This method enables you to directly list them for Fulfillment by Amazon and bypass the conversion process. For more information, go to Flat File Feeds.
If you have large volumes of inventory and development resources available to you, you can integrate your own website or inventory management software with Amazon's inventory catalog using Amazon's MWS API. This method enables you to directly list them for Fulfillment by Amazon and bypass the conversion process. For more information, go to Inbound API Reference .
Once your listings have been converted to Fulfillment by Amazon, the shipping workflow will walk you through the process of creating a shipment.
You enter item quantities and select your carrier. The workflow will identify inventory that needs to be labeled and provide item labels, packing slips and shipment labels that you can print. We'll also notify you of any errors and provide tips along the way to help you streamline the shipment process. Once your items are packed and your shipment is labeled, you can hand your shipment over to your carrier.
For more information, go to Shipping Work Flow.
Before listing products for Fulfillment by Amazon, it's important to know what is suitable for our fulfillment process and what is not. There are four criteria that can make products unsuitable for Fulfillment by Amazon:
For some product categories, Amazon limits the addition of new sellers and closely monitors seller performance to ensure a high-quality experience for buyers. These measures are taken because of the types of products sold in the category, and often reflect concerns about consumer safety, product quality, branding, or import and export restrictions.
Please see our section listing the Categories Requiring Approval to request access to a specific category.
Certain products are not allowed on the Amazon.com website under any conditions. Some products may not be sold as a matter of compliance with legal or regulatory restrictions, for example, prescription drugs. Specific product content is prohibited as a matter of Amazon policy, for example, crime scene photos.
Please see our Restricted Products pages for more information about prohibited and permitted products. For additional information regarding prohibited content and copyright violations, please see our Seller Offenses & Prohibited Content page.
In addition, materials that pose a health risk due to toxic chemicals or volatile substances are not permitted. For a complete list of products restricted in our fulfillment center, see our Product Restrictions and Packaging Requirements page.
Amazon has established packaging requirements that help provide a safe working environment in the fulfillment centers while enabling an efficient fulfillment process. Included with the packaging requirements are physical limitations on the products we will handle in our fulfillment centers. Large or heavy items can pose dangers to employees and interfere with the fulfillment process. See Packaging and Prep Requirements.
Step 2: Amazon stores your products.
Amazon catalogs and stores your products in our ready-to-ship inventory.
- Amazon receives and scans your inventory.
- We record Item dimensions for storage.
- You monitor inventory using our integrated online tracking system.
Inventory you send to an Amazon fulfillment center is generally scanned and made available for sale within three business days of being received. You can track the status of your shipment in the Shipping Queue with the status cycling through In Transit, Delivered, Checked-In, Receiving and finally Closed. During the Receiving process, your item barcodes are individually scanned and entered into the tracking system, the dimensions (to the nearest 1/10') and weight (to the nearest 1/10 lb) are captured for storage and fulfillment purposes.
For more information, go to Shipping Queue.
Our fulfillment centers offer a secure environment. We store inventory either in bulk or in individual "pickable" locations. Media products are stored on library-type shelving in vertical, spine out positions with loose stacking to avoid "shelf wear." Specialty items like food or high-value goods may be placed in specific secure or climate-controlled areas of the fulfillment center as appropriate. If inventory is damaged or misplace while in Amazon's control (in the fulfillment center, during delivery to or from a customer or inbound to Amazon if using an Amazon Partnered Carrier), we will purchase the inventory from you.
For more information, go to Fulfillment by Amazon Replacement Value Schedule to request access to a specific category.
The unit dimensions are measured to the nearest 1/10" and the accumulated cubic feet of all your inventory is recorded each night for the total volume of your stored inventory. You pay for the average daily volume you have in storage during the month; this means you only pay storage for what is in our fulfillment centers while it is there.
For more information, go to Inventory Storage Fees.
Step 3: Customers order your products.
Customers search for and purchase your products directly on Amazon.com, or on other e-commerce channels such as your own site.
- Your listings on Amazon.com are eligible for Amazon Prime and free shipping on orders over $35, and rank by price plus shipping.*
- You can expand to list and fulfill your products globally.
- FBA sellers report sales increases - in a 2014 survey, 71% of FBA respondents reported that their unit sales increased on Amazon.com more than 20% since joining FBA.
*Excludes Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders from other websites and services including Checkout by Amazon.
Once your products are listed through Fulfillment by Amazon, they will be eligible for the following features on Amazon.com:
- Amazon Prime free Two-Day shipping and free shipping on orders over $35
- Gift wrapping and 24x7 Amazon customer service
- Up-to-the-minute countdown for one-day shipping
If you sell books, music, or videos, you can make your products eligible for international sales using FBA Export. When customers see "Fulfilled by Amazon" beneath your product listings, they know their orders will be fulfilled securely and on time.
For more information, go to Fulfillment by Amazon Program.
With Multi-Channel Fulfillment, you can use Fulfillment by Amazon to fulfill orders from any sales channel. Once inventory is in our fulfillment centers, you can choose to sell it on Amazon.com or not. When an order comes in, tell us where and how to ship it, and we'll do the rest.
You can submit orders from your seller account, by uploading a flat-file feed or by integrating with Amazon's MWS Fulfillment API. You can select between Standard Delivery (1-day processing and 3-5 business days shipping), Two-day Delivery, or Next-day Delivery. Your packing slips will contain your business name and can include a customized message to the customer.
On Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders, you can work directly with your customers to handle customer service issues.
For more information, go to Submit Orders for Multi-Channel Fulfillment.
With the exception of Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders, all Selling on Amazon fees will apply to purchases made on Amazon.com. Unlike merchant fulfilled orders, you won't receive a shipping credit.
You can submit orders from your seller account, by uploading a flat-file feed or by integrating with Amazon's MWS Fulfillment API. You can select between Standard Delivery (1-day processing and 3-5 business days shipping), Two-day Delivery, or Next-day Delivery. Your packing slips will contain your business name and can include a customized message to the customer.
On Multi-Channel Fulfillment orders, you can work directly with your customers to handle customer service issues.
For more information, go to Fees and Pricing .
Step 4: Amazon picks and packs your products.
Fulfillment by Amazon picks your products from inventory and packages them.
- Amazon locates your products using our advanced web-to-warehouse, high-speed picking and sorting system.
- We manage your order volume - whether you get a few orders a day or a thousand.
- Customers can combine your orders with other products fulfilled by Amazon.
Fulfillment by Amazon orders are generally shipped in Amazon-branded boxes. The packing slip displays the Amazon brand and the name of the merchant. When you use Multi-Channel Fulfillment, eligible orders can be shipped in a Brand Neutral (non-branded) box and the packing slip can be customized with your company name and information. These Branding features are available for eligible orders for an additional fee.
For more information, see Multi-Channel Fulfillment: Branding Options.
All products fulfilled by Amazon.com are assessed a Pick & Pack Fee. The amount of the fee varies depending on these two criteria:
- Dimensions and Weight: Standard or Oversize
- Product Category: Media or non-media
Zero Fee Fulfillment: Standard Size units that sell for $300 or more are eligible for fulfillment at no cost to you. Fulfillment fees includes Order Handling, Pick & Pack, and Weight Handling. Selling on Amazon fees, storage fees and other fees still apply. Does not apply to Multi-Channel Fulfillment. Learn more about Zero Fee Fulfillment.
For more information, go to FBA Fulfillment Fees.
Step 5: Amazon ships your products and provides support.
Amazon ships products to customers from our network of fulfillment centers.
- Amazon ships customer orders using the method they choose. All outbound shipping costs are included in your service fees.
- We provide tracking information for customers.
- For orders on Amazon.com, customers can contact us for customer service.
The cost of fulfillment depends upon the origin of the order. If the order was placed on Amazon.com, you will be charged the following three fees:
- Pick & Pack (per unit ordered)
- Order Handling (per order)
- Weight Handling (per pound)
For Multi-Channel fulfillment (orders originating anywhere other than Amazon.com), you will be charged the following three fees
- Pick & Pack (per unit ordered)
- Shipping Method (per order)
- Shipping Weight (per pound)
For more information, see FBA Fulfillment Fees.
One of the advantages of Fulfillment by Amazon is the use of Amazon's customer service to handle customer inquiries, refunds and returns. For orders from the Amazon.com website that Amazon fulfills, we will manage all customer service associated with fulfillment of your products in the program. Our online returns center provides customers with help pages and details about how to contact us. If the customer wants to return a product, we direct the customer to our online Returns Center.
For more information, see Providing Customer Service for FBA Orders.