The Top 5 Tips for Getting FBA Right

Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) may have seemed like a crazy idea five years ago. Today, nearly four million Amazon Sellers use FBA for warehousing and speedy delivery. Getting FBA right isn’t just advised. It’s necessary for sellers to compete in that hot marketplace.

Getting FBA right means keeping “defects” to a minimum.

According to Cin7 Founder and Head of Product Danny Ing, a defect includes “any mistakes made in the shipping process”.

Danny spent some time with Amazon executives in 2016 to learn what suppliers can do to minimize defects. Here is a summary of the top five tips for getting FBA right, based on his discussions and experience, as presented in a recent webinar.

1. Put Yourself in a Warehouse Worker’s Shoes

Engineer your product and packaging so Amazon employees can handle them easily.

Warehouse staffers work long hours, with high performance targets. They don’t have time to care about your product more than you do.

Make sure all your product lines and variations are clearly displayed on your packaging. Make barcodes easy to find and scan. Make your carton packaging clear and bold to distinguish your brown box from all the others.

2. Use Barcodes From the Start and Label Clearly

Use barcodes to correctly track, package, and deliver your product, from the start. The biggest FBA problem Amazon executives noted was incorrect shipments. Sellers will send too much or too little of an item, or they send the wrong item entirely.

You must ensure your order is correct from the point of origin. This means using barcodes to track individual items and cartons before you ship to the Amazon warehouse.

Label each item with a barcode that represents that single unit, label each carton with barcodes that represent the correct number of units in the carton, and scan.

Ideally, you will place labels on multiple sides of your carton, so warehouse workers can quickly pick the product regardless of its orientation. You should employ a visual check procedure to ensure the pick list will match your carton exactly.

3. Don’t Confuse Individual Products with Bundles

Danny’s first encounter with individual versus bundled product barcodes was working with a brewery. The company was an early Cin7 customer selling to a supermarket chain. Barcodes on individual bottles had to be kept out of sight when sold in a six-pack. This would prevent a cashier from mistakenly scanning a single bottle on a six-bottle purchase.

The same principle applies to FBA. Amazon executives told Danny that sellers make this mistake more often than one would guess.

For products sold in bundles or sets, make sure the bundled barcode is visible, not the individual barcodes. Use a carton containing the individual units, without any extra layer of packaging or binding that can be mistaken for a bundle.

4. Get Your Timing Right

Don’t send products to FBA for a future sales event while another sales event is still going.

For example, if you intend a product to be sold for Valentine’s Day, do not send that product to FBA just before Christmas.

A warehouse is busiest during holiday sales. A mistimed delivery will inject unnecessary volume to a busy warehouse. This will increase the chances that your product will be mishandled.

5. Use Third-Party Logistics Providers When Necessary

FBA does not cover all regions and may not be suitable for your bulk or wholesale storage and logistics.

Using a third-party logistics (3PL) provider may be a beneficial or even necessary part of an overall omnichannel and/or export strategy.

3PLs are more suited to handle bulk and wholesale products than FBA. They allow you to fulfill orders through alternative online marketplaces, such as Walmart.com. They can also help in regions where customers can buy your product from Amazon but where FBA has not achieved the same level of coverage as other markets.

Finally, no matter how you sell, through Amazon or other marketplaces or retail outlets, the best way to ensure fulfillment is with a system that gives realtime sales and costing for your entire supply chain.