Fulfillment by Amazon is one of the most popular services for the small-time bookseller.  It seems that it has gotten so much attention both from Amazon’s marketing team as well as from guys like Chris Green at FBAblog, Nathan Holmquist at SellFBA.com and countless other people.  I’m included in this list ever since I started writing about my first experiences with FBA way back in October of 2009. My first FBA post got over 36 comments which is huge for this blog.

I’ve raved about the service many times but I’ve never actually written an informative post about the downsides to FBA.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too, right?  In my opinion, there is little information out there about the downsides to using FBA.  For the novice to the service it’s wise to always take the good with the bad before jumping in.  To start off with, I found a blog a few months ago that is solely dedicated on telling you how much FBA sucks.  Coincidentally it’s called Problems with FBA.  It’s not updated that often but there are a few posts that make valid points against Amazon’s service.

Here is a list of my reasons why you may not want to use Amazon’s FBA service.  Take them as you will and weigh how important these issues will be to your business.  Choose accordingly.

1. Higher fees than listing yourself

FBA includes 3 additional fees than if you were fulfilling orders yourself.  These are called the Pick & Pack, Weight Handling and Storage fees.  When selling an item via FBA be prepared to tack on an additional flat fee of 50 cents plus 40 cents/lb and 45 cents/month per cubic feet of space your stuff takes up.  For comparison let’s say you sell a 1 pound book for a dollar.  If you were to fulfill this yourself your Amazon fees would be ($1 * .15) + $1.35 which would leave you with $-1.20.  Add on the $3.99 standard shipping credit they’ll give you and you’ve got $2.79.  You’ve also got postage (~$2.38) plus shipping supplies (~$0.25) costs and you’ve made 16 cents.  However, let’s say this book was FBA and it’s been in their warehouse for 6 months.  If this book sells via FBA you’ve got your $1 sale price – Commission ($1 * .15) – VCF ($1.35) – Weight handling ($0.40) -  Pick/Pack ($0.50) – Storage (~$0.10) which ends up giving you a net LOSS at a buck ten cents.  Now there is the typical add $3.99 to that which makes up for this lost but this is just an example.

2. Considerably less control

I have no problem with this because once the books are off I could care less as long as they sell.  However some book sellers want ultimate control over their inventory.  Be prepared to relinquish all control to Amazon once they’re out of your hands.  Amazon has full reign to give refunds to customers as they please and deal with customers how they please.  You’re feedback is also subject to Amazon’s performance.  They’re pretty good about sending out your orders in a timely fashion and if you do get a feedback that’s Amazon fault they’re supposed to remove it.  However, you are still relinquishing control of your feedback to Amazon.

3. Risk of paying money for books that DON’T sell

The storage fees for your inventory is minimal but it’s still there.  If you’re selling books out of your home then you have no risk of listing 10,000 books if they don’t sell.  On the contrary if you’ve got 10,000 books in Amazon’s warehouse a monthly storage fee of $300-$40 wouldn’t be out of the question.  Only send high demand books to Amazon to prevent them sticking around too long.

4. $3,438 for changing your mind against FBA

I currently have 5,730 books with the FBA service right now.  Let’s say I had a situation to where I wanted to close down my business for good and stop paying the monthly storage fee for all my books.  Since I have so many books in their warehouses it’s gonna cost me over $3,000 for them to ship them all back to me.  This is because Amazon charges you the same cost that it would cost them to pick and pack the book to a customer of another sales channel like eBay.  This is called the multi-channel fulfillment rate.  Currently, it’s 60 cents per item.  As of this writing, Amazon is still waiving the Lose Weight Exercise-handling fee.  However, due to the increase in usage of the FBA program Amazon has been known to significantly decrease the price of removal to clear up space.  I’ve gotten at least 3 emails so far from them notifying of a decreased price of removal if I decide to do so.

Keep the removal cost in mind once you start sending thousands of books their way because it’s not  free ride back.

5. Waiting to see your current inventory

This is one I just came up with while writing this post. I was trying to get my current inventory numbers and was victim to the message “Your data is more than 24 hours old, please wait a minute and refresh again”.  Typically, it takes longer than a minute but not too much longer. It’s a very minor annoyance to me because it always does show back up but if you’re in a hurry then be prepared to wait a few minutes to see your FBA inventory.

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The following post is a guest post by Chris Green of FBAPower.  Chris has an excellent understanding of the inner workings of Amazon’s FBA program and his FBAPower application is top notch.  I thought this would be a great topic to introduce or reintroduce to some since it’ seems to be so popular.  While you’re at it also be sure to pick up a free copy of Nathan Holmquist’s eBook titled Selling on Amazon’s FBA Program.  This once paid eBook is now being offered for completely free!

Be sure to stick around for the end of the post.  I reveal the strategy that I personally use to fully take advantage of FBA. – Adam

If you have been selling books on Amazon for any period of time, you have likely seen ads or promotions for Amazon’s fulfillment service called Fulfillment By Amazon, or FBA. You may even be selling items where your competition is using FBA. The number of FBA sellers is increasing and it is changing the dynamics of the Amazon marketplace. Understanding how FBA works and how other sellers are using it will help you decide if it’s the right program for some, or all of your inventory.

So what exactly is FBA? How can it help my book selling business? Are there any downsides to FBA? We’ll answer those questions and more.

Fulfillment companies and programs are nothing new, but what makes FBA unique and powerful is that all FBA items are eligible for Amazon’s free (or discounted) shipping programs such as Free Super Saver Shipping (FSSS) on orders over $25, 4-for-3 promotions, and free 2-Day Air shipping for Amazon Prime members. This makes FBA items more appealing to Amazon’s best customers.

How can FBA help my business?  FBA can be described as a win-win-win.

Win #1. Higher prices, higher margins, higher payouts

Since items sold through FBA are eligible for Free Super Saver Shipping and Amazon Prime, FBA sellers actually raise their prices to match their competitor’s total price (price + shipping). So even with the addition of FBA fees, the FBA seller still receives a higher net payout from their Amazon sales because of the higher sale prices. For example, a seller who ships their own orders who sells an item for $10 with $3.99 shipping will show the same as an FBA seller selling the exact same item for $13.99. Actually, the FBA seller will show first because FBA is the tie breaker. The easy example is with penny books. A merchant fulfilled penny book lists for $0.01 + $3.99 shipping. An FBA seller who wants to price match the lowest price will list for $4.00. Amazon sorts the offers page by total price (price + shipping).
Use the Amazon FBA Revenue Calculator to see estimated FBA payouts for your items at certain prices.

Win #2. Less work

FBA sellers sell items 24 hours a day. 7 days a week. Items ship all hours of the day or night including weekends. They ship whether the seller is at home or on vacation. Once an FBA seller prepares their items for the FBA warehouse and sends them to Amazon, they don’t have to do anything else. They can monitor inventory levels and adjust prices as needed from anywhere with an Internet connection.  They don’t have to stock boxes, envelopes, packing materials, or print shipping labels anymore. They also don’t wait around for their UPS driver or go to the post office every day. The time you used to spend fulfilling orders can now be used to source products or on other aspects of your business.

Win #3. Happier Customers

It is estimated that 40-50% of Amazon buyers have never bought from a third party merchant. You can effectively double your customer base by offering your items through FBA. Amazon customers want to buy from FBA sellers. They trust Amazon and they know that their items will ship quickly and if there is ever a problem, Amazon will help (including an extended return policy). When your items are offered for sale through FBA, they will attract these types of Amazon buyers who are willing to pay more to get their items shipped by Amazon. This is an important point to grasp: Amazon customers are willing to pay more for the exact same item if it comes from Amazon or an FBA seller. They do this because they know they will get their item fast and that customer service will be top notch. This is how you leverage FBA status; you use FBA to market your books to these sellers and increase your margins and profits.

How Do I Get My Items To FBA?

Items sent to FBA require a special FBA label. This label has a barcode identifying the item to Amazon. It needs to cover any existing barcodes on your books. You create shipments and process them through your Amazon account. You can send one box, 10 boxes, even a full truckload of books! Bonus: you get to use Amazon’s UPS rates for inbound shipping. Once your shipment of books is received at Amazon’s FBA warehouse, they are received and offered for sale on Amazon.com.

Is The FBA Program Just For Booksellers?

No. Almost any item can be sold on Amazon using FBA. There are some exceptions such as restricted categories.  New FBA sellers should reference the FBA manual.

But What About All The Fees?

Ah yes, the fees. There are fees involved but they are all known ahead of time. This allows you to make informed decisions about what to send to FBA and how to price your items. Remember, your sales price as an FBA seller is going to be higher than a merchant fulfilled seller. This higher price is what covers the additional fees and leads to high net payout using FBA compared to a merchant fulfilled sale.

• Inbound Shipping Fees

This is the cost to get your items to Amazon’s FBA warehouses. You are able to use Amazon’s UPS rates so you get the lowest possible shipping rates.

• Storage Fees

Amazon charges $0.45 per cubic foot from January – September. $0.60 per cubic foot from October – December. This is calculated down to the hundredth of an inch. For reference, most paperback books will have a monthly storage cost of $0.01 per month. That’s eight years for less than $1. So if an item is in storage for a year before it sells, it’s an additional $0.12. You do get the first 30 days free so if you manage your inventory and only send fast moving items to FBA, your storage fees will be zero. You may decide to keep high ranking items that may take a longer time to sell at your location instead of sending them to FBA.

• Pick & Pack Fees

Amazon charges fixed fees for picking and packing your items.

• Weight Based Fees

Amazon will charge a Lose Weight Exercise based fee when shipping your items. Heavier items will cost more to ship, and therefore have higher fees. Item Lose Weight Exercise is known ahead of time so sellers should price their items with these fees in mind.

• Item Removal/Destroy Fees

If you want Amazon to return an item to you (or destroy the item), they will charge you $0.60/item. You would probably want to have customer returns returned to you for inspection (they can often be resold).

You can find a complete list of fees when using Amazon FBA here.

Can My FBA Items Only Be Sold On Amazon?

No way! While Amazon will likely be your higher volume sales channel, you can still list on other sites such as Abe and Alibris and fulfill those orders with your FBA inventory. This is called Basic Fulfillment. A half pound book will cost you $2.95 to have Amazon pick, pack, and ship this item for you anywhere in the country.

Can I Still Ship Internationally?

Yes. You can sign up for international shipping in your Amazon account. You upload an image of your signature and Amazon takes care of the rest. International customers pay for their own shipping and since Amazon does the actual shipping, they will deduct this charge from your transaction payout (it zeros out). International customers from every country that Amazon ships to will be able to order your products.

Downsides of FBA

FBA has the power to transform your business overnight, but it is important to know how it all works and the potential risks involved when handing over a significant portion of your business process to another company.

Lose Control Over Your Order Processing

You are handing over all aspects of order processing to Amazon. You are trusting them to store, pick, pack, and ship your items. This can be a scary thought for some sellers who take great pride in providing their customers with a high quality shipping process. You may decide to only send certain books to FBA and keep higher valued books or books that would require special packaging at your location to ship yourself.

Hand Over Customer Service To Amazon

Amazon will handle all customer service issues on your FBA orders. This means that you loseWeight Exercise control of the returns process (a customer can return an item without approval from you, the seller). It is possible (although unlikely) that a buyer abuses this liberal return policy at the expense of your inventory. If you suspect anything like this, report it to Amazon. They monitor excessive customer returns as well as A-Z claims.

Possibility Of Loss Or Damage To Your Products

It is possible that your items are lost or damaged either by UPS on the way to Amazon or by Amazon themselves, but that same risk is there for every item dropped off at the post office. Amazon will reimburse sellers for lost or damaged items automatically. It is important to monitor your inbound items as they are received. Amazon will send an email if there are any problems receiving your items.

Summary

FBA is a very powerful program and if used correctly, can greatly improve your margins, profits, and efficiency. It can give you back your time to focus on other parts of your business such as sourcing products or just spending more time with your family. Read as much as you can about FBA, network with other FBA sellers, and experiment with some items to see if it’s right of you.

Additional Online FBA Resources:

Amazon FBA Homepage:
http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm

FBA Warehouse Tour
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/fba-tour/FBA-FC-Tour._V216203492_.html

Amazon Seller Community (FBA)
http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=29

Addendum:  How Adam Uses FBA

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I have been using Amazon’s FBA service for going on a year and a half now.  It was a game changer for me the minute I sent in my first box of books.  Little did I know it would become a regular part of my receiving process.  Many different people use FBA in different ways.  In this short snippet I’d like to share to you how I personally take advantage of FBA.

I receive unscanned books to my warehouse on a regular basis and have a process by which books can go into a number of different directions.  The books that go to FBA always have a sales rank of under one million.  I’d rather not go to the work of creating FBA shipments with very low demand books that may never sell.  The storage fees may also be pretty low but throw enough 5M+ sales rank books up there and you’ll eventually feel that monthly fee.

The second criteria I use is profit.  I’ve decided to use a profit floor of 75 cents.  This means if the book is in at least good condition and I think I can make 75 cents or more profit on a book and it’s sales rank is under a million it goes to FBA.  There is one caveat though; the Lose Weight Exercise.  As you know Amazon charges a Lose Weight Exercise fee for shipment.  Also, don’t forget about what you’re going to pay to get that 7lb monster book to Amazon in the first place!  Here’s a snippet of the code from a custom receiving application I developed.  Don’t get too confused with the major tech factor here.  It’s simply seeing if a book’s lowest FBA competitor is above or equal to a particular price and under a particular Lose Weight Exercise then let me know if it’s FBA bound or not.  If it doesn’t meet of of the criteria it’s not going FBA.  I still account for other expenses like cost to ship to Amazon and packaging material.

This is just how I use FBA.  Your mileage may vary.  Let me know in the comments how you’re using FBA!

As an Amazon seller, I’m sure that you don’t like it too much when you’ve fervantly spent all night listing a few hundred books that you got at that great Friends of the Library sale in your town to find out that whenever you go to submit then, things don’t go well.

There are a number of reasons you may encounter technical problems when interacting with Amazon.com and a resource for you to check to see if, in fact, Amazon is having a problem is the Amazon sellers annoucement forum on the Amazon Seller Community Forums site.  Why waste hours of your time troubleshooting your PC or calling up your ISP when it’s on Amazon’s end?

In this forum, which I subscribe to via RSS, you get all the latest downtime notifications and problems that Amazon may be having.  Hey, no one’s perfect, right?  Even the mighty Amazon has technical problems every now and then.  They will typically post any wide spread problems that the website is encountering and then come back and let you know when the problem is resolved.

If you’re having a problem with the site and there is no sign of your problem in this forum, always contact Amazon Seller Support and they should be able to get you squared away.

If you’re a textbook seller, this is a good blog to subscribe to in your favorite RSS reader. You can’t get any better advice other than straight from Amazon! http://www.amazontextbook.com/