What Is FBA Prep?
FBA sellers aren't just supposed to pack everything into a box and then give it to couriers. Your stock must follow certain rules in order to be accepted by the Fulfillment Center. Some of these regulations apply to all inventory, while some are specific to a particular category. FBA prep is the process of preparing your inventory to be sold on Amazon. While it mainly involves the packing and labeling of products certain sellers, specifically those who import products, include inspections of their inventory. Making sure you get your FBA preparation right is extremely important. If you get it wrong, Amazon won't accept your inventory and you'll need to pay to have it all returned. You may also ship damaged stock to Amazon. If the customer receives it incorrectly, they may complain and request a refund. If complaints begin to accumulate, it's going to affect your metrics and see your listing suppressed, or even having your account suspended.
Why Outsource FBA Prep?
In the case of FBA preparation, you have three choices: do it yourself or pay Amazon to complete it or outsource it to a third party. FBA preparation is highly specialized, full of intricate rules and is easy to go wrong. When you outsource it theoretically, you're transferring it to the experts. FBA prep services must be knowledgeable of the procedure. They will ensure that your stock is in line with Amazon rules before you send it to FBA. This decreases the likelihood of your inventory being rejected. This is especially important for new FBA sellers. Once you've tried it, you won't be able to anticipate how difficult it can be. Amazon has a number of rules that can cause time-consuming preparation of inventory for FBA. When you're not sourcing new items, you may discover yourself examining inventory and preparing boxes.
Price
When it comes to choosing FBA prep services, the most important consideration for sellers is price. Although it shouldn't be the sole factor that you take into consideration, it's normal to want to negotiate the lowest price. Even though your costs may be high at the beginning but that doesn't mean that they'll remain high. First, you should ask whether the prep service charges you per item or monthly. A monthly cost is the best option for big volume sellers. The per-item cost is more suitable for sellers with low volumes who are likely to be selling in small amounts. Because some prep centers add additional charges for packaging, such as poly bags or bubble wrap, you will want to find out what the packaging costs are. It is important to understand the storage charges and the minimum quantity of units that must be sent to the prep center at any moment. Although price is an important consideration when choosing the best FBA prep service, it's certainly not the most important. While you do not want to pay too much for an FBA prep service, it's essential that the expenses for your prep are manageable. Even if your initial costs are expensive does not mean they need to stay high. You can reduce your costs by becoming more acquainted with the process of making food. For example you can split certain tasks between your manufacturing facility and your prep company. Check out the most popular Door to Door Delivery blog for info.
Location
It is important to plan strategically the location you'd like your prep centre to be. If your company is predominantly private label, it's very likely that you will ship large quantities of inventory from China. It's a smart strategy to determine the ports where your goods arrive at, and choose a prep centre nearby. Danny McMillan says that it is possible to set up prep centers close to your ports of entry. This not only saves time and costs on trucking, but can also help your business operate efficiently. If something goes wrong the prep center could send someone to the port to assist. If the distance between your prep center and the port was more than 300 miles, this would not be feasible. A prep center close to your home is another option for retail arbitrage sellers. This allows them to pick up the inventory from their homes or pay very little freight costs. It is essential to select a prep center that is close to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. The Amazon warehouse where you ship to may be different every time. If you are a member of Amazon's Inventory Placement Service, this is also true. Under that program, you send all your stock of one particular product to the same Fulfillment Center, but Amazon is able to, and will change the location from shipment to shipment.