Many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) looking to scale their Amazon business without over-indexing on internal staff use a two-pronged approach: enrolling in Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and working with expert Amazon marketing consultants. 

• An Amazon marketing agency helps sellers optimize SEO for product listings and PPC management to ensure products get in front of the right potential customers.
• FBA gives peace of mind that once an order is placed customer expectations are met in accordance with the Amazon Prime promise: namely two-day delivery. 

While FBA is a turnkey solution, merchants who want to make the most of online sales are noticing opportunity gaps and thinking about alternatives to solely relying on FBA. 

 

 

Why are merchants curious about alternatives to Fulfillment By Amazon?  

• A lack of inventory data

While FBA provides a ‘hands-off’ fulfillment process for merchants, it likewise doesn’t provide much insight into inventory distribution or handling procedures.

• Missed opportunities for remarketing

Similar to inventory data, Amazon does provide merchants with data that could be used to remarket to previous customers — with which, merchants could remarket both on and off Amazon to increase repeat sales.  

• Losing brand recognition 

Brand reputation and loyalty can increase customer retention, but when products arrive in a Prime package, ultimately customers are reminded of Amazon, not your brand. Likewise, merchants who choose to save on storage costs by co-mingling inventory with other sellers could also be losing out on brand equity. 

• A disjointed fulfillment process

While any merchant would be wise to take advantage of Amazon Prime — which boasts over 200 million customers — consumers can still be found purchasing elsewhere in the vast landscape of eCommerce. If you’re selling through multiple channels, you might run into the problem of siloed data and no way to see the bigger picture of fulfillment and inventory. 

For these reasons, ambitious SMBs are turning to new ways to work with Amazon while maintaining more control over the fulfillment process, including using holistic 3PLs that serve as an Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) Network.

Can merchants still work with Amazon outside of an FBA agreement?

Yes! Let’s take a look at two alternatives to FBA that still tap into Amazon’s enormous market: Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) and Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP). 

Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM)

FBM puts a significant amount of control and data back into the hands of SMBs. 

• Branded packaging for delivery
• A more customizable customer experience
• Collection of customer data for retargeting 

Retargeting customers is especially valuable, allowing merchants to funnel potential returning customers to other sales channels, such as their own eCommerce site. By putting customers directly into a marketplace only for an SMB’s products, shoppers won’t see side-by-side competitor comparisons or Amazon name brand products. 

However, opting for Fulfillment By Merchant instead of Fulfillment By Amazon means losing Prime eligibility and the guaranteed two-day shipping: something that is becoming a growing customer expectation. If you do choose FBM, it’s important to still make free 2-day shipping a priority and make it known to customers that you can deliver on that promise.

Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)

Seller Fulfilled Prime gives SMBs the same benefits of FBM while also maintaining Prime eligibility. However, there’s a catch: merchants are held to the Amazon standard of nationwide 2-day delivery. Other new SFP requirements — released in February of 2021 — also include weekend fulfillment, carrier pickups, and a required number of page views per month. 

Solutions for 2-day Shipping with FBM & SFP at scale

SMBs are already feeling the pressure of 2-day shipping expectations created by an “Amazon effect”. This is a paradigm shift, which has permeated the entire eCommerce landscape. Shoppers now expect fast shipping options whether a product features a Prime badge or not. 

While SFP has a mandate for 2-day shipping, those customer expectations create nearly equal pressure on FBM. However, many Amazon sellers are thriving and continuing to meet consumer delivery expectations within the FBM program.

Hydrogen water brand, HyVIDA was in need of an FBA alternative to get more control over picking, packing, and shipping. Their Amazon reviews were suffering due to product damages in transit, so they dropped the Prime badge altogether and prioritized their customer experience over top-line revenue driven by the Prime badge. They enrolled in FBM and partnered with a 3PL that developed custom picking and packing SOPs that eliminated their damaged product complaints. They even garnered positive Amazon reviews from customers who noticed the improved packaging. 

What’s more, they actually grew their sales on Amazon and increased sales on their eCommerce site by 100% YoY after switching to FBM. Here are some creative tactics from HyVIDA that created success with FBM, inside and outside of Amazon:

• Amazon keyword optimization and strategy: HyVIDA hired an Amazon marketing agency to build a keyword strategy, narrowing in on their highest-performing keywords. This ‘quality over quantity approach improved their conversion rates and ultimately revived their product rankings.
• Funneling customers from Amazon to the HyVIDA website: HyVIDA gained access to important customer information for retargeting and building look-alike audiences.
• New product promos, exclusively available off Amazon: HyVIDA introduced their Amazon shoppers to new or exclusive products with free samples in their Amazon orders. Brilliantly, these new products were exclusively available on their eCommerce site, generating more interest in their brand and deeper connections with their customers.

As for SFP? The ability to scale and deliver is evermore crucial given Saturday and Sunday fulfillment requirements by Amazon. Sellers shouldn’t have to match Amazon-like capacity (e.g. next-day air delivery), which significantly impacts already thin margins. 

Here are three go-to strategies SMBs are using, whether FMB or SFP:

1. 1. A distributed fulfillment network: Warehousing inventory in strategic geographic areas and high-performance areas can ensure 2-day ground delivery — keeping costs down while still delighting customers.
   2. Investing in smart tech to unify eCommerce and fulfillment: SMBs are well-aware of all the systems needed to streamline operations, from setting up sales channels to fulfillment and inventory management. Forward-thinking SMBs are turning to software that takes those siloed operations and unifies them into one platform back by AI and smart tech. 

• Outsourcing order fulfillment: SMBs can still get the benefits of FMB or SFP with outsourced fulfillment. This allows businesses to focus more on key revenue drivers while the logistics stay optimized and error-free. 44% of merchants recently indicated that greater operational simplicity was a key benefit of outsourcing order fulfillment.

Find the Right Partner For An Alternative to Fulfillment By Amazon

If more brand control, digital remarketing, and streamlining multichannel fulfillment is a priority for your business, now may be time to consider an FBA alternative. Ware2Go is a UPS-backed fulfillment provider with a distributed network of 13 SFP warehouses with Saturday fulfillment and capabilities to fulfill every order type across any sales channel through a single, all-in-one platform.

To learn more about Ware2Go’s SFP solution, reach out to one of our Amazon fulfillment specialists today.

What can we do for you? 

At Bellavix, we are dedicated to helping you monitor your account, solve any possible problems and make sure your business grows in sales and ranking. We have the experience and knowledge to make your account reach that next step.

If you have additional questions or want us to help you on your Amazon journey, don’t hesitate to contact the BellaVix Team. 

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