Introduction:
In the present age, it is very important to realize the importance of automation. People are developing advanced technologies with each passing day to ease the work of human beings. Therefore, now many of the traditional or physical businesses are shifted towards the digital platform for conducting their sales. Similarly, e-commerce business trends are increasing every day.
It is pretty common that when we aim to start or even discuss E-commerce platforms, it is our main goal to search for examples from whom we could follow or at least take guidance. Due to which the name that comes to our mind is the most frequently used platform Amazon. It is undoubtedly the most well-known digital business platform which has enabled millions of businessmen to earn greatly through it. Amazon itself also acts as a Seller when it hires a vendor for the supplying of products. Likewise, Amazon FBA is also a facility for Amazon users through which they can ease their supply chain work by simply transferring their products to the FBA centers (Fulfillment by Amazon). In addition to this, amazon reserves inventory also for effectively fulfilling the orders of its customers in the future. Now in this article, all we will talk about is also how to send inventory to Amazon FBA efficiently step-by-step.
Amazon FBA:
Amazon FBA is a fulfillment center of Amazon that allows your inventory to be stored, packed, delivered, and shipped to the desired customers in their appropriate time period. It is a huge advantage for amazon sellers to use FBA as an agent for fulfilling their orders because as you are aware that Amazon is fully involved so nothing can ever go wrong. However, some part of the inventory is kept in the warehouses that are not sent out there for selling purposes; it is called Amazon reserve inventory.
When the inventory is sent to Amazon FBA it:
- Process your inventory according to the orders of the customers.
- When the inventory is matched and checked by FBA itself, your inventory is packed carefully.
- Then the shipment address is placed and transferred for delivery.
- Your delivery is done way faster than any other fulfillment process.
- Your product when reached is assured of full security and safety from any damage.
Steps to send inventory to Amazon FBA:
As we have talked above about the most amazing Fulfillment center of Amazon, FBA which ensures your inventory’s safety and timely delivery to the customers. In addition to this, it is also very important to know exactly how to send inventory to Amazon FBA so that it can be further delivered to the desired customers. So that you could easily know what exactly you have got to do in order to send your inventory to Amazon. Plus keeping Amazon’s reserve inventory helps a lot to be ready in every possible situation in the future.
When one chooses Amazon for its product delivery process, he can just sit and relax as all the hard work is done by Amazon’s expedient employees. You can now access Amazon warehouses everywhere in the world as this is the most widespread platform being used in the present age.
Let us now dive into how to send inventory to Amazon FBA so that it can be further processed and reach its desired customers:
- Choose the inventory:
First of all, it is very important for you to clear your mind about what inventory you are going to send to Amazon FBA. Of course, it is not a difficult question because you just have to go through your business’s orders and just look at what your customer wants and ask you to deliver. After going through the orders you can easily select your inventory which you want to send to Amazon FBA so that it can be packed carefully and shipped to the desired customers. While choosing your inventory you can also have a look at the Amazon reserve inventory if you need something from there. Mostly in the reserve, you will find that inventory that is most likely to be finished in the future.
However, using an automated inventory management software like Inventooly would be of great help in terms of dividing up all your orders according to their dates so that you can observe when and from which area an order was placed. You can then choose that item of order and send it to the next step.
- Go to Manage FBA Shipments:
After choosing the inventory to be shipped, now you will go to the “Manage Inventory” option on the menu bar of your Amazon Seller Account. From there you will select Manage FBA Shipments. So that all the products that are selected by you are sent efficiently to the Amazon Warehouses for the further process of shipment.
- SKU Selection:
SKU stands for Stock keeping unit in Amazon. It is a product identifier that is used for keeping the correct record of your inventory while sending it to the Amazon FBA warehouses for shipment. You need to be careful about what SKU your product is possessing so that it can be easily tallied from the FBA also and your product verification process becomes easier.
You can always use an automated inventory management software like Inventooly that will help you in the segmentation of your inventory. So that it can be easily differentiated from your other inventory and generate alerts for you when the order arrives.
- Convert products to FBA:
Now all you have to do is select the “Convert products to FBA” on your account so that all your products are selected and transferred easily to Amazon. You have to properly check each and every single detail of your inventory before sending it to Amazon because if FBA recognizes any problem in your inventory and it does match with the orders, your products are held for a long time. Which in turn delays your orders and causes loss of customers.
However, using automated inventory management software could help you recognize all the aspects of the products effectively without any mistake or error. Therefore, you must exclude all types of discrepancies by using automation in processing your inventory, before transferring your products to the FBA centers.
- Shipping Addresses:
The last step of how to send inventory to Amazon FBA is the shipping addresses. You must place the correct shipping address of your customers so that Amazon FBA will know where to deliver the products and when. The date of order is also stated so that your order could be delivered in time.
When all the above steps are complete, your inventory is sent to the Amazon FBA for delivery to the desired customers at the given time.
Creation of a Shipment plan:
As stated above, you can easily send your inventory to Amazon FBA when you are using FBA as your fulfillment center. However, when you are just working as a seller on Amazon, the situation is different. You have to make an entire shipping plan before sending your products for shipment to the desired customers.
Following are the steps you need to take if you are not working simply with FBA in terms of fulfilling your orders:
- Choosing Products to ship:
First of all, when you are about to create a shipment plan, you need to select effectively the products that you want to ship to your customers. Selecting is very crucial because it is the start. And when your start is not good, there is absolutely no certainty for the future also. It means a light mistake at the start while selecting your products could create a collision in your whole process.
- Size and quantity of products:
When the products are being selected, it is essential that the size and quantity of your products are verified carefully because if any mistake occurs, the customer won’t be satisfied with you and eventually it will cause you the loss of a customer. Therefore, a plan is really necessary for your shipment of products to the customers.
- Shipment method:
Next in the shipment plan comes the shipment method that you will require in order to send your products on the way to delivery. You need to select a trusted carrier for your inventory so that it will reach you carefully without any damage from fraudulent activity involved.
If you are working with FBA then you absolutely have nothing to stress about, as Amazon has got you covered in every perspective. Your products are shipped carefully by the hard workers of FBA to their desired customers.
- Preparation and labeling:
While working in a business, it is very important that when the delivery time arises, all your orders are prepared effectively and then sent to their desired destinations. However, if you are using Amazon FBA as your fulfillment center you have nothing to worry about regarding the packaging or labeling of your inventory. You will be assured that all your products will reach on time with safe packaging of every single item of inventory.
Conclusion:
Amazon plays an important role in the world of E-commerce businesses. Similarly, Amazon reserved inventory is kept to process your products and then store them for later order fulfilments in the future. You can set up an e-commerce store with amazon very easily and start selling with the name of Amazon as it is trusted worldwide. In accordance with other fantastic services, Amazon FBA is also a great advantage given to its clients in terms of efficiently delivering their products to the desired customers on the right and given time. Therefore, it will be a great advantage for you if you use FBA as your fulfillment center as Amazon fully facilitates all of its sellers.
It would not be wrong to say that employing the latest methods of technology could always be helpful in raising the output of your company. Automated inventory management software like Inventooly will be of great help because through it you will keep the correct record of your company’s orders that are needed to be fulfilled right away. FBA also helps you to deliver your products within a minimal time period with excellent packaging and labeling services.