Logistics and Fulfillment with Amazon
In the e-commerce industry, logistics and fulfillment are essential to running your business. Ensuring your fulfillment is reliable and meets expectations builds trust with your customers and your brands. Understanding the differences in strategies and methods can give your business a competitive edge. Amazon is constantly changing and updating, so remember to save this guide as a point of reference for all things logistics and fulfillment!
- BOL (Bill of Lading): Bills of lading are documents that includes a listing of all shipped goods, a receipt for shipped products, and all terms and conditions pertaining to transportation.
- Dropshipping: Fulfillment method in which a seller purchases products from a third-party supplier, who then ships the product directly to the customer. In other words, once an order is placed on Amazon, the 3P Dropshipping suppliers receive the order and ship it out.
- FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon): Fulfillment method and Amazon program that allows sellers to ship and store their products in bulk to Amazon fulfillment centers, and then Amazon handles all shipping and logistics once an order is placed on the marketplace. FBA products are automatically eligible for Amazon Prime free two-day shipping.
- FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant Network): Fulfillment method in which brands themselves handle all aspects of logistics, shipping, and handling after making a sale on Amazon. This method is the same as MFN.
- FC (Fulfillment Center): An Amazon warehouse.
- IPI (Inventory Performance Index) score: Key Amazon metric that measures a seller’s efficiency and productivity in managing its FBA inventory.
- LTL (Less than Truckload): A palletized shipment that takes up less than the entire space in a trailer.
- MFN (Merchant Fulfilled Network): Fulfillment method in which the brand handles all aspects of fulfilling orders that come through Amazon. This method is the same as FBM.
- Prime: Amazon Prime shopping is a paid Amazon subscription membership that provides shipping discounts, access to Prime Video, and other Amazon services
- SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime): Fulfillment method in which a seller that meets Amazon Prime’s quality standards uses Amazon Seller Central and handles storage and shipment in-house. SFP sellers can leverage the Prime shipping badge for faster customer conversion.
- Stranded inventory: Inventory in a fulfillment center without an active listing on Amazon Logistics.
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