Seller Central Hybrid Strategy for Amazon
What’s better than running a successful business making healthy profits through Amazon? Running a successful business making healthy profits with a safety net, of course! Here’s the good news: using a Seller Central Hybrid Strategy for selling on Amazon can allow you to have safeguards in place for any of the headaches that E-Commerce can bring, all while keeping your business thriving as it is. So let’s dive in, and talk about this game changing Amazon strategy.
What is an Amazon Seller Central Hybrid strategy?
A hybrid strategy on Seller Central utilizes both selling models, Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) and Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA).
We know the goal is selling via FBA with no stockouts and a perfect forecast to avoid unnecessary storage fees… but we also know that never goes 100% to plan. That is why it is essential to set up and maintain operations to sell FBA and FBM.
FBM acts as your backup plan when you are out of stock via FBA. It allows you to maintain an offer on Amazon, rather than that having that offer disappear until your FBA inventory is available. The best part? This process on Amazon is relatively automatic.
It’s as simple as this: If both offers are listed at the same price, and have inventory, your FBA offer will win the buy box. If your FBA offer is out of inventory, your FBM offer will win the buy box. This assumes that there are no other sellers of your product on Amazon.
When is it best to have a hybrid strategy in place? Well, we recommend an always-on approach for our clients and partners who are capable. At the very minimum, consider the hybrid model:
- During your product’s peak season/Q4
- During Amazon Prime Day
- When launching a new product
- When Amazon has fulfillment center restrictions
- When you are having supply chain and forecasting inconsistencies
This is your sign to put your hybrid strategy in place, so take the time to become a flexible contender on Amazon. You don’t want to scramble with everyone else — be a step ahead of every situation thrown your way! And if you want to see how you’re doing on Amazon, request a free Amazon brand audit!
Have more questions or looking for a partner to carry out this hybrid selling model? Contact us today!
