From the editor
Greetings from Fulfillment by Amazon,
The busy holiday season is right around the corner. Are you ready? We're here to help with a new timesaving feature and some advice on preparing inbound shipments correctly. We're also working on migrating sellers from Amazon Fulfillment Web Service (Amazon FWS) to our new Marketplace Web Service (Amazon MWS) platform. We think you'll be pleased with the increased flexibility and functionality MWS enables.
FBA News
Label units more efficiently with Scan & Ship
With our new Scan & Ship feature, you can build an inbound shipment by scanning Units using a barcode scanner, printing labels immediately, and adding the Units to a shipment with another quick scan. Scan & Ship is ideal for sellers who manage medium to large quantities of stickered inventory through the standard shipment creation workflow, rather than through Amazon MWS.
Scan & Ship helps save time and reduce errors. Plus, it's configurable to your workflow. You can label all of your Units at once and add them to the shipment later, or you can label each unit and scan it into the shipment right away. Scan & Ship requires an Internet connection, single label printer, a bar code scanner, and thermal label stock.
You can access Scan & Ship through your Seller Account under Manage FBA Shipments. Just click Scan & Ship to begin. For more information, check out the FBA Help 5.1.2 Scan & Ship.
Migrate from Amazon FWS to Amazon MWS for greater API functionality
Effective June 2012, Amazon Services will no longer support Amazon FWS. All functions and services currently supported by Amazon FWS are currently available through Amazon MWS.
Amazon MWS supports seller API functions that are broader in scope and functionality than any API functionality previously offered to sellers by Amazon. With Amazon MWS, Amazon listing, order, fulfillment, and payment data can be integrated into existing workflows making selling on Amazon fit seamlessly with sellers' current business practices.
We recommend that you begin preparing your systems for integration with Amazon MWS in anticipation of this change. To assist you through this transition, the Amazon MWS team has developed the FWS to MWS Fulfillment Migration Guide available on Amazon Marketplace Web Services. If you use a third-party service integrator to access Amazon's APIs, we recommend contacting them to confirm that they are in the process of migrating to Amazon MWS. If you have questions regarding the migration, please contact fba-api-questions@amazon.com.
Seller Success
Geroy's goes nationwide with Selling on Amazon and increases sales by 600% with FBA
Since 1984, the Geroy family has specialized in selling home improvement products at their brick and mortar store. According to owner Kyle Geroy, Geroy's did $80,000 in sales in its first year of business, a seemingly small number compared to the $80,000 it can now do in a day. Located in a northern Minnesota town with a population of approximately 2,500 people, Geroy's has expanded its customer base from local customers to Internet shoppers nationwide through Selling on Amazon and FBA. It now has approximately $200,000 in merchandise stored in Amazon's fulfillment centers.
"Without FBA, we wouldn't be able to keep up with the number of orders we receive online. We can only ship out 300 packages a day on our own."
— Kyle Geroy
Owner, Geroy's
Read the Geroy's Success Story
Have success or a best practice to share? Scroll down to the bottom of this e-mail and click the "Share your feedback" button.
Tools & Tips
Plan for a successful holiday season with FBA
Good timing can make your holiday sales, and we want you to have your best holiday season ever! Ship your inventory to Amazon early to take advantage of the peak shopping days. Dates to watch out for this year:
- The Monday following Thanksgiving (November 28, 2011)
Inventory must be received by: November 19, 2011
- The last order date for free standard shipping—customers will place many last minute orders on this date. This day typically falls around the middle of December.
Inventory must be received by: December 10, 2011
It is also important to stay IN STOCK during this busy holiday season. We will soon be launching automated replenishment alerts that will notify you of your products that are at risk of running out of stock if you don't replenish them in three weeks or less. We also strongly urge you to comply with the best practices below for a smooth holiday selling season:
- Use UPC to match items when possible (see UPC and ASIN Matching Best Practices)
- Do not send restricted items
- Prep your shipment carefully—make sure all items and shipments are labeled appropriately (see updated FBA Help section 5.8 Packaging and Prep Requirements)
- Make sure that quantity and items physically sent in a shipment are same as those communicated while creating the shipment
- LTL/FT shipments—make sure your carrier has secured a dock appointment
- Be prepared to send items to different fulfillment centers
UPC and ASIN matching best practices
Preparing your products correctly can help prevent a wide range of potential problems. It is especially important to identify each product by a UPC, ISBN, EAN, or GTIN-14. These barcodes will be linked to an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), which is a unique combination of 10 letters and numbers used to identify products.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
- UPCs, ISBNs, EANs, and GTIN-14s are driving data points in the Amazon Catalog. Don’t rely on titles or photos to match your products.
- During the listing creation process in your Seller Account, whether you plan to send inventory stickered or stickerless, it is crucial to use a UPC, ISBN, EAN, or GTIN-14 as your sole identifier to ensure listing accuracy and FBA service performance.
- If UPC, ISBN, EAN, or GTIN-14 barcodes are not available on your physical product, please use other unique product identifiers, such as Model Numbers.
If you follow these best practices and still encounter discrepancies in the catalog during the listing creation process, please contact Seller Support to resolve the issue before physically sending product.
Visit Shipping Best Practices for more information on meeting FBA's shipping requirements.
We want to provide you with the information you need to successfully grow your business. Take a minute to share your thoughts on the current newsletter, future topics you'd like to see covered, and any best practices you'd be willing to share.
