On-time and reliable delivery of products/services is the most crucial thing in determining your brand reputation and the level of trust potential customers put in your brand. Most of the time, people realize the significance of order fulfillment for their products but get overwhelmed with the number of fulfillment options available these days. Many businessmen are struggling with the capital, time, and labor required to run their online businesses efficiently. And this struggle is even harder for those selling their products through multiple sales channels. But it’s not a problem anymore, thanks to the Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon.
By using fulfillment services like Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, retailers can now hire a third party to handle and ensure the delivery of their products. Meanwhile, they can contribute their full attention to more critical tasks like product development, revenue generation, and raising brand awareness. Businessmen can see visible growth potential in their online retail and customer satisfaction.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) service is a new concept for e-retailers. Over the past few years, there have been split reactions to this new service from the sellers’ side. Most e-retailers find it incredible, while others have concerns over the major authority resting upon Amazon and product delivery in Amazon-branded packages. Are you looking for the best order fulfillment option to scale your online business? If yes, then Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment could be your best choice. Let’s dive through some details of Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment so you can decide whether it’s the right option for you and your specific product service!
What is Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment?
In case you’re not familiar with this program, let me tell you that it is an extension of the well-known Amazon service “Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)”. Merchants using this Amazon MCF program by Amazon can easily fulfill orders generated from third-party marketplaces, including Shopify, BigCommerce, and many other platforms of e-retail. The program is almost the same as Fulfillment by Amazon FBA with a few modifications.
Unlike FBA which only serves the retailers on Amazon, the MCF program covers a wide range of marketplaces outside the Amazon platform. Whether you’re selling your products on Shopify, eBay, or any other e-commerce website, Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment service will get you covered. What it does for you is, store your inventory at one of Amazon’s warehouses and ship your products as soon as the customer places an order on your website. Moreover, Amazon MCF is offering you multiple shipping options so you can choose from next-day shipping to one-week shipping duration.
Still, the biggest perk of this service is that you’re leaning on the e-commerce giant for storing, packing, and shipping your orders across multiple sales channels. Some sellers seem unsatisfied with the high rates and exclusion of some customer services (returns). But if you ask me, the way Amazon MCF leverages your online business, it is worth investing in this service.
Why is it Worth Investing in Amazon MCF?
As already discussed in the previous section, sellers had various concerns regarding this new fulfillment program by Amazon. But being a global leader in e-commerce, Amazon has done a great deal to address most of these issues and make their MCF program more reliable and helpful for the e-retailers running multiple e-commerce channels or websites.
Here is, what Amazon has done so far to satisfy its users:
Blocking Certain Channels – Amazon charges you 5% extra on your membership to prevent certain e-commerce channels from accessing Amazon MCF service. It blocks only those channels which decline Amazon logistics: eBay and Walmart are just a few to mention here. This way, you will be able to run your business in the good graces of platforms. However, it doesn’t restrict your growth potential as you can utilize this Amazon MCF service for a much larger group of e-commerce marketplaces.
Improvements in Shipping Time – In order to ship your orders more efficiently, Amazon MCF has removed expedited delivery of oversized products. And as compensation for this, they have improved the delivery time for normal-sized products. You can now avail of two-day standard shipping for all your Amazon MCF orders. However, you can also opt for priority shipping for orders that need to be delivered the very next day of order placement.
Updated Small Standard Size – Amazon has updated the minimum size limit for your orders that can be fulfilled through Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon. You can now avail of this service for orders weighing as low as 2 ounces.
After Ship Tracking – Amazon MCF allows you to track the logistics of your shipped orders, once they are dispatched from the Amazon warehouse. Moreover, these tracking numbers will be automatically sent to your targeted customers so they can be informed of any upcoming shipments.
Unbranded Packaging – Amazon is now allowing its clients to deliver their orders in unbranded boxes, which was previously done in Amazon-labeled packages. If you’re going to choose the unbranded packaging option, Amazon will keep these unbranded packages separate from those fulfilled by FBA in its warehouse. Your normal Amazon FBA orders can also be shipped in these unbranded packages if you want.
Inventory Performance Index (IPI) – You can now qualify for unlimited storage at the Amazon warehouse based on your IPI. Your IPI dashboard can be accessed from your Seller Central account.
International Shipping – At present, the Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon is just for domestic orders to be shipped within the US. However, Amazon is working to offer this service for international orders as well.
Returns – Amazon MCF has made returns a lot easier than before. In case your customer is not happy with the product, it can easily be returned to the Amazon warehouse or directly to the supplier. Your inventory will be updated automatically, as soon as the returned product reaches Amazon Fulfillment Center.
Customer Service – Whether it’s a physical business or an e-commerce site, customer services are at the heart of any business. If you decide to opt for Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon, you don’t need to worry about customer service as customer service representatives from Amazon will deal with your customers through the 24/7 live chat feature.
Is Amazon MCF the Right Option for You?
Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon could be a great investment for scaling up your online business. But before finally taking a decision, you should ask yourself these questions:
Are you currently using Amazon FBA?
In case you’re already using Fulfillment by Amazon service, opting for Multi-Channel Fulfillment can be a great step to expedite your delivery services on multiple sales channels. Working on multiple e-commerce platforms is more convenient with Amazon MCF, as you don’t need to split inventory for each marketplace. All of your non-Amazon orders can be stored, packed, and shipped from a common inventory kept at the Amazon warehouse. You can start right away with Amazon MCF if you have an already established relationship with Amazon.
How much Sales are you generating from Non-Amazon Channels?
Amazon is no doubt a dominating e-commerce platform that surpasses your sales from other channels. It might be accounting for 90% of your total revenue/sales from e-commerce. Now if you consider this for your business, it is always a better idea to expand your FBA coverage and explore new sales channels for greater profit margins. But still, you need to be careful about these points:
· It’s not a good idea to rely solely on Amazon, instead you should have some other options at your disposal.
· Having multiple sales channels is a great asset for your e-commerce business, but still you need to set your priorities. This will guide you in deciding whether Amazon MCF is a good option for you or not. For instance, if eBay is your second priority after Amazon, then MCF is not a good choice for you because both are not compatible with each other.
How efficient are you at Fulfilling your Multi-Channel Orders?
When it comes to shipment speed, it is the top priority of each customer to get their orders as soon as possible. Are you still stuck to standard shipment which takes seven working days? If yes, then sorry to say but you’re losing so much. Just because of delayed shipment, you’re already losing many of your potential visitors who otherwise can be turned into potential customers. And it doesn’t end here, it is also affecting your rankings and qualification for Prime seller badges.
Thanks to Amazon MCF, you can reduce your shipping time to as minimum as the next-day delivery. However, it allows you to set two-day delivery as the standard option for all orders.
Getting Started with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment
If you have finally made up your mind to avail yourself of this amazing service by Amazon, you’re just a few steps away. The first step is to get yourself enrolled in Fulfillment by Amazon. Most of the time, sellers are already using the Fulfillment by Amazon option and using one of the Amazon warehouses to keep their inventory. If you’re one of them, you can skip this first step and can start fulfilling your non-Amazon orders right away.
Amazon has some requirements for MCF orders, and you need to ensure that all of your products are prepared according to those requirements. It will keep your products safe in Amazon warehouses as well as during transit.
Using Amazon MCF by WebBee
Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon is a great service to boost your online sales and extract the maximum out of your e-commerce business. After opting for this option, Amazon will do the rest for you – storage, inventory management, packing, and shipping. But, there is still a lot that needs to be managed by you. For instance, you’re required to request Amazon MCF for your products manually which will surely consume a lot of your time and effort. We understand how difficult it is for a businessman to take out some time from his busy schedule, especially when you’re running multiple e-commerce sales channels.
Amazon MCF by WebBee integration applications can solve your problem, as they will automate the process for you. All you need to do is, just integrate your e-commerce websites with one of our Amazon MCF apps and we will take care of even the minor details of your business. Amazon MCF by WebBee App come with such simple and user-friendly interfaces that you will get familiar in no time. Moreover, they are super-easy to install and integrate with any of your e-commerce channels. They will keep a track of your inventory and inform you ahead of time so you can order more from the supplier.
Conclusion
Running an e-commerce website of your own is a really tough job, but a great asset at the same time. There is a limit to the number of customers you can have on a particular platform. Therefore, it is necessary for e-retailers to expand their customers’ outreach by adding new marketplaces or sales channels to their current business. It will take a lot of capital investment and labor to store and manage inventory for each of the marketplaces, separately. In that case, Multi-Channel Fulfillment by Amazon is a go-to solution to satisfy all your business needs.
With Amazon MCF, you no longer need to worry about the fulfillment of your orders on multiple sales channels and you can invest your time in dealing with other important business tasks.
