• FBA to FBM the Right Way

    By ZonSupport | Posted on March 7, 2020| Blog

    Are you caught in the dreaded Amazon non-essential category with stock sitting in Amazon’s warehouses? Here’s how you can make this inventory available for sale right now rather than wait for Amazon to list your product once we’re over this difficult time.

    Be careful how you manage this situation – don’t rush in and switch your listing to Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM). As with everything in life, there are often unforeseen consequences.

    If you create a duplicate offer using FBM, Amazon’s bots may flag your listing and suddenly it will disappear. You will then have to go through the tiresome process of explaining why you created a duplicate. Amazon support are incredibly overloaded with everything going on right now so here’s the safest solution. 

    Create a secondary SKU for FBM in your Seller Central account. 

    To avoid confusion at a later date, create a new SKU number with FBM as the suffix. Use their Add a Product tool or if you have many products add, look for Add Products via Upload. Make sure you enter how many you have available.

    If you have stock at a 3PL and they are open for business, you have two choices. Fulfill from your FBA stock or from your 3PL.

    Either way, make sure you enter a stock availability number. This new FBM SKU will not show as another offer on your ASIN if there is no stock recorded against it.

    Now, we all know how Amazon customers love free shipping, so here’s a way to make your offer attractive.

    Adjust your FBM retail to cover your shipping and then set your Shipping Settings to Zero.

    Your offer will say then say Free Shipping. That can only help customers linger a moment longer and (hopefully) hit the Buy Button!

    Amazon has already extended out their promised delivery times so make sure you do as well. In the settings of your new SKU, make it 7-days so you have plenty of time to process the order and get it underway. Otherwise, your seller metrics will take a big hit plus your customers won’t be happy either!

    As always, ask us anything. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll know someone who does!

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