Amazon is constantly increasing the proportion of FBA in its retail business, in order to encourage more sellers to use FBA shipment.

Taking the US site as an example, most categories have been occupied by FBA products. FBM self-delivered products are at a competitive disadvantage in all aspects. FBA shipment has become a common choice for most sellers.

There are many subtle issues when using FBA, which can be confusing for novice sellers. I would like to walk you through the process. Here are 5 steps to create an FBA shipment plan.

1. Convert to FBA Product

In order to send your product to FBA warehouse, Make sure your product is already an FBA product type when you created the listing. You should be able to see your product in the product list when you go to menu Inventory -> Manage FBA Inventory.

If you do not see your product in FBA Inventory list, go to menu Inventory -> Manage Inventory, then find the product. Then choose “Change to Fulfilled by Amazon”.

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Change to fulfilled by Amazon
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If the system prompt you to choose between Amazon Barcode and Manufacturer Barcode, please make sure you choose Amazon Barcode. Then click “Convert & Send Inventory” button below.

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If your product does not contain batteries or is not a dangerous item, then select “No” in the following 2 options.

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Add dangerous goods information

After submit, you have converted your product to be an FBA product.

2. Send/Replenish Inventory

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Send/Replenish Inventory

If your product is already an FBA product, you can also start the process by click the option “Send/Replenish Inventory”.

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For the shipping address in this step, you can fill in your own address or the warehouse address of your freight forwarder. Some people suggest that if you put in an Los Angeles address, your shipments have a better chance being assigned to the FBA warehouses in the west coast, like ONT8, SMF3. But it is not 100% guaranteed.

For packing type, you normally pick case-packed products. We suggest you do so. In order to reduce the checkin error by Amazon worker. Try NOT to put different products in one box.

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This step is to fill in the quantity of the box and number of units within a box. This information will be filled in again in later step. Be noted that the total number of units cannot be changed up/down by 5% or 6 units once confirmed in this step.

If your products are shipped directly from the factory, you must get the box information before creating FBA shipping plan.

It should also be noted here that the weight limit of a single box containing multiple products in the US station must not exceed 50 pounds, and boxes that exceed the standard may be at risk of rejection.

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Prep Guidance

Click “Choose category” in blue font to enter the option of the prep methods. If you product does not belong to the “sensitive goods” options, you can select “No Prep Needed”.

3. Product Labeling

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This step is to print the small label for each product, that is, the label containing the FNSKU barcode. For options “Who labels?”, select “Merchant”. The number fo labels to print, change to “1”.

Then click “print labels for this page” and follow the system’s prompts to print or store the label.

Here I want to explain a bit more about the label. Once storing the label on the computer, the seller must edit the label and insert country origin, for example “Made In China”.

This is required by Amazon and for customs clearance purpose.

4. Approve FBA shipment & Continue

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In this step, you can edit the name of the shipment for your own reference. The following delivery address (LAX9) is the FBA warehouse address assigned to you by Amazon. If you see 2 or more FBA warehouses under the “Ship to” column, it means that your cargo has been divided into different batches for this inbound shipments.

5. Complete FBA Shipment

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For “Shipping method”, choose “Small parcel deliver” if you are working with ForwarderOne. Then choose “Other carriers”.

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After choose “Multiple boxes”, this screen will automatically pop up. Enter the number of products in a box, the number of boxes, box weight, and box dimensions.

Please note that the unit of the measurement here is “pound” and “inch”. Remember to convert the number accordingly.

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You can choose the default “Blank Rectangle Label” for the box label. Don’t forget to put origin country, for example “made in China” on the box as well.

Click “Complete Shipment” at the bottom, you FBA shipment is created successfully.

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