Benefits of Amazon Multi Channel Fulfillment

Grow with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment

Whether you have a firm multi-channel process in place, or are looking to expand your current business and introduce a multi-channel service, consider Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF). There’s plenty of reasons to consider this highly convenient and effective multi-channel strategy, and it differs in some important ways from other multi-channel inventory management strategies. Here are some of the most important features of Amazon MCF, as well as the pros and cons of choosing this system for your business.

What Is Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment?

If you aren’t aware of Fulfillment by Amazon, it’s a strategic way to expand your business and increase your reach without handling all the difficulties of the fulfillment process. Fulfillment by Amazon gives you excellent benefits, like:

• One-day, two-day or standard shipping
• Front page listings
• Customer support
• Warehouse management
• Returns

It’s a great option for a third-party seller looking to compete with larger companies on Amazon marketplace. If you’ve already taken advantage of this excellent service by Amazon, the added MCF feature gives you full multi-channel support.

Multi Channel Scalability

MCF offers even more scalability as you perfect your brand and diversify your inventory. Not only will Amazon handle all your order fulfillment, but now you can link all your online ecommerce marketplaces and store all your inventory together at Amazon’s warehouses. It’s a highly convenient way to keep all your inventory together, so you won’t have to worry about moving inventory as you sell more on one marketplace or another. Keep a unified vision for your small business, even as you grow to become a larger, more established business.

Fees

Obviously, all this support comes at a price. While Amazon offers multi-channel fulfillment for a reasonable price, there are a range of fees for this service depending on a variety of factors, including:

• Shipping option
• Size and weight of products
• Amount of products
• Length of storage

It can be time consuming to determine the exact costs of MCF for your company. The fees will change as your business grows, increases traffic and more. If you need a quick estimate of the cost, you may want to consider hiring a multi-channel inventory management team, like Listing Mirror, to better estimate your monthly and annual costs.

How Is It Different from Fulfillment By Amazon?

If you are considering Fulfillment By Amazon but aren’t sure about MCF, consider some of the key differences between these services. Multi-channel fulfillment is a sub-feature of Fulfillment By Amazon, so it offers the same highly functional design, only it also includes multi-channel management.

MCF is a great addition if you want to expand your business across multiple channels. It uses the Amazon Marketplace Web Service program to connect your fulfillment across multiple channels.

Fulfillment By Amazon, on the other hand, offers support only for your Amazon storefront. You may want to start with Fulfillment By Amazon to become more accustomed to online selling. A single marketplace allows you to hone your business plan and perfect your target market. Once you have a clear vision of growth for your business, it’s easy to expand into a multi-channel strategy with Amazon MCF. You’ll want to decide when is appropriate for your company to make this transition. It’s a difficult path to walk, and can be detrimental if you expend resources too early. Consider consulting professional advisors to help you assess your business plan and find the right time to aggressively expand through MCF.

Pros and Cons of Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment

• Pros

Just like Fulfillment By Amazon, you’ll enjoy multiple shipping options for all your inventory. It’s safely stored in an Amazon storage space, so you won’t have to contact any third-party warehouses in order to complete orders.

You won’t have any of the normal multi-channel stress that comes with juggling inventory across multiple platforms. Instead, Amazon MCF keeps track of your inventory for you, and helps you easily accommodate peak sale seasons.

• Cons

Amazon MCF has the same list of prohibited items that is used by Fulfillment By Amazon.

MCF can become costly if you have to pay long-term storage fees.

If you’re consider using MCF to grow your online inventory management business, contact Listing Mirror to assist you in managing Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment service. You’ll be on your way to aggressive growth with immediate scalability.

 Sell More. Work Less.