Launch of Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network
Important Update about the Long Term Storage Programme – Report enhancements to help you effectively manage your inventory
Inbound Shipment File
In this issue...
Useful Links
Visit our Amazon Services website
Video Tutorial - Creating your first
shipment
Video Tutorial: Getting Started with Fulfilment by Amazon
Inventory Age Report
Visit our EU Seller Support blog
Tell us your story
How has Fulfilment by Amazon helped your business? Would you like to share your story? E-mail us at fba-eu-stories@amazon.lu
Tips and Reminders
LTL Delivery Appointments
If you are arranging for an LTL (less than truckload) or FTL (full truckload) delivery, your carrier must schedule an appointment with the fulfilment centre. If you would like to inquire about the appointment, please ask your carrier for the appointment request number with the requested date and the granted date before you contact FBA. This is particularly important in the very busy end-of-year period to avoid rejections owing to large deliveries arriving in the FC without a prior appointment.
For instructions on scheduling an appointment go to FBA Help section 5.9.2 Arranging for an LTL or Truck Load Delivery to Amazon
Hazardous Materials and Unsuitable Units
Before you send your products to an Amazon fulfilment centre, it's important to know what is suitable for our fulfilment process and what is not. Kindly note there are certain criteria that can make units unsuitable for Fulfilment by Amazon the most important ones are listed below:
Hazardous Materials and Other Unit Restrictions
Restricted Products
Categories Requiring Approval
Improper Packaging
IMPORTANT: Failure to comply with these safety requirements and product restrictions may result in the fulfilment centre rejecting your shipment. Your rejected shipment would, at your cost, either be returned to you or be disposed of.
You can find detailed information in FBA Help section 1.0 Product Restrictions.
Stickered Inventory Best Practices
• Cover any original barcodes.
• Label each unit before sending it to Amazon.
• Use a laser printer for your labels.
Learn more by going to FBA Help section 5.6 Stickered Inventory
Packaging requirements
Please check our Seller Manual for details about appropriate packaging requirements.
• Accepted forms of dunnage/void fill include foam, air pillows and full sheets of paper. Styrofoam peanuts, crinkle wrap, and shredded paper are not acceptable. Boxes must be packaged so that the contents can withstand the rigours of transportation and processing at Amazon fulfilment centres.
August 2011 Fulfilment by Amazon Merchant Update
Launch of Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network
Amazon is constantly looking for new ways to help you sell more. We would like to share some good news with you which can help you extend your market reach throughout the European Union and grow your business even further.
We have launched Amazon Europe Marketplaces Account where Sellers can opt to list their FBA offers on multiple Amazon Europe Marketplaces from a single Seller Account. With Amazon’s European Fulfilment Network (EFN) FBA sellers can then ship their products to an Amazon Fulfilment Centre in their home marketplace where, they are subsequently made available and delivered directly to customers purchasing on amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr and the latest EU seller platform amazon.it (Italy). There is a small additional fee for items delivered to customers outside the home marketplace.
Things are made really easy, as everything can be managed from one Unified Seller Central Account. Functionality will be rolled out over the coming couple of weeks and you will see the changes in your Seller Account. Should you choose to use this option, we have lots of information below to help you.
Growing your business internationally has never been easier, so cost effective and with minimal risk and outlay. Learn More.
If after reading our help pages, FAQs and viewing our video tutorials about how to get started you still have questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Seller Support team via your Seller Account. They will be more than happy to help.
Important Update about the Long Term Storage Programme – Report enhancements to help you effectively manage your inventory
In May we announced the semi-annual Inventory Cleanup coming in August. This has generated a lot of discussion about how this change will affect sellers. To address those concerns we would like to focus specifically on two new features that will help you manage your inventory. First, we have enhanced the Inventory Health Report to help you better identify what inventory to take action on. Second, we have launched a Recommended Removals Report, to make it easier for you to create a Removal order for your inventory.
Estimate Long-Term Storage Fee with the Inventory Health Report
After launching the Inventory Health Report in May, many sellers commented on how valuable this report is and provided suggestions for ways to improve it. Our recent update of the report incorporates two primary changes that sellers requested to improve its usefulness.
First, we have added new columns to provide more insight into how much ageing inventory will be assessed the Long-Term Storage Fee and what the cost will be for the Inventory Cleanup in August (assuming no further sales of your inventory). This version of the report now shows you specifically how many Units of each product will be assessed the Long-Term Storage Fee (i.e., the number of Units that will have been in the fulfilment centres for 365 days or longer on August 15, 2011) and the projected fee applied to each product if a removal request has not been placed prior to the next Inventory Cleanup event.
Another requested addition was a field that would enable sellers to compare their prices to other sellers' matching listings. The fields "your-price" and "sales-price" are now available, so you can see how your prices measure up to other FBA listings and non-FBA listing for both new and used products.
We also have added an online version of the report. By trimming down the 41 comprehensive fields available in the downloadable report to 18 fields, we have focused the online version on the information that is most frequently requested by sellers. We will be retiring the Inventory Age Report shortly; the Inventory Health Report is now the preferred source of inventory health data including age information. If you have been using the Inventory Age Report, you should move to the Inventory Health Report by August 15, 2011.
Learn more about the Inventory Health Report.
Inbound Shipment File
In July FBA launched Inbound Shipment File to sellers in DE, FR, and the UK (IT coming soon). Inbound Shipment File will allow sellers to create new inbound shipments by uploading a flat file. In flat file (using excel) specify the items you would like to place in your new shipment. Once the file has been processed, a shipment will exist in your Shipping Queue and you will be able to use the Shipping Workflow as usual.
Why Inbound Shipment File is great for FBA sellers:
• Helps sellers quickly and easily create medium to large shipments without using MWS.
• It is web-based, sellers can access the tool anywhere, anytime.
The Inbound Shipment File is located in Seller Central. Simply select the Manage Your FBA Inventory link under the Inventory navigation tab, once you are in the Shipping Queue click the ‘Upload Inbound Shipment File’ link.
We wish you much success selling on Amazon and using Fulfilment by Amazon.
Yours sincerely
The FBA Team.