In addition to the lifestyle advantages that I mentioned in another FBA advantages article, there are also selling advantages to listing your inventory as a Fulfillment by Amazon seller opposed to going it alone by selling and shipping from your own location on the Amazon marketplace. If you are looking to make an income from selling on Amazon, consider these advantages for selling with FBA.

Selling Rank with Shipping Included Pricing

On the Amazon website, items are listed in order starting with the cheapest total price including shipping. For example, if a book were to be listed by seller X, an independent seller, for $0.01 plus shipping ($3.99 for books set by Amazon) and seller Y, an FBA seller listed that same item for $4.00, the seller Y item would be higher ranked on the list than seller X giving an advantage to the FBA seller. Any item on the website listed by an independent seller has to be listed as retail price plus shipping whereas FBA sellers can include that fixed shipping cost as a part of their retail price and still ranks higher.

You need to have everything mentioned in perfect order because the retail price and shipping cost will differ from product to product like Helium would differ from Helium 10 Software as they are interlinked but are at different sides of the spectrum.

Amazon Prime

A few years ago, Amazon rolled out a great program called Amazon Prime. This program enables any buyer to pay an annual fee (currently $79) and get any item shipped from any Amazon warehouse by any seller in two days for free. There are also other benefits to the Prime package that make no difference to us as sellers. With this great savings, there is no minimum for buyers to get the free shipping and buyers will choose to items from FBA sellers even at equal or higher prices because of the speed and savings associated to shipping.

Buyer Confidence

When a buyer looks at all of the options they have for a given item, they have several factors to consider. First is the price of the item among the many sellers. Then they look at the various conditions of the item related to the retail price. Finally they take into account how reliable the seller is and the likeliness that the item will arrive and if it would appear as it was described in the listing. If there was an issue and a need to return that item, would it be a hassle? When that buyer sees an item listed by a seller with the logo Shipped by Amazon under their name. They know that the item really is available and that Amazon will be shipping the item within hours of the order. They also know that should the need to return the item come, Amazon guarantees their right to return for a refund without hassles. Given these methods of support, buyers at all levels will more often choose FBA items over independent sellers.