I know what you’re thinking, “Why do I need to convert my items to FBA items if I just selected them to be fulfilled by Amazon?”. This just gives you the option to use Amazon FBA. You don’t have to use FBA for every item you sell. There are some items that can’t be shipped through Amazon FBA either. Therefore, you need to go into your account and manually select which items you want to fulfill through Amazon FBA.
To do this, go to the “Inventory” tab in your Seller Central homepage and click “Manage Inventory”. From here you’ll want to select the “Actions” drop down for each produce and select “Change to Fulfilled by Amazon”.
Please note: Once converted, your listings will be temporarily removed from Amazon.com until the inventory has been received at Amazon’s fulfillment center. So, you must finish the entire process to list and sell your items through Amazon FBA.
Once you change your inventory to Fulfilled by Amazon, you’ll be asked about two preferences:
FBA Label Service
Stickerless, Commingled Inventory
If you’re selling new items, you can use stickerless, commingled inventory. This means that Amazon will commingle your inventory with other sellers’ matching units. If someone orders from you, Amazon might ship a matching unit that is actually from a different seller, but in warehouse closer to the customer. This allows Amazon to ship items faster for better customer service.
(If you’re choosing commingled inventory, please be aware of the risks. If another seller sells counterfeit products, they could be shipped in lieu of your authentic products before Amazon notices.)
In my case, I accepted this because I was not selling anything new.
Of the two, FBA Label Service was much more important to me. With their Label Service, Amazon puts a label (think white product sticker) on your items for you, instead of you doing it yourself.
I accepted the label service because I didn’t want to print out my own stickers. It was only 20 cents per item to have Amazon label my items. That being said, if you want to keep your margins high, you may consider printing your own stickers and labeling your products.
Once you select your options, you’ll be prompted to either “Convert Only” or “Convert & Send Inventory”. If you’re only selling one item, go ahead and select “Convert & Send Inventory”. If not, select “Convert Only” so we can add more items before we set up shipping.
Your item should now appear in your “Amazon-Fulfilled Inventory” under “Manage FBA Inventory” after viewing main “Inventory” tab in Seller Central.
