In this issue...

If you have unsellable inventory in an Amazon FC, please take the time to remove it so it can be possibly repacked and resold in the busy run up to year end and you can avoid unnecessary storage fees. Save time by automating return or disposal of your unsellable Units in Amazon fulfilment centres. To enable Automated Unsellable Removals, go to your Shipping Queue and click the FBA Settings button.

LTL Delivery Appointment

If you are arranging for the delivery of pallets in the form of a LTL (less than truckload) or FTL (full truckload delivery), your carrier must schedule an appointment with the Amazon 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 fulfiment centre, it's important to know what is suitable for our process and what is not. Kindly note there are certain criteria that can make units unsuitable for 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 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
Keep printer toner topped up – do not send labels that are faded or poorly printed
Use a laser printer for your labels
Use good quality labels that will not fade or discolour over time
Keep printer toner topped up – do not send labels that are faded or poorly printed

Learn more by going to FBA Help section 5.6 Stickered Inventory

Packaging Requirements

Please make sure you are packaging items in a manner that can withstand the rigours of shipping and handling. If a product has an expiry date, the date must be clearly displayed on the outside of the package.

Learn more by going to FBA Help section 5.8 Packaging Requirements

Ways to avoid Inbound Shipment rejection with paletted shipments

All full container loads, both domestic and international, must be loaded, braced and prepared to ensure the shipment is received undamaged and is safe to unload. Shipments in container must be palletized. All shipments to Amazon FCs are subject to a safety review before unloading. Any shipment deemed hazardous to Amazon associates will be rejected and require rework by a third party. Typical reasons for rejection are broken or damaged pallets, incorrect pallet type, shifted or collapsed loads, damaged boxeds, and over height or over weight pallets.

Pallets must be 4 way accessible and the dimensions must be: 1200 x 1000 mm. Double stacked pallets must not exceed 3m in total height with each pallet being not more than 1.5m. There must be a 30cm gap between the top of the palletised stock and the roof of the container and a 30cm gap between the back of the last pallet and the back of the container to allow sufficient clearance for the goods to be unloaded.

October 2012 Fulfilment by Amazon Merchant Update

Plan for a successful year end with FBA

Good timing can make your Christmas sales, and we want you to have your best year end ever! Ship your inventory to Amazon early to take advantage of the peak shopping days.

The last order date for free Super Saver Delivery typically falls around mid December —customers will place many last minute orders on this date. We recommend you plan your inventory levels and replenishment shipments in such a way to ensure coverage during the peak period leading up to Christmas.

Benefits to Sellers and Customers Using FBA in the Festive Season

Consider increasing the number of faster selling items you convert to Fulfilled by Amazon during the busy run up to year end. This can result in the following benefits for your customers and incremental sales for yourself.

Amazon Prime and Free Super Saver Delivery: FBA items compete for the Buy Box showing £ 0 for shipping and most items qualify for FREE Super Saver Delivery and Prime shipping discounts.
Amazon Customer Service: Amazon handles customer service for FBA-fulfilled orders including processing returns, which simplifies your festive season selling.
Amazon's gift-wrap service: FBA-fulfilled orders are eligible for gift wrap services, adding a special finishing touch to any presents ordered.
Amazon's delivery promise for your products: Amazon lets customers know how late they can order your FBA-fulfilled products on Amazon in order to receive them in time for Christmas. This means more of your products can ship closer to the Christmas deadline with Amazon's delivery promise.

FBA orders can be combined with those from Amazon retail often leading to buyers adding FBA items to their Amazon order.

If you have valuable products you're selling online, take advantage of Zero Fee Fulfilment which means Zero Order Handling, Zero Pick & Pack, and Zero Weight Handling. With Zero Fee Fulfilment, standard-size items selling for £300 or more will incur no fees for orders sold on Amazon.co.uk. Selling on Amazon fees, storage fees and other applicable fees still apply. Please find an example of Zero Fee Fulfilment.

Stay in stock

It is also important to stay IN STOCK during the busiest time of the year. You can set up automated replenishment alerts yourself from within your seller account. Please click here for more details.

Let Amazon export your orders to customers throughout the EU

If you have not already done so, do bear in mind that you can have Amazon ship your on Amazon orders to any customer in the EU by activating the FBA Export to EU function with one simple click. Learn More. Kindly note that if you are selling on multiple Amazon marketplaces, you will need to activate this function in each separate marketplace account.

Best practices for Shipment Preparation

We also strongly urge you to comply with the best practices below for a smooth festive season:

Use EAN to match items when possible (see EAN and ASIN Matching Best Practices)
Do not send restricted items
Prepare your shipment carefully—make sure all items and shipments are labeled appropriately (see FBA Help section 5.8 Packaging and Prep Requirements)
Make sure that quantity and items physically sent in a shipment are the same as those communicated while creating the shipment
LTL/FT shipments—make sure your carrier has secured a dock appointment
Be prepared to send items to different Fulfilment centres

EAN and ASIN matching best practices

Preparing your products correctly can help prevent a wide range of potential problems. It is especially important to identify each product by an ISBN or EAN. These barcodes will be linked to an Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), which is a unique combination of 10 letters and numbers used to identify products.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

ISBNs, EANs, and GTIN-14s are driving data points in the Amazon Catalogue. Don’t rely on titles or photos to match your products.
During the listing creation process in your Seller Account, whether you plan to send inventory stickered or stickerless, it is crucial to use a ISBN, EAN, or GTIN-14 as your sole identifier to ensure listing accuracy and FBA service performance.
If ISBN, EAN, or GTIN-14 barcodes are not available on your physical product, please use other unique product identifiers, such as Model Numbers.

If you follow these best practices and still encounter discrepancies in the catalogue during the listing creation process, please contact Seller Support to resolve the issue before physically sending product.

Good preparation and planning can result in smoother and faster processing of inbound shipments

As we move into the busiest time of year, we are constantly looking at ways to speed up the receive times in our centres so your items are on sale as quickly as possible. We would like to remind you that all shipments need to be marked as ‘shipped’ on the summary screen of your shipments. This will result in acceleration of the receiving and check in process. Please refer to the example below.

Improve your inbound shipping with our new Inbound Compliance report

While it's important to get your inventory to the fulfilment centre early for the holidays, it's also important to get it there right the first time. You now have two new tools at your fingertips to help monitor your compliance with inbound shipment requirements. Merchant Inbound Coaching now features the Inbound Compliance Summary and the Inbound Compliance Report, which help you to quickly identify what problems we're encountering with your shipments and to drill down to the product level to identify how you can improve your shipments.

The Inbound Compliance Summary appears in your shipping queue and provides a 90-day problem rate and a roll up summary for the following inbound problems:

•    Barcode Cannot Be Scanned
•    Unexpected Item Found
•    Additional Quantities Encountered
•    Item Label Missing
•    Item Label Mislabeled

The Inbound Compliance Report is just a click away from the Inbound Compliance Summary. This report provides a line item view of products that were associated with any of the inbound problem types listed above. You can view the report online or download it as a.csv file for use in applications like Excel.

These new features can help you improve your inbound shipments. By understanding some of the possible causes for the delays of your shipments, you can help to reduce receive times, getting your products available for sale sooner.

New Fulfilment by Amazon Reimbursement Report

Monitoring your FBA reimbursements just got easier. The new Reimbursements report available on the Fulfilment Reports page provides Unit-level details of your FBA Reimbursements.

Use the online version of the report to search for reimbursements by Unit or order and date range. For reimbursements related to a customer order, click the Order ID to go to the Order Details. For reimbursements you initiated, click the Case ID to go to the Case Details.

For more information, from Seller Central go to the Reports tab, Fulfilment by Amazon then click on the new Reimbursements report

We wish you much success selling on Amazon and using Fulfilment by Amazon.