What is the difference between Amazon FBA and Remote Fulfillment?
Amazon FBA is a service that allows its sellers to store their products in Amazon’s warehouses, and Amazon itself also provides the facility of order fulfillment and customer service, and with its help, the seller can focus on growing their business, and he does not have to face any kind of complexity and difficulties. Many new sellers often ask, what is remote fulfillment with FBA, and how it can further simplify international order processing.
Remote Fulfillment is a program that allows its sellers to sell products to customers in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil through their inventory in the United States without having to send inventory to these countries separately. With the help of this program, access to the international market becomes easier and it saves sellers from additional complications, and they can focus on growing their business.
What is Remote Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)?
What is Remote Fulfillment with FBA? Remote Fulfillment by Amazon is a program that allows sellers to sell products from their inventory in the United States to customers in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil without having to ship inventory to those countries separately. This program makes it very easy to access international markets and saves sellers from additional costs, complications, and time. Many Amazon sellers are taking advantage of it and growing their businesses.
Program Features
Access to International Markets: What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA? With the help of Remote Fulfillment and FBA, sellers can easily sell their products in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil without having to ship their inventory to these countries. This is very useful and saves them time, and they can focus on their listings, finding new products, and growing their business.
Build International Listings: With the help of this tool, sellers automatically copy US listings to any international market, adjust their prices according to local fees and currency, and translate all product details.
Shipping and Customer: Amazon also handles the shipping, customer service, and returns of international orders, which completely eliminates all these complications for sellers.
Tax Duties: Buyers are responsible for customs duties and all taxes in all these countries, which saves sellers from tax-related complications.
Benefits:
Market Expansion: Any seller can easily sell their products in the international market without any additional inventory
Cost Reduction: The seller does not need to ship their inventory separately to any country, which also reduces its cost and requires less capital.
How does this program work?
What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA? Remote Fulfillment with FBA allows sellers with large inventory in the US to sell their products to buyers in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil without the seller having to ship their inventory to each of these countries separately. With the help of this program, Amazon handles all shipping, customer service, and returns, while the seller is responsible for import duties and taxes.
How the program works: The seller joins the Remote Fulfillment with FBA program by logging into Seller Center.
Using the Build Internationalization Tool: With the help of this tool, the seller automatically copies the American listing to the Canada, Mexico, and Brazil marketplaces, adjusts it to Amazon’s local fees and currency, and translates the product descriptions.
Pricing settings: Amazon automatically adjusts the pricing of products to maintain the seller’s profit. It takes into account currency conversions, shipping fees, and referral fees.
Order Fulfillment: Whenever an international customer places an order, Amazon ships the seller’s products to a US warehouse and handles all customer service and returns.
Benefits
Sellers in the What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA program have many benefits, which increase their efficiency in the international market and increase their business. After joining this program, the seller can sell their products in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil without any additional inventory, which expands their market and increases their business further.
Cost reduction: After joining the Remote Fulfillment FBA program, sellers do not need to send their inventory to different countries, which also reduces their costs and they require less capital. Within the same capital, they can sell their inventory to different countries without sending it there.
Ease and convenience: Sellers get shipping, customer service management from Amazon, they can focus all their attention on other business aspects, good listings, good SEO, and finding new products.
Increase in sales: Sales also increase due to the availability of products in the international market. and the seller’s products reach new customers and gain a new audience, which improves the seller’s business structure.
Program Terms and Requirements
There are some basic terms and requirements that must be met to join the What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA program. If a seller does not meet the requirements, you will be violating the law, which may result in loss of capital and business.
Amazon FB Account: The seller must first have an active Amazon FBA account, meaning that the seller’s products must be in Amazon’s warehouse so that whenever they receive an order, they can be automatically shipped.
A North America Unified Account: After that, you must have a North America Unified Account, which will allow you to sell in the USA, Canada, and Mexico marketplaces at the same time.
International Listing Tools: To display your listing in other countries, you have to use Amazon’s Build International Listing tool, which will automatically list your products in the US in other countries such as Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. This tool is very easy to use, but it requires some initial setup.
Import Compliance: Although Amazon handles the shipping itself, it is important that your products comply with the import regulations of those countries. For example, there are some products that contain batteries, alcohol, or certain food items. You cannot ship such products under this program.
Payment of Fees: Sellers Using Remote Fulfillment with FBA Sellers are charged a specific cross-border shipping fee. This fee varies depending on the size, weight, and destination of the product. If you have selected a product that is larger in weight and size, you may have to pay higher shipping fees for it, which will affect your profit.
Amazon FBA Return Policy and Its Application
Under What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA, whenever you sell your products to international buyers, a return policy applies, which provides a unified system for both buyers and sellers in FBA.
Return process: If any buyer wants to return the product for any reason, Amazon makes complete arrangements for it, and international customers can also request a return on Amazon, and Amazon returns the product to the FBA warehouse in the US.
Customer service: Amazon itself provides its own customer service, and there is no need for sellers to be involved in this process, which saves the seller time, energy, and complications.
Refund method: If the reason for returning the product is valid, for example, the product is damaged or has a different item or was not delivered on time, then the buyer is refunded by Amazon and the seller is informed about it.
Inventory Management: Whenever a product is returned to Amazon, the returned product is reinvented in Amazon’s warehouse. If it is in a saleable condition, or if it is damaged or broken, Amazon discards it and notifies the seller of the damage.
Product Eligibility
To understand what is remote fulfillment with FBA, sellers must ensure that the products they are selling meet Amazon’s standards and regulations. If their products do not meet the requirements and standards, they will not be eligible to be included in the Remote Fulfillment with FBA program.
Eligibility Requirements: The seller’s products must be active in the United States and have an FBA offering in Mexico, Canada, and Brazil, and the products must also comply with all trade regulations and laws of the destination country.
Ineligible Products: There are certain products that are not eligible for the Remote Fulfillment with Amazon FBA program, including products that are prohibited from being sold or imported into certain countries. Such products cannot be shipped, as they may be illegal, and products that contain batteries, chemicals, or other hazardous materials, because such products may deteriorate or break in transit and may also damage other products. In addition, products that are banned from import by certain countries
Ahsan Eligibility Report: Any seller can download the Ahsan Eligibility Report in Seller Central to find out which products and services are eligible for RfwFBA, and this report lists the reasons for Ahsan’s full eligibility status. The seller can read them to get complete guidance.
Returns and Customer Service
To fully understand what is remote fulfillment with FBA, it’s important to know that Under the Remote Fulfillment FBA program, Amazon also manages returns and complete customer service for international orders, which completely eliminates the hassle for sellers and allows them to focus on growing their business.
Return Process: Return Request If any buyer who has purchased your product and it does not meet its quality standards, such as being damaged, broken, or has a different product, wants to return the product, they can request a return through Amazon and get their refund from Amazon.
Return of Shipment: If your product is returned from other countries like Mexico, Brazil, Amazon returns your product to your warehouse in the United States where your shipment is located.
Refund Reward: Whenever a buyer returns a product, Amazon thoroughly analyzes it and knows the reason for the return. If the reason for the return is valid, Amazon the buyer and the seller is notified, and if the product is resalable, Amazon adds the product back to the shipment.
Return Fees: Starting in 2025, Amazon has announced that it will credit the return fees of those who send it back for all products sold under Remote Fulfillment with FBA in Brazil and Mexico. This means that sellers will now pay the same fees as they do under FBA in the US, which will further increase international sales.
Customer Service: Amazon also provides customer service for its international buyers, which includes resolving all complaints and other issues. Sellers do not need to intervene in these matters, which saves them time and energy.
Advantages and disadvantages compared
If you’re wondering what is remote fulfillment with FBA, it’s a program that gives sellers access to international markets, which increases their business, but with it there are also some challenges and you have to adopt a strategy in them. Let’s take a complete look at its advantages and disadvantages and see how you can avoid these challenges.
Advantages
Access to international markets: Any seller can sell the same products in other countries, such as Canada, Mexico, and Brazil, through their American FBA inventory, without having to send inventory there.
Shipping and customer service management: Amazon handles all customer care, shipping, and returns, which frees sellers from complications and allows them to focus on their business.
Tax simplicity: Whenever a buyer joins the Remote Fulfillment with FBA program, the buyer is responsible for import duties and taxes, which saves sellers from tax-related complications. Save and know how much tax they are paying
Automatic Listing: Build International Listing is a US listing tool that automatically copies to international markets and adjusts prices to local fees and the same currency.
Disadvantages
Additional Fees: When exploring What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA, it’s important to understand that After joining this program, you have to pay international shipping, currency conversion, and other fees, which can affect your bottom line or even cause you to lose business.
Control over branding: Amazon’s packaging does not fully reflect the seller’s brand, which affects brand identity and prevents you from building your brand well.
Return handling: The process of international returns can be complicated and expensive, and sellers who are subject to Amazon’s policies have limited control.
Competition in the market: Local sellers can offer products at lower prices, which can help remote fill-in-the-middle sellers. Sellers under FBA may also face competition.
Which sellers benefit from this program
What Is Remote Fulfillment with FBA? The Remote Fulfillment with FBA program is not for everyone. Let’s see which sellers benefit from the program and which ones it is not for.
Topic sellers
Those using FBA in the US: Anyone who sells in the US and has their inventory in a US warehouse, and wants to expand into the international market, can benefit from this option
Branded product owners: Sellers who have unique or branded products and want to reach international customers
Market testers: And sellers who are evaluating the demand for their products in new markets and seeing if their products are successful in new markets, without sending inventory ther, will benefit from this program.
Non-topic sellers
Sellers with low-profit products: Sellers who have Products with very low profit margins because they further reduce your bottom line when you have to pay additional fees
Those who place a heavy emphasis on branding: This program will not be beneficial for sellers who want to have complete control over their packaging and branding, as Amazon’s packaging limits branding, and your brand is not clearly visible.
Those with local inventory: Sellers who already have inventory in Canada, Mexico, and Brazil may not benefit from this program. as I shared in my journey about How I Made 29,000$ Selling Books on Amazon.
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