Correction: It has come to our attention that some of the information revealed in our blog post entitled ‘Introducing the New FBA Small and Light Program for US sellers’ of May 26, 2015 has become outdated.
We introduced you last year to the FBA Small and Light program, a low-cost fulfillment solution for small, light and cheap products sold on Amazon.com. Since then, Amazon has reviewed its offer, changing eligibility criteria and fees. There are five currently applicable changes in all, with some new fees effective July 1st.
The new FBA Small and Light program features the following:
1. Open enrollment
The program is no longer invitation-only. It’s now open to all sellers whose products meet the criteria above, and they are free to use the enrollment page to apply.
2. Dimensions doubled
Amazon now accepts items twice as large in terms of height and volume. Maximum dimensions are now 16x9x4 inches.
3. Weight doubled
The maximum allowed weight per product is now 1 lb (453g), rather than 8 ounces (226g).
4. More eligible products
Amazon now accepts date-lot products with valid date and lot codes.
5. Lower fees
The smaller the items, the better. Amazon now classifies items under 6x3x0.5 in size as ‘flats’. And anything above that but below 16x9x4 inches as ‘parcels’. Orders for both ‘flats’ and ‘parcels’ will be treated as multiple unit orders, which are calculated in increments of 10 (i.e. 10 units = 1 order, 11 units = 2 orders, 28 units = 3 orders, etc.).
Note that the promotional Order Handling and Pick & Pack fees will stay the same until January 2017; only for Single-Parcel type orders.
In effect, single orders of ‘flats’ will cost $0.95, excluding the weight handling fee. That’s far less than the old cost of $1.5. Single-Unit PARCEL orders will cost the same, but for BOTH FLAT AND PARCEL multi-unit orders, you’ll be able to save substantially more.
Example:
Let’s assume a customer buys 18 units of a 1 oz. parcel-type item. The weight per unit will be 1 oz. plus the 0.7 oz. Amazon standard packaging weight, meaning 1.7 ounces. Each unit’s weight will be rounded up to the nearest whole number, so that makes 2 ounces. The total weight for the 18 units will, therefore, be 36 ounces.
The weight handling fee on that order will be 9 cents per ounce, with a total weight of 36 ounces, which makes $3.24. It will still be that much after July 1st.
So, the advantages are undeniable. But if you’d like to give it a try, there are a few things you should bear in mind:
- FBA Small and light items are not Prime eligible
- items can be sold as both Small & Light and Standard FBA, but with separate inbound processes;
- package dimensions and weights need to be entered in Seller Central for every item prior to enrollment;
- you must upload MSKUs, not ASINs, so check them and delete extra spaces to avoid upload errors;
- enrollment and removal templates need to be saved as tab-delimited text files;
- the Processing Report and the email confirmation should be reviewed for errors after every upload.
For more information, browse the FBA Small and Light overview section, or find the answers to your questions straight from the Seller Central FAQ section (login required). There’s also an enrollment guide, if you want to take it one step further.
Maria is in the Business Development team of SellerEngine Software. She enjoys the challenge that novelty brings when expanding online businesses, and untangling tangled strings when trying out new things. The greater the effort, the sweeter the reward, isn’t it?