International Order Routing for Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF)

Finding it difficult to manage orders from multiple channels? Or is it an issue of setting up warehouses to expand your business internationally?

Not to worry, Amazon FBA has it all sorted for the brands wanting to multiply their business across geographies and channels.

Amazon MCF - Boon for multi-channel sellers

Amazon FBA has expanded further allowing its sellers to use FBA for non-Amazon orders as well. Being a seller using multichannel fulfillment (MCF) at FBA, a lot of companies have been utilizing it as an advantage and running their businesses across channels. They drive sales on products from eBay or other online websites and web stores on Shopify / Magento etc. Amazon takes care of warehousing, shipment & return process.

Amazon MCF is available in USA, UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Japan. To be eligible in MCF, brands have to list their inventory on Amazon for sale as well unless they are registered with their Pro Merchant accounts. Using their Pro Merchant accounts in MCF, brands are allowed to sell on non-Amazon sites without listing their inventory on Amazon.

Now let us see how multi-channel fulfillment works with FBA:

Step by Step Guide for MCF Process:

1. Open a merchant account on Amazon
2. Selected inventory is submitted to Amazon fulfillment center
3. Create inventory listings for those products on required websites (other than Amazon)
4. Customer buys the product from another channel
5. Create a shipment order with Amazon as per chosen shipment option along with customer details,
   Standard (3-5 business days)
   Expedited (2 Business days)
   Priority (next day)
6. The order gets picked, packed and shipped by Amazon
7. Tracking details get shared with the customer In order to process the return, Amazon receives the returned product and adds it back into the inventory if it's in sellable condition.

How FBA handles International Amazon Orders

Brands wanting to sell in multiple Amazon sites such as UK, France, Italy etc can create a connection between their primary FBA location (for example US) and other international Amazon sites using Build International Listings tool:

1. By clicking on the above link, start with building an international listing
2. Select your source and target marketplace
3. Create offers to be applied on inventory
4. Define pricing rule as per your currency
5. Set the shipping priorities, whether by self-fulfillment or FBA
6. Review the settings and continue.

Source Marketplace is where sellers have set-up their primary Amazon seller account such us USA. Target marketplace is the place where sellers want to expand their business to such as European Amazon sites.

After setting up their pricing and shipping settings according to the International Shipping charges, the listing done in source marketplace will be shown in the target marketplace where they can change and adjust the prices accordingly.

Clicking on Language switcher at the top right of the page, one can switch between the marketplaces where changes in settings are required.

Selling Internationally outside of Amazon and fulfilling using MCF from Single FBA location

Amazon allows shipping international orders from supported FBA locations. So for example, if you are running a Shopify store focusing on UK, you can still fulfil those UK orders from the USA FBA. However as the volumes increases, this becomes increasingly more expensive to ship internationally. Hence brands need to analyze their order patterns and establish local FBA locations.

International FBA setup

Amazon has separate warehouses available in different countries. So, if you receive an order from Canada, you will want to have your products delivered from Canada FBA; on receiving an order from Mexico, you will want it to be delivered from Mexico FBA to avoid extra charges applied for distant delivery. In order to do this, follow the following process:
Open local FBA locations in countries wherever major volume is coming from.
Link the local Amazon store with the local FBA setup

Selling Internationally and fulfilling using MCF from Multiple FBA location

Once a brand opens multiple FBA locations and is generating orders through sources other than Amazon in local markets, it creates a problem to route the orders. Amazon doesn’t provide any solution currently to dynamically route orders to different FBA locations.

This can be solved using a dynamic order management solution that has advanced order routing capabilities. If the solution has ready integration with FBA and other channels from where the brand is getting orders, it can help to reroute the orders to nearest FBA warehouse.
This order rerouting feature will help you avoid extra charges involved in distant delivery with FBA. At the same time, reduced delivery timelines will ensure happy clients and hence better brand perception.

Detailed Process of Order Routing between Multiple FBAs for MCF:

The brand registers with the order management solution
Integrates the required FBA accounts along with other channels
On receiving an order which needs to be fulfilled by Amazon, it can fetch the customer details and depending on the distance and stock availability can route the order to the nearest FBA location that is able to fulfill the order.

This is a powerful capability in a competitive market. Brands are increasingly going global both via Amazon and through other sources. This setup enables them to grow their business across geographies without having to worry about opening fulfillment centers on their own and also save tons of costs by doing local fulfillment using FBA enabled MCF.

Spotlight on your key business objectives with Amazon MCF and proceed further with a favored opinion. Go selling!