Amazon FBA Small and Light is a specific service for merchants who sell, guess what, small and light items using the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) system. Goods included in the scheme enjoy better rates from FBA and are available to Prime shoppers. Small and light is ideal for ecommerce merchants who sell small, cheap items which will also typically also have quite tight margins. But’s surprising that quite a number of Amazon merchants aren’t aware of this offering.
For your goods to be eligible they must weigh less than 250 g (and that includes the packaging), have dimensions of less than 30 x 22.4 x 2.4 cm and be priced under £9.
All the usual Amazon fees and FBA costs apply to the Small and Light programme. However, there are different handling, pick and pack, and weight-handling fees. For a small letter measuring 23 x 15.5 x 0.4 cm and weighing between 0-100g the handling fee is £0.60 rather than £1.34 for regular FBA. The large letter (measuring 30 x 22.4 x 2.4 cm and weighing 0-250g) the fee is £0.80 and not the typical £1.62.
As they say of Amazon FBA small and light on the landing page:
FBA Small and Light is a fulfilment solution for fast-moving products that meet specific size, weight, and price requirements. Designed with your profit margin in mind, the Small and Light programme allows you to list qualifying items while enjoying lower fulfilment costs from Amazon. Now more of your listings could benefit from FBA. When you join this programme, your participating offers will be available to Prime members with free 1–3 days delivery, and standard 3–5 days delivery for non-Prime customers with FREE delivery on orders over £20.
– Amazon
To get involved with Amazon FBA small and light, you’ll need to make a specific application with details of the products you want to sell. The self-service registration page can be found here.
Are you already using Amazon FBA small and light and how do you find the service?
3 Responses
FBA, have tried it, but not again. We sold miniature models which measured 5x10x5cm boxed. All we received from customers were complaints that the presentation boxes were damaged and refunds were needed. Amazon refunded the customers and said they would destroy the goods or would we like to pay the carriage to have them returned to us. Of course we wanted to see how severe the “damage”was.
On their return, It turns out that Amazon packed a cubic shape item in a packet that is designed for books. Yes, the presentation box was crushed because of their methods of despatch.
We now only list on Amazon and do our own despatch. For us, this works perfectly.
Also another anomaly, was that each time we sold something, the net amount differed. Why?
Further, we have moved premises, and the documentation required by Amazon to prove our move is genuine is unbelievable. Our bank account and VAT Registration numbers have not changed, neither has the registered person or email address changed, so why all this complication. They allowed the change of landline phone, mobile hasn’t changed. So why the fuss? We are still selling on Amazon and the money is still arriving in the bank account. Makes you wonder, eh? Right hand does not know what left hand is doing. Enough said!
eBay, so much easier and so logical.
FBA is great for our business as we physically could not dispatch so many small and light products and keep our business trading from our home address.
The problems we face is the amount of messages we received from dissatisfied customers due to Amazon sending them the completely wrong product which leads to a return and loss of revenue. A customer even gave us negative feedback for receiving the wrong product, when we asked Amazon to remove they advised that they had checked the bin location and the correct product was in that particular location therefore the customers feedback must remain.
I it also available for the US marketplace?