One of the most exciting aspects of Linn Academy this year was the Amazon Shipping stand and Amazon Shipping workshop. Amazon Shipping has only just launched in the UK and merchants were keen to understand what the proposition was and if it would save them money and be an effective option for their businesses.
What does Amazon Shipping offer?
Next day delivery
Generally you can expect packages to be delivered the day following pick up.
No extra fees, no surprises
Amazon shipping don’t charge fees for residential deliveries, peak fees, fuel surcharge or to deliver on weekends.
Easy claims
Amazon promise an easy claims process and fast reimbursement.
Process more orders
Amazon say they have free tools to help you pick, pack and ship orders faster.
One shipping service for all your needs
Amazon are positioning their service not just for Amazon orders, but for all your orders from your website and other channels as well. One question that’s not been answered yet is if eBay will add Amazon Shipping as a courier for tracking and accept their delivery confirmation for the eBay on-time shipping metric.
Simple Integration
Amazon Shipping APIs offer low latency and simple set up… but even easier is to use Linnworks who have a full integration ready to go.
Competitive Rates
Rates will vary according to your shipping profile and volumes, but you can get a quote and start shipping within days.
Collection Times
Your collection time will be within a predictable collection window and Amazon will agree a collection window at least 90 minutes after your cut off time for next day delivery so that you have time to process orders. If 90 minutes isn’t sufficient then you’ll want to consider your cut off times to ensure you can process orders ready for collection.
Package presentation
Amazon offer loose and palletised collections. Depending on size and volumes you may have to palletise shipments.
Three ways to purchase Amazon Shipping labels
- Directly from the Amazon Shipping website at ship.amazon.co.uk
- On Amazon Seller Central
- Using the Amazon Shipping API or with partnering integrators such as Linnworks (Sign up here, You do not need to be a current Linnworks customer to get started.)
Amazon Shipping package sizes and rates
Amazon split their service into five different tiers depending on package size
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|---|---|---|
| Large Letter | up to 35.3 x 35 x 2.5 cm | 0.75kg |
| Small Parcel | up to 45 x 35 x 16 cm | 2kg |
| Regular Parcel | up to 50 x 40 x 30 cm | 7kg |
| Medium Parcel | up to 61 x 46 x 46 cm | 20kg |
| Large Parcel | up to 120 x 60 x 60 cm | 23kg |
You will need to request individual rates from Amazon at ship.amazon.co.uk/requestinfo, but to give you a flavour we spoke to a couple of retailers who had indicative rates and Large Letters were priced in the region of £1.50 with Large Parcels (up to 23kg) at under a fiver. The safest bet is to consider these prices as within a range and your exact prices could be higher or lower, but the one thing that is certain is that the prices are competitive.
Whether you are interested in using Amazon Shipping as your exclusive courier or in conjunction with other carriers, now is the time to discover what rates they can offer you so that you can test, integrate and get set up before the busy Q4 period.
5 Responses
We started on Tuesday this week, on the whole its working ok.
We use the integration via our order management system (Cloud Commerce Pro)
We can easily also use buy shipping via Seller Central as a back up if necessary.
Our pick up window is 2.30pm to 5.30pm, so far we have someone turn up at around 2.30 and they have to scan all the parcels, so we separate all the one day parcels from the 3 day and have given them an area near the door to do this.
At the moment, they are picking up around 100 parcels, so this process takes about 8-10 mins.
For the past 3 days, we have had further 3 Amazon delivery drivers turn up to pick up and if we have more parcels we give them to them.
Our RM pick up is at 4.10pm, so we now need to prioritize our Amazon Logistics parcels over the eBay ones so they are ready for the 2.30 pick up. just a little tweak in our work process.
What is interesting is that the Amazon logistics 3 day service is RM48 Tracked, so we give it to Amazon and Amazon give it to RM for final mile delivery.
One thing that does crop up is that whilst Amazon logistics might be available in your area, its not available everywhere so occasionally you have to send the order via RM24 Tracked (more expensive) as opposed to Amazon one day if the customer lives in area that does not have Amazon logistics or possibly if they choose RM24 Tracked over Amazon Logistics.
This may have an effect on your selling price when taking postage into account.
Amazon take the price of the shipping the same day from your balance, so if your used to credit from your chosen carrier, you will need to check cash flow as the month you start, you will be paying for this months Amazon shipping and last months RM shipping, it will even itself out the following month though.
Is does concern me this might be another data point for Amazon to mine. Cheap rates for the price of your data.
Once your competitors are using it (next day service) customers will expect it..
Once your customers expect it you’ll be forced to offer it (or not)..
Once you use it they’ll (Amazon) increase the price (but still less enough so you don’t go to the Royal Mail)..
By this time it is now difficult to go back to the Royal Mail (If they’re still around)..
And now Amazon have got their paws in, the customers will expect next day delivery almost as standard..changing (evolving?) e-commerce altogether..
Meanwhile then what for the Royal Mail?
More importantly as rightly pointed out, our data. Is there any company in the world that has more data within their control than Amazon with unrivalled AWS servers being used by some of the biggest companies?
Upside? If you sell on amazon and use large letter RM24/48 (without signature but just delivery confirmation ) for low value items, those items sent as large letter format with Amazon Shipping may possibly prevent customers who are falsely claiming INR’s with the RM24/48.
Only problem is they Dont yet have any cages, so we have to provide them either in non reusable plastic bags or in our own boxes that we wont get back. If we have big enough quantity we use gaylords on a pallet which again we won’t get back.
I will agree that the claims processs is the best out there, 1 or 2 clicks and it is done