Amazon Shipping are announcing that they are open for business for all online retailers whether they sell on Amazon or not. Senior Business Development Manager of Amazon Shipping, Freddie Coleridge posted on LinkedIn offering seven day a week pickups and saying “Businesses can use Amazon Shipping for orders made on Amazon, as well as own website and other ecommerce channels”.
For those that have used Amazon Shipping already, perhaps to fulfil Amazon sales, qualify for Seller fulfilled Prime, or for sales from other venues, there are some pros and cons to the service.
The pros are that pricing is pretty keen, delivery is generally to Amazon’s normal high standard and if there are ever any delivery issues Amazon are normally trouble free for making refund claims.
The cons are that you can’t choose your own pick up time and this may restrict how much you can use the service. We’ve heard of retailers with early afternoon collection times and if you want a later cut off to encourage sales this means you’ll still have to use a back up courier or Royal Mail to fulfil afternoon orders for same day despatch.
Another issue that’s been raised is for those with Seller Fulfilled Prime – you must produce your labels through Amazon Shipping even if you’re sending via Royal Mail. This isn’t a particular problem, but you will need to configure your multichannel solution to ensure this happens as if too many parcels ship for Seller Fulfilled Prime orders where you purchase, even the exact same service, directly through Royal Mail rather than Amazon then you could lose your Seller Fulfilled Prime status.
Tracking was an early issue, but the Amazon Shipping Tracking Site is now up and running. This was a problem for eBay sales as eBay weren’t accepting Amazon tracking as valid before the new Amazon Shipping tracking was live.
In a nutshell, many of the early issues with Amazon Shipping have been ironed out and they now want your business if you ship more than 20 parcels a day. If you would like to find out more visit ship.amazon.co.uk to get started.
Amazon Shipping Features
Amazon Shipping say that they can provide:
Competitive Rates
Get a quote and start shipping in days with easy-to-understand rates.
No Extra Fees, No Surprises
Amazon don’t charge extra fees for residential delivery, peak fees, or to deliver on weekends.
Delivery you can count on
Amazon say that they offer a reliable Next Day service which is fully tracked.
No contractual obligation
If you change your mind, you can cancel your Amazon Shipping services at any time.
One Shipping service
Ship orders from your own website and other channels, starting from 20 parcels a day.
Dedicated Shipper support
Getting started is easy. Amazon’s dedicated Shipper Support will help you get started and troubleshoot.
Amazon Shipping supported Order and Carrier Management Systems
ChannelAdvisor; Linnworks; ShipStation; Scurri; DespatchCloud; Veeqo; Mintsoft
6 Responses
We currently use them for SFP orders and they are not supposed to knock at the door till 2.30pm, however in the beginning, some drivers did try it on and arrive up to an hour before this but i wouldn’t let them start scanning till 2.30pm. It doesn’t happen much now though.
The Pro’s being that they don’t go on strike or threaten too.
Most of their Standard service is passed onto Royal Mail for final mile delivery, but if Royal Mail are struggling, with Amazon, the customer comes first, so i noticed that very little went to Royal Mail when the lock down first started.
Claiming for lost parcels is so easy, but it might be different for non Amazon orders as they do not see the order information. At the moment, as long as the customer has been refunded they will process the claim.
Whilst you might not need it all the time, you can book weekend & bank holiday collections, which if your in working anyway, is a positive
The Cons are the pick up time, however as it takes them about 15-20 mins to scan, i’m adding orders to the pile whilst they are there.
My pick up window is 2.30 – 5.30, most of the time they are there between 2.30 & 3.30.
The drivers use an app to scan their parcels, and the ones that have an iphone, tend to have trouble scanning the Standard Royal Mail packets which results in them having to take them away un-scanned and they get scanned at the depot, this has worked fine, however we had one pickup where 14 parcels were not scanned and subsequently went missing.
If the drivers number of parcels does not match my number, we now do a recount which is time consuming, however i feel its necessary.
Overall, im more than happy withe the service and have enquired about having my other marketplace orders use Amazon Logistics.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/06/13/if-amazon-is-guilty-of-anti-competitive-practices-who-did-it-learn-themfrom/
Has anyone ever thought about these agency drivers That collect and conditions they have to work under? What level of pay they get? If the workers in the warehouse were going through a tough time so are these drivers. Sounds nice and cheap and efficient but who suffers in the end? The high street or our way of life?
Amazon has its place as an online platform really helping to provide a service In tough times when vulnerable cannot get out but certain products do we really need them the next day? This instant I need it now now culture has impacted the human behaviour in that it’s impulsive nature which is repudiating.
We have all had the announcements:
We have surveyed our customers and when asked if they want next day delivery at no extra cost, they said yes!!
No surprise there then.
One of the surprising things about moving to SFP was the amount of customers who clearly click the “Prime Only” button.
As we moved all our products onto SFP, we had to build the next day shipping cost into the selling price, which meant that a few items (Coasters) ended up being 3 x the price, and guess what, they do sell, even though there is another non prime badge seller selling them and clearly using LL post, much cheaper than my offering.
Its like if you charge shipping, you are ripping off customers, a product being sold for £12 with no further charges is a better deal than if being offered for £10 plus £1 shipping.
With Prime customers and SFP, you have to offer the next day option, so all the products will have this built in, which means you will make a little more margin with Non Prime customers and Prime customers will pretty much always choose next day, whether they need it or not next day, purely because its available.
On eBay, hardly anyone upgrades to RM24, which is charged at the difference between RM48 & RM24, which to me proves that whilst most people do not need it next day, if offered for free, they will choose next day.
You should ask your customers next question if they want the product free as well as next day delivery for free. They will also say “yes”. !
I heard that Amazon installed a new system which creates panic ,most of the sellers complaining for the size of large letter and parcel . They are cheaper in parcel but increased the price of large letter. Which definitely cost the end user more