When it comes to eCommerce, there seems to be a new selling platform to experiment with every other week. The inclination to try out these new services is a common one, with the hopes of expanding awareness and promotion to larger audiences. Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) is one of these services that capitalizes on this desire for modern businesses to sell in various ways and through different channels, such as Shopify or Magento.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) is a third-party logistics (3PL) provider that allows businesses to ship their items from multiple eCommerce channels with one service. Amazon stores the merchant’s items in Amazon warehouses and fulfills the order when placed. Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment comes with three available delivery speeds: standard (within five business days), expedited (within three business days) and priority (within two business days).
Using Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment has a number of benefits, including inventory flexibility, low shipping costs, and fast shipping. MCF also allows for more brand visibility and exposure listing items on multiple marketplaces.
However, the service is limited to restrictive branding, with packaging either branded as Amazon or blank box fulfillment for a surcharge. Amazon MCF also makes it more difficult to calculate costs, as the dimensions, weight, demand, and time of year all impact the price of storage and shipments. This is also because there are various fees involved with using the service, including fulfillment fees, storage fees, removal fees, unplanned service fees, long-term storage fees, and subscription fees associated with an Amazon Seller Central (ASC) account.
Multi-channel selling is a prevalent strategy adopted by today’s businesses. Many merchants may find themselves launching a new experimental product on a platform like Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) or requiring warehouse service from Amazon in a new part of the country to fulfill growing orders.
Ali Moghtaderi, Sr. Tech Partnership Manager at Amazon acknowledged this, stating “I predict that we will see more and more eCommerce businesses looking to automate their order fulfillment in 2024. With the increased demand for eCommerce businesses to expand and sell on multiple sales channels – like brand websites, eCommerce stores, and social media stores – merchants can get overwhelmed trying to overcome the operational challenges of a multi-channel selling strategy.”
With ShipHawk, automated shipping software can help you fulfill a range of orders on your own, offering the security to try out new services like FBA or Amazon MCF while still maintaining one unified system for rating and shipping information. ShipHawk’s multi-origin rating and Smart Packing automation services offer an enormous advantage for businesses previously unseen in the shipping industry. This solves the operational problems involved with multi-channel selling while also allowing you to choose the carriers and selling platforms that benefit your business best.
To learn more about how ShipHawk can help your organization save time and money by implementing automated shipping software with Amazon, contact us today.
