You can effortlessly start a small online business, but developing it is another thing. Good thing, there are many opportunities to broaden the reach of online entrepreneurs, such as online shopping platforms.
Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping centers globally, and they have provided a significant number of market opportunities to its sellers. They also have shipping services you can take advantage of. If you want to understand this topic more, scroll down and learn how to grow and save your business by knowing Amazon Seller shipping rates.
Why Should You Consider Selling on Amazon?
To start, you don’t have to hire many employees to work, and as long as you provide outstanding customer service, expect repeat business. Posting your products on the Amazon marketplace provides you with numerous back-end support, such as tracking ending inventory, processing credit cards, and collecting sales tax. Plus, you have Amazon seller central account with tools and content to help you manage your business efficiently.
However, you should aim to become an Amazon Prime seller. Most customers tend to search for prime products, so earning the Prime badge will help customers to discover your products faster and easier, resulting in a high visibility rate and increased sales conversion.
Here are the other benefits of becoming an Amazon Prime seller:
1. One-day or Two-day delivery
Generally, customers want to receive their orders immediately. Prime offers unlimited access to one-day or two-day delivery, which can attract more customers to choose your store over the other.
2. Prime Day
Prime Day is a huge sale event offered by Amazon when sellers provide significant sales and promos to buyers. This event is an excellent opportunity because it helps your store be more visible to customers and gain access to deals.
3. More Visibility to Customers
Amazon filters all the Prime sellers from the regular Amazon sellers. Showing your store as a Prime will provide you with a significant advantage, as you can broaden your reach, making it more visible to potential customers.
4. Early Start During Sales
You have an early head start during festive sales, like a day or hours ahead of other sellers, giving you an advantage of approaching more customers sooner.
5. Boost Sales
With the four perks above, you have to expect a boost in sales for your Amazon store. Most sellers receive a 3X increase or more in sales, which is a huge factor if you are a small business.
How Can I Become An Amazon Prime Seller?
Providing flash sales, discounts, and promotional deals can help you earn the badge. However, you can also become a Prime seller in these four ways.
Become an FBA seller. Fulfillment By Amazon is a program offered to sellers who don’t have time to process and fulfill customers’ orders. Once you become an FBA seller, your products are eligible for the Prime badge.
Benefits of FBA. a.) Fulfillment is done on your behalf, so you can put your full attention into developing your business. b.) You can work anywhere you want, be it at home, at a local cafe, or in an office. c.) The business continues from the order process to customer service, even if you are fast asleep or relaxing. d.) You are entitled to a fast delivery speed, which leads to a higher customer satisfaction rate.
Amazon Local Selling. This service is only applicable to selected sellers who offer delivery services to customers’ homes within local delivery areas and “buy online pick-up in store” (BOPIS) at your retail stores and warehouses.
Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP). The Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) allows you to process the fulfillment from your storage location. Note that SFP is similar to Amazon FBM.
Seller Flex. It is comparatively Amazon’s newer program, so many sellers aren’t aware of this yet. It started on Amazon India and is being marketed on Amazon USA. It is a program where sellers can have better stock control, offer a shipping option, and benefit their consumers. Unfortunately, sellers cannot apply for this as it’s an invite-only program, unlike Amazon Local Selling.
What are the upfront selling costs when selling on Amazon?
Amazon offers two distinctive selling plans with different prices: individual and professional seller plans. An individual selling plan costs $0.99 per item sold + additional selling fees. On the other hand, the professional seller plan costs $39.99 per month + additional selling fees. There is also a minimum referral fee which depends on the item category.
What Other Fees Do I Have to Expect?
Amazon FBA Fee
Choosing this fulfillment method will incur some expenses as it has a flat fee per unit, depending on the product weight and size. You can use the size tiers to compute the shipping fee. Other charges include monthly and long-term storage fees, removal order fees, return processing fees, unplanned services fees, Amazon seller shipping charges, and FBA inventory storage overage fees.
Amazon FBM Fee
Aside from the selling plan, Amazon FBM sellers also pay Amazon merchant shipping rates depending on the delivery service and shipping option.
You have three options in setting your shipping rates: item or weight-based shipping, price-banded shipping, or weight-tiered shipping. You can check the table below for the differences between each shipping option.
Price-Banded Shipping
Revenue Band | Shipping Fee |
$0.00 to $50.00 | $10.00 |
$50.01 to $80.00 | $5.00 |
$80.01 and up | $0.00 |
Price-banded shipping allows you to set of order price ranges or bands, which matches a particular shipping fee. Then, Amazon will calculate the shipping charges depending on the numbers you included. For example, if a customer places an order of $65.00, the shipping fee will be $5.00
Weight-Tiered Shipping
Weight Tier | Shipping Fee |
0 to 100 lbs | $0.50/lbs |
101 and up lbs | $0.25/lbs |
flat rate shipping | $5.00 |
This shipping rate will be provided to qualified sellers, allowing them to make tiers by weight order for freight shipping. For example, a customer places an order with a total weight of 250 lbs, the computation will look like this $5.00 (100 lbs x $0.50) + (150 lbs x $0.25).
Introducing Stallion
Consider Stallion if you need a shipping partner to help you minimize your Amazon selling shipping rates and still offer a quality service.
Canada’s leading shipping provider lets you integrate all your eCommerce stores into one shipping platform to manage your business efficiently. We offer the most affordable shipping rates and the fastest delivery service.
With the lowest shipping charges, you can already offer free shipping and discounts to your customer. Furthermore, it includes real-time tracking and is powered by credible carrier partners to ensure that the shipping services are well-executed.
You can contact +1877-863-7447 and talk to our customer service or visit our Facebook page for more information about the services we offer.
Diana leads the growth marketing initiatives at Stallion Express. As a personal trainer turned digital marketer, Diana is obsessed with equipping eCommerce entrepreneurs with everything they need to scale their online businesses. You can catch her doing yoga or hitting the tennis courts in her spare time.