With Amazon’s ever-expanding global network, encompassing over 400 fulfillment centers, 150 sortation centers, and 1,000 delivery stations worldwide, the capabilities and advantages of its FBA platform continue to grow.
If your company uses Amazon FBA Inventory Management, you likely know its many benefits. But here’s the real question: Are you leveraging its full potential to access the best possible results for your business?
Staying updated on this topic makes all the difference between being a successful seller and facing challenges in providing a positive customer experience on the platform. Let’s explore how to take your Amazon inventory management game to the next level.
What is Amazon FBA Inventory Management?
Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) Inventory Management is a system that allows your business to organize, track, and optimize your store product inventory in their fulfillment centers.
The platform handles critical inventory and order management tasks like:
- monitoring stock levels
- forecasting product demand
- replenishing inventory
- fulfilling orders
- handling returns
How Amazon FBA Inventory Management Works
When a customer places an order, Amazon handles the picking, packing, shipping, and customer service, providing sellers with a streamlined and efficient way to fulfill orders and reach a broader customer base.
Watch how Amazon FBA Works & How to Register in Seller Central
Amazon FBA Setup Steps:
Setting up an Amazon FBA account is the first step to leveraging the platform’s fulfillment capabilities. Follow these simple steps and benefit from streamlined order fulfillment, access to Prime customers, and the means for providing excellent customer service.
Step 1: FBA Setup
Create your Amazon selling account and log in to Seller Central to set up FBA.
Step 2: List Your Products
Add your products to the Amazon catalog and indicate them as FBA inventory.
Step 3: Product Preparation
Follow Amazon’s packing guidelines and shipping requirements to ensure your products are prepared safely and securely for transportation to a fulfillment center.
Step 4: Send to Amazon
Create a shipping plan, print Amazon shipment ID labels, and send your shipments to designated Amazon fulfillment centers.
The Importance of Accurate FBA Inventory Management
It’s crucial to maintain accurate inventory levels to provide a positive customer experience on the Amazon platform.
Address stock issues with the following tips.
Stockouts: Inadequate inventory management can sometimes lead to frequent stockouts, where your products become unavailable for purchase. This results in missed sales opportunities, dissatisfied customers, and potential damage to your seller’s reputation.
> Amazon’s re-stock guide helps to keep your stock up-to-date.
Overstocking: Poor inventory management may lead to overstocking, where you hold excessive inventory that ties up capital and storage space. Overstocking can increase storage fees, inventory obsolescence, and reduce profitability.
>The Manage Excess Inventory page in your Seller Central FBA account helps you maintain the right inventory levels.
Inaccurate Order Fulfillment: Fulfilling customer orders is only possible with accurate inventory management. You could mistakenly accept orders for products that are no longer in stock, leading to cancellations, negative reviews, and customer dissatisfaction.
>Amazon’s Inventory Management Dashboard is an excellent way to track your orders and inventory.
Inefficient Replenishment: The inability to accurately forecast customer demand and manage inventory numbers can result in inadequate replenishment. Sellers may experience delays in restocking.
>Use a tool like Amazon’s re-stock guide to avoid these holdups.
Benefits of Automated & Centralized Stock Management
Without accurate inventory management, you’re like the captain of a ship with no navigation plan to get where you need to go. Use Seller Central tools offered through your FBA account to get the answers you need to make the right business decisions.
Here are some key benefits of using FBA for your inventory management:
Enhanced Efficiency:
You can save valuable time and resources by automating stock management processes. Automated systems can handle tasks such as inventory tracking, replenishment, and order fulfillment, streamlining operations and reducing manual effort.
Accurate Inventory Tracking:
With automated stock management, you can have real-time visibility into your inventory levels across various Amazon fulfillment centers. This ensures accurate tracking and reduces the risk of stockouts or overstocking, allowing you to maintain the optimal amount of stock for improved customer satisfaction.
Seamless Order Fulfillment:
Automated stock management integrates with order management systems, ensuring a smooth and efficient order fulfillment process. You can rely on Amazon’s fulfillment network to handle storage, packaging, and shipping, ensuring timely delivery and minimizing fulfillment errors.
Scalability and Flexibility:
Automated stock management systems are designed to handle the complexities of large-scale operations. They can adapt to changing demand patterns, allowing you to scale your business and accommodate peak seasons without compromising on inventory management.
Data-Driven Insights:
Centralized stock management systems provide your business with valuable data and analytics. Access performance metrics, inventory turnover rates, sales trends, and more, empowering you to make informed decisions and optimize your inventory strategies for improved profitability.
Cost Savings:
By leveraging Amazon’s FBA program and automated stock management, you can reduce costs associated with warehouse space, staffing, packaging materials, and order fulfillment. This allows you to allocate resources efficiently and focus on other aspects of your business, such as product development and marketing.
Choosing the Right FBA Inventory Management Software
There are two forms of FBA inventory management software. The first is a specialized software designed exclusively to cater to Amazon’s requirements, and the second is a traditional inventory management system equipped with built-in integrations, enabling seamless operation with Amazon alongside your other sales channels.
Many inventory management tools are available outside of Amazon’s FBA inventory management software.
Here are five popular FBA software inventory management solutions:
- Skubana
- SoStocked
- Linnworks
- Sellbrite
- Veeqo
Whether you rely solely on Amazon FBA for inventory and order management or complement it with other software solutions mentioned above, you’re well on your way to achieving a more streamlined and efficient approach.
Simplify Product Inventory Management
As you expand your product sales across multiple marketplaces, your business may face new challenges.
- Slower connections from your store with multiple marketplaces to promote your products
- Marketplace product integration issues with your eCommerce platform
- Ability to synchronize your order data in real-time
- Managing a variety of seller accounts on multiple marketplaces
- Keeping an accurate count of current sales to facilitate your inventory management and your finances through detailed stock and sales data.
This is where using a centralized marketplace integration service like Highstreet.io can help. Our platform integrates with your current system to automate your marketplace workflow, list your products better, and keep tabs on the inventory of all your marketplaces. We connect your product data and inventory to local and global marketplaces like Amazon.
Contact us to automate and centralize your marketplace workflow with Highstree.io.