As a seller on Amazon it is important to properly know how to set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template. The Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template is the settings on the back end of Amazon Seller Central that...
As a seller on Amazon it is important to properly know how to set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template. The Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template is the settings on the back end of Amazon Seller Central that Amazon sellers can create and assign to product listing offers that indicates the price and shipping expectations for Amazon customers. When Amazon shipping templates are set up correctly, Amazon customers have clear expectations when their order will arrive which will make for a better customer experience, more repeat business, and better Amazon product and seller reviews. For sellers, when the merchant fulfilled shipping templates correctly, the right amount of money is charged to the customer for shipping and the correct time is allowed for sellers to pick, pack, ship and time allotted for delivery. If an incorrect strategy around the shipping template is implemented, it can create a poor customer experience through a lost buy box, late delivery, incorrect charging of shipping, or unappealing merchandising offer to customers. This post we will touch on different strategies for Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping templates, Amazon shipping settings automation, and how to set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template on Seller Central. If you want Goat Consulting to help with the strategy or implementation of an Amazon Merchant Fulfilled Shipping Template, please contact us through the button below:
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Strategy for Amazon Merchant Fulfilled Shipping Template
Amazon allows Sellers to be in control of how to set up the merchant fulfilled shipping templates. This customization lets sellers decide the best strategy for how they want to make an offer for Amazon customers to consider. We will first cover some of the considerations for how to decide the best strategy and then share some options for Amazon sellers to set up the merchant fulfilled shipping template that is best for seller’s business as well as Amazon customers.
Buy Box
The buy box is the featured offer on an Amazon product listing that when a customer clicks buy now, it is the offer that is purchased. Sellers can compete for the buy box to be the featured offer and the implications are huge as most purchases are completed through that buy now button. Amazon considers the best offer for Amazon customers to be awarded the buy box and the major factors include price (product price + shipping price) and shipping speed. Both of those factors are settings that are adjusted for the merchant fulfilled shipping template.
Offering Both FBA and Merchant Fulfilled Offers
Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) is the logistics and fulfillment service offered by Amazon that grants Prime designation with best in class shipping and customer service. Sellers have the option to offer both FBA and merchant fulfilled shipping offers. If a seller is out of stock at FBA or there are restock limitations, then sellers can still have an active offer and generate sales through the merchant fulfilled offer.
Expected Delivery Time
Customers and particularly those on Amazon expect fast delivery time. Sellers can adjust the delivery time, but the most important factor to consider is ensuring that you are meeting the expected delivery time. This is calculated by taking the handling time (which can be adjusted at a product level) plus the shipping speed. Failing to deliver at the expected time can lead to late deliveries which hurts both the customer experience as well as Amazon health metrics.
Financial Implications
Sellers can add in a cost that is charged to the customer for shipping. The benefit for sellers is that more revenue is generated, or the cost of shipping the product is offset, however, the more charged to a customer creates a worse offer relative to other similar products. More and more, customers even expect free shipping.
LTL Shipping Template Requirements
Some products are so large that they cannot be shipped with traditional shipping methods and require a pallet and trailer shipping option. The focus of this post will be on traditional packaging shipping but know that there are settings to turn on the LTL shipping template for large and heavy items.
Per-Item/Weight Based Shipping vs. Price Banded Shipping
The two charge methods Amazon allows sellers to create are per-item or price-banded shipping. Per-item/weight-based shipping lets you set a charge for each shipment and either a per-pound charge or a per-item charge for handling. Price banded charges based on the total order amount, so the more total basket size a customer purchases from you the more or less you can charge the customer.
Options for Amazon Sellers with Merchant Fulfilled Shipping Templates
Now that we have understood some of the considerations Amazon sellers have for creating a shipping template, let's look at a few proposed options and strategies for setting up merchant fulfilled shipping templates.
Free Shipping
It has become a de facto standard to have free shipping. This is what is expected by Amazon customers. An example product that is $50 with free shipping, or a product that is $45 but with $5 shipping; even though they are net the same amount. I would recommend going with the free shipping option.
Pass the Shipping Cost to Amazon Customers
There are times for example where list or minimum advertised pricing can be an issue or needs to be standardized across channels. If the product is either heavy or bulky that requires additional cost for shipping, it does make sense to charge a fee to Amazon customers to offset the cost of shipping to customers.
Long Shipping or Handling Times to Start
Meeting or exceeding the expected delivery time is crucial for a successful shopping experience on Amazon. Continued missing of delivery time can lead to account health issues up to suspensions of your selling privileges. This strategy of starting with longer shipping and handling times allows you to learn the fulfillment process, which you can then go back and reduce the shipping and handling times to better meet the actual timing. The downside of this strategy is that Sellers can set unnecessary long expected delivery time, which may turn off customers from purchasing in the first place.
Enable Amazon Shipping Settings Automation
Amazon has a setting that uses existing data to automatically update promised delivery time to Amazon customers and takes the shipping timing guesswork away from sellers. Let’s review this setting in more detail.
Amazon Shipping Settings Automation (SSA)
Amazon is continuing to offer tools and new ways for how to set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template. One of these new options is Amazon Shipping Settings Automation, which gives some of the control and customization back to Amazon’s systems but ideally provides the best promised delivery date. Sellers can create new shipping templates or update existing ones and turn on the Amazon Shipping Settings Automation. During the setup process, sellers select the warehouse sellers are shipping from, select the carriers that are used, and assign the ASINs associated with the template. Amazon then calculates the optimized transit times and continues to refresh carrier data in order to have the most up to date times. Customers will see the most accurate delivery times on the product detail page, which will improve the likelihood that customers will purchase the product. If for whatever reason, the product is not delivered on time with this enabled, account health is protected from negative feedback due to late deliveries, and will suppress negative feedback related to late deliveries on Shipping Settings Automation orders.
How to Set Up an Amazon Merchant Fulfilled Shipping Template on Seller Central
Once your strategy is in place for how you set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template is decided upon, the next step is implementing it on Seller Central. Here are the steps for how to set up an Amazon merchant fulfilled shipping template:
Log into your Amazon Seller Central account and go to Settings > Shipping Settings
Select Create New Shipping Template
Name your Shipping Template
Select your Rate model of Per Item / Weight-Based or Price Banded
Select to either turn on Shipping Setting Automation or not
Allow/disallow Free Economy, expedited, and two-day delivery options depending your capability
Adjust the Shipping Options, Regions, and Rates by adjusting the regions, allowing delivery to PO Boxes, Transit Time, and Shipping fee.
Save the template
Assign the shipping template to each SKU/ASIN this is applicable for. This can either be done individually or in a bulk upload
Conclusion
We hope that you now understand how to set up an Amazon Merchant Fulfilled Shipping Template on Seller Central. Creating a merchant fulfilled template that meets or exceeds customer expectations for shipping costs and promised delivery time can be either a source of benefit and revenue driver, or create customer dissatisfaction and account health issues. If you need help in putting together the best strategy for merchant fulfilled shipping options, please reach out to Goat Consulting through our Contact Us form below.
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