To stay ahead of the competition and deliver a buyer experience that keeps customers coming back, eCommerce sellers need to stock a diverse and attractive range of products. The more curated and relevant your catalog is, the less your shoppers will have to turn to competitors to find the items they want.
This requires you to find and source the right items, and prepare them for fulfillment on your sales channels. For most sellers, this means Amazon, as it’s expected to command 50% of all eCommerce sales in 2021.
In this article, we’ll go over the benefits of international sourcing, how to use FBA to sell on Amazon, and everything you need to know to get your internationally sourced products into the FBA network successfully.
Benefits of sourcing internationally
When you source internationally, you face a larger barrier to entry — after all, your items are coming from far away, with little to no visibility from the U.S. However, this can be your competitive advantage as well, because you can keep your suppliers confidential and difficult to access by your competitors.
Not only that, when you’re open to international suppliers, an entire world of possibilities opens up to your business. You can find items that aren’t available from U.S. manufacturers, and unique goods that haven’t been heard of yet.
Tip: If you’re bringing in a completely new item to the market, be sure to file a patent for it as soon as possible.
Many merchants also find international sourcing attractive because you can get items made more affordably and efficiently overseas. If you balance the cost of materials, logistics, and labor, you can import items for less than it would cost to make them in the U.S. For example, some metals are cheaper to obtain and process in countries that are rich in those raw materials.
The pros and cons of using FBA for your internationally sourced goods
After you select a manufacturer and ship goods to the U.S., the next step in your logistics supply chain is to get them ready to sell on your chosen marketplaces. For Amazon sellers, this often means getting items into FBA for fulfillment.
FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon, and it’s the Amazon Marketplace’s fulfillment division. Once items are accepted into the FBA network, Amazon handles delivering goods once they sell, managing returns, and more.
Pros of Amazon FBAOne of the biggest benefits of using FBA is you get access to Prime shipping for your goods. Consumers know the Prime tag means they can receive their items quickly and efficiently through Amazon’s sophisticated and extensive fulfillment network.
Once your items are in FBA, it’s a hands-off process. Sellers can focus on marketing and making sales while Amazon handles fulfillment, returns, and even customer service. This frees up sellers’ time to grow their business.
Cons of Amazon FBAAmazon FBA is a no-brainer for Amazon sellers, but it doesn’t support other sales channels. Multi-channel sellers have to find other fulfillment partners for sales on their own websites, or through channels like Wish and Walmart.com.
Additionally, FBA is sensitive to mistakes. Sending an improperly prepped item into the FBA network will incur penalties that cost time and money to fix. This compounds on top of your opportunity cost, because every minute your items are waiting for FBA acceptance is another minute your listings aren’t live and selling.
To avoid that, it’s vital to prep your items properly before they reach the FBA network. Which brings us to our next point...
Why to use MyFBAPrep to get international goods into FBA
MyFBAPrep takes your items, fresh from a supplier, and prepares them for sale and delivery to your buyers. In addition to prepping goods according to FBA standards, MyFBAPrep can also handle D2C deliveries, ensuring merchants are covered no matter how they want to sell.
Pros of an FBA prep serviceAn FBA prep service transforms an already-easy sales process into a completely hands-off one. Sellers who use MyFBAPrep never have to touch a single box, as we can handle everything from inspection and quality control, to kitting and bundling and fulfillment.
Sellers can send all of their items to a single warehouse in the MyFBAPrep network and let us take over the rest. We can break down shipments, prep, and send them where they need to go across our 40+ nationwide warehouse network. We can also distribute items based on the sales channel, from FBA to D2C allocation.
Cons of an FBA prep serviceEven though using a prep service saves time and adds efficiency to your supply chain, it does come with an additional cost. So, it may be better to prep your low-margin items in-house to save on per-item costs, and use a prep service for your fast-moving, higher-margin items instead.
Use MyFBAPrep to prep your internationally sourced goods
Wish Wholesale merchants already have a prime channel to find their next bestseller. All they have to think of next is getting it into FBA and ready to sell within the U.S. Once you locate your items on Wish Wholesale, you can have your shipment delivered to any MyFBAPrep warehouse, and we’ll handle the rest.
About the Author
Rachel Go is the Director of Marketing for MyFBAPrep, an eCommerce logistics partner that specializes in prep and fulfillment for Amazon and DTC sellers. MyFBAPrep has an international 50+ warehouse network across the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK. They can handle bundling, kitting, cold storage, and more for sellers who want to offload and optimize their logistics. Sellers can send their items into any MyFBAPrep warehouse, and let us handle the order splitting, prep, allocation, and more.