While Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is easily going to be the best way to sell your products on Amazon, the cost of the service can be quite prohibitive, particularly if you are selling some cheaper items. Thankfully, Amazon has a service designed just for you. Let us introduce you to the FBA small and light program.
What is FBA Small and Light?
The Amazon small and light program is a service that has been designed for those using FBA. It is for those that are shipping cheaper and lighter products.
According to SageMailer’s research, the purpose of this program is to allow FBA sellers to ship products at a far more affordable price. This allows them to bring the sale price of their products down which, ultimately, means that Amazon can continue to be one of the cheapest places online to buy just about everything.
The products sold through the small and light service will still be classed as Amazon Prime products. This means that buyers with Amazon Prime will be able to order them for free and fast delivery. However, any products under this service will be shipped out slightly slower than normal. You can expect your customer to receive the product within 5.8 days as opposed to the normal Amazon Prime shipping time.
Don’t worry. You won’t be receiving negative reviews about the slow shipping. That is all on Amazon and, if anybody brings it up, those negative reviews will be removed.
Who Can Use FBA Small and Light?
In order to sell your products through this service, they need to meet a few criteria.
Firstly, the product cannot be sold for more than $10. You can thoroughly calculate and analyze all fees in the Amazon FBA calculator. Due to the amount of money that you can potentially save with the Amazon FBA system, it may actually be worth your while reducing the price of your products if they are over $10. Reducing a price of $11.99, for instance, can probably save you more money on FBA costs.
Secondly, your product cannot weigh more than 15 ounces.
Finally, your product size must be under 16″ x 9″ x 4″.
If your products meet all of those criteria then, great, you are going to be able to ship them off using the FBA Small and Light program!
How Much Money Will You Save?
This is dependent on the product that is being shipped out.
Amazon will ship products sent under the small and light program one of two ways:
- FBA Small and Light parcels
- FBA Small and Light flats
The bulk of your products will be shipped using the first method. As you can probably tell from the name, the only products being shipped under flats are those that are completely flat.
The pricing is as follows:
- $1 for order handling (this is $0.40 for flats)
- $0.60 for order picking
- $0.09 per ounce
This means that a 5-ounce product would cost $2.05 to send. If this product was sent via standard FBA, then it would cost $2.41. Therefore, it is a saving of $0.36. It may not seem like a lot, but when you are selling a product for $10 or below, that $0.36 would be a rather hefty chunk of it.
Remember; this program only applies to shipping of the product. There will still be your standard FBA fees to worry about.
Is it Worth Using the Program?
If your product qualifies for Amazon small and light, then you absolutely should be using it.
Sure, the products are going to be shipping out a little bit slower to customers. However, you will be saving a lot of money on FBA fees. This can either mean a nice bit of extra profit in your pocket or, better yet, you can pass those savings onto customers.
The businesses that make the greatest savings using this service are the ones that sell products that buyers may buy multiple of in one go. This is because there will only be a single order handling charge of $1.00 for all of the small items picked for that order. This doesn’t apply to standard FBA shipping rates. There is a flat fee for each item in the order. There are no savings for multiple products.
Final Thoughts
Amazon small and light for FBA isn’t really a program people talk all that much about. However, if you sell cheaper and smaller products on Amazon, then it is worth looking into. You could save a lot of money on each item Amazon sends out on your behalf.
