Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime Program
When Amazon launched its Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program back in 2015, it opened the door for greater exposure and higher sales among third-party Amazon sellers who could match the company’s shipping service standards and handle their own fulfillment from their own warehouses, offering one-day and two-day shipping service for its Prime customers.
Why It’s Important to You
SFP enrollment should be important to third-party Amazon seller who fulfills orders from their own storage facilities and not just FBA. Why? Because Amazon Prime members pay a monthly subscription fee for the service. They look specifically for Prime-eligible deals from Prime sellers whenever they shop. Your FBM listings can qualify for Prime when you are enrolled in SFP.
If you are a seller enrolled in the SFP program, your eligible items are advertised with the Prime badge. Prime buyers have a preference for products with the Amazon Prime badge. It’s the indicator of your commitment to fulfill orders at Prime speed, at no additional cost them. When customers search for your products on Amazon, yours come up as being Prime-eligible. When a Prime member has the choice between a Prime-eligible and standard product, guess which one they are going to choose?
Benefits of the SFP program for Amazon sellers:
- Buy Box eligibility
- No FBA or storage fees
- Increased discoverability for your brand and products
- Access to Amazon’s over 158 million Prime members
- More control over brands, listings, inventory, and customer information
You Have To Play by the Rules
We want to caution all third-party sellers that SFP is like anything else on Amazon. You must play by the rules, or your account could face suspension.
The quality of service SFP sellers reflects directly on Amazon’s Prime service. Since Prime is their bread and butter, Amazon does not want the name tarnished. In order to qualify and earn the Prime badge, potential enrollees must meet specific selling criteria during the trial period to show that they are able to meet Amazon performance standards:
- Seller must agree to Amazon Returns Policy
- Have a cancellation order rate of less than 0.5%
- Deliver orders with Amazon SFP supported carriers
- Have a valid tracking rate of 99% or higher
- On time fulfillment and delivery of orders over 93.5% using Amazon Buy Shipping Services
- Meet high shipping standards and targets for one-day and two-day delivery promises
- Offer Premium shipping options including weekend delivery and pick up on Saturday or Sunday
- Offer nationwide delivery coverage for standard-size products
- Allow Amazon to deal with customer service inquiries
If we had to pick one thing from the list as being the most important, it would be meeting shipping standards. The most attractive aspect of Prime is its fast and free shipping. If sellers cannot consistently maintain Amazon’s performance metrics for on time deliveries, they will not remain SFP sellers for long. Keeping up with and maintaining SFP metrics is not for the faint of heart. You must have a solid warehousing, fulfillment and shipping operation.
Amazon Will Be Paying Attention
In the past, SFP “was not providing the same high quality experience that customers expect from Prime.” In other words, the program was suspended because sellers were unable to fill orders and ship them quickly enough. They didn’t have the logistics in place to ship quickly and cost-effectively.
If you need help making sure that you meet Amazon’s strict requirements for SFP, contact us as we can offer SFP specialized consulting.
Here at Ecomsellertools, we help third-party Amazon sellers with ASIN reinstatement, product listing optimization services, seller account reinstatement. As Amazon reinstatement specialists and consultants, we are here to help you succeed.
