In today’s dynamic marketplace, the leading eCommerce giant – Amazon, has become every retailer’s top-most choice. It provides a forum with over 310 million customers, allowing entrepreneurs to cater to a massive audience pool. However, managing your store on a huge platform can be pretty overwhelming if you don’t have the expertise. Perhaps, you might face an influx of orders yet resulting in despair without a proper order management system, which can significantly affect the ratings of your store to decline. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) can help sellers in this regard. It automates order fulfillment and shipping services for retailers. In simple words, the sellers sell while Amazon handles shipping. From refunds, order processing to product warehousing, FBA manages everything on the seller’s behalf. Best of all, the FBA program is consistently changing to meet the demands of evolving customer landscape. Hence, it becomes easy for retailers to stay up to date with the current trends and market demands. Moreover, if you want to open your business for international customers, Amazon FBA allows you to partner with freight forwarders. These companies help sellers organize shipments to get products from manufacturers to the final destination. They also prepare export documents, book cargo spaces, and track inland transportations, offering a hassle-free shipment process. If you are not sure about this, let us help you out the reasons to partner with the freight forwarder for Amazon FBA..
Reasons to Partner with Freight Forwarder
Undeniably, importing and exporting are essential elements for any lucrative business, but international shipping has its own sets of challenges. However, with FBA’s partnership with freight forwarders, trading is becoming simpler for eCommerce businesses. Therefore, looking for FBA partners within your region is not a hassle anymore. For example, suppose you reside in LA, California. In that case, you can search for fulfillment by Amazon Los Angeles CA to find reputable freight forwarders. However, in case you are still skeptical, have a look below. Here are five reasons why you should partner with freight forwarders for Amazon FBA.
1. Better Know-How of Customs
The freight forwarders are known to deal well with international shipments. Hence, they have a better knowledge about importing and exporting goods through the country’s customs service. In addition, they have up-to-date information regarding the customs rules in different countries since they vary from region to region. Therefore, sellers don’t have to worry about obligatory paperwork, taxation, or tariff payments. Additionally, freight forwarders can provide custom insurance to eliminate the likelihood of losses. When a third party takes care of all these procedures, business owners focus on core business operations, improving profitability.
2. Provides Special Services
Usually, sellers think freight forwarders’ services are only limited to shipping, but that’s not true. Today, freight forwarding companies offer various trade-related services to retailers. Here is a list of few special services provided by freight forwarders.
- Handling documentation needed for the shipments, including bank statements, customs regulations, and taxes.
- Offers insurance services for all the shipped products since unexpected damage can occur between transportation.
- Manage the bill of lading and bankingdocuments necessary for releasing the payments.
- Ensures cargo picks up and drops the goods on the scheduled time to avoid unwanted delays and improve customer satisfaction.
3. Budget-Friendly
One of the most prominent benefits of freight forwarders is their cost-effectiveness. They provide services at competitive costs, ensuring the sellers don’t have to incur any additional expense. The freight forwarders even lower their charges by making special arrangements with other companies. For this, they evaluate the company’s goods and consolidate their shipments of the other businesses. It develops a budget-friendly transport plan that can handle both shipments in a single shipment load. In addition to cutting freight charges, the sellers can save extra bucks spent on hefty transport costs. Besides this, the freight company offers fixed rates for shipment, ensuring volatilities don’t impact the business costs.
4. Diverse Shipping Methods
Unlike traditional companies, partnering with freight forwarders allows sellers to choose their shipping method. Ground shipping is usually the ideal choice of Amazon seller’s supply chain since it has low costs. However, if you want to get your shipment quickly, the freight forwarder will suggest opting for air shipping. Although it is the most expensive, it is the best method for shipping a smaller quantity of products. Apart from this, sellers can also send through the sea since it is affordable and relatively quicker than ground shipments.
5. Greater Control
The freight forwarders specialize in different service areas. Therefore, businesses can pick how many services should a freight forwarder handle. For instance, if you only need assistance with customs and transport, you can skip insurance. It will give you greater control over how the shipment is getting handled. Additionally, sellers can suggest transport routes so that the shipping service can do its best job forward. It will make sure the products reach their destination at the allotted time.
Tips to Choose a Freight Forwarder
By now, you would have clarity on freight forwarders, so let us help you choose the FBA freight forwarder for your businesses. Here we are listing four tips.
- Delivery Destinations: Most companies advertise to ship internationally, but that doesn’t mean they ship to every country. Hence, always ask for delivery destinations beforehand and ensure they offer door-to-door delivery service across the globe.
- Insurance Options: If your products are fragile or valuable, ensure the freight forwarder offers insurance for standard losses and damage costs. It will secure your company from unexpected losses.
- Experience: Some freight forwarders are relatively new in the market; meaning, they don’t have much experience working with Amazon FBA. As a result, you might get several rejections from the amazon fulfillment center since the freight forwarder isn’t aware of FBA rules and policies.
- Order Tracking: You have to make sure the freight forwarders have a proper tracking system. It should provide purchase order management, customized reports, proofs of delivery, and digital copies of all the paperwork. After all, getting real-time updates is crucial.
- Packaging Service: Sometimes, freight forwarders charge more for packaging, which can cost the sellers more. You have to make sure the packaging service is there in your service plan.
Wrapping Up
Believe it or not, utilizing Amazon FBA and partnering with a freight forwarder can help make the most out of your online sales. You can attract international customers and open your revenue streams to enjoy higher profits. Most importantly, you don’t have to worry about the shipment hassle since freight forwarders manage everything. They will look after custom charges, documentation, taxations, and shipment delivery, making global trading hassle-free.
