14 July 2026 · 7 min read
What FBA actually covers
With Fulfilment by Amazon, you send inventory into Amazon's fulfilment network and Amazon handles picking, packing, shipping, customer service and returns. Your products become Prime-eligible, which affects both conversion and Buy Box competitiveness.
The trade-off is cost and control. You pay fulfilment and storage fees, you are exposed to long-term storage charges, and you have less influence over how inventory is handled once it leaves your hands.
Where FBM makes more sense
Fulfilment by Merchant means you ship orders yourself. It suits oversized items, slow-moving SKUs, fragile products, made-to-order goods and any catalog where your own logistics cost is lower than Amazon's fee structure.
- Large or heavy products with high FBA size-tier fees
- Low-velocity SKUs that would accrue storage costs
- Products you already ship efficiently from an existing warehouse
- Inventory you want available while FBA stock is in transit
A practical decision framework
Run the numbers per SKU rather than per account. Compare landed fulfilment cost, expected velocity, storage duration and the conversion uplift that Prime eligibility realistically provides in your category.
Many mature accounts run both models simultaneously — FBA for fast movers, FBM as a buffer and for long-tail items. That hybrid approach protects availability without inflating storage exposure.