FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon. It is the name for Amazon's third-party logistics service, where Amazon stores your products in their fulfilment centres and handles every step of getting orders to customers — picking, packing, shipping, and managing returns.
What "Fulfilled by Amazon" means in practice
When a customer on amazon.ie buys a product that is "Fulfilled by Amazon," it means:
- Amazon's warehouse staff picked the item from a shelf in one of their EU fulfilment centres
- Amazon packed and shipped the order to the Irish customer
- If the customer wants to return it, Amazon handles that too
As the seller, you never touched the parcel. You sent the stock to Amazon in advance, created the listing, and set the price. Everything else was Amazon.
What does FBA look like to the customer?
Irish customers buying from FBA sellers see the same Amazon-branded packaging and delivery experience they would get buying from Amazon directly. The listing shows "Fulfilled by Amazon" and the product qualifies for Prime — meaning fast delivery, often next day.
Many Irish customers don't realise they are buying from a third-party seller at all. They just see a product with Prime delivery, add it to their basket, and pay. This is one of the biggest advantages of FBA — you inherit Amazon's brand trust and delivery promise.
FBA vs FBM — what is the difference?
FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) — you send stock to Amazon's warehouses. Amazon ships orders. Your listings get a Prime badge. Higher fees but far better conversion rates.
FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) — you keep stock yourself and ship each order when it comes in. No Prime badge. Lower Amazon fees but all logistics are your problem, and conversion rates are lower.
The vast majority of professional Irish sellers on amazon.ie use FBA. The Prime badge alone is worth the extra fee for most products.
What does FBA cost on amazon.ie?
FBA fees come from three sources:
Referral fee — Amazon's sales commission, typically 15% of the sale price. Applies to all sellers regardless of fulfilment method.
FBA fulfilment fee — charged per unit when Amazon ships it. Starts at around €2.18 for small items; standard parcel-sized products are around €4.10.
Storage fee — monthly charge per cubic metre of warehouse space your inventory occupies.
Irish sellers also pay 23% VAT on all Amazon fee invoices. If you are VAT-registered with Revenue, this is reclaimable — making VAT registration financially worthwhile even before you hit the mandatory €40,000 threshold.
Is FBA available to all Irish sellers?
Yes. Any seller with a Professional Seller account on amazon.ie can use FBA. There is no separate application or approval for FBA itself — you simply select "Fulfilled by Amazon" when creating your listing and create a shipment plan in Seller Central.
Some product categories (Grocery, Jewellery, Fine Art) require category-level approval before you can list, but that is separate from FBA access.
Use an FBA profit calculator to check whether your specific product's margins work with amazon.ie's fee structure before you order stock.