FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon. It is a service where Amazon stores your products in their warehouses and handles all the logistics of getting orders to customers — picking, packing, shipping, returns, and customer service — on your behalf.
What does "Fulfilled by Amazon" mean?
When a product is "Fulfilled by Amazon," it means Amazon's own warehouse staff picked the item from a shelf in one of their fulfilment centres, packed it, and shipped it to the customer — not the seller directly.
As a seller using FBA, your role is to:
- Source the products
- Send your inventory to Amazon's fulfilment centres
- Create and manage your Amazon listings
- Handle pricing, advertising, and restocking
Amazon handles everything physical once your stock is in their system.
FBA vs FBM: what is the difference?
FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) — Amazon stores and ships your products. Your listings get a Prime badge, qualify for next-day and two-day delivery, and receive preferential Buy Box treatment.
FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) — You store the products yourself and ship each order directly to the customer when it comes in. No Prime badge. You pay only the referral fee and your own shipping costs.
Most sellers on Amazon UK use FBA because the Prime badge dramatically improves conversion rates — Prime members convert at roughly 3–5× the rate of non-Prime listings.
What does "Fulfilled by Amazon" mean on a package?
When customers receive a package from Amazon that came from an FBA seller, the packaging looks exactly the same as if Amazon had sold the item directly. The customer sees Amazon's branding, the same delivery experience, and the same returns process. Many buyers do not realise they are buying from a third-party seller at all — they just see "Sold by [Brand Name], Fulfilled by Amazon."
What does FBA cost?
FBA fees in the UK come from two main sources:
FBA fulfilment fee — Charged per unit shipped, based on size and weight. Small items start at around £1.98; standard parcel items are around £3.88.
Storage fee — Charged monthly per cubic metre of warehouse space your inventory occupies.
These are separate from the referral fee — Amazon's sales commission, typically 15% of the selling price — which applies to all Amazon sales whether FBA or FBM.
How do you start using FBA?
- Open a Professional Seller account on Amazon.co.uk (£25/month + VAT)
- Create your product listing and set fulfilment to FBA
- Create a shipping plan in Seller Central
- Label your units with Amazon's FNSKU barcodes
- Ship your inventory to the Amazon UK fulfilment centre(s) assigned in your plan
- Once checked in (usually 1–5 business days), your listing goes live with Prime eligibility
Is Amazon FBA worth using?
For most UK sellers, yes — particularly for products in the £15–£60 price range where the FBA fees leave enough margin. The combination of Prime eligibility, Buy Box preference, and zero fulfilment overhead makes FBA the default choice for sellers building a scalable product business on Amazon.
FBM makes more sense for very heavy or oversized products where Amazon's fulfilment fees would be disproportionate, or for sellers who already have warehouse infrastructure and prefer to manage their own shipping.
Use an FBA fee calculator to see the exact cost breakdown for any product before committing to FBA.