Termination of brand-neutral packaging service!

#1

Hello from Fulfillment by Amazon.

Effective September 1, 2016, we will no longer offer the brand-neutral packaging service for your multi-channel fulfillment orders sent from Amazon. Thank you for your interest in this service.

If you had chosen to have your multi-channel fulfillment orders shipped in plain brown boxes in the past, all of these products will be shipped in Amazon-branded boxes on or after September 1, 2016. The fees associated with the brand-neutral packaging service will not apply to Amazon-branded boxes. At any time prior to this date, you can disable Brand Neutral in the Multi-Channel Fulfillment Settings section of your Fulfillment by Amazon Settings in Seller Central.

You may create a removal order to have your multi-channel fulfillment inventory returned to you or disposed. Return or disposal fees will apply. Learn more on the Remove inventory help page (sign-in required).

Thank you for selling on Amazon.

Sincerely,

The Fulfillment by Amazon team

All I can say is, wow, seems like that was kind of the whole point of the multi-channel fulfillment program, right?

#2

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No, it is not. Only US has it. Canada never offered it and UK does not either.

It really adds no value to pay extra for that and is actually something that costs you credibility. Amazon is well respected for fulfillment. I actually, put a logo on my website and promote it. Customers trust Amazon’s fulfillment. Why not benefit from that?

The items are still on your website and you are not paying Amazon’s referral fees, so you are still getting that benefit.

Dave

#3

“Customer’s trust Amazon’s fulfillment”.

I’m sure most Amazon customers do. But there are many people (certainly in the book world), who choose not to buy from Amazon. Although most of our sales are via Amazon, many go to customers of other online marketplaces. Some of those customers would not / will not be pleased to receive their book in an Amazon box.

This is a bit of a bait-and-switch for FBA sellers who opted in at least partly because of the brand-neutral packaging service. But, caveat emptor, we knew going in that we would be subject to the whims of Amazon.

#4

But imagine that you created your own product and decided to sell it only through your own eCommerce store, yet you opted to use FBA multi-channel fulfillment as your 3rd party fulfillment center. All this time you have been shipping in brand-neutral boxes to your customers and none could find out that FBA was fulfilling their orders. Suddenly there is no more brand-neutral option and unless changing fulfillment center is an option, you now have to ship in Amazon branded boxes. Customers that thought your store the only source of product will now search it to buy on Amazon that you intended to avoid selling on in first place.

Or if you do arbitrage or dropshipping on other channels, customers who receive products will know that Amazon is the source and will compare prices there. If there is cheaper, they will refund and buy on Amazon.

Those are 2 disadvantages in fulfilling orders in Amazon branded boxes. Feel free to correct me in something as well as add your own opinion.

closed #5