Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime status is back after a pause, and online retailers are eager to be part of the program again. Seller Fulfilled Prime allows companies to get a Prime badge on their product pages and profile while utilizing the seller’s own warehouse to fulfill orders. This approach can boost sales by placing those with the badge at the same level as products fulfilled directly by Amazon through its Prime program…and it increases the odds that a product is featured. However, the benefits of the Seller Fulfilled Prime Program come with a set of stringent requirements, which can make achieving and maintaining the status a huge challenge.
So, what must you do to get Seller Fulfilled Prime Status? According to Amazon, companies must be able to achieve the following:
Amazon also requires companies to complete a trial period in which companies must meet the above criteria, maintain high customer satisfaction, and deliver a zero-day handling time. Upon successful completion of the trial, companies and qualifying products will automatically be added to the program.
These are challenging objectives for most warehouses to meet, which means companies should spend time preparing before applying to the program. Your approach could include measuring total order cycle time to identify issues, preventing zero-day handling delays, and utilizing Amazon Buy Shipping Services and approved carriers.
Getting your Seller Fulfilled Prime status is a huge accomplishment, but it’s only the start of the journey. To keep that certification and all the sales benefits that come with it, you’ll have to keep delivering at the same high level you did to get into the program—forever. No warehouse runs at 100 percent efficiency all the time, and bad days do happen. But, have enough bad days in a month, and you’re out of the program.
In practice, companies cannot be complacent with hitting their benchmarks. You’ll need to solve problems while they’re still potential problems—if they become real, and Amazon happens to audit your company, you risk losing your status. The best way for companies to mitigate these issues early is to pick the right KPIs and measure them frequently and accurately. The better your data, the more issues you’ll be able to detect and nip issues in the bud.
While all warehouses are different and will have different needs, a few KPIs to prioritize for maintaining Seller Fulfilled Prime status are receiving efficiency, fulfillment accuracy rate, handling time, on-time shipping rate, total order cycle time, and backorder rate. For warehouses, the limiting factor in maintaining Prime status isn’t usually the ability to fix problems but rather having sufficient data processed quickly enough to identify problems before they degrade the customer experience.
Warehouse Management Systems come in clutch here by providing managers with the tools they need to collect and process large amounts of data in a limited timeframe. Plus, they make reporting far simpler. Again, Amazon can audit your company at any time. If you can’t prove that you’ve been hitting your benchmarks, you could easily get your status revoked.
The more data you have, the more visibility you’ll have into your warehouse’s health and the more nuanced your KPIs can be. Maintaining Seller Fulfilled Prime status is no easy task, and the reality for most businesses is that they won’t be able to capture and process the data they need to keep their processes healthy enough for Amazon in the long run. Infoplus understands what warehouses need to be successful. And with more than 53 million orders supported, we’ve helped companies like yours get and maintain Seller Fulfilled Prime status while making the process as seamless as possible. To learn more about what our warehouse management solution can do for you, schedule a free demo today.
