It’s no secret that Amazon is the powerhouse when it comes to online commerce. If you’re thinking of selling products through Amazon’s marketplace, you’ll want to make sure you have the preparation process figured out down to a T.

If you’ve ever seen an FBA warehouse (Fulfillment by Amazon) operation in action, it’s pretty impressive. They employ more that 15,000 robots to help retrieve products, have huge conveyor belts to transport product from storage to packing stations, and they ship 35 items every second. In fact, Amazon’s outbound shipping cost is over $1.5 billion a year!

One of the main reasons why Amazon can ship so many items each day is because they’ve streamlined their inbound process. That minimizes the time it takes to receive products and get them ready to be picked, packed and shipped. They’ve been able to streamline their receivings by passing the preparation process on to its vendors.

Failing to comply with FBA product preparation requirements may result in the vendor being charged for non-compliance and/or their products being returned, disposed of, or even blocked from future shipments to the fulfillment center.

Amazon does offer its vendors guidelines such as its Quick Reference Guide on how to prepare inventory for FBA. However, the opportunity cost of vendors preparing products for fulfillment takes away from sales and marketing. A lot of fulfillment centers—like ShipMonk, for instance—saw an opportunity and began offering FBA prep services to help vendors prepare their inventory before it’s sent to an FBA warehouse. Everything from opening containers and repackaging thousands of SKUs to simply labeling products correctly with barcodes—prepping products for FBA is essential if you want to be a successful Amazon vendor.

Here’s a list of various FBA Prep Services:

•      Quality control
•      Repackaging
•      Labeling
•      Fragile item preparation
•      Loose products
•      Sold as a set
•      Boxed units
•      Poly bagged units
•      Case-packed products
•      Expiration dates

Now that you understand the importance of Amazon preparation, you’re probably wondering if you should do it yourself or look to a fulfillment center for help.

The answer isn’t anywhere near cut and dried. Therefore, you’ll need to take into account the following:

Where is your product manufactured?

The best solution would be for your manufacturer to prep the products for FBA for you, but you’d have to calculate how much that affects your shipping rates. If you’re importing from China or another foreign country, you’ll probably want to save as much as you can on shipping to the U.S. To do this you’ll need to put more than 1 SKU on a pallet—which is great for lowering costs but makes the product unfit as an FBA receivable.

How many SKUs do you have?

If you have a lot of different SKUs that require different prep services, it may be too much to keep track of and stay up-to-date. Also, do you have the space and equipment to de-palletize and repack the products on pallets or in boxes for FBA?

What packing materials are needed?

If you need specific packing materials such as poly mailers, fragile item wrapping, or labels, a fulfillment center may be a great option. They have various materials in stock and may even give you a discount since they can purchase in bulk.

What’s your profit margin?

How much are you selling your products for and what are you making? If you have room in your profit margin, it probably makes sense to outsource the FBA prep service. Then you can focus your efforts on expanding your product line and/or selling more product. (Unless, of course, you just love working in the warehouse, then absolutely, you should not outsource!)

Is the risk worth the reward?

Can your business afford to have its products returned or be billed a non-compliance fee for failing to meet FBA standards? A reputable fulfillment center will include in their SLA that if something happens due to not following FBA guidelines, the fulfillment center will assume responsibility.

Are there seasonal spikes throughout the year?

You may want to prepare inventory yourself throughout the year except for the holiday season. During that time, you’ll probably want to focus on customer service and marketing. So consider outsourcing FBA prep during those busy months and then take it back into your own hands if you want to cut back on outside costs during the off season.

What can I be doing with the resources it takes to manage FBA prep?

This is the million-dollar question that only you can answer. Most business owners can manage the FBA prep process, but—will it take away from growing your business?

FLINT, Mich., January18, 2013 — NorthGate announces they have achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification. Perry Johnson Registrar, Inc., (PJR) assessed the Quality Management System of our Corunna Road and Dort Highway facilities in Genesee County Michigan and declared NorthGate to be in conformance with ISO 9001:2008 standards.  PJR issued Certificate # C2012-03268 effective December 27, 2012.

This certification is the culmination of years of consistent top-quality work, and the dedication of our employees, stated Teresa Witt President of NorthGate. She continued saying, “although NorthGate has been operating under the guidelines of ISO 9001:2000 standards for many years, I believe our decision to upgrade to ISO 9001:2008 Certification is a proactive one that not only anticipates the demands of customers, but also demonstrates NorthGate’s commitment to providing quality products and services.”

The scope of the certification for NorthGate’s Corunna Road packaging and order fulfillment processing center entails; design, development, assembly, sub-assembly, sorting, inspection, packaging, warehousing, shipping, supplier monitoring, processing, and distribution for automotive products and other industries.

The scope of the certification for NorthGate’s Dort Highway reverse logistics, packaging and order fulfillment processing center involves; development, sorting, inspection, packaging, warehousing, shipping, supplier monitoring, processing, and distribution for automotive products and other industries.

ISO 9001:2008 is a set of international standards and guidance documents for quality management and quality assurance. The standard represents an international consensus on good management practices, policies and procedures with the aim of ensuring that our organization can consistently deliver the product and services that meet the customer’s quality requirements.

NorthGate, is a third-party, cost effective business solutions provider of Warehousing, Packaging, Fulfillment Processing and Reverse Logistics services. We are an independent, family-owned business dedicated to providing hard work and outstanding customer service. NorthGate offers a strategic location in the heart of North America’s industrial engine, where we have prime access into a vast array of major US and Canadian cities. Our vision is to be your partner… now and in the future, through every challenge, and every success.

Want to learn more on how NorthGate can make a difference in how your business is done? Please visit us at www.go2northgate.com or contact us at [email protected] or by phone 1-810-235-8110.

Amazon Fulfillment Fees Increase Hits Online Retailers Hard

by Will Schneider

Most online retailers using Amazon Fulfillment will be hit hard starting in February of 2013 with a multitude of price increases targeted to combat increasing transportation costs. Most notably, the fee increases include an adjustment to the “weight handling” fee and an addition of a returns processing fee. These fees and increases will apply to anyone that self-fulfills through their system – in an attempt to further entrench customers by giving them incentive to fulfill by Amazon.

Like many of the price adjustments over the last couple of years, these recent increases hit retailers hard – and at a time when many online merchants are struggling to squeeze as much profit out of their company as possible and weather the economic storm of the last couple of years. In particular, smaller businesses may find these particular fee increases a heavy burden to shoulder next year.

“Of anything that we hear most about the Amazon Fulfillment network, the vast majority of comments are related to expensive pricing structures and challenges with unique service requirements and flexibility,” noted Will Schneider, CEO of WarehousingAndFulfillment.com. The well known fulfillment provider is definitely the “800 pound gorilla” in the fulfillment space, offering multiple locations, quality execution and tie in to its Amazon network. But, as Mr. Schneider notes, “for many smaller companies in particular, the large orientation of Amazon makes addressing the challenges of a smaller business difficult – from lack of branding options, difficult to come by personal customer service, and now a series of price increases that make is less competitive with other outsourced fulfillment options.”

Of course, a price increase is never easy to swallow, although oftentimes understandable. But the interesting part will be to see what the Amazon Fulfillment fees increase, which was announced during the holiday season, will bring for Amazon in the New Year.

by Will Schneider

Ferber Warehousing just announced that it is selling its proprietary logistics software, Conveyorware.com, to fulfillment and logistics firms. The software, which includes decades of customs from industry needs and experiences, will be sold as a SAAS (Software as a Service), starting at just $100 per month for 5 users. It’s an all inclusive software, managing the entire 3pl process from start to finish, simplifying the systems needs of growing 3pls.

To learn more about the software, please visit the Conveyorware software at www.conveyorware.com or read the press release about logistics software.

by Will Schneider

If you’re operating a new business, chances are that you may not know what a 3rd party logistics provider is and what they can do for your business. And contrary to popular thought, 3rd party logistics providers offer more services than most might think. So we thought it would be important to define the term and then show you some of the important things that these companies can provide for your small business.

Logistics companies help bring your product from manufacturer or supplier to your end customers. And for some, this could entail quite a bit of steps. For example, let’s say you have your product produced in another country, and you sell your product to consumers in the United States. In this case, you will have to ship it to the United States, clear customs, deliver it to whatever warehouse will store and ship the goods, and finally ship orders out as needed to customers. All of these services can be fulfilled by a 3rd party logistics provider.

So what is the benefit to using one of these companies, you might ask? Well, for starters, this is a lot to manage on your own. So having someone help take care of this part of the business lessens the load significantly. Also, these companies are experts at what they do, so they can oftentimes do it better than you might be able to do yourself. Finally, they ship a lot of products for many companies, which means that they get great shipping rates from freight companies – and they can pass these great rates to you so that you can save money for your company and your customers.