In 2014, with the introduction of relevant cross-border e-commerce documents from domestic customs, China entered a period of outbreak and rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce. Then, many people began to contact Amazon, Ebay and other established cross-border e-commerce platforms. Then some sellers recently asked 18 Supply Chain, what is the difference between Amazon FBA and FBM? Can I still choose to do fbm in 2022?

No industry will refuse the entry of newcomers, but there are risks for Xiaobai to enter the market, and everything must be cautious. Why do you say that? Because you don't understand Amazon's mechanism, you don't understand product selection, and you don't understand promotion, you're likely to give up halfway. In order to understand the two businesses of Amazon FBA and FBM, let's briefly understand their advantages and disadvantages.

FBA is Amazon's drop shipping business. Sellers send the goods to Amazon's FBA warehouse for storage. When a buyer places an order, Amazon will help pick, pack and deliver. It sounds very convenient, but choosing this business requires the seller to have a strong stocking ability. Because a certain amount of goods must be prepared in the Amazon warehouse, the capital cost of the initial investment is relatively high.

For novice sellers, single-handedly, it is not recommended to choose this road. If there is a team or a factory-type seller, there is no problem in accessing FBA business, and Amazon will also provide certain traffic support.

Therefore, if Xiaobai sellers want to take the path of Amazon's cross-border e-commerce, they will choose more FBM services. FBM is Amazon's self-fulfillment service. Sellers enter Amazon and put products on the shelves. If a buyer places an order, the seller will package and ship the goods, and then deliver the goods to foreign buyers through international logistics.

Under the service of FBM, sellers do not need to store a lot of goods in Amazon's warehouse, and can have more SKUs. When sellers don't know how to choose products, they rely on the distribution of goods to slowly increase. The advantage of this service is that it does not need to invest a lot of money in the early stage, but it also has certain shortcomings.

The disadvantage of FBM service is that it is very cumbersome and troublesome for sellers. First of all, in terms of customer service, it is not obvious when the number of customer orders is small, but when the number of customer orders is large, the seller needs to act as a customer service to solve a series of customer problems.

Because the goods are shipped from China to abroad, the transportation process and transportation time will be relatively long, and the seller is not easy to control in the end. Subsequent returns and exchanges are also a big problem, and sellers may be exhausted by this series of tedious problems.

Now, more and more people are saying that because of the strict control of the Amazon platform, it is no longer possible to distribute goods in a large area. There are still people who are walking if they can't get through. Are they the iron? There may be this reason, but it is more a consideration of your own situation. When funds, product selection, and operation teams cannot all support them in making another choice, large-scale distribution becomes the only way.

So, we go back to the original question, can FBM still do it in 2022? It can be done, and when there is no other option, it is also a way to go. Or, another trend of cross-border e-commerce recently – the establishment of an independent foreign trade station. Of course, this is a very deep road. If you want to understand the content of this aspect, we can tell you about it in the next issue. It's easier to find me if you follow me~