FBA Inbound Shipments Workflow

FBA Inbound Shipments Workflow

Overview

FBA Inbound Shipments are a key part of ensuring your stock remains replenished in Amazon’s fulfillment centers at all times. You can create, process, and fulfill your FBA Shipments from Sellercloud by following the workflow described below. For more information on how to prepare your account, refer to the FBA – Getting Started article.

Amazon is deprecating their old FBA Shipments API as of January 22, 2025. If you have any open FBA Inbound Shipments from the previous API in Sellercloud, you must complete them in Seller Central. This article details the new FBA Inbound Shipment workflow and Creation Wizard, which are compliant with Amazon's new API.

You can create and manage FBA Inbound Shipments only in the Delta interface.

Prerequisites

Before you can start sending your inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Centers, you must complete the following requirements:

Ensure your Ship From Warehouse is configured to Allow To Use Qty For FBA/AWD/WFS Shipments.

FBA Inbound Shipment Wizard

The FBA Inbound Shipment Wizard is our user-friendly tool for processing shipments. It guides you through the entire workflow in seven tabs:

  1. Shipment Details
  2. Products
  3. Prep. Guidance
  4. Boxing
  5. Placement
  6. Carriers
  7. Labels & Shipping

FBA Inbound Shipments Workflow

The sections below outline the typical life cycle of an FBA Inbound Shipment in Sellercloud.

Amazon does not allow an Inbound Shipment to be managed both on Seller Central and via API. If you create the Shipment in Sellercloud, you cannot complete the process on Seller Central. Once you’ve completed the Inbound Shipment from Sellercloud, you will be able to view and manage the completed Shipment in Seller Central.

Create a Shipment

Sellercloud offers several ways to create a new FBA Inbound Shipment:

First, configure the fields in Step 1: Shipment Details:

You can configure default values for the above details. The fields will be auto-populated each time you initiate the process.

Once you finalize the first step, a new FBA Inbound Shipment will be created locally in Sellercloud. It will have a status Saved and will not be sent to Amazon yet. At this stage, you can still make any changes to the Shipment and its contents. Once the Shipment reaches Amazon, limitations will apply.

Add Products

In Step 2: Products, add the products and quantities you intend to send to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. To be able to add products to FBA Shipments, your SKUs must be listed on Seller Central and meet the following requirements in Sellercloud:

Click Add Products or Upload via file to add SKUs and quantities to your Shipment. This can be referred to as the Shipment Plan, as Amazon may split up your SKUs into several shipments.

During this step, you can enable Case Quantity Mode. You can also adjust the products and their quantities from the FBA Inbound Shipment Details page. However, this is only possible while the shipment status is Saved.

Prepare the Shipment

This section outlines the Prep. Guidance and Boxing steps of the FBA creation wizard. In Step 3: Prep. Guidance, you can review the product information and any special instructions received from Amazon related to packaging and labels. During this stage, you can still return to the previous tab and edit the products and their quantities.

If you are sending Expirable products to Amazon, you must include the Expiration Date. Amazon requires that the date be at least 105 days in the future, which is counted from the shipment creation date. You can do this individually for each product from the grid or in bulk via a file upload. Additionally, you can delete items from the shipment during this step by clicking the bin icon.

Here, you can also print product labels and revise dimensions if you have made any manual adjustments. The Label Owner and Prep Owner fields allow you to configure who is responsible for printing and applying product labels and completing the Prep. Requirements. When sending an item to FBA fulfillment centers for the first time, you must ensure they have the necessary Prep. Requirements. You can configure those by clicking the pencil icon in the relevant row. This will open a pop-up modal where you can set the Category and Prep Type. They will be sent to Amazon when you click Next Step in the shipment wizard. Alternatively, you can update them directly in Seller Central, and we will retrieve them via API.

Once you move to Step 4: Boxing, the FBA Inbound Shipment is sent to Amazon for confirmation, and the status becomes Previewed. You will no longer be able to adjust the products or their quantities. If you need to update this information, you must cancel the current Shipment and create a new one.

Placement Options

Amazon determines Placement Options based on the Box Contents you have prepared. Each option describes the destination FCs to which your items can be sent. You can view the fees and shipment splits associated with each Placement option here.

This workflow allows you to choose between different sets of Fulfillment Centers, but you cannot change how the boxes are distributed. If needed, you can still go back to Step 4 to modify your box contents and then regenerate new placement options. Once you have chosen the preferred placement for each Shipment, click Confirm. This action will create the Amazon Shipments and retrieve the Shipment IDs. The Shipment's status will be updated to Working. Amazon does not allow shipping only some Shipments once Placement Options are confirmed. If you prefer to drop one or more of the Shipments, you must cancel the whole plan and create a new one.

Carriers and Shipping

In Step 6 - Carriers, you can review the Items, Boxes, and Amazon Shipments. By default, the Shipping Type will be set to Small Parcel, but you can change it to LTL and enter pallet and freight information. Enter a Ship Ready date for each Shipment. If everything is correct, click Get Carrier Options in the Amazon Shipments panel header. We will fetch carrier options and fees for all shipments. Click Choose Carrier next to an Amazon Shipment to review and select an option.

Amazon allows editing quantities within an FBA Inbound Shipment after you have confirmed carrier information, but before the status becomes Receiving. You can adjust the quantity of a product by 6 units or 5% of the overall quantity (whichever is higher). However, you can only do this directly in Seller Central. To bring the change into Sellercloud, perform the Query Status action on the FBA Inbound Shipment Details page.

In Step 7 - Labels & Shipping, you can print Box and Pallet labels. Click on the printer icon to download all the necessary labels in PDF format. For non-partner carriers, supply the necessary tracking information. Click the Flag button to complete the Shipment and set its status to Shipped.

Received by Amazon

Amazon will notify us via API when they have started receiving the items from your FBA Inbound Shipment. During this period, the internal Shipment will have the status Receiving, and you will no longer be able to edit any item quantities in Sellercloud or Seller Central. We will retrieve the received quantities and deduct the units from the Interim warehouse.

Manage FBA Inbound Shipments

You can view all your existing FBA Inbound Shipments on the Manage FBA Shipments page. You can also toggle between the FBA Details page and the Shipment creation wizard anytime during the process.

Delete FBA Inbound Shipments

To delete FBA Inbound Shipments:

  1. Navigate to Inventory > FBA Inbound Shipment > Manage FBA Shipments.
  2. Search and select the Shipment from the results grid.
  3. From the Actions menu > click Delete Selected.

To cancel an FBA Inbound Shipment on Amazon, use the Cancel Selected action.

Additional Settings

The following is not an exhaustive list of all FBA-related client settings. For more information, see our FBA - General Channel Client Settings article.

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