The two retail giants, Walmart and Amazon, are closely competing to become the top choice for online shopping and e-commerce.
In 2006, Amazon launched a game-changing component for E-commerce business- Fulfillment Service by Amazon ( popularly known as FBA). For fourteen continuous years, Amazon maintained the status quo for offering such services.
However, in 2020 Walmart also entered the competition and launched its own version of FBA. Walmart quantities FBA Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS). The WFS had a similar offering to Amazon offering merchants access to which delivery infrastructure and warehousing.
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This article will discuss both fulfillment services to help you understand which service is best for your business requirements. Without further ado, let’s get started!
What Is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA, the E-Commerce giant, offers its extensive network of delivery and warehousing infrastructure to third-party merchants. In most cases, third-party sellers fulfill customer orders with their own resources. This is not ideal in most cases because many small businesses don’t have the finances or the infrastructure to maintain and upgrade the entire inventory consistently.
Additionally, delivering across a vast geographical region also becomes challenging. To address these challenges, Amazon launched FBA and took responsibility for picking, packing, securing, shipping, and delivering the products to the customers.
Whether you’re selling on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, or eBay, fulfillment services generally function like this. FBA Is also known as self-fulfillment.
When you opt for Amazon FBA services, you need to send your inventory to Amazon fulfillment warehouses for storage and delivery.
You can hire virtual assistant to manage the FBA workflows consistently. This gives you enough time to focus on expanding your eCommerce store rather than spending it on administrative tasks.
So when a customer places an order on your online store listed on Amazon Marketplace, Amazon will take care of the entire logistics and deliver the product to your customer.
Furthermore, they will also offer customer support and process refunds and returns on behalf of the merchants.
Amazon FBA Benefits
Amazon FBA offers the following benefits:
Multi-Channel Support
The best part about Amazon is its multi-channel support. It doesn’t just offer fulfillment services for the Amazon FBA platform but also through other channels. This flexibility allows businesses to have a hybrid or local fulfillment strategy.
Exceptional reputation developed over years of service.
As mentioned previously, Amazon has been a very old market player and maintains a synonymous status in the eCommerce industry. As a merchant, when you register with Amazon FBA, you don’t need to worry about shipping timelines, logistic details, security, customer support, etc.
By serving almost millions of merchants, Amazon has proven its expertise in the market. When you sell your products on the Amazon Marketplace, you share the trust and integrity of the brand.
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More Fulfillment Options
Small businesses and startups can save significant finances by signing up for special programs by Amazon FBA, such as recurring shipping programs ( subscribe and save) and Amazon Small and Light.
Eligibility for Amazon Prime
Merchants registering for Amazon fulfillment services may get included in Amazon Prime deals. This presents a chance for brands to get promoted or featured during Amazon’s annual “Prime Day” event. Such events and deals can expose previously untapped users to your products.
International Selling
While Walmart is a relatively new player in the international fulfillment space, Amazon has been servicing this domain for a significant time. Hire virtual assistant to manage international markets.
Walmart Fulfillment Services
Launched recently in 2020, Walmart Fulfillment Services offer warehousing and logistics support to Walmart Marketplace sellers.
Just like Amazon, merchants need to send their inventory to a designated fulfillment center or warehouse for storage.
Customer when a customer purchases a product on the Walmart Marketplace, Walmart manages packaging, shipping, and delivery on behalf of the merchant.
Not just that, after the completion of the sale, Walmart also takes care of returns, refunds, and customer service. In simple words, Walmart is the direct competitor of Amazon FBA.
Benefits of using Walmart fulfillment services
The following are the advantages of using Walmart fulfillment services:
Comparatively less competition
Amazon has been in the business of providing fulfillment services for a significant of time. And therefore, it now serves almost 3 million merchants. Therefore, new sellers face tough competition to enter the desired market. However, with the best Amazon virtual assistant, you can gradually cut through the competition.
Since Walmart is new in the industry, it only has around 30,000 sellers. Therefore, you will find much less competition when you register with Walmart fulfillment services since the buyer-to-seller ratio is favorable. You also have higher chances of securing a spot in the coveted Buy Box.
Easy Two-Day Shipping
In the past 60 years, Walmart has worked tirelessly to build an expensive infrastructure network. Almost every neighborhood in America encompasses a Walmart store.
The fulfillment centers that service these physical Walmart stores service WFS sellers. Therefore, fast, two-day shipping is a simple task for Walmart.
Straightforward Fee Structure
Unlike Amazon, Walmart prefers keeping things simple. They have a fixed fee structure which is easy to understand. This makes it simpler for businesses to calculate and estimate future ROI before they sign up with WFS.
Simple Returns
Walmart’s infrastructure supports a seamless return process. WFS merchants can drop off their returns at the nearest FedEx or UPS store (just like Amazon).
Amazon FBA Vs. Walmart WFS
- Any merchant can join the FBA program. However, WFS has certain limitations when accepting eligible sellers in the Walmart fulfillment network. Sellers need to comply with certain specific requirements to get accepted into the program. This is mostly done to maintain trust and quality in their services.
- In Amazon FBA, you’ll need to export your inventory to multiple fulfillment centers. But with Walmart WFS, a single fulfillment center takes care of your warehouse commodities.
- WFS accepts shipments only within the U.S., while FBA currently facilitates international shipments.
- With FBA, there’s no limitation on the dimension or weight of products you want to sell, but WFS has certain product dimensions and weight limitations.
- Amazon’s fee structure is more economical than WFS’s.
- When setting up a WFS account, you will require considerable paperwork ready, including a U.S. business tax I.D., an EIN verification letter, etc. Amazon’s registration process is much simpler.
- Amazon offers sellers shipping labels, but WFS doesn’t.
- With Amazon FBA service, sellers need to pay a recurring monthly fee. But no such fee structure has been launched by WFS.
- With FBA, you can enjoy multi-channel but not with WFS.
Wrapping Up
Before 2020 Amazon was the only option for sellers because Walmart’s marketplace didn’t offer logistics infrastructure and warehousing services. However, the launch of WFS in 2020 changed everything. Now selected sellers can enjoy a competitive alternative to FBA.
Although Walmart brings significant competition in the market, there is a big vital drawback in this service– currently, it only accepts shipping for merchants from within the U.S. So, for now, Amazon’s FBA might be the better option for many sellers. However, for U.S.-exclusive businesses, Walmart is grabbing the spotlight.
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