What is Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)?

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Amazon Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) has been the go-to fulfillment options for sellers on Amazon for over a decade. However, since being introduced in 2015, Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program, has grown in popularity as a way to reach Amazon’s Prime Members which have ballooned to over 200 million members while providing more flexibility to the Amazon sellers. If you want to learn more about amazon inventory management can be a great source to get the best of amazon. 

Seller Fulfilled Prime allows the Amazon seller to list their products as Prime-eligible and ship their products to their customers directly via their own warehouse or from a qualified third-party logistics company (3PL). Sellers can display the Amazon Prime badge on the products they ship directly to the customers with two-day shipping and free standard shipping. Like Amazon FBA, Amazon SFP gives the Amazon seller the best chance to “win” the coveted Amazon buy box – meaning, the Amazon seller will be the first option when shoppers are looking at buying the product. Non-prime sellers have a lower priority compared to Amazon Prime sellers and non-prime sellers are often filtered out by shoppers.

With almost all of DCL’s customers participating in FBA, we’re constantly thinking of ways to support and enhance their experience with Amazon. Also, we acknowledge that FBA has its own set of challenges which we’ve covered in the Amazon 3PL Trap article.  Based on our customers’ feedback, one of those ways was to support Seller Fulfilled Prime—so, that’s what we did. We worked diligently to integrate with Amazon SFP and are now prepared to help you ship via SFP out of DCL warehouses providing you with greater flexibility and an option beyond FBA and MFN. Here’s a short summary of the program and how it could potentially benefit you.

How to Qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime

One of Amazon’s top priorities is to ensure that their Amazon Prime Members receive the white-glove treatment when buying and receiving products, so they have strict requirements for sellers to qualify for the SFP program. Here are some of the basic qualifications for the seller:

Eligibility

In order to qualify for SFP, you must also fulfill the requirements for the Premium Shipping Program. These are most commonly tied to 2-day shipping which is the primary shipping option chosen by Amazon Prime members.

The trailing 30-day eligibility requirements for Premium Shipping are:

1. An on-time delivery rate of at least 92% for Premium Shipping orders
2. A valid tracking ID for at least 94% of Premium Shipping orders
3. A cancellation rate of less than 1.5% for Premium Shipping orders

Trial Period

Eligible Amazon sellers or their 3PL are required to go through an SFP trial period and meet the following requirements on a minimum of 50 Amazon Prime trial orders.

1. On-time shipment rate of at least 99% for Prime Orders
2. Use of Buy Shipping Services for at least 98% of Prime orders
3. Cancellation rate of 0.5% or less of pre-fulfilled Prime orders
4. Offer Prime shipping benefits
5. Follow Amazon’s return policy

After successfully completing the trial period, you are auto-enrolled in SFP and you must continue to meet these requirements on a rolling 7-day basis, sell a minimum of 200 orders every 90 days, and have an on-time delivery rate of at least 97% for Prime Orders.  Sellers who fall short of these requirements will no longer be eligible for SFP but may continue to sell their products.