Amazon, being one of the largest marketplaces in the world, keeps its dominance by, among other things, introducing new features and services that keep millions of its sellers and customers happy. One of such is the FBA New Selection Program that started in April 2020. 

The FBA New Selection Program offers sellers free removal, free storage, and free returning processing for a period of time. What this means is that sellers can sell new products using FBA for free!

Read on to find out what the FBA New Selection program is all about and how sellers like yourself can take advantage of this program to increase sales and grow revenue with Amazon. 

What is Amazon FBA? 

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is the all-in-one logistics service Amazon provides its sellers. It takes care of everything you need to do throughout the process of meeting your customer’s needs. FBA helps you satisfy your customers and grow your business with one of the best inventory management systems in the world by:

1. Storing seller’s products in Amazon warehouses.
2. Helping sellers make deliveries.
3. Managing customer service and satisfaction. 

In simple terms, with your FBA seller account, you get to send your goods to Amazon fulfillment centers strategically located across the nation. Amazon directs your inventory to appropriate locations, and whenever you have a new sale, Amazon ships it for you. 

By taking care of storage, shipment, customer service, and the entire logistics of your business, Amazon FBA helps you focus on other aspects of your business, such as product quality and marketing. Amazon handles the burden of providing a warehouse to store and manage your products, and arranging for delivery using its vast shipping network. You are also eligible to sell your products to Amazon Prime members. 

Benefits of the Amazon FBA New Selection Program

While the services sellers enjoy using Amazon FBA are cost-efficient, they are not free. With the New Selection Program, eligible sellers get free warehouse storage, free ads, and a host of other services.

This program is an easy and effective way for new sellers to increase company sales online and grow revenue with Amazon. Some of the benefits of the Amazon FBA New Selection Program includes:

• Free Ads

Amazon offers sponsored and promotional ads of up to $200 to beneficiaries of this program. The free ads are offered in two batches. You get the first $100 immediately after enrolling for the FBA New Selection Program to launch a campaign. After that, another $100 is reserved for sellers that advertise an FBA ASIN for at least 30 days. For sellers outside of the United States, especially Europe, the free shipping waiver is £160.

• Free Inventory Management

For the first 90 days of the program, sellers are not required to pay a storage fee for 50 units of goods in Amazon fulfillment center listings. 

• Free Shipping

For those eligible, you get a free $100 shipping waiver for your first delivery. Amazon will take care of your deliveries without you having to pay anything for them. The $100 will get removed from the calculated cost of your shipping fee until it gets exhausted. For sellers outside of the United States, especially Europe, the free shipping waiver is £80.

• Free removals for Oversize and Standard-size ASIN

Besides shipping your products to customers, you also get free use of Amazon return for a limited period. With this feature, you can remove clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry, watches, and luggage of up to 50 units for free within 180 days of being enrolled in the program. 

• Extra benefit for shoes, handbags, and clothes 

Shoes and apparel sellers get extra free storage of up to 100 units ASIN. This is besides the removal fee for shoes, handbags, and clothes.

Whom is the FBA New Selection Program for?

The FBA New Selection Program is targeted at professional sellers looking for means to double up sales and grow revenue with Amazon. 

Specifically, the new FBA program is for sellers that:

• Have a professional seller account,
• Score at least 400 points in Inventory Performance Index (IPI) daily assessment.
• Are new to FBA and are yet to get an IPI score.
• Maintains an IPI score of 400 and above. Sellers that are assigned lesser than the required score are canceled from the program.

Criteria to be eligible for Amazon FBA New Selection Program 

To be eligible for this program, new professional sellers must have an eligible Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), although the ASIN number does not have to be new. However, for an ASIN to be considered eligible, it must be:

• Created after you are enrolled for the program, not before.
• A parent ASIN and not one previously enrolled in FBA.
• Received at an Amazon fulfillment center after the program start date (April 1, 2020).

ASINs Ineligible for the Program

The following are ASINs not considered for the program.

• Media ASINs: The item must not be a book, DVD, computer, video game, software, etc.
• Used items.
• Special-sized ASINs: standard-sized, small, and large-sized ASINs qualify, but special-sized ASINs are not accepted.
• A variant (child) ASIN of a parent ASIN previously enrolled in FBA because child ASIN is essentially considered the same as the parent. 
• New ASINs are created by bundling existing FBA ASINs. 

Note that Amazon may decide to either increase restrictions on eligible ASINs or allow more ASINs to qualify for this program in the future.

Additional Requirements 

Each of the free service offerings entailed in the program also comes with additional requirements for sellers to meet to participate in them. To qualify for the discount on shipment, for example, sellers must:

• Send their first shipment to an Amazon fulfillment center after the program starts (April 1, 2020). 
• Make their shipment to a fulfillment center through an Amazon partnered carrier.

For promotional ads click discounts, advertisers are expected to cover the tax incurred from the ads campaign. 

Also, only new FBA ASINs created after enrollment into the program are eligible for the ads discount. The ads themselves must not have a cancellation date at the time of setting them up. Ads must have been up for at least 30 days before they can be considered for the ad’s discount. 

Lastly, a valid payment method is expected to be added to your account for advertising fees before promotional clicks can work for your seller account. In addition, Amazon requires those in the New Selection Program to make sure of its partnered carriers in sending their inventory up to any of the Amazon fulfillment centers and make deliveries with them to enjoy its $100 shipping voucher and free storage for 50 units of ASINs.

How to Enroll for the Amazon FBA New Selection Program

To enroll in the FBA New Selection Program, you need to have a professional account. If you are using the individual account, all you need to do is upgrade to a professional seller account. After you’ve done that, the rest is quite simple. Go to your Amazon Seller Central account and then the FBA new selection page to enroll. Once done, Amazon will assess your account and decide whether you qualify for the program or not. 

Limitation to the New Selection Program

The free packages the New Selection Program offers are time-limited and not for every seller. Amazon's FBA New Selection Program takes the FBA experience a level higher, at least, for new sellers. However, it puts a time constraint on most of the free offers. The free storage and shipping only cover items with ASIN put on Amazon within the first 60 - 90 days of enrollment on the program. 

For sellers new to eCommerce experiencing slow business growth, inventory might be sitting at the fulfillment center for a very long time while the monthly storage gift gets wasted. 

Another limitation with the new selection program is the high requirements expected of those applying to enjoy these free offerings. Besides the FBA seller account requirements, there are individual requirements attached to each free offer, which makes it difficult for some sellers to be eligible for most of them.

Conclusion

Enrolling in the Amazon FBA new selection program is an excellent way for those selling on Amazon to boost sales and get their listings to rank higher. It also allows you to cut costs on certain expenses that come with selling on the Amazon platform.