How does FBA work?
- Create an inbound shipment plan in Seller Central, label units and cartons as required, and ship to the assigned warehouse.
- Monitor inventory levels, restock limits and the age of stock to avoid long-term storage fees.
- Track shipment receiving; open a case when received quantities differ from what you sent.
- Reconcile FBA fees, reimbursements for lost or damaged units and customer returns each month.
- Keep listings, prices and Buy Box status healthy, since FBA fees keep rising while items sit unsold.
A worked example
A kitchenware brand in Ohio sent 40 SKUs to FBA and noticed profit was thinner than the spreadsheet promised. An Amazon assistant reviewed the account. She found two inbound shipments received short by a total of 63 units, filed reimbursement cases with the shipping documents, and set a weekly check of the inventory age report. She also flagged three slow SKUs before the long-term storage fee date and helped the owner run a removal order. The reimbursements came through over the next month, and storage fees dropped the following quarter.
Where does FBA show up in your tools?
FBA lives inside Amazon Seller Central under Inventory, Shipments and the Fulfillment reports, with reimbursements tracked through Seller Support cases. Sellers often pull the reports into Google Sheets or Airtable for monthly reconciliation and use tools such as Helium 10 for restock forecasting.
Common mistakes
- Sending inventory without checking restock limits, then paying to store units Amazon will not accept.
- Never reconciling received quantities, so short shipments and damaged units go unclaimed.
- Ignoring inventory age until the long-term storage fee has already been charged.
Why does FBA matter?
FBA gives a small brand Prime delivery and Amazon's customer service without a warehouse, but the fees are charged whether you watch them or not. Sellers who reconcile shipments, claim reimbursements and manage stock age keep the margin that FBA quietly erodes for everyone else.
How does AssistBPO handle FBA?
Our Amazon assistants work inside your Seller Central account under a user permission you control, handling shipment plans, inventory reports, reimbursement cases and Buyer-Seller messages. Your payouts and bank details stay yours; we never touch settlement or card information outside Amazon. Cases, stock alerts and fee anomalies appear in the end-of-day report.