FBA vs FBM: Are Customers Who Are Willing To Wait More Informed Buyers?
Hi everyone, I’d love to hear your thoughts on something I’ve noticed with my sales. I’ve sold (and still sell) both FBA and FBM products. While my FBA listings achieve much higher sales volumes, I’ve noticed that returns are significantly higher for FBA compared to FBM.
To put it into perspective, for every ten FBA items I sell, I might get two returned (a 20% return rate), whereas with FBM, I might not get any or perhaps just one return in twenty sales (a 5% return rate).
This means the return rate for FBA is effectively 300% higher than for FBM.
I understand that higher sales volumes naturally result in more returns, but it’s made me wonder: could it be that FBM customers, who are willing to wait longer for delivery, spend more time researching their purchases beforehand, resulting in fewer returns?
Have you noticed similar trends in your sales? What do you think might explain this difference in customer behaviour?
Looking forward to hearing your insights!
9 replies
Seller_i6S8knzW6zU6Z
Hi @Seller_tx93U2wLYO1b7,
That’s an interesting observation! A few possible factors might explain the difference. For one, returning FBA orders is incredibly easy—customers can generate a label and get their refund quickly. With FBM, where returns sometimes involve interacting with the seller, customers might hesitate more.
Another thought is that business customers generally have lower return rates, especially for repeat orders where they’re already familiar with the quality of your products. Products like your bespoke boxes might naturally appeal more to business customers, while items like gift boxes (which I noticed in your shop) might be favored by private customers. If FBM caters more to business buyers, that could explain the difference.
Finally, in Germany, individualized products like bespoke boxes are excluded from returns or cancellations. If this applies to the UK as well and you ship those boxes via FBM, it could further lower return rates compared to standard FBA items.
I found this a really interesting point to think about—thanks for sharing your observation!
Best, Michael
Seller_HwaQlgFnhSuGS
We are switching our FBA over to FBM as items run out of stock.
The high amount of refunds on Amazon's part is unacceptable. Even when they loose, damage or fail to deliver an order we ourselves only get refunded around 25-30% of the cost we sell the product for... yet they keep the fee's.
With our FBM we have disabled the Amazon return labels so we have to provide labels instead.... which we provide 2nd Class large letter which is cheaper than what Amazon deduct for their label. Looking at our return request at this moment in time we have had 36 return requests in 180 days. Out of them just 17 where actually returned to us. We then request a refund for the label from Royal Mail.
With FBA however, 36 emails a week about a refund was a slow week. Yes we have less volume but when you consider how little our margins where after Amazon fee's and refunds, you realise that each refund wipes the profit made on a few other orders.
Amazon customer have learnt about returnless refunds and like to test the returns process to see if they can get a refund without a return.....
We get a lot less sales FBM but we are coping and liking not having to make stock to fill FBA's shelves, just to watch out money refunded.
Seller_Uo7DjOjHQDtfz
FBA returns are free with a very easy process.
FBM orders aren't free, except in cases of defects, and if you don't provide return labels, the return process becomes difficult for customers.
Seller_HuhP221NahSdW
The advantage of FBM is that a customer that buys more than one item you gain on the postage (Providing you items are free postage) whereas with FBA, Amazon takes that margin. However, I have £20 products that are £3-4 more expensive than FBM but outsell FBM proving that most customers now demand next day delivery. Hope this helps
Seller_VpTps3nNkV8hZ
Lots of good points already. On returns, one thing I've noticed is that if I have a problem with an FBM order and customer wants to return I can sometimes sort something out via a quick message that leaves a happy customer. If it's FBA then the only option is to return and I can't offer any customer service.
Seller_LSumc8PLQnriR
The quality of FBA packaging also isn't great – so there's a possibility that items turn up damaged as a consequence. I've certainly experienced this in the past as a buyer, and likewise when I've asked for FBA stock to be returned (i.e. by the time it reached me I had to revise the listing from "New" or "Used – Like New" to "Used - very good", due to the condition it arrived in).
