What Is Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP)?

This article explains Amazon’s Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) program, weighs out its pros and cons, and differentiates it from the Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) program and the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program to help you decide which is right for you.

Access to Amazon’s Prime badge gives third-party sellers exposure to the most motivated shoppers on Amazon. Thanks to Amazon, SFP merchants with existing warehouses can take advantage of the Prime program while still managing inventory themselves. SFP and FBA are primarily about sellers managing their own storage while still meeting rigorous shipping requirements. This article covers the relative benefits of each program.

Amazon SFP is a specialized program that allows merchants to use their own inventory management systems. As long as they match the Amazon Prime program’s 1-2 day shipping speeds, they can receive the benefits of the Prime badge on their listings. Essentially, the Amazon FBA program offers merchants an alternative to bulk shipping by granting them access to the transportation solutions that suit them best.

There is an extensive application process, and merchants must maintain rigorous 1-2 day shipping speeds and less than a 0.5% order cancellation rate, among other requirements. This also fulfills a need for Amazon, which is struggling to construct enough warehouses to meet explosive eCommerce growth. Merchants who can match the shipping speed of Amazon Prime can simply store inventory in their own warehouses while still taking advantage of Prime program benefits.

Many third-party sellers are familiar with Amazon’s Fulfillment by Merchant program (FBM). As the name suggests, the merchant handles all aspects of the sale with this method, most notably inventory management and shipping. Amazon FBM sellers can save a lot of money thanks to the lower fees associated with handling logistics and storage themselves, but they do not reap the benefits of the Prime badge. 

Amazon SFP is sometimes explained as a subset of FBM because SFP sellers handle their own inventory storage but must purchase shipping through Amazon. If they meet all the requirements consistently, then they get the Prime advantages. SFP could also be considered as a blend between FBM and FBA. Like FBM, the seller handles inventory management. Like FBA, only Amazon-approved shipping companies can handle your order fulfillment.

Amazon SFP sellers must purchase shipping through one of about a dozen approved Merchant API sellers. Sellers must correctly categorize their product listings to make sure that the “buy shipping” function properly prices each item to be sold. There are a variety of preset “standard” size packages, along with an “oversize” option. These all affect the pricing of the shipping.

In short, Amazon SFP sellers must use the “buy shipping” function for at least 99% of their orders. The Amazon SFP program is best suited for more prominent merchants with warehouses and shipping services in place. If a seller has already secured a good rate with a particular third-party shipping service, they can check with their servicer to determine if they have adopted the Merchant Fulfillment API.

In many cases, the savings on warehousing can present enough value to attract them to the SFP program. Using Amazon’s existing shipping integrators also ensures that the merchant can continue to meet the 99% on-time order requirement. If a seller wants to continue to use their own shipping service, then FBM is probably a better fit, though this will not be accompanied by Prime benefits.

The process to qualify for Amazon SFP is somewhat complex. Amazon only opens the program to new sellers at specific times, though the waitlist stays open to prospective applicants. The qualifications for the program center are contingent upon being able to match the promises of the Prime program for free 2-day shipping.

An important note: previously, Amazon SFP sellers were only required to offer 2-day shipping to specific states. Recently, this was changed to require sellers to ship nationwide.  Amazon’s current list of requirements is as follows, per Amazon’s official SFP page:

• Offer premium shipping options
• Ship over 99% of your orders on time
• Have an order cancellation rate of less than 0.5%
• Use Amazon Buy Shipping Services for at least 99% of orders
• Have nationwide delivery coverage for all standard-size products
• Use ship methods that support weekend delivery and pick up (Saturday or Sunday)
• Meet targets for 1-day and 2-day delivery promises
• Deliver orders with supported Seller Fulfilled Prime carriers
• Sellers must agree to the Amazon Returns Policy
• Allow for all customer service inquiries to be dealt with by Amazon

While these are high standards to meet, acceptance into the program gains Amazon SFP sellers access to shipping integrations that allow sellers to fulfill these orders quickly.

Many who are wondering “what is seller Prime on Amazon?” are weighing whether the benefit of managing their own inventory and shipping outweighs the inconvenience of the extra management tasks required. While it can be a great fit for some sellers, the benefits may not outweigh the costs for others. Here are some of the top pros and cons of Amazon SFP to keep in mind:

Pros of Amazon SFP 

• Merchants independently manage inventory storage
• No additional fees on long-term storage for Amazon warehouses
• The benefits of the Amazon Prime badge
• Additional exposure to Prime buyers
• Sellers can choose their shipping API
• A good solution for multichannel sellers

Cons of Amazon SFP 

• The benefit of Prime shoppers may not outweigh storage costs
• Lengthy application process
• Easy to lose SFP status if shipping speeds slow down
• It may not be a good fit for smaller sellers
• Sellers must offer weekend shipping

In short, Amazon SFP offers significant benefits to sellers large enough to manage their own inventory storage cost-effectively and sustain the quick fulfillment times required by Prime. Merchants who primarily arrange their own inventory storage to qualify for the Amazon SFP program may lose money if they can not arrange economical storage and sufficient sales. If you are considering switching to seller fulfilled Prime, it is best to make sure you have the sales history to support the change.

According to Marketplace Pulse, there are currently 1.5 million Amazon Marketplace sellers (Amazon third-party sellers). While many more sellers are listed, this is the number of those with current active listings. Of these 1.5 million, it is reported that around 57% use Amazon FBA exclusively. In comparison, an additional 34% use some combination of FBA and FBM (fulfillment by merchant is not eligible for Prime benefits).

As of 2021, around a quarter of a million third-party sellers in the United States used FBA. Clearly, Amazon FBA is a popular program, and Amazon has shunted many third-party sellers into this track by making the qualification requirements fairly easy to attain.

While this should not affect third-party sellers who ship almost exclusively domestically, it can get tricky if merchants offer a combination of domestic and international shipping. Because how to qualify for Seller Fulfilled Prime is largely dependent upon maintaining very high levels of 2-day shipping, international sales could hurt that metric.

If a merchant’s 2-day shipping metrics drop below 98%, then they will lose their SFP status and must requalify for the program and go through the 90-day trial period again. Generally, this should not be an issue because items that are not eligible will not display the Prime badge. In some cases, sellers have reported filing requests with the Amazon Seller Performance Team to remove internationally-shipped items from their SFP metric.

In short, these programs each target a different seller. SFP meets the needs of larger sellers who can compete with Amazon’s extensive fulfillment network without paying FBA fees, which can be considerable. While Amazon SFP fees are considerably lower, only very large merchants typically have the resources to meet the stringent application requirements. FBA is a great place to start for most. Once an Amazon business becomes large and profitable, a pivot to SFP can save money on inventory management and Amazon fees over the long haul.

Though the qualification procedure for Amazon SFP is high, it comes with several attractive features. Here is the breakdown of the most important benefits of the SFP program.

As discussed above, Amazon SFP does not charge nearly as many fees as FBA. There is no cost to apply to the program. SFP sellers are also not charged warehouse fees or shipping and handling fees from Amazon, which tend to be high. Like FBA, Seller Fulfilled Prime fees include a referral fee. This is the percentage of the sale from each item that the seller pays to Amazon – essentially, a commission. It is called a “referral fee” because the seller benefits from Amazon’s marketing and brand dominance – the ability to “refer” customers to a seller’s listings. This referral fee is typically 15% of the sale of an item for both SFP and FBA.

Many sellers wonder if achieving the Prime badge is worth the extra hoops of either SFP or FBA. After all, what is Seller Prime on Amazon getting them that they could not achieve from non-Prime listings? Research indicates quite a bit. According to Statista, Prime members spent $1,400 annually on Amazon, compared to $600 a year spent by non-Prime members.

Not only do Prime customers spend more money, but they also tend to purchase more items at a time. A 2020 survey indicated that 58% of Prime customers increased the number of items in their online shopping basket when same-day shipping was made available to them. The current cost of an Amazon Prime annual subscription is $119, plus tax. Because of this cost, many consumers feel that free two-shipping and even quicker delivery is the main draw to Amazon Prime. As a result, they are more likely to purchase from sellers who accommodate this expectation. Thus, participating in the Prime program can return considerable dividends to third-party sellers.

The Amazon Buy Box is the section on a product listing page that allows the customer to add the product to their cart. Amazon’s algorithm considers various factors to feature the “best match” item in the Buy Box, including item price, shipping speed, and seller reviews.

According to DataHawk research, 83% of all Amazon purchases are made through the Buy Box. The number of mobile purchases is likely higher because almost all customers add an item to their cart as part of the purchasing process. Though the Buy Box appears on every product listing page, another seller’s item can actually be featured instead if it is currently in stock, has a better price, or has faster shipping. The Amazon SFP program offers a better chance to appear in the Buy Box, which drives massive traffic to a seller’s listings.

Since its introduction in 2015, Amazon SFP has undergone multiple mutations to more closely meet consumers’ growing expectations for ultra-fast shipping speeds. While Amazon has historically kept the future of the SFP program close to the vest, the recent changes in 2021, like nationwide two-day shipping expectations, seem to have brought the program up to date for now.

Amazon’s places for 2022 seem to focus primarily on Amazon FBA, including higher storage, disposal, and prep services fees. While these changes likely will not affect SFP sellers, the referral fee change applies to all third-party sellers. According to Amazon’s Seller Central, these changes are still being made, and in some cases, will result in lower referral fees for some items, like snowblowers.

The chief benefit of Amazon SFP moving forward is that sellers remain more in control of their own inventory and shipping costs. Though Amazon’s fees may change in the coming months, SFP gives the flexibility of inventory control that many sellers are looking for.