Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re new to selling on Amazon contact us to sign up. If you currently sell with FBA, get started here.

No. MCF is open to all businesses, whether or not you sell on Amazon. An Amazon Seller Central account is required to use MCF, but you are not required to sell items on Amazon. To prevent your products from being purchased on Amazon, you can set the “start selling” date far into the future when you create the product listing. This will hide the product from the Amazon marketplace, but MCF will still accept fulfilment orders from your other channels.

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) allows you to fulfil orders placed on Amazon while MCF fulfils orders on any of your channels including your own website.

Yes. If you are an existing Amazon seller using FBA, your inventory will serve both Amazon customers and customers from your MCF sales channels.

Yes. In fact, UK sellers who use both MCF and FBA have increased their Amazon.co.uk sales revenue by an average of 29%.

How is this possible? There are four main reasons:

1. Effective inventory consolidation and distribution: Once you send your inventory to Amazon, we:
   
   1. Consolidate your inventory into a single pool that can be tapped into to fulfil your Amazon.co.uk orders (with FBA) as well as your off-Amazon orders (with MCF).
   2. Distribute your stock across our network of fulfilment centres, so it’s as close as possible to your customer base.
2. Improved inventory turnover: By exposing your pool of inventory to all your sales channels, you can increase the likelihood that your stock will be sold faster and improve your inventory turnover.
3. Reduced out-of-stock rates: Amazon will help you ensure that you have the right amount of the right products in the right places at the right times – so that you can satisfy demand from all your ecommerce channels and prevent stockouts.
4. Faster delivery promises: With your products strategically positioned across Amazon’s fulfilment network, you will be able to faster make delivery promises on Amazon.co.uk – and this can help boost shopper conversion.

IPI score measures how efficient and productive you are at managing your FBA inventory. Multiple factors could influence your IPI score. However, an important one is your actions to maintain a balanced inventory level between sold and on-hand inventory and avoid excess inventory (overstock). Using MCF to improve sell-through can help avoid excess inventory, increasing your ability to achieve a strong IPI score.

Yes. MCF is also available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

MCF is committed to maintaining the highest standards of data security for you and your customers. Learn more about how we prioritise security & compliance.

MCF, as a part of Amazon, is committed to building a sustainable business for customers and the planet. Amazon has eliminated 1 million tons of packaging since 2015, and plans to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025. In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040. To reach this goal, Amazon has undertaken initiatives targeting packaging, renewable energy, and transportation. Learn more about these and other initiatives.

Sellers can select from two click-to-delivery speeds: Standard (4 business days) and Expedited (2 business days).

MCF offers an unbranded packaging program, which enables sellers to fulfil their MCF orders in the United Kingdom in unbranded packaging. All MCF sellers are auto-enrolled in the program at no additional cost. Unbranded packaging is available for eligible sortable items. Note that – as of December 2022 – MCF’s unbranded packaging feature does not include non-sortable inventory that exceeds 45.72 x 35.56 x 20.32 cm and/or 9 kg.

The unbranded packaging program works in two simple steps:

Inbound shipment creation: Send your inventory to Amazon fulfilment centres using the standard inbound process you follow for MCF. MCF will automatically place your inventory in the Amazon network for unbranded packaging fulfilment.

Order routing: MCF orders will be prioritised to ship in unbranded packaging when inventory is available for unbranded packaging.

Locate your MCF orders via the “Orders” tab in Seller Central. If the order has not been shipped, there will be an estimated ship date and estimated delivery date within the shipment details of the order. Once the order has been shipped, you will be able to see the tracking number associated with the shipment, along with a link to the tracking website that contain real-time updates for their shipped packages regardless of carrier.

You can cancel an MCF order up until the point that the shipping label has been generated. Click the “Cancel” button in the Order Details page for the order. You are not charged for MCF orders that are successfully canceled before they ship. If some of the items in an order have shipped, charges for the shipped items apply. If you need seller support with order cancellation, contact us.

You can check order delivery, request reimbursement, or report other issues with your order here.

You can choose to handle returns in one of two ways: you can use your own returns solution to return items to your own warehouse or you can ask the customer to return them the Amazon fulfilment centre. In either scenario, you can now benefit from the use of ReturnGO, which integrates seamlessly with MCF to handle returns to Amazon fulfilment centres or to your own warehouses. Using ReturnGO you can also manage your returns and exchanges all in one place and offer your customer different refund alternatives with the MCF ReturnGO integration. See how the process works here.

Shipping products back:

When a customer contacts you to initiate a return, you have the choice of asking the customer to ship the return back to Amazon. By electing to ship products back to Amazon, the return can be incorporated back into your Amazon inventory.

Steps to initiate a return to Amazon

1. Navigate to the Orders screen in Seller Central and open up the order details for your customer’s order
2. Click on the “Create Customer Return” tab
3. Select the return quantity for the item(s) your customer wants to return
4. Indicate the return reason for the item(s)

The Return Merchandise Authorisation (RMA) form will be generated. The RMA contains the below two sections:

1. The Return Mailing Label is a label that contains the address of the Amazon fulfilment centre that will be receiving and processing the return. Ask your customer to affix the label on their return package to return back to Amazon. Note: Postage is not provided on the return mailing letter. You or the customer are responsible for purchasing and producing the return label back to Amazon.
2. The Return Authorisation Slip is a form that contains a barcode and item description for the products being returned. The slip must be included inside the return package alongside the items.

Additional details on MCF returns can be found here.

Receiving Returns:

When a return is received at the Amazon warehouse, our associates validate the state of the product. If it’s deemed to be in a sellable condition, we incorporate the unit back into your Amazon inventory. If the unit is unsellable, you must follow Amazon removals procedure to receive the defective product. Please read more about the required removal process here.

Customer Refund:

For MCF orders, because order placement and payment occurred outside of Amazon, you are responsible for refunding the customer.

Checking Return Status:

After initiating a return, check the “Return Status” tab within the Order Details page to for details on the return. The page will indicate if the return has been received by Amazon, and what the disposition of the item is.

No. You are responsible for providing customer service for your MCF orders. This includes handling delivery inquiries and requests for replacements, refunds, and returns.

If an order is not delivered, contact Seller Support to initiate a reimbursement for the lost item. The reimbursement amount is calculated according to the FBA Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy. Amazon reimburses you, not the customer. It is your responsibility to resolve the issue with the customer. To send a replacement item from your inventory, submit a second MCF order for a replacement order.

Amazon and carrier at fault:

If Amazon accepts responsibility for the damage, you can submit a reimbursement request. If you process the return yourself, provide photos of the damaged item when you submit your request. If Amazon processed the return, you will be reimbursed in accordance with the FBA Lost and Damaged Inventory Reimbursement Policy and related FBA Service Terms of the Amazon Services Business Solutions Agreement.

Amazon and carrier not at fault:

For any damage that occurs after an order is delivered, you must determine whether you will refund or exchange an item. Amazon does not take responsibility for defective items or items that are damaged when not under the control of the fulfilment centre or the partner carrier. If an item is damaged and Amazon or the carrier is not at fault, you may want to have the merchandise sent to you directly, instead of back to a fulfilment centre.
Note: Amazon does not offer reimbursements for MCF fulfilment orders that were created to fulfil a non-customer order. For examples, leveraging MCF to ship inventory back to your own warehouse. To qualify for a reimbursement, please create a standard removal order.

Shipping cost calculations are based on dimensions, weight, product size, and shipping speed. MCF is pay as you go, with no long-term contracts.

Yes. MCF offers discounts of 25% on average for multi-unit orders.

Download our rate card to learn more.

Yes. Long-term storage fees apply to units that have been stored in an Amazon fulfilment centre for more than 365 days. The long-term storage fee is in addition to the monthly inventory storage fee. If you submit a removal order for items before the next inventory cleanup date, those items won’t be subject to long-term storage fees. For more information, see FBA long-term storage fees.