Amazon and barcodes
What is Amazon Fulfillment?
Amazon Fulfillment is a service for merchants and sellers: Amazon stores, packs and ships their products. The seller sends stock to one of Amazon's many warehouses and Amazon handles the rest. When an order comes in, Amazon packs the item and ships it. Customer service and returns go through Amazon as well, on the seller's behalf.
What sellers get out of it: wider reach, happier customers, faster delivery and better storage for their products. Amazon runs the logistics, so the seller's time and resources go into other parts of the business.
What barcodes are required for Amazon Fulfillment items?
Anyone selling on Amazon and using Amazon Fulfillment needs a standard product barcode on every item. In retail that usually means a UPC (Universal Product Code) or an EAN (European Article Number). Most manufacturers use them, and almost every product on a shop shelf carries one.
A seller who wants Amazon Fulfillment to store and ship their products needs one of those two codes on the product, so Amazon can recognize and process it. If a product has no barcode, the seller can buy a UPC or EAN barcode and put it on.
In addition to the standard barcodes, sellers can also create FNSKU barcodes (Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit) for their products, designed specifically for use with Amazon Fulfillment. They identify products that Amazon stores and ships. A seller who uses FNSKU has to label every single unit with one.
How is an FNSKU barcode generated?
Amazon generates the FNSKU barcode (Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit). It is unique and identifies one product held and shipped by Amazon Fulfillment. Amazon creates it automatically once the seller lists the product and sends inventory to an Amazon warehouse.
To get the right code onto the right product, the seller has to list the product correctly and request the barcode during the listing process. After that, the barcode can be downloaded from the Amazon Seller account and applied to the product.
The FNSKU barcode should be attached correctly so that Amazon can identify the product. Put it somewhere clearly visible, ideally on the packaging or the label.
If the seller changes the product, the packaging or the label for instance, the FNSKU barcode should be updated. That keeps the product identified correctly and handled properly in the Amazon warehouse and during shipping.
What type of barcode is used to encode an FNSKU?
An FNSKU is usually encoded as an EAN-13. The EAN-13 barcode has 13 digits: a country code, a manufacturer code and a product code. The FNSKU code sits in the product code range of the EAN-13 and carries extra information that uniquely identifies the product and ties it to the Amazon Fulfillment system.
Every product stored and shipped by Amazon Fulfillment carries this barcode. Amazon uses it to identify the item in its own system, track it and manage warehouse stock. When an order comes in, the code is scanned to find the right item in the warehouse and get it ready for shipping.
The FNSKU barcode should be attached correctly and stay easy to read, so Amazon can identify and process the product properly. A faulty or unreadable code can cause problems in shipping and delivery.