What is FBA?

Why it matters in practice

FBA is usually described as a shipping decision, and it is really a demand decision. The Prime badge changes how many shoppers consider the listing at all, which is why the same product often sells at a different rate on the same page depending on how it is fulfilled. What operators underestimate is that FBA moves your inventory risk into someone else's building on someone else's terms. Units sitting there are capital you cannot redirect quickly, storage is charged for as long as they sit, and stock committed to Amazon cannot serve an order from your own site. It is also only half a fulfillment answer for a brand selling in more than one place, so the practical question is not FBA or not, it is which products earn the badge and what fulfills everything else.