How MCF works
You keep stock in FBA as usual. When an order arrives on another channel, your system creates a fulfilment order with the ship-to address, items and shipping speed. Amazon picks, packs and ships it, and returns tracking that you pass back to the channel.
Options such as unbranded packaging and blank boxes exist for many marketplaces, so customers of your own brand do not receive an Amazon-branded parcel. Check availability per country.
The API calls involved
- Get a fulfilment preview: shipping speeds, estimated delivery dates and fees for the order.
- Create the fulfilment order with your own order ID as the reference.
- Read status and tracking, or subscribe to fulfilment notifications instead of polling.
- Cancel or update an order while Amazon still allows it.
Using your channel order ID as the reference makes every MCF order traceable and prevents duplicates when a request is retried.
Inventory across channels
Because FBA stock now serves several channels, the available quantity you publish on Shopify or another marketplace must come from FBA inventory data and be updated often. Reserve a safety buffer for fast sellers, and stop selling on a channel before stock reaches zero, not after.
Costs and service levels
MCF fees are different from FBA fees for Amazon orders and depend on size, weight, units per order and shipping speed. Expose the preview fees to your pricing or shipping rules, so a cheap product with expensive shipping does not lose money silently.
Returns and exceptions
Plan for returns, lost parcels and unfulfillable orders from the start. Route exceptions to a person with the order context attached, and reconcile MCF fees from settlement reports against the orders that caused them.