FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant)
Quick Answer
FBM means sellers store, pack, and ship orders themselves rather than using Amazon's warehouses, giving full control over inventory and operations.
What Is FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant)?
FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) is a fulfilment model where sellers manage their own inventory storage, order processing, and shipping directly to customers instead of using marketplace warehouses.
Full Explanation
FBM gives e-commerce sellers complete control over their inventory and fulfilment operations. Instead of sending stock to Amazon’s warehouses or other marketplace facilities, sellers store products in their own warehouse or through a third-party logistics provider they choose. When an order comes in—whether from Amazon, a webshop, or other sales channels the seller handles picking, packing, and shipping from their centralised inventory location.
This model is particularly powerful for brands selling across multiple channels simultaneously. With one central stock location, sellers can fulfil orders from Amazon, their own webshop, bol.com, and other marketplaces without splitting inventory or managing separate stock pools per channel. This prevents overselling, reduces tied-up capital, and enables faster inventory turnover compared to channel-locked models like FBA.
FBM supports scalable growth by eliminating marketplace storage fees, giving sellers flexibility to negotiate better shipping rates, and maintaining consistent branding across all customer touchpoints. Sellers retain full visibility over stock levels, can implement their own quality control processes, and adjust operations as order volumes grow without being constrained by marketplace warehouse rules or capacity limits.
Why It Matters
FBM enables higher profit margins by avoiding marketplace storage and fulfilment fees whilst maintaining complete operational control. It eliminates the complexity of managing fragmented inventory across multiple warehouse locations, allowing sellers to scale efficiently across Europe with one unified stock position and faster response times to demand changes.
Practical Example
A European fashion brand selling on Amazon, their Shopify webshop, and bol.com uses FBM through a central 3PL warehouse in the Netherlands. All three channels pull from the same inventory pool, eliminating the need to predict channel-specific demand or pay Amazon FBA fees. This increases net margins by 12-18% whilst enabling next-day delivery across the Benelux region.
How Monta Helps
Monta's platform enables FBM sellers to fulfil orders from Amazon, their own webshop, and other marketplaces from one central European location, eliminating split inventory management whilst maintaining fast delivery times and complete brand control across all channels.