What MCF Does
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfilment lets you use your FBA inventory to fulfil orders from channels outside Amazon — your Shopify store, eBay listings, or any other sales channel. When an order comes in from your website, you submit it to Amazon and they pick, pack, and ship it from your FBA stock. This eliminates the need for separate inventory pools for different sales channels.
How It Works
You manage your FBA inventory as normal. When an order comes in from a non-Amazon channel, you create an MCF order in Seller Central (or automate it through integration tools). Amazon ships the product to your customer in unbranded packaging — they do not use Amazon-branded boxes for MCF orders, which means your customers do not know Amazon handled the fulfilment.
Costs
MCF fees are higher than standard FBA fees because Amazon is fulfilling orders that do not generate them a marketplace sale. The fee premium varies but is typically 20 to 50 percent above standard FBA fulfilment costs. Factor these higher fees into your pricing on other channels to maintain profitability.
Benefits
The main benefit is inventory consolidation. Instead of maintaining separate stock in a warehouse for your website and FBA inventory at Amazon, everything sits in one place. This simplifies inventory management, reduces the risk of stockouts on any single channel, and eliminates the need for your own warehouse or 3PL for non-Amazon orders.
Limitations
Delivery speeds for MCF orders may not match Prime delivery times. There is no Prime branding on MCF deliveries. Some marketplaces (eBay in particular) have policies discouraging or restricting fulfilment by Amazon. Integration setup requires technical configuration, though many tools (like Shopify apps) simplify this.
When to Use MCF
MCF makes sense when your non-Amazon sales are significant enough to justify the fees but not large enough to warrant your own fulfilment operation. If you only sell a few items per week outside Amazon, the convenience of MCF saves time and storage costs. Once your off-Amazon volume grows substantially, dedicated fulfilment (your own warehouse or a 3PL) may become more cost-effective.