What is FBS?
FBS stands for Fulfiled by Souq, which is Souq’s official warehousing and distribution system.
Sellers who use FBS for delivery need to create a delivery plan and send the goods to Souq’s official warehousing center according to the delivery plan generated by the system. Once an order is placed, the Souq platform will automatically provide goods sorting, packaging, delivery, payment, customer service and other related services. The goods are generally delivered to the buyer within 3 working days. FBS requirements for products: The weight of a single product does not exceed 15kg.
1. Advantages of FBS delivery
For sellers, the benefits of FBS are mainly reflected in the following points.
(1) Get more traffic support. The product details page shipped by FBS can get higher exposure and help improve product rankings. This is mainly reflected in the display of the FBS logo on the product window. The traffic is better than self-delivery under the same circumstances. With the FBS logo, the probability of obtaining the gold shopping cart is higher, and there is an option to filter FBS products in the search results to prevent being filtered out by customers. In addition, the most important point is that you can participate in the annual large-scale promotion event “White Friday”.
(2) The store is safer. Using FBS for delivery means that the seller’s goods can be stored in Souq’s official warehouse, and the system will reduce the probability of reviewing the store.
(3) Save labor costs. The Souq platform has its own logistics, sellers can reduce the labor costs of packaging and provide buyers with a high-quality shopping experience.
(4) Reduce competitors. Although there is an FBS delivery model, many sellers still use the self-delivery method to operate. If it is the same product, compared with sellers who self-deliver, using FBS for delivery naturally reduces many competitors.
(5) Improve user experience and satisfaction. Since Souq adopts the FBS delivery model, customers will trust FBS products more, and Souq delivery can ensure that customers receive the products within 3 days. In the end, this satisfaction will be directly reflected in the review.
2. Disadvantages of FBS delivery
Of course, everything has two sides. The above analysis of the benefits of FBS, but sellers must also face some risks that must be borne.
(1) Product selection prefers small, high-profit, and high-quality products. Therefore, there are weight restrictions on products (no more than 15kg in the UAE and no more than 10kg in Saudi Arabia). FBS product selection is very strict and there will be many aspects of control, so the return rate is much lower than that of products in overseas warehouses.
(2) Pay storage fees, especially long-term storage fees. Although FBS delivery can reduce labor costs for sellers, long-term storage costs are not cheap. If the product is not selling well, the product cost will be additional. In addition, FBS warehousing requirements are relatively strict, requiring sellers to affix outer box labels and product labels before delivery.
(3) After the product is deleted, inventory handling is more troublesome. If the seller’s product is complained of infringement, poor quality, safety issues, non-compliance with platform policies, etc. due to human factors, the platform will automatically remove the seller’s products from the shelves, which requires the seller to disperse the warehouse by himself, which is quite costly.
(4) Randomly assigning warehouses will increase the cost of first-leg logistics. For new sellers, it is very likely that the FBS first-leg freight will exceed expectations due to the increase in single-piece operations caused by Souq’s random allocation of warehouses.
How to calculate FBS.
FBS fee = delivery fee + monthly storage fee + settlement fee
Details on the delivery fee, storage fee and settlement fee of FBS are as follows.
1. Delivery fee
Details of the delivery fees of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt stations. Goods entering FBS may be sold across borders to other GCC countries, but the freight costs are 40-80 AED, which can be ignored.
2. Storage fee
(1) Monthly storage fee: refers to the monthly inventory storage fee charged by the platform from the 7th to the 15th of each month. The fee is charged according to the volume of the goods, that is, the monthly inventory storage fee = the number of goods for storage fee X the unit volume of goods X the price per cubic foot of the specified product.
As of January 23, 2019, the UAE station charges 2AED per cubic foot; the Saudi Arabia station charges 3SAR per cubic foot; and the Egypt station charges 4 ECP per cubic foot from May 17, 2019.
(2) Long-term storage fee: The fee is an additional fee to the monthly inventory storage fee. Inventory stored for 6 to 12 months at each Souq station will be charged a long-term storage fee of 10AED/15SAR/20EGP per cubic foot (ft3); inventory stored for more than 12 months will be charged a long-term storage fee of 20AED/30SAR/40EGP per cubic foot (ft3).
Long-term storage fees at the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt stations.
(3) Settlement fee: Soup will only charge this fee if the selling price is below a certain standard. Specifically, since January 23, 2019, the UAE station charges 3AED when the price is less than 50AED; since January 23, 2019, the Saudi Arabia station charges 5SAR when the price is less than 50SAR; since May 17, 2019, the Egypt station charges less than 50EGP.
(4) Category size segmentation table: Category size segmentation of the UAE station and Saudi Arabia station, category size segmentation of the Egypt station.
Based on the above data, the author gives the following suggestions to future sellers who are about to enter the Souq platform: choose products with a customer unit price greater than 50AED/SAR to avoid settlement fees; try to choose Small (small) Medium (medium) categories to reduce delivery fees; choose small-sized products to save storage fees; replenish in small batches and multiple batches to improve inventory turnover and prevent long-term storage fees.
Detailed explanation of the FBS delivery process.
The delivery process for FBS warehouse sellers is: upload products + wait for review → review passed > organize warehouse information + paste SKU barcode → pack and ship + send to UAE/Saudi Arabia – + send to FBS warehouse → review and put on shelves – → sell online.
1. Product upload
Whether it is uploaded in batches or one by one, only one Shipping Notice can be generated each time. After the first Shipping Notice is reviewed, the seller will generate a new Shipping Notice when uploading.
Therefore, sellers should try to upload products from Saturday to Thursday 00:0013:00 and Friday China time, because Souq’s “Content” review team is not at work at this time, and the situation where sellers are being reviewed while uploading will not occur, thereby generating multiple Shipping Notices and disrupting the seller’s plan.
2. Review passed
After the review is passed, the seller can proceed to the next step.
First, check whether there are rejected SKUs in the Shipping Notice that has passed the review. If there are, the rejected SKUs in this Shipping Notice will not be sent to FBS.
Assuming that T-1796363 needs to be sent to the FBS warehouse this time
After carefully checking that there are no rejected SKUs in T-1796363, the Shipping Notice will be sent to the FBS warehouse. Download the Notice to the desktop and fill it out.
3. Fill in the Packing List
Fill in the complete packing list, also taking T-1796363 as an example.
After the Shipping Notice is reviewed, the seller will receive an email in the mailbox of the bound account for the next step. There is a Packing List at the bottom of the email. List download prompt, sellers can download it in the mailbox and fill it out.
4. Paste the barcode
The barcode must be the SKU code, because when the FBS warehouse scans the barcode into the warehouse, the pure digital barcode sometimes appears garbled, and the SKU code is the safest. In order to avoid accidents, sellers are recommended to use the SKU code, print it and paste it on the corresponding product, and meet the following conditions.
(1) The barcode is clean and scannable (if it cannot be scanned, FBS will reject the warehouse).
(2) The packaging is complete and not damaged (if the packaging is damaged, FBS will reject the warehouse).
(3) The size is clearly marked (if it is not clearly marked, FBS will reject the warehouse).
(4) The color is clearly marked (if it is not clearly marked, FBS will reject the warehouse).
Please pay attention to the outer packaging of the product, and don’t be rejected by FBS due to negligence of the outer packaging.
5. Packing and delivery
When the seller chooses the first-leg express, the logistics company will often give the seller a unique code. Sellers can seal the box after pasting the SKU barcode on the product. After sealing the box, they only need to paste the exclusive code given by the logistics company on the outer box.
Souq’s delivery period is 3 days, and the goods need to be prepared in advance to the overseas warehouse. For products that are sure to pass the review, you can prepare the stock before uploading the product, and start selling directly after passing the review. For products that are not sure whether they can pass the review, you can apply to hide the entire store first, and then display and sell after the uploaded product passes the review and the inventory is ready.
6. Send FBS warehouse information
After the goods are sealed, send the goods to the first-leg express company, and send the warehouse information (Shipping Notice and Packing List compressed into a folder) to the first-leg express company. After receiving the goods and warehouse information, they will be sent to the UAE to be sent to the FBS warehouse. The seller only needs to wait for the shelf, and the seller does not need to make an appointment for the warehouse delivery time. After delivery, the first-leg logistics company will provide the seller with the FBS receipt, and Souq will scan and review the shelves again within 24 to 48 hours after the warehouse is completed.
7. How to deal with the FBS return mail
If the seller receives the FBS return mail, he must deal with it in time to avoid losses due to expiration and destruction. There are many reasons for return, such as the following.
(1) Damaged packaging. The reason for damaged packaging is generally due to improper packaging by the seller, which causes damage during transportation and loading and unloading. Therefore, please pay attention to the outer packaging of the product when shipping. Souq has made special instructions for this: fragile products should be treated to prevent damage; if the parts are easy to scatter, please reinforce the outer packaging to prevent the parts from being lost; if there is no outer packaging, please add outer packaging to prevent dirt; if the combination is sold, please combine the packaging together to prevent less orders and cause complaints.
If the seller does not handle it according to the above requirements, after receiving the email, contact the logistics company as soon as possible to extract the goods from FBS, replace the new packaging and barcode, rebuild the PO, and send it to the FBS warehouse again.
(2) Temporary return due to irregular listing. Even if the PO has passed the review and the goods have been safely delivered to the FBS warehouse, it does not mean that they can be put on the shelves without any worries. It is also possible that the goods may be temporarily withdrawn from the warehouse because the seller has listed the wrong category of the goods.
At this time, the seller needs to contact the logistics company as soon as possible to extract the goods from FBS and replace the correct barcode or packaging, rebuild the PO, and send it to the FBS warehouse again.
(3) P0 is temporarily cancelled or fails to pass the review. A seller sends the goods to the FBS warehouse without passing the P0 review. At this time, after the FBS warehouse receives the goods, it will also notify the seller to go to the FBS warehouse to pick up the goods of this P0.
At this time, the seller needs to contact the logistics company as soon as possible to extract the goods from FBS and replace the correct barcode or packaging, rebuild the P0 and send it to the FBS warehouse again.
(4) There are too many goods in the FBS warehouse. Many sellers will make mistakes at the last minute, and the following situations often occur: for example, 3 SKUs are reviewed on the shopping notice, with 10 stocks for each SKU, but 5 batches of 15 are actually shipped, with more SKUs in each batch than the reviewed quantity on the shopping notice. Once this happens, the entire batch of goods will be rejected, or the extra batches of products sent to the FBS warehouse will be rejected. If this happens, the seller needs to contact the logistics company as soon as possible, rebuild the P0, and re-send it to the FBS warehouse.
(5) The color or size of the product actually shipped is inconsistent with the listing. If the email shows “Wrong color”, it means that the seller sent the wrong color. In this case, it is also necessary to contact the logistics company as soon as possible, rebuild the PO, and re-send it to the FBS warehouse. In order to avoid unnecessary costs, sellers should check the products from the source, and do a good job of packaging, product size and color marking.