ShipBob vs Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA): Pricing & Features

Historically, ShipBob faced criticism for frequent processing delays and order mistakes, as seen in numerous negative user reviews and social media posts. In response, the company launched a dedicated effort in 2023 to improve its accuracy, which reportedly reduced its error rate to 0.011%.

In contrast, FBA does not disclose its error rates, but FBA users report that issues are very frequent—posing a problem for sellers and customers alike.

Not many providers can compete with FBA’s vast warehouse network, but ShipBob maintains a wide global footprint of 70+ facilities spanning six countries. This results in low shipping costs and fast delivery times, which reduces fulfillment spend, appeals to a broader audience, and facilitates growth.

In addition to its US warehouses, ShipBob operates fulfillment centers in the following non-US regions:

• Melbourne, AUS
• Sydney, AUS
• Toronto, CAN
• Manchester, UK
• Birmingham, UK
• Swindon, UK

ShipBob offers two-day shipping across the US from any of its fulfillment centers and offers Prime-like badges for your website, helping to attract customers by highlighting fast shipping. It also facilitates entry into international markets through its non-US warehouses for local fulfillment. Plus, ShipBob provides DDP (delivery duty paid) shipping for international orders, showing all shipping, tax, and duty costs upfront at checkout.

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In the news: ShipBob rolls out Amazon Shipping as a delivery option

ShipBob extended its carrier network this year by partnering with Amazon Logistics as a shipping provider. While this won’t automatically qualify orders to be part of Amazon Prime, it can improve delivery speed and broaden shipping options for users.

ShipBob delivers much better connectivity than FBA, offering prebuilt integrations with more than 110 partners. This can help users expand into new sales channels and scale their business with new tools. However, not all of these are direct integrations, and some may require connection through a third-party provider.

Some of ShipBob’s key integrations for ecommerce businesses include the following. For a full list of integrations, see ShipBob’s website.

• Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Shopify, Amazon, eBay, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Magento, Square, Squarespace, Walmart, TikTok
• Operations, inventory and order management: Skubana, Cin7, Linnworks, Brightpearl, Zentail, NetSuite
• Returns management: Happy Returns, Loop Returns, and Returnly
• Freight and shipping solutions: UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, Global Logistics, AfterShip, ShipStation, Shippo, Flexport
• Accounting, tax, and financing: Avalara, Bookkeeper360, TaxJar

Unlike ShipBob, FBA doesn’t disclose its error rate but some sources report that it’s as high as 1% to 1.25%. This can result in an annual loss of thousands of dollars for FBA users.

The company does offer reimbursement for errors, but its claims process is not efficient or user-friendly.

Amazon has 110 FBA warehouses strategically located across the continental US plus 75 additional fulfillment centers worldwide.

This enables sellers to store their products in multiple warehouses near their customers. FBA’s large warehouse network also makes shipping and importing easier for merchants who can use the Amazon facilities near their suppliers or ports of arrival.

While ShipBob isn’t able to process orders for Amazon Prime, FBA can, and it automatically gives the Prime badge to orders that qualify. Prime orders are guaranteed two-day shipping, though Amazon has adjusted this to potentially include extra processing time, which slightly impacted Prime membership numbers. Still, 71% of Amazon shoppers are Prime members.

FBA primarily uses Amazon Logistics, alongside UPS and DHL. Opting for non-partnered carriers for FBA shipments may lead to extra fees and complications. FBA also offers multi-channel fulfillment (MCF) for orders from non-Amazon channels, though at a significantly higher cost—making FBA most cost-effective for businesses primarily selling through Amazon.

FBA’s integrations are more limited than ShipBob—but thanks to its open application programming interfaces (APIs) and popularity, many additional FBA integrations are readily available through third-party developers like Zapier.

Some of Amazon’s key integrations are:

• Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Groupon, Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce
• Operations, inventory and order management: Skubana, ChannelAdvisor, SellerCloud, Geek Seller, Linnworks, Zentail
• Returns management: ReturnGO
• Freight and shipping solutions: AfterShip, ShipStation, Shipedge

ShipBob allows you to provide custom packing materials and designate the specific way you want orders assembled. You can even send videos demonstrating how you want each custom-packed order to be done. Additionally, for 50 cents, ShipBob can supply branded gift notes that display custom messages written by your customers.

ShipBob doesn’t include any of its own branding on your orders, which keeps your brand in focus for the customer. While the company can’t create custom packaging elements for you, ShipBob can help source custom materials through a partner solution. These extensive options make ShipBob the better choice for customization and branding.

ShipBob recently launched a freight management program to support importers with priority discharge at multiple ports, 100% guaranteed weekly sailings, and competitive rates for shipments as small as 1 cubic meter. Plus, the company can help facilitate duty-free import through Section 321 shipments from its Canadian facilities.

ShipBob also has a retail dropshipping program that can help merchants expand their customer base easily and cost-effectively.

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Related: What is dropshipping & how does it work?

ShipBob excels in reporting and analytics, with a comprehensive tool that enables tracking of key metrics and data visualization. Its software provides detailed reports on factors such as peak fulfillment times, promotional results, cost analysis, daily revenue, sales across channels, forecasted demand, sales and quantity of orders by zone, and more.

In addition to helping you track your stats, ShipBob ensures accountability and aids in market research by keeping current reports on its own performance as well as that of major shipping carriers. These features outperform FBA’s reporting and analytics capabilities.

FBA is very limiting when it comes to conveying your own branding. Every FBA package promotes Amazon’s own brand thoroughly—from the confirmation email to the box, tape, and dunnage. This minimizes any opportunity for customization and detracts from the sellers’ branding.

FBA users can convey branding through custom internal product packaging and inserts, but a complete unboxing experience is not possible through the service. Orders processed through FBA also have the option of pairing with a customer-written gift note, but they take the form of plain, Amazon-branded slips.

Some of the most notable special services available through FBA are the competitive Amazon advantages that it delivers, which is why it’s the better option for Amazon sellers or multichannel merchants that rely on Amazon for a significant portion of their sales.

FBA listings get a significant edge over non-FBA items in Amazon’s search engine algorithm. This leads to higher rankings for FBA products in Amazon’s product search results, which typically generates more sales. Additionally, using FBA can help your listing own the ‘Buy Box.’

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The ‘Buy Box’ refers to the Add to Cart button that appears on Amazon product listings with multiple sellers. It selects a seller based on factors like price, shipping speed, seller performance, and fulfillment method, heavily favoring Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).

Another FBA benefit is access to the Subscribe & Save program. It gives customers a discount and free shipping when they sign up for a product subscription, which is a recurring, automated purchase. Among a few other basic requirements, the Subscribe & Save program is only available to FBA sellers, and it’s one of the best ways to have consistent revenue with Amazon.

FBA’s post-sale customer service features are a major advantage over ShipBob. At no additional cost, FBA provides customer support for all of your Amazon orders, including troubleshooting and refund management. Support personnel are available to consumers 24/7, which tends to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The cost of outsourcing this level of support on its own would be astronomical for any small business. So, if hands-off customer service is a priority for you (as an Amazon seller), FBA may be worthwhile for that special service alone.

While both companies deliver an online platform to monitor your inventory and orders, ShipBob’s fulfillment software is more robust than FBA’s, with better reporting, order management, and inventory management plus a friendlier user interface.

ShipBob’s inventory data is also consistently more up-to-date than FBA, and its software provides better operational transparency to see where your orders are within the fulfillment process.

Both companies offer transparent billing and an online billing portal, but ShipBob’s billing generally is easier to manage.

Beginning at the order level, a billing tab allows you to toggle between shipping carriers and speeds to view different cost options. It also provides a detailed itemization of each cost on your fulfillment invoice—visible down to each item on each order—and is updated daily.

Additionally, ShipBob’s fulfillment fee structure is much simpler than FBA, which tends to result in fewer surprise charges. That said, ShipBob users have reported experiencing hidden charges and overcharges.

ShipBob offers accessible support through various communication channels that boast a fast average response time. However, user reviews criticize its issue resolution, citing difficulties in communication with the outsourced call centers that ShipBob hires. Despite these issues, ShipBob’s customer service still ranks higher than Amazon FBA’s, which consistently receives extreme negative feedback from users.

FBA users rely on Amazon Seller Central to manage their fulfillment. While the portal is also used by Amazon sellers who don’t use FBA, it has specific functions designed for FBA management.

This platform allows you to manage your inventory, orders, and billing as well as generate helpful reports. While it’s less robust than ShipBob’s fulfillment software on its own, a number of third-party developers have created apps that enhance Seller Central’s functionality and make it easier to use.

Similar to ShipBob, FBA gives you access to a host of billing tools from your Seller Central online dashboard, including periodic itemized invoices, statements, and helpful reports.

It also features billing data on individual items, called “SKU Economics Cards.” These reports allow you to see the fees you’ve paid on any particular item you sell in a custom date range along with sales and net proceeds. This can help you evaluate and refine the profitability of your offerings.

Client support for FBA users is an extension of Amazon’s Seller Support team. Unlike Amazon customer service, Seller Support is notoriously unreliable, leaving users frequently waiting multiple weeks or even months for issue resolution.

The only way to contact Seller Support is by filling out a ticket and requesting a call or email. A seller community forum and online knowledge base are available for users to troubleshoot on their own. Furthermore, FBA doesn’t provide support to help with onboarding and migration, which can create a sizable learning curve.