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

Not many providers can compete with FBA’s vast warehouse network, but ShipBob maintains a wide global footprint of 39 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 31 US warehouse locations, ShipBob operates fulfillment centers in the following non-US regions:

ShipBob users can achieve two-day shipping anywhere in the US from even one of the company’s fulfillment centers. As part of the service, you get access to Prime-like badges for your website that advertise two-day shipping and attract customers.

Additionally, sellers can expand into foreign markets much more effectively by offering local fulfillment through ShipBob’s non-US warehouses.

For your international orders, ShipBob offers DDP shipping services that display shipping, tax, and duty costs at checkout—eliminating unexpected fees upon delivery.

ShipBob delivers much better connectivity than FBA, offering prebuilt, native integrations with more than 75 partners. This can help users expand into new sales channels and scale their business with new tools.

Here’s a list of ShipBob’s current available integrations:

• Ecommerce platforms and marketplaces: Shopify, Shopify Plus, Amazon, BigCommerce, eBay, Magento, Squarespace, Square, Walmart, Wix, WooCommerce, and NetSuite
• Operations, inventory and order management: Brightpearl, Brij, ChannelApe, Cin7, Cogsy, Cymbio, Fulfil.io, Inventory Planner, Linnworks, Logicbroker, Order Desk, PackageBee, Shypyard, Skubana, SPS Commerce, and Zentail
• Returns management platforms: Happy Returns, Loop Returns, and Returnly
• Freight and shipping solutions: DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS, AfterShip, Anvyl, Echo Global Logistics, EasyPost, FlavorCloud, Flexport, Freightos, Route, Rush, Shippo, and ShipStation
• Ecommerce marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and customer support: CartHook, CheckoutChamp, EcoCart, Gorgias, Klaviyo, OctaneAI, Okendo, Omnisend, Ordergroove, PageFly, Privy, Quartile, Recharge, Rise.ai, Sezzle, Shop Circle, Simplr, Skio, Smartrr, TalentPop, Tydo, Zaius, and Zip
• Custom packaging and design solutions: Arka, Noissue, Packhelp, and Packlane
• Branding, marketing and web development agencies: adQuadrant, Blanka, BVACCEL, eHouse Studio, Envoy, Eventige, Hawke Media, Priceless Consulting, The Stable, MuteSix, ROI Revolution, and SeaMonster Studios
• Accounting, tax, and financing: Avalara, Avask, Bookkeeper360, Canusa Logistics, Clearco, DSP Insurance Services, Firstbase.io, Go Global Ecommerce, Kickfurther, Mercury, OFX, Rho, SimplyVAT, TaxJar, and ZonKeepers

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 can’t fulfill Amazon Prime orders, FBA is designed specifically for Amazon sellers so that every Prime-eligible order fulfilled through FBA receives the coveted Prime badge automatically.

Prime-eligible orders come with a two-day shipping guarantee, although Amazon recently refined this offering to specify that fulfillment and handling may take an additional two or three days.

FBA mostly relies on Amazon Logistics for shipping but is also partnered with UPS and DHL. Sellers can choose to use a non-partnered shipping carrier for any of their FBA orders, but it incurs an extra charge and often results in added difficulties and issues.

Users can also have non-Amazon orders, such as those from another marketplace or your own ecommerce site, fulfilled by FBA. The company called this MCF, and it incurs a significantly higher cost than standard Amazon orders. Overall, FBA is only cost-effective if the majority of the orders you use it for come from Amazon.

FBA’s proprietary integrations are far more limited than ShipBob—but thanks to its open application programming interfaces (APIs) and enormous popularity, hundreds of FBA integrations are readily available through third-party developers.

Amazon offers proprietary integrations with:

• Ecommerce platforms, shopping carts, and marketplaces: Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Bytestand, Groupon, Pipe17, Shopify, VTEX, WebBee, Wix, WooCommerce, and 3dcart/Shift4Shop
• Inventory management: Acenda, ChannelAdvisor, FeedStation, GeekSeller, JoeLister, Linnworks, Listing Mirror, Order Desk, Orderhive, Sellbrite, SellerActive, Sellercloud, Shipedge, Skubana, ShipStation, and Zentail
• Tracking management: AfterShip

Additional integrations are available through Zapier and other third-party developers.

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.

ShipBob also has the upper hand when it comes to reporting and analytics services. Its fulfillment platform allows users to track key metrics and visualize data at an advanced level while FBA’s reporting tools are less robust.

ShipBob’s fulfillment software can generate reports on peak fulfillment times, promotional impact, expense breakdowns, revenue of orders shipped by day, sales by channel, forecast demand, sales and quantity of orders by zone, and much more.

In addition to helping you track your stats, it maintains up-to-date reports on the company’s own performance and that of major shipping carriers for accountability and market research purposes.

An example of two of ShipBob’s shipping and sales reports
(Source: ShipBob)

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One example of ShipBob’s cost analyses
(Source: ShipBob)

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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,” which is the “Add to Cart” button on most product listings. When viewing a product sold by multiple sellers, hitting this button will add one chosen listing to the customer’s cart. An algorithm determines which seller owns each Buy Box by considering price, shipping speed, seller metrics, and fulfillment method. The most heavily weighted factor in determining Buy Box ownership is the use of FBA.

Another FBA benefit for Amazon sellers is access to the Subscribe & Save program. The feature 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.

Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program is only available to FBA sellers.

FBA’s post-sale customer service features are another 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.

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’s support setup has great accessibility—offering extended hours and multiple communication channels. Plus, the average response time reported by the company is incredibly fast.

But a disappointing theme in some of ShipBob’s user reviews is poor issue resolution from the provider’s client support team. Users report that customer service is partially outsourced and communicating with ShipBob’s hired call center (allegedly in India) is often difficult.

Even in this case, ShipBob’s customer service is still much better than Amazon FBA support, which is extremely poorly rated by users.

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. While FBA ratings on sites like Trustpilot and G2 are scarce, there’s an abundance of discussion about the service elsewhere, such as forums like Reddit, Quora, and Amazon’s own Seller Forums.

Unlike Amazon customer service, Seller Support is notoriously unreliable, leaving users frequently waiting multiple weeks or even months for issue resolution. It’s also reported that the majority of Seller Support is outsourced to third-party representatives with insufficient training.

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.

ShipBob maintains a decent overall rating on trusted review sites, with many glowing 5-star reviews. But an influx of 1-star reviews have been left for the company in recent months, in addition to a wave of social media backlash from deeply dissatisfied users.

There aren’t many FBA reviews or ratings available, and much of the scrutiny you see online is of the entire Amazon marketplace platform, rather than FBA itself. But, overall, feedback for Amazon FBA is mixed.

On Amazon seller forums, groups, and in certain reviews, users report complications due to FBA’s labeling protocol, lost items and shipments, and extreme difficulty with Amazon’s Seller Support. Meanwhile, other reviews speak highly of how FBA simplifies the ecommerce process by tackling customer service and shipping for you, and some users described receiving high-quality customer support.