Amazon Global Logistics: Streamlining Your Supply Chain

Amazon’s inclusive Supply Chain service aims to ease the burden of sellers, particularly the Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) program that ships your products worldwide. Recently Supply Chain has been ramping up its AGL leg to offer end-to-end supply chain management, leaving sellers even less to worry about.

So how does Amazon Global Logistics work and when should you use it? Let’s take a deep look at this impressive feature of Amazon’s new Supply Chain service.

What is Amazon Global Logistics?

Amazon Global Logistics is an ocean freight transportation service by Amazon that ships your products from manufacturers all over the world straight to your Amazon fulfillment centers. AGL is part of Amazon’s new all-encompassing Supply Chain service, which manages a seller’s entire supply chain from transportation to storage to fulfillment.

Supply Chain, and by extension AGL, is available to sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) with a Seller Central account. Generally, the goal of Supply Chain is to streamline the entire supply chain by automating deliveries and inventory replenishment, sparing sellers the time and hassle of doing it manually.

Why Use Amazon Global Logistics?

The short answer is to streamline your supply chain. AGL not only saves on both shipping times and costs, but it also frees up the sellers to use their time more wisely. Micromanaging shipments or monitoring delivery times can exhaust both your energy and time, so why not let someone else handle it, and save on resources simultaneously?

Specifically, here’s what AGL can do for Amazon sellers:

ship products from their origin point to the relevant Amazon Fulfillment Center for storage
ship products to Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), another leg of Supply Chain
lower FBA costs by using Amazon’s integrated freight shipping service
consolidate logistics into a single dashboard with access to freight options, booking shipments, and tracking your deliveries
offer both Standard Ocean Freight and Fast Ocean Freight depending on your time sensitivities
expedite customs clearances with customs brokers
provide an array of secondary services like palletization, labeling, and cargo insurance

Another advantage of AGL is that you don’t have to rely on third-party logistics providers to move your goods. That’s less coordination and planning on your side. By using Amazon services for each phase of shipment delivery, you save on both cost and time spent monitoring everything.

How to Get Started

If you’re interested in using Amazon Global Logistics, you can do so in three easy steps. However, before you start, you must ensure you’re eligible for each part of the Supply Chain service. Take a quick moment to review the requirements for AGL, AWD, FBA, and Amazon Partnered Carrier Program (PCP).

When you’re ready, follow these steps:

Log in to your Seller Central account, or sign up for one.
Next, you need to enroll directly in AGL. This involves filling out a short form with your name, email, address, phone, etc., as well as the shipping origin, the annual amount of units you ship, your preference for ocean freight, and either your Merchant Token or MCID. You can go to the form by clicking here.
Once enrolled, you can create an AGL shipment to an AWD center directly in Seller Central or from Shipper Central. If you don’t want to replenish your inventory manually, you can enable auto-replenishment from your AWD account.

Keep in mind that AGL is designed for international ocean shipments. If most of your supply chain is local or landlocked, you won’t be able to take full advantage of the service.

Getting the Most Out of Amazon Global Logistics

Of course, optimizing supply chains and inventory management alone won’t guarantee success on Amazon. Services like Amazon Global Logistics are there to make your business operations more efficient, but they can’t improve your bottom line unless your sales and marketing are also in line.

To help you with all aspects of your Amazon shop, eComEngine has a whole suite of sales and marketing tools to give you a competitive edge. Our software can help you get better reviews, stay on top of your FBA inventory, and efficiently monitor the Buy Box.