Amazon FBA Small and Light Program [2023 Guide]

• It has to weigh 3 lbs. or less;
• It has to measure 18 x 14 x 8 inches or smaller;
• It has to be priced at $12 or less;
• It must not be under a restricted category;
• It must be New;
• If existing ASIN, it must have sold at least 25 units in the past month; and
• It must comply with the Prepping/Shipping guidelines. (We'll get to this one in a bit.)

Do your products qualify so far? If not, there are several other ways to save on FBA Fees and Referral Fees. Check out Dave’s guide below.

What are the Advantages of Small and Light?

I mentioned earlier that the key benefit to FBA Small and Light is that it cuts your costs of fulfilling orders. That's pretty big, but there are other perks, too.

You Can Save on Shipping Fees

Paying much lower fulfillment costs is the biggest advantage to enrolling your items in Small and Light. As of writing, these are the fulfillment fees under FBA Small and Light as opposed to shipping with Standard FBA.

Let's imagine you’re selling a small-and-light item that weighs 2.32 oz and falls within the 18 x 14 x 8 inch limit (but is larger than 15 x 12 x 0.75 inches). Based on the table above, you’ll be shipping that out at $2.66 per unit under FBA Small and Light, whereas it will set you back but it will only cost you $3.86 under standard FBA.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it? But imagine that you sell 1000 units a month. That’s an easy $1000+ in savings under FBA Small and Light.

Below is a price comparison for our example earlier, with the 5% surcharge at the time of writing already taken into account. You can check out Amazon's full FBA fees breakdown here.

Your Products Will Be Prime-Eligible

Another selling point (at least according to Amazon) is that your products are Prime-eligible, meaning, your listings will rock the Prime badge—one of many Amazon badges that can spice up your listings.

That’s free visibility to Amazon Prime members, which are pretty active shoppers if you ask me.

But here's the catch: Prime customers will actually be looking at free shipping within 3 to 5 business days, instead of the 2-day guarantee, so that “benefit” could hurt more than it helps.

As for non-Prime customers, they'll get free standard shipping within 6 to 8 business days.

No Minimum Order Requirement

Another pro is that customers won't have to satisfy any minimum purchase requirement. Standard FBA only grants free shipping if you order $25 or more of eligible items.

Amazon has also ended the dreaded add-on item feature, so customers can now purchase your small and light products by themselves and not just as add-ons or afterthoughts.

Multi-Channel Fulfillment

A relatively recent update, FBA's Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) is now available for Small and Light.

So, if you're also selling your products on Walmart, Shopify, or other marketplaces, you no longer have to ship them from anywhere else. Just take note of the corresponding fees.

Your Can Offer Discounts for Free

Under FBA Small and Light, some small products priced at $5 or lower and fall under the Consumables category (e.g., Beauty and Grocery) are eligible for a 5% discount if the customer orders two or more units.

No action is required from you, and Amazon will shoulder the costs of the discount. In other words, you’ll be offering discounts without incurring any costs.

What are the Disadvantages of FBA Small and Light?

Aside from the 3-5 day shipping (instead of 2-day) that we mentioned earlier, there are a few downsides to FBA Small and Light that you might want to watch out for.

Some Big Marketplaces Aren't Covered

Small and Light is offered in a number of different countries, and the fees and requirements may differ, depending on which marketplace you are selling in.

Some marketplaces, such as Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.mx (Mexico), and Amazon.com.au (Australia) are glaringly absent. That's pretty weird, since those are big marketplaces in their own right.

Specific Prepping and Shipping Requirements

The prepping and packaging requirements for sending inventory in FBA Small and Light are different (and a bit more specific) than in Standard FBA. If you happen to ship products that do not comply with the requirements, your shipment could be set aside at the fulfillment center.

That said, if you can live with a bit of extra work, we'll talk about how to ship your small and light items into the FBA centers further down this article.

Items Ship in Poly Bags and Jiffy Bags

This one could be problematic for those who ship fragile products like glass. In fact, Amazon warns sellers outright to properly package their items to avoid breakage during shipping.

Some some sellers also report cases of incorrect or missing items under Small and Light, although Amazon also does that quite a lot under Standard FBA. It's probably a good thing that products enrolled in FBA Small and Light are covered by Amazon's A-Z Guarantee.

Summary: FBA Small and Light Pros and Cons

Here's a recap of the advantages and disadvantages of FBA Small and Light.

How Do I Enroll My Products in FBA Small and Light?

Now for the nitty-gritty.

Firstly, you have to already be signed up for Amazon FBA. Enrollment in Small and Light is a simple two-step process: (1) enroll your items through Seller Central; (2) send your inventory into the fulfillment center.

Step 1: Enroll your products

Amazon has a Get started portal on the FBA Small and Light page, which will take you to the enrollment page on Seller Central, but you can also search for Small and Light on Seller Central to access the same page.

On the enrollment page, you have two options: Quick enroll + or Download a template. If you're enrolling less than 100 MSKUs, the first option lets you enroll existing MSKUs or check if they are eligible. The second option lets you download an Excel file, which you can fill up with the MSKUs of products you want to enroll in the program.

Take a look at Amazon’s guide to enrolling new ASINs into the Small and Light program.

If you're going the template file route, there are 3 tabs:

1. Instructions
2. Example
3. Upload

The Upload tab is where you will key in the MSKUs that you want to enroll in Small and Light. If you need help in creating new MSKUs for Small and Light, Amazon has an offer creation guide.

Key in your MSKUs, not the ASINs. They are the SKUs that you yourself assign to your products. In our example below, SNL001 is our assigned MSKU for a product we would like to enroll in the program.

After filling out the file, give it a quick save (You only need to save the Upload tab) and go back to the enrollment page for uploading.

Once done, you can check the enrollment status below to see if Amazon has approved your items.

To further confirm, you can view the item on your Seller Central dashboard and check out the FBA fees. They should now reflect lower fees under FBA Small and Light.

One thing to note: product delisting from the program is automatic. Meaning, the moment you price your items above the high limit ($12 as of 2023 Q1), it will be reverted back to regular FBA.

Step 2: Ship your products to Amazon FBA

The next step is to prepare your inventory and ship it to Amazon. They provide a detailed prep and packaging guide.

Among the requirements are that same-ASIN products must be in clear plastic bags, manufacturer, or seller case packs and that each individual unit has a barcode. You can print and slap on an Amazon barcode during shipment creation if you have no barcode available.

You must label each same-ASIN bag or pack with the total quantity of sellable units—a minimum of 24 units per SKU must be sent in each shipment.

Falling short of this 24-unit minimum or sending in products that are not eligible to begin with will cause your shipment to be sidelined at the FBA center.

It’s possible to ship multiple SKUs in a single box, as long as each SKU meets the requirements.

Lastly, take note of the general FBA requirements that also apply to Small and Light:

• Shipping boxes must not exceed 25 inches on any side; and
• Shipping boxes must not weigh more than 50 pounds.

When you make a sale, Amazon uses a standardized packaging weight of 0.7 oz. for every package under FBA Small and Light, while in Standard FBA, it's 4 oz. for standard-size packages. You can also avail of Amazon's optional FBA Label Service at $0.10 per unit under Small and Light.

After sending your inventory into Amazon FBA, you're good to go. Be sure to monitor your sales and keep your inventory up to avoid losing customers or having your products delisted from the program.

Final Thoughts

Amazon FBA Small and Light is an easy way to save on fulfillment costs if you're selling small, cheap, and fast-moving products. Sure, a dollar-per-unit (or even less) in savings is not much, but it adds up as you sell more units. Plus, you can pass the savings onto your customers to help establish some brand loyalty.

There are cons as well, but if you're shipping small items that sell like hotcakes, FBA Small and Light makes logical sense.

What do you think about FBA Small and Light? Let us know in the comments down below!