Navigating Amazon Seller Central can be a bit like finding your way through a maze. Among the many settings is an option labeled “Is Gift Wrap Available?”. If you’ve been puzzled by this, here’s a breakdown of this attribute – and how it differs for FBA vs. FBM listings.
For those using Amazon’s FBA (Fulfilled-By-Amazon) system, Amazon will automatically offer the Gift Wrap option to your buyers – even if you never select any value for this field. This means all your FBA products offer gift wrapping by default. Its provided by Amazon as an add-on service.
However, if you’re using FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant) where you handle the shipping, you have the flexibility to choose whether to offer this service or not. You can even offer up to four (4) different types of Gift Wrap, and charge a different fee for each.
Similarly, there’s another feature labeled “Offering Can Be Gift Messaged.” Just like the gift wrap option, for FBA products, this feature is activated by default by Amazon since they are fulfilling the order. For FBM listings, it’s your call if you wish to offer this or not. Unlike the Gift Wrap scenario above, there is not option to charge a fee for the Gift Message service.
Now, you might wonder why there’s a difference between FBA and FBM for both the Gift Message and Gift Wrap services.
With FBA, Amazon manages the entire fulfillment process, which includes the capability to offer gift messaging and wrapping. If a customer opts for their purchase to be gift-wrapped, Amazon charges them a fee. You’ll see this fee (typically $3.99) on your Amazon statements, though it should be accompanied by a -$3.99 chargeback which effectively offsets it.
With FBM, Amazon lets you choose if you wish to provide Gift Messaging and Gift Wrap service – and for the latter option, how much you want to charge for it. This can be a nice source of incremental revenue and increased conversion rates for FBM sellers, particularly during the holiday season.
It’s worth noting that for FBA listings, Amazon will offer both gift wrap and gift message options regardless of your individual product settings. But for FBM listings, the choice is in your hands. To enable Gift Messaging and Gift Wrap for FBM listings, you need to edit the attribute on each listing AND also enable this feature at the account-level. Within Seller Central, the account-level option is found under Settings > Gift Options. At the listing level, its typically on the “Offer” tab when editing a product listing.