You store and ship orders yourself instead of using Amazon warehouses. More control and often better margin on heavy items - at the cost of the Prime badge.
ExampleAn oversized garden planter ships from your own 3PL for less than FBA storage and fulfilment fees would cost - FBM wins on that SKU.
FBM means the order flows through Amazon but fulfilment is yours: your warehouse or 3PL, your carrier, your returns handling. The trade is control and cost structure against the Prime badge, which meaningfully lifts conversion on most competitive listings.
In practice FBM is rarely all-or-nothing. Heavy and oversized SKUs where FBA fees eat the margin, backup offers that keep the listing live through an FBA stockout, and slow movers that would rack up storage fees - those are the FBM plays. Fast-moving competitive SKUs usually belong in FBA.
Read the full FBA vs FBM comparison →