30 Day Free Trial For MCF/FBA Shipping! Use Code 30_days
Still Have a Question?
We're here to help!
Monday-Friday 9AM to 6PM Eastern US time
Time to read: 7 minutes
Running a successful ecommerce business often means selling across multiple platforms. Many merchants choose to sell on both their Shopify store and Amazon, but managing fulfillment for multiple channels can quickly become complicated.
This is where Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) comes in.
With Amazon MCF, Shopify merchants can store inventory in Amazon’s fulfillment centers and have Amazon handle packing, shipping, and delivery for orders placed on their Shopify store.
In this guide, we’ll explain how Amazon MCF works with Shopify, the benefits for merchants, common challenges, and how apps like ByteStand MCF Shipping can simplify the integration.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) allows merchants to use Amazon’s fulfillment network to ship orders from other sales channels like Shopify, not just Amazon.
That means if a customer places an order on your Shopify store or if you import orders into Shopify from Social Commerce channels, Amazon can still pick, pack, and ship that order using the inventory stored in Amazon fulfillment centers.
With MCF, merchants can leverage Amazon’s logistics network while maintaining control of their own ecommerce storefront. Some merchants even route orders from additional sales channels like TikTok Shop through Shopify before sending them to Amazon MCF for fulfillment. This approach allows merchants to centralize their order management across multiple platforms.
Yes — Shopify merchants can use Amazon’s fulfillment network, but it works through Amazon MCF, not traditional FBA marketplace orders.
You do not need to actively sell your product on Amazon in order to utilize MCF. But, the product does need to be physically stored in an Amazon warehouse. Many merchants utilize Amazon’s MCF program without selling their products through FBA.
Keep in mind that these Amazon’s programs are different. FBA is for orders placed on Amazon’s platform whether placed in the United Status, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, etc. Amazon collects a referral fee for all FBA orders but they also allow you to participate in cross-boarder shipping.
Amazon’s MCF program focuses on all orders not placed on Amazon.com. This means Shopify, TikTok, eBay, etc. Amazon cannot collect a referral fee for MCF orders in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, or Japan. Amazon MCF also does not allow cross-boarder shipping, with Europe being the exception. Amazon will only allow UK stored FBA inventory to be shipped via MCF to UK customers. It is the same for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Australia.
European merchants have more flexibility than other merchants. If a Amazon FBA merchant has inventory physically stored in Germany, France, Italy, or Spain the merchant can offer MCF shipping of that inventory all over the EU including:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
Here’s how the process works:
This setup allows Shopify merchants to benefit from Amazon’s global logistics network without requiring customers to purchase directly through Amazon.
Insider Perk: The ByteStand MCF Shipping app only sends necessary customer data to Amazon. Protecting your Shopify customer data and marketing.
Many ecommerce businesses choose Amazon MCF because it simplifies logistics and reduces operational overhead. Look at it as an added bonus of participating in Amazon FBA. If you’ve already created an Amazon seller account and shipped inventory to Amazon why not sell your products on Amazon and off of Amazon….letting Amazon control all of the logistics for you?
Some of the most common benefits include:
Amazon operates one of the largest fulfillment networks in the world, allowing merchants to offer fast and reliable shipping.
Merchants can store inventory in Amazon fulfillment centers instead of managing their own warehouses.
Amazon’s fulfillment network allows merchants to offer fast delivery options that would otherwise be difficult to manage independently.
As order volume grows, merchants can scale their fulfillment operations without needing to hire staff or expand warehouse space.
To use Amazon MCF for Shopify orders, merchants need a way to connect the two platforms.
This is typically done using a Shopify app that integrates directly with Amazon Seller Central.
Once connected, the integration can automate key tasks such as:
These automations help ensure that orders are fulfilled quickly and accurately.
ByteStand MCF Shipping includes every feature above plus advanced options for growing stores. To learn more about how ByteStand MCF Shipping has helped over 2,000 merchants connect Amazon to Shopify check out our Shopify Reviews.
While Amazon MCF offers powerful fulfillment capabilities, merchants often run into challenges when using the default setup.
Many merchants want to display accurate shipping rates at checkout, but Amazon’s native tools don’t always make this easy.
Some Shopify integrations, like ByteStand allow stores to show real-time Amazon MCF shipping rates at checkout, ensuring customers see accurate delivery costs before placing an order.
Some merchants sell bundles or multipacks on Shopify that correspond to a single SKU stored in Amazon.
This requires additional logic to ensure Amazon fulfills the correct quantity of units and the correct products. The ByteStand MCF Shipping app has a Virtual Bundle feature that assist with product bundles or mapping from Shopify to Amazon.
Keeping Shopify inventory aligned with Amazon’s inventory levels can be difficult without automation.
Many Shopify MCF Integrations have a automatic inventory syncing feature. It is important that those integrations can sync your FBA inventories ‘Available’ inventory level and not the entire inventory count as Amazon marks some inventory as Unfulfillable, Incoming, Reserved, etc. And does not count that towards available MCF inventory.
Merchants need a reliable way to ensure Shopify orders are automatically sent to Amazon for fulfillment.
These challenges are why many merchants rely on specialized integrations designed specifically for Shopify and Amazon MCF workflows.
Many Shopify merchants choose to use apps that specialize in Amazon MCF integrations to streamline their operations.
These tools can help merchants:
By automating these processes, merchants can focus more on growing their business and less on managing logistics.
Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment gives Shopify merchants the ability to combine the power of Amazon’s logistics network with the flexibility of their own ecommerce store.
When implemented correctly, this setup allows merchants to streamline operations, improve shipping speed, and scale their fulfillment strategy as their business grows.
For many Shopify merchants, Amazon MCF becomes the backbone of their fulfillment strategy — enabling them to focus on marketing, product development, and customer experience while Amazon handles the logistics.
About the author
We're here to help!
Monday-Friday 9AM to 6PM Eastern US time
Call us
Email Us anytime
Live Chat in real-time 
Schedule a Video Call
READ
