If you're setting up Amazon MCF for a Webflow store, there's a step that has to happen before any of the exciting stuff, before the app is installed, before orders flow automatically, before your client can forget about fulfilment and focus on growing their business. That step is getting inventory into Amazon's fulfillment centers. And it's the part that, if left too late, will delay your entire launch.
Before You Do Anything: The Account Question
To use Amazon MCF, your client needs an Amazon Seller Central account. This is non-negotiable, it's how everything is managed, from creating product listings to shipping inventory to tracking orders.
If your client already sells on Amazon and has inventory in fulfillment centers, the good news is they're largely done. That existing inventory can be used for MCF orders from day one. The inventory pool is shared between Amazon orders (FBA) and MCF orders from external channels like Webflow, which is actually one of the advantages of the setup, no need to segregate stock.
If your client doesn't have a Seller Central account yet, they'll need to create one before anything else can happen. They don't need to sell anything on Amazon, the account is just the management layer for MCF. Once the account is set up, they'll need to have FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) enabled, which is the underlying infrastructure that MCF uses.
One thing worth being clear with clients about: setting up a Seller Central account and getting inventory into Amazon's system takes time. Build this into your project timeline well before the intended launch date. Rushing the inbound process leads to delays, and delays mean a Webflow store that's live but can't actually ship.
Before the Inventory Goes Anywhere: Create Your Listings
Amazon needs to know what it's receiving before you send anything. This means creating product listings in Seller Central for everything your client plans to fulfil through MCF.
Each product needs a title, description, and images, but more importantly for MCF purposes, it needs accurate dimensions and weight. These determine how Amazon categorises the product for storage and fulfilment fees, and getting this wrong has cost implications down the line.
If your client already has product listings on Amazon from their existing selling activity, these can be used directly. If not, they'll need to be created from scratch. This is also the stage where SKUs need to be thought about carefully. The SKUs in Seller Central will need to match (or be mapped to) the SKUs in your Webflow store — this is something the MCF Connect app handles, but having consistent SKUs from the start makes life easier than cleaning up mismatches later.
Preparing the Inventory for Shipping
Once listings are created, the next task is physically preparing the inventory to ship to Amazon. This is the part that surprises clients who haven't worked with a 3PL before, Amazon has specific requirements about how products need to be packaged and labelled, and they need to be met.
The key things to sort out at this stage:
Product labelling. Each unit needs an FNSKU label, this is an Amazon-specific barcode that identifies the product in their system. If your client is handling this themselves, they print the labels from Seller Central and apply them to each unit. Amazon also offers a labelling service if your client would rather pay to have Amazon handle it.
Packaging requirements. Products need to be packaged in a way that protects them through Amazon's receiving and storage process. Amazon has specific guidelines depending on product type, things like how polybags need to be sealed, how fragile items need to be protected, and what can and can't be packed together. For most standard products this isn't complicated, but it's worth your client reviewing Amazon's prep requirements for their specific product category before anything gets boxed up.
Deciding how to pack shipping boxes. When sending inventory to Amazon, there are two approaches: case-pack templates (boxes containing multiple units of the same SKU) or individual units packed in mixed boxes. Case packs are simpler and faster for replenishment once the system is set up. Individual units give more flexibility if your client has a lot of different SKUs and varying quantities.
The Inbound Shipment Process in Seller Central
Once the inventory is ready to go, the actual shipping process is managed through Seller Central using what Amazon calls the "Send to Amazon" workflow. Here's how it works in practice.
Starting the shipment. In Seller Central, navigate to Inventory, then Manage FBA Shipments, and click "Send to Amazon" from the Shipping Queue. Alternatively, go to Manage All Inventory, select the products you want to send, and choose "Send/replenish inventory" from the action menu. Click "Start New" to begin.
Entering shipment details. The first inputs are the shipping origin address (where the inventory is coming from) and the destination marketplace. Seller Central may pre-populate some of this from previous activity.
Adding inventory. This is where your client selects what they're sending and in what quantities. If using case-pack templates, they'll create a reusable template with box contents, weight, dimensions, and labelling information, useful for future replenishments. If sending individual units, they enter quantities per SKU and provide box content information either through a web form or by uploading an Excel template.
Confirming shipping. Once the inventory is added, Seller Central generates shipment plans, these represent shipments to different fulfillment centers across Amazon's network. Amazon distributes inventory strategically so it can reach customers faster. Your client enters the date they plan to hand inventory to the carrier, then chooses a shipping mode: small parcel delivery (individual boxes) or less-than-truckload (pallets). For smaller shipments, small parcel is the standard approach.
Carrier choice. Amazon offers partnered carrier rates that are typically discounted, or your client can use their own carrier. If using an Amazon-partnered carrier for small parcel, shipping labels are generated automatically in Seller Central and the carrier handles pickup. For a non-partnered carrier, your client uses their own labels and then enters tracking information manually in Seller Central.
Printing and applying labels. Box labels (FBA box ID labels) need to be printed and applied to each box before it leaves. If shipping pallets with an Amazon-partnered carrier, pallet labels are also required, four copies per pallet, one on each side.
Once everything is shipped and tracking is confirmed in Seller Central, the shipment is in Amazon's hands. When it arrives at the fulfillment center, Amazon receives and processes it, and the inventory becomes available for MCF orders.
One Key Decision: Who Handles Distribution?
When shipping inventory to Amazon, your client has two options for how it gets distributed across Amazon's fulfillment network.
They can send everything to a single Amazon receiving center and pay Amazon to distribute it from there across multiple fulfillment centers, this is simpler but comes with an additional fee. Or they can split the inventory themselves and ship to multiple fulfillment centers directly, this reduces or eliminates the placement fee but requires more coordination.
For clients sending inventory for the first time, the single receiving center approach is usually the right call. It's simpler, requires less logistics planning, and the distribution fee is typically worth the reduction in complexity. As volumes grow and the client gets more comfortable with the system, they can revisit how they handle distribution.
What Happens After the Inventory Arrives
Once Amazon receives and processes the inventory, it shows up in Seller Central under the client's available stock. From that point, the MCF Connect Webflow app can start routing orders to Amazon automatically, any order that comes through the Webflow store will be picked, packed, and shipped without your client needing to do anything.
One thing worth monitoring in the early days is inventory levels. Amazon notifies sellers when stock is running low, but it's good practice for your client to have a replenishment plan in place before launch, particularly if they're expecting a push of traffic or running any promotions early on. Running out of stock in an Amazon fulfillment center means orders simply can't be fulfilled until more inventory arrives.
The Supplier Shortcut
Worth mentioning because it changes the picture for some clients: suppliers can ship directly to Amazon fulfillment centers. Your client never has to touch the inventory at all, it goes from the manufacturer or distributor straight into Amazon's system.
This is one of the genuinely transformational aspects of MCF for businesses that currently handle their own stock. The operational overhead of receiving deliveries, checking stock, storing it, and managing it disappears. It does require the supplier to be willing and able to meet Amazon's inbound requirements, which is worth verifying early, but for many standard consumer goods suppliers this is a manageable ask.
If this is the route your client wants to take, it's worth raising it before the first inventory shipment rather than after, it affects how the inbound logistics are set up from the start.
The Timeline Reality Check
The single most important thing to communicate to clients about this process is that it takes time. Creating a Seller Central account, setting up listings, preparing inventory, shipping it, and having Amazon receive and process it, end to end, you should be planning for several weeks minimum, not days.
Amazon's receiving times vary depending on their current workload and your client's shipment size. During peak periods like Q4, processing times can extend further. Building buffer into the project timeline is not overcaution, it's project management.
The Webflow store can be built and the MCF Connect app can be configured in parallel with all of this. But the store can't go live and start taking orders until there's inventory in Amazon's system ready to be fulfilled. Getting that sorted early is the single biggest thing that determines whether a launch goes smoothly.
Once inventory is in place, the rest of the setup is straightforward. The MCF app connects your Webflow store to Amazon in a single session, and from that point your client's fulfilment is running on the world's most reliable logistics network, automatically, in the background, without them having to think about it.
