Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) ships orders from your own store, Shopify, Walmart, eBay or TikTok Shop out of the same inventory you keep at Amazon for FBA. You pay a per-unit fulfillment fee that depends on size, weight and delivery speed, plus surcharges, while storage is shared with your FBA stock. Whether MCF is the cheaper option depends on the SKU: small, light items in single-unit orders are where the comparison with a third-party warehouse (3PL) is closest.
What does an MCF order cost?
An MCF order has more cost lines than the fulfillment fee alone:
- MCF fulfillment fee per unit. Set by size tier, weight and delivery speed (standard, expedited or priority). For the same item it is higher than the FBA fulfillment fee, and Amazon raised MCF fees for most single-unit orders in January 2026.
- Fuel and logistics surcharge. In the US, a 3.5% surcharge applies to MCF fulfillment fees.
- Holiday peak fees. Higher per-unit rates apply during the holiday peak, from October 15, 2026 to January 14, 2027.
- Multi-unit discounts. The per-unit fee falls for orders with several units.
- Storage. MCF units sit in your FBA inventory and pay FBA storage rates, and they count toward your capacity limits.
- Returns and customer service for the off-Amazon order, handled by you.
- The sales channel’s own costs: payment processing, platform fees, and whatever you spend on traffic for that channel.
No Amazon referral fee applies to MCF orders, because the sale did not happen on Amazon. That saving is the main reason MCF can compare well with FBA margins, and it is often offset by the cost of bringing buyers to your own store.
Worked example: one product, three routes
A 1 lb standard-size product selling at $34.99, landed COGS $9.00. All fee figures are illustrative; use the current rate cards for your own SKUs.
| Per order | Amazon (FBA) | Shopify via MCF | Shopify via 3PL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $34.99 | $34.99 | $34.99 |
| COGS | $9.00 | $9.00 | $9.00 |
| Amazon referral fee (15%) | $5.25 | — | — |
| Fulfillment (incl. surcharge) | $4.60 | $8.69 | $8.35 (pick and pack $3.25 + postage $5.10) |
| Payment processing | — | $1.31 | $1.31 |
| Storage allocation | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.35 |
| Advertising / traffic per order | $4.20 | $6.00 | $6.00 |
| Net profit per order | $11.64 | $9.69 | $9.98 |
Three things stand out:
- The same product earns less per order on Shopify in this example, even with no referral fee, because traffic to your own store costs more per order than advertising on Amazon. This depends heavily on your brand and repeat customers.
- MCF and the 3PL differ by $0.29 per order. Small enough that other factors decide: the 3PL needs a second stock pool, a second inbound shipment and extra safety stock; MCF keeps one inventory.
- Heavier items change the picture. MCF fees climb faster with weight than typical 3PL rates, so for heavier or bulky products the gap usually widens in the 3PL’s favour. Get a quote before routing them through MCF.
When does MCF make sense?
- Your off-Amazon volume is small or growing, and a separate warehouse would mean splitting stock and adding safety stock in two places.
- Products are small and light, where MCF rates are closest to 3PL rates.
- Orders often contain several units, where MCF multi-unit discounts apply.
- You need fast delivery without building it yourself.
A 3PL is often the better option for heavy or bulky items, high off-Amazon volume, branded packaging or inserts, and channels where Amazon-fulfilled delivery is restricted.
What does MCF change in your inventory planning?
MCF orders draw on the same stock as Amazon orders. Two effects follow. First, days of supply on Amazon includes demand from other channels, so reorder points need to cover both. Second, a spike on Shopify can empty stock that Amazon sales depend on. Forecast total demand per SKU across channels, not per channel.
Best practices
- Compare net profit per order per channel, including traffic costs, not only fulfillment fees.
- Price MCF per SKU using the current rate card and the surcharge.
- Plan for holiday peak rates in Q4 off-Amazon promotions.
- Bundle or encourage multi-unit orders on your own store where it makes sense.
- Get a 3PL quote for anything heavy or bulky before routing it through MCF.
- Include MCF demand in reorder points for shared stock.
Common mistakes
- Comparing MCF with FBA fees only. The off-Amazon order carries payment and traffic costs the FBA order doesn’t.
- Forgetting the surcharge and peak rates in margin calculations.
- Letting off-Amazon demand run down FBA stock without adjusting the reorder point.
- Using MCF for heavy products by default.
- Ignoring returns cost on off-Amazon orders.
FAQ
What is Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment? A service that picks, packs and ships orders from non-Amazon channels using your FBA inventory.
Is MCF more expensive than FBA? The fulfillment fee per unit is higher, but no Amazon referral fee applies. Whether the order earns more depends on your channel’s own costs, especially traffic.
Are there surcharges on MCF? In the US, a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge applies to MCF fulfillment fees, and higher holiday peak rates apply from mid-October to mid-January.
Is MCF cheaper than a 3PL? For small, light items the difference is often small, and keeping one inventory pool can outweigh it. For heavier items, 3PLs are often cheaper.
Does MCF use FBA storage? Yes. MCF units are part of your FBA inventory and pay FBA storage fees.
Conclusion
MCF’s cost is more than its fee. Add surcharges, peak rates, payment processing and the traffic cost of the channel the order came from, then compare net profit per order across channels and against a 3PL quote. For light products and moderate off-Amazon volume, keeping one inventory pool is often worth a small difference in fulfillment cost.
sellerboard tracks Amazon and Shopify sales on one dashboard, so net profit per order can be compared across channels using the same costs for each product.
Fee figures in the example are illustrative. Last verified September 2026; confirm current MCF rates in Seller Central.
