When items arrive at Amazon’s warehouse or fulfillment centers, you may wonder how Amazon manages such a massive catalog and inventory, who receives vendor packages, and who keeps track of where things go.
So, what is Vendor Receive at Amazon? Here’s all you need to know.
What Is Vendor Receive at Amazon?
Amazon Vendor Receive is the Amazon Warehouse or fulfillment component concerned with package catalog, inventory, and distribution. This section oversees vendor package offloads, locating order items, selecting orders from stock, package shipments and retrieval, and a host of other logistical duties in stock management.
So how does Amazon manage all its impressive warehouse and fulfillment center logistics?
Keep reading to find out what Vendor Receive at Amazon is, whether you should consider inbound Vendor Receive, the difference between a Receive Dock and Vendor Receive, and more.
What Does a Vendor Receive Do at Amazon?
An Amazon Vendor Receive worker is concerned with merchandise that arrives at fulfillment centers or Amazon warehouses. Vendor Receive means receiving products shipped from vendors instead of from another Amazon fulfillment center.
Most of the inventory received at fulfillment centers is from vendors. Getting and arranging all these goods into easily accessible portions is what will be your primary Vendor Receive Amazon job description.
Vendor receive is very important at Amazon to prevent order items from going out of stock, mainly because of the daily orders they must fulfill. If you want to work in Vendor Receive or consider volunteering there in your spare time, you’ll need organizational skills.
You will work with a versatile team of hardworking Amazon employees and be responsible for basic warehousing or fulfillment inventory. Your task will include keeping up-to-date records on inventory while ensuring they are efficiently organized so they can be easily accessed for shipment.
You should be able to collaborate directly and comfortably with other warehouse staff members to ensure that essential objectives are met, and warehouse activities are completed efficiently.
In addition, you and other Amazon Vendor Receive staff is expected to guarantee you coordinate manufacturing and shipping schedules and strictly adhere to time and budgetary restrictions.
Other duties include:
- Unpacking items from vendors and removing them from their containers like plastic bags, crates, and other packaging materials.
- Processing, packaging, and shipping orders accurately from fulfillment centers.
- Inspecting vendor items and removing materially defective or damaged ones.
- Loading and unloading Amazon Vendor items on vehicles in the fulfillment centers for immediate transfer to their specific storage compartment or delivery vehicles.
- Driving vans and trucks within the warehouse when necessary.
Is Inbound Vendor Receive a Good Job at Amazon?
The Inbound Vendor Receive is an excellent department to work in at an Amazon fulfillment center.
Amazon Fulfillment Centers (AFC) have two departments that handle the many vendors’ inventory and items that arrive there. These are the Inbound Vendor Receive and the Outbound Vendor departments. And while they both fall under Amazon Receive, they are very different departments.
The Inbound department is primarily concerned with inventory and indexing items from vendors when they arrive so that these items can be quickly uploaded to Amazon’s website for order.
However, the Outbound department is concerned with taking and fulfilling customer orders, which means selecting and packaging customer orders for shipping within the delivery period.
Depending on the location of your fulfillment center, the work conditions will vary, with some places managing a few orders and others having to do a lot.
So, you should expect an increase in workload during peak seasons like holidays or weekends when demand significantly increases.
Tips to Succeed in Vendor Receive at Amazon
If you decide to work in Vendor Receive at an Amazon fulfillment center, or you just want to volunteer your extra time there, here are a few tips that will make your work there successful:
- You should be able to read and interpret written work orders.
- Pay attention to the details. One wrong catalog could upset a whole lot of careful organization.
- Make sure to brush up on your verbal and written communication skills, as well as your interpersonal skills.
- Where possible, try to improve your physical strength and stamina. You will be hauling more than you may have recently done.
- Improve your multitasking, time management, and endurance skills.
Receive Dock vs. Vendor Receive
The Receive Dock also called the inbound shipping dock, is just one part of Amazon Vendor Receive. This is where Amazon trucks conveying packages to fulfillment centers stop to offload their content.
This position in the Amazon fulfillment center has different aspects of workers doing various tasks. While some offload the packages, others stack them into pallets, place them in Gaylords, and send them across the warehouse to where they are processed for temporary storage or shipment.
On the other hand, Amazon Vendor is a more encapsulating term that covers much more than just the inbound shipping dock. This includes all cataloging and categorization of orders at fulfillment centers before they are up for order or out for shipment.
Conclusion
At Amazon Receive, you’re concerned with more than just offloading packages. If you choose to work in Amazon Receive or spend your VET there, your duty will be to properly catalog packages from the inbound shipping dock before they are uploaded on Amazon’s website or sent out for shipment.
