Overview

Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA) lets sellers who ship orders themselves hand over post‑sale buyer interactions to Amazon’s support team. The program launched for Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN) sellers and can be toggled on or off at any time. Outsourcing these communications can free up hours of daily work, which directly influences a seller’s capacity to scale.

Key Points

• Voluntary enrollment — Participation is optional; sellers may activate CSBA for a single SKU, a whole product line, or the entire catalog, and they can deactivate it instantly from Seller Central.
• Applies only to MFN orders — The service covers only seller‑fulfilled shipments; Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) orders already receive Amazon‑managed support automatically.
• Amazon handles buyer messages — Once enrolled, Amazon agents answer questions about shipping status, process return requests per the seller’s policy, and issue refunds according to Amazon’s guidelines.
• Per‑order fee — Amazon charges a separate fee for every eligible order that receives support; the amount varies by marketplace (e.g., €0.30 per order in Germany versus $0.25 in the U.S.).
• Global availability with regional terms — CSBA is offered in most major Amazon marketplaces, but fee structures, response time guarantees, and covered service types differ between, for example, Japan and Canada.
• No impact on fulfillment — Sellers retain full control over inventory, packaging, and shipping timelines; only the post‑sale communication layer is outsourced.

How Customer Service by Amazon Works

1. Enrollment activation — A seller logs into Seller Central, navigates to the CSBA settings page, selects the products to include, and agrees to the marketplace‑specific terms; for instance, a seller of custom‑size furniture in the U.K. might enable the program for all “large‑item” listings.
2. Order tagging — When a buyer places an MFN order for an enrolled SKU, Amazon automatically tags the order as CSBA‑eligible; the order record shows a “Customer Service by Amazon” flag, allowing Amazon’s support queue to pick it up without manual intervention.