Amazon FBA

[ineedadollar]

I been offered to become a distributor of a product. And I was wondering about amazon fba, I've never sold through there. What's the process like and would it be worth doing for a £10-15 product. What's the other cost involved. Any help would be appreciated

 

[owas]

Whilst we don't sell on Amazon ourselves, we do prep a lot of stock for FBA and there are a few guidelines which if not followed will have your stock rejected. If you are not in the position to prep the stock yourself you may have to outsource this work hence a cost to factor in.

Heres their guide
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G201021850?language=en_GB

 

[Mr D]

You prep the stock and send it via accepted courier to whatever centre or centres Amazon stipulate.
You would need to figure out the fba fees on top of normal Amazon fees and factor in your monthly storage costs too.

For well protected stuff that customers do not normally send back it can be worth it. If it's an item easily broken or where customers can easily change their mind then fba is not worth it.

And you do not want long term storage fees so do not overstock at Amazon. Getting stuff back is a pain, in dribs and drabs over the course of weeks.

For what I stock I have I will not send anything that is less than 3.50 wholesale in, not cost effective. And priced to cover fees - some people drop prices considerably and have been as little as half my price.

 

[Bilon]

Тhat is a really nice platform, as i think. That is possible to earn well there

 

[ineedadollar]

Heres their guide
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/external/G201021850?language=en_GB

For well protected stuff that customers do not normally send back it can be worth it. If it's an item easily broken or where customers can easily change their mind then fba is not worth it.

For what I stock I have I will not send anything that is less than 3.50 wholesale in, not cost effective. And priced to cover fees - some people drop prices considerably and have been as little as half my price.

thank for the input, I might just go down the route of selling on amazon without fba, product range will cost me £2-6 shouldnt have many returns as its not really a product which breaks see how it sells and go from their. is their a big difference in how many sales i should expect from doing it that way over fba

 

[Phil Sproson Photography]

I have done both FBA and fulfilment myself on the same product, and there is a caveat, the product carries a good number of reviews already, but no noticeable difference in sales volume between doing it myself or Amazon handling it all. Reviews help lots.

 

[JamieM]

thank for the input, I might just go down the route of selling on amazon without fba, product range will cost me £2-6 shouldnt have many returns as its not really a product which breaks see how it sells and go from their. is their a big difference in how many sales i should expect from doing it that way over fba

I sell on Amazon FBA and FBM and FBM sales are very rare for my business. You might do better if your products or equivalents aren't available FBA from other sellers. But mostly, in my experience, the majority of customers want Amazon fulfilment, partly because many are prime members.

Also if you are starting a new Amazon account, you won't get the buy box for FBM for a while (90 days I think) which means you will get almost zero exposure unless you have a unique brand name people are already searching for. No buy box also means no PPC delivery so it's difficult to get going.

I would recommend doing FBA to get started at least.

 

[Mr D]

thank for the input, I might just go down the route of selling on amazon without fba, product range will cost me £2-6 shouldnt have many returns as its not really a product which breaks see how it sells and go from their. is their a big difference in how many sales i should expect from doing it that way over fba

Prime customers can search for prime only products - basically Amazon and fba products. They get quick delivery - customer orders Sunday morning from you they will not get the product before Tuesday? Order from Amazon or fba - delivery Monday morning.

Overall though your sales will not be massively less fulfilling yourself. Some customers search out non Amazon sellers on Amazon.

Oh and if you get a new Amazon account then expect verification to take many weeks and once you start selling, payment goes to your bank around 4 weeks after sale.
Older accounts pre 2015 it's a lot quicker payment.

 

[apricot]

Search your product on Amazon first to check the market... make sure you use many keywords so you can get a good idea how many competitors you have there

If you think there is a market, I recommend you to sell it yourself first and see how you go

If it starts selling at least 5 a month, then consider FBA but don't send too many items. If it doesn't sell, it may cost you more than you expect

 

[anonuk]

One thing to be careful of with Amazon, they now do a random “3 asin check” for new sellers. This means you’ll get suspended relatively early, and Amazon will expect you to be able to provide proper invoices from authorised distributors of the brand (retail receipts are not allowed) to prove the products are genuine and that you have a proper chain of supply.

 

[ineedadollar]

does anyone also sell on ebay whats the numbers in comparison to amazon.
I used to do alot of selling on ebay and found the numbers were 80/20 ebay to amazon but thats going back 10 years.
Im thinking to start off on ebay and see the numbers there and see if there is a demand for the brand

 

[Mr D]

does anyone also sell on ebay whats the numbers in comparison to amazon.
I used to do alot of selling on ebay and found the numbers were 80/20 ebay to amazon but thats going back 10 years.
Im thinking to start off on ebay and see the numbers there and see if there is a demand for the brand

We sell a lot more on eBay, we also list a lot more on eBay. Seperate business.
Overall in past decade we have found that some stuff sells well on one site but not the other. Our most popular of one item on eBay may not sell at all on Amazon. And vice versa.
So in the end we purchased for particular sites, keeping part of the research on items seperate.

Amazon used to be far the biggest of the two sites for our sales, now we have eBay with higher sales per listing.
Payment a lot quicker and less interference from the bots helps.

 

[Larry Fong]

There are some Amazon FBA courses may be helpful. Some of them are quite expensive but a few can be subscribed on monthly basic.

 

[Larry Fong]

There are some Amazon FBA courses may be helpful. Some of them are quite expensive but a few can be subscribed on monthly basic.

 

[Mr D]

There are some Amazon FBA courses may be helpful. Some of them are quite expensive but a few can be subscribed on monthly basic.

Or can ask on the amazon forums, much cheaper - free.
Really no need to pay money to learn how to do FBA.

 

[ineedadollar]

We sell a lot more on eBay, we also list a lot more on eBay. Seperate business.
Overall in past decade we have found that some stuff sells well on one site but not the other. Our most popular of one item on eBay may not sell at all on Amazon. And vice versa.
So in the end we purchased for particular sites, keeping part of the research on items seperate.

Amazon used to be far the biggest of the two sites for our sales, now we have eBay with higher sales per listing.
Payment a lot quicker and less interference from the bots helps.

interesting that ebay gets higher sales on recycling day always see houses with amazon boxes outside.

 

[Mr D]

interesting that ebay gets higher sales on recycling day always see houses with amazon boxes outside.

Amazon shifts a lot of goods. Ebay sellers may well use their own packaging.
I use some ebay branded boxes but its around a fifth of total box sizes needed for our stuff.
Useful and cheap (we get a £10 voucher towards packaging every month as part of featured shop subscription) but nowhere near covering as many packages as amazon will ship.

Plus some ebay sales will arrive in amazon packaging anyway - sellers using FBA can sell on other sites and have amazon fulfil the order, using amazon staff packaging in amazon boxes. For a price.

Not a bad price to do that too - some places will be cheaper, some more expensive. More importantly is time - someone else packing and sending stuff means you can get on with other stuff.

 

[chickenlady]

Amazon do something called FBA Small & Light but the top price is £9 so it might be a bit low for your items? I don't use FBA so I can't say how it works but I believe it is cheaper than standard FBA and if your price point is £10, may be worth a look. Here is some info:
If your products are priced at less than £9, weigh less than or equal to 250g (including packaging weight), have dimensions less than or equal to 30 x 22 x 2.4 cm, and are listed on Amazon.co.uk, they may be eligible to be fulfilled with our new FBA Small and Light programme ›

 

[Mr D]

Amazon do something called FBA Small & Light but the top price is £9 so it might be a bit low for your items? I don't use FBA so I can't say how it works but I believe it is cheaper than standard FBA and if your price point is £10, may be worth a look. Here is some info:
If your products are priced at less than £9, weigh less than or equal to 250g (including packaging weight), have dimensions less than or equal to 30 x 22 x 2.4 cm, and are listed on Amazon.co.uk, they may be eligible to be fulfilled with our new FBA Small and Light programme ›

Yes, small and light has much lower FBA costs. However it also has certain requirements - minimum sales level and one place to send the goods (which will usually be different than the 3 or 4 places the rest of your stuff goes). Least was the case last I looked.

 

[owas]

Interestingly I was told recently that a larger portion of amazon buyers as you'd expect, shop via mobile. Now when you select your product you have the option of other sellers to choose who you buy your product from. However, the bigger percentage of buyers on mobile don't click on this, but the simpler option of the first/top seller. Unless you are combined FBA and lowest price, you won't be the first seller on that list, so I have been told.

 

[Mr D]

Interestingly I was told recently that a larger portion of amazon buyers as you'd expect, shop via mobile. Now when you select your product you have the option of other sellers to choose who you buy your product from. However, the bigger percentage of buyers on mobile don't click on this, but the simpler option of the first/top seller. Unless you are combined FBA and lowest price, you won't be the first seller on that list, so I have been told.

Depends how quick you want to sell stuff.

I've competitors who will outsell me probably 10 to 1 or more. And far lower price.
So it takes me a month to sell a carton of 32 of the item - at a price I set that gives a good profit. Quite possibly making more profit from 32 than competitor at number 1 does from 320.
Chasing sales is chasing turnover. Sometimes it is needed - sometimes. Usually its folly, turnover for the sake of turnover is a lot of work. Why spend 10 hours working when can spend an hour for the same end result?

There will be people who will always go for being the cheapest price, the demographic they chase wants the cheapest price. And very easy for a competitor to turn up with the same desire and chasing the same demographic.
Their prices drop below wholesale I'm buying from them!

 

[coppernicium12]

Hello.

I am looking to get into selling products on Amazon via FBA. From what I have understood Private Label and Wholesale are the most sustainable selling methods. Initially, I wanted to get started with online arbitrage, however, after reading about it on several forums, I understood that the main issues come from products being gated and Amazon requiring invoices to verify that the products that you are selling are legit. Moreover, receipts from retail stores will not be sufficient for Amz for verification. As I am based in the UK I was wondering how often Amz demands you to show them invoices.

I have also considered selling on eBay rather than Amz, as apparently, they are less strict about online arbitrage. Could anyone confirm whether that is true or not? Also, could anyone recommend any places in the UK you could source from?

Another question I had was whether you have to put your own label and trademark products you buy from China, in order to sell products on either Amz on eBay, or could I just get a wholesale invoice from the manufacturer and that would be enough? I have read that in the UK you could get a trademark for a couple of thousand pounds.

I have read about software such as JungleScout and ViralLaunch, however, I was wondering how necessary are they for just starting out, and are there any alternative free options out there?

Any advice or help with any of those questions would be greatly appreciated.