Amazon - Startup and Free Postage

[fallschirmjaeger]

This could just be a rant from me as I don't know what the solution is!

After selling on Ebay I thought I may as well give Amazon a try - another channel and different customers etc. So I have started selling as a business on the basic package. When I list an item I cannot give free postage. On an item at £10.99 Amazon are charging £4.08 postage. Other sellers are selling similar items for the same price with free postage. so unlikely that I will get sales.

To get the free postage option apparently I have to pay £25+vat per month to get Pro Seller status. I didn't really want to do this until I'm familiar with Amazons selling process including making a few sales across a dozen items or so. Just so I could see if it is beneficial to me.

I guess I am getting a bit of free(ish), marketing via Amazon (they may Google my selling name after visiting Amazon).

But surely this set up does not encourage new sellers?

Rant terminated...

 

[e-vulture]

Amazon can bring you a huge amount of sales, I begrudged paying it when I first started, but the amount of sales I can get on there is really good. The £25/month fee is noting really.

As for anyone googling your name, not going to happen.

 

[monica_cruster]

I agree with previous speaker.
If you are not willing to pay such a trifling sum, then you are definitely not ready to sell in Amazon.
Just pay for a Pro Seller, and look at the result. In the worst case your losses will be negligible.

 

[zimone]

Amazon is worth every penny you pay in the monthly cost if you have a product that people are buying already from someone else. At your pricing you only need to sell 3 items a month to cover the subscription. I don't think there is any other selling platform which works very hard to get a sale for you, people trust Amazon and if you get your product descriptions spot on you will start making the sales. Send a few items into Amazon, either as merchant fulfilled or FBA and test it out, that is the only way you will know for certain. All the best

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Yup all good advice thanks! I'm just being typically tight, trying to keep costs down till I understand a new channel! I think I'll list a few products as a personal seller to get used to using it and then take the plunge as 'pro' as pretty much on a par with Ebay, which I do now anyway!

 

[Matt Thorpe]

Definitely worth it. You need to remember that Amazon Europe has over 100 million visitors a month. Surely £25 a month is worth access to that? You can then use paid ads to boost your early sales and drive initial feedback that will improve your exposure.

Just make sure you service is first rate and that your products are excellent quality, otherwise Amazon can be commercial suicide.

Good luck.

 

[bharris]

I have recently only read bad reports about Amazon / ebay charging so much and people having to sell at such a low price they don't make any money. The above 2 posts look like they could have been written by Amazon marketing dept (i'm not suggesting anything everyone has an opinion).
Look very carefully at your margins and make sure you include every cost. including packaging, labels, postage, labour, tax, all the selling fees and monthly charges. Then see how many you need to sell just to cover the £25 charge. A lot more than just 3 as suggested (at 100% margin you would need to sell more than 3).
We sold on Amazon for 2 years, had quite a few sales but made a loss. Be very careful before joining the race to the bottom.
I always search for any company thst sells on Amazon and try to buy it from them direct. If i cant i don't buy it. In most cases its cheaper to buy direct and they retailer also makes more money.
As you can tell i really do not like Amazon (i used to buy from the all the time, but morally and financially they are bad).

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

I have recently only read bad reports about Amazon / ebay charging so much and people having to sell at such a low price they don't make any money. The above 2 posts look like they could have been written by Amazon marketing dept (i'm not suggesting anything everyone has an opinion).
Look very carefully at your margins and make sure you include every cost. including packaging, labels, postage, labour, tax, all the selling fees and monthly charges. Then see how many you need to sell just to cover the £25 charge. A lot more than just 3 as suggested (at 100% margin you would need to sell more than 3).
We sold on Amazon for 2 years, had quite a few sales but made a loss. Be very careful before joining the race to the bottom.
I always search for any company thst sells on Amazon and try to buy it from them direct. If i cant i don't buy it. In most cases its cheaper to buy direct and they retailer also makes more money.
As you can tell i really do not like Amazon (i used to buy from the all the time, but morally and financially they are bad).

Yup also good advice and tend to think the way I think! Hence why I think £25 a month is expensive. I also look at Amazon and then google, hence my initial comment about people googling the brand and buying from website, so good to have some items on Amazon for advertising! I will proceed with Amazon and let everyone know how I get on over the next few months!

 

[alanc]

We sold on Amazon for 2 years, had quite a few sales but made a loss. Be very careful before joining the race to the bottom.

You sound like some of our competitors.

I always search for any company thst sells on Amazon and try to buy it from them direct. If i cant i don't buy it. In most cases its cheaper to buy direct and they retailer also makes more money.

You, sir, are a rare person. I do this too. As a compromise, I will buy from an Amazon trader.

For many people, shopping on Amazon is about convenience; their address and card details are already stored so the process is quick. They also seem to think they are getting the cheapest prices (even when they aren't) because of all the prices listed. It is also about security; only one retail site has their card details.

 

[paulyh]

I'm sure Amazon can work for many categories but for jewellery the referral fee is 25% . Some of my competition sell on there and I just can't see how they can make the sums work!

If you can see that you could make some profit then it is worth a shot.

 

[TPH1]

£25.............

So many of these topics just shouldn't be on this forum to be blunt... Try money saving expert forum or something?

 

[Justin Smith]

Amazon can bring you a huge amount of sales, I begrudged paying it when I first started, but the amount of sales I can get on there is really good. The £25/month fee is noting really.

As for anyone googling your name, not going to happen.

Err why not ? Personally I hate Amazon, the first thing I do if I see anything on Amazon is try to contact the supplier directly.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Well I had about 8 items listed since I first posted this and made first 2 sales yesterday at much higher prices than Ebay! So it looks like one more sale and the 'hurdle' of £25 is ready to be jumped!

In other words approx. three sales and it is break even point. I wont be committing just yet would like to see how further sales go but it looks like I will be taking that plunge into paying £25 monthly fee.

 

[14Steve14]

I am always on the look out for a bargain. If I find something i like on either bay or Amazon I always search using Google to see where else it is available and what others are charging for the same product. I will always buy away from either of the market places if possible as it is generally cheaper and from the same seller. I personally sell on ebay and my products are dearer there than on my website because of the costs. I must say that I have no dislike for either market place, but I do take a bit of care over where and what I buy online, and if I can get it cheaper direct I will buy it direct.

 

[paulears]

We've been experimenting too, and it seems that that it might work, but margins seem very small. There are also lots of people in our market who seem to be sourcing the same products and selling at crazily low prices. Our direct sales are steady, but amazon would also need lots more sales to achieve the same income, but amazon also directs people to alternate products which are often our competitors. Time will tell. I suppose three hundred quid to try it for a year might work, but I suspect for us, maybe not? We would also get access to the digital download section, but we already do that ourselves and each new product is a lot of prep time for small return?

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

I've been careful to list only products that are not being sold on Amazon by competitors. When I take the plunge of becoming 'PRO' then at that point I will look at taking on the competition as I will have flexibility over things like postage.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

... Time will tell. I suppose three hundred quid to try it for a year might work, but I suspect for us, maybe not?

I think you can cancel the plan at any time so could be less than £300 P/A!

 

[Sally Sen]

As a beginner the pro a/c investment is worth the exposure!

 

[Dejay1788]

This could just be a rant from me as I don't know what the solution is!

After selling on Ebay I thought I may as well give Amazon a try - another channel and different customers etc. So I have started selling as a business on the basic package. When I list an item I cannot give free postage. On an item at £10.99 Amazon are charging £4.08 postage. Other sellers are selling similar items for the same price with free postage. so unlikely that I will get sales.

To get the free postage option apparently I have to pay £25+vat per month to get Pro Seller status. I didn't really want to do this until I'm familiar with Amazons selling process including making a few sales across a dozen items or so. Just so I could see if it is beneficial to me.

I guess I am getting a bit of free(ish), marketing via Amazon (they may Google my selling name after visiting Amazon).

But surely this set up does not encourage new sellers?

Rant terminated...

Are you already selling? Amazon got in touch with us asking us to sell there and gave us 6 months subscription free.

 

[fallschirmjaeger]

Yeah selling already, still not have taken the plunge to 'pro' and USA yet but only because of time not desire!

 

[antp__]

I feel this is such a negligible amount. As above, the exposure from Amazing will be it's moneys worth.

You are never actually experimenting with Amazon unless going the complete way. IE, Pro, allowing you to offer the free postage you first stated.

If you can cancel at any time. Do it for 3 - 4 months. £90-£120 inc VAT. You may lose it, but that's business. You can never be afraid of failure. It is always an investment in my eyes. OR, it could rake in 100 sales over the next 4 months paying this back 6 times over.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

 

[Ed B]

Hi OP; the Pro Merchant is vital IMHO - you cant win the Buy Box without it which delivers over 90% of the sales for the listing.

In our testing period we sold over 2000 products; would have been a fraction of that without owning the BB

btw....no I don't work for Amazon;-)

 

[Ed B]

I've been careful to list only products that are not being sold on Amazon by competitors. .

Do you mean that Amazon itself is the only competitor on the listing? FBA and merch fulfilled only as competition is a sweet spot, esp if you're using FBA.