Selling on Amazon.co.uk (Seller Central)

[Simon12]

I barely sell anything on Ebay anymore as its to flooded with direct from China sellers and people that only want to make 50p on each item but when I did I had 90% of my complains about incorrect/misleading products/people who stole pictures from my website ignored.

 

[ca_jamesscott]

FYI - Amazon UK is HOT right now - sales through this channel from our UK customers nearly DOUBLED from October to November - that's an incredible increase and shows that Amazon is really shaping up to be the destination shopping site of choice for Christmas this year.

If you're still not listing some or all of your products on Amazon, it might be worth reconsidering....

 

[Mister B]

FYI - Amazon UK is HOT right now - sales through this channel from our UK customers nearly DOUBLED from October to November - that's an incredible increase and shows that Amazon is really shaping up to be the destination shopping site of choice for Christmas this year.

If you're still not listing some or all of your products on Amazon, it might be worth reconsidering....

That certainly echoes our experience...in that trade with Amazon is booming.

However, you need to temper this boom with high seller fees and ludicrously low margins. Unfortunately, the majority of sellers are happy to beat the crap out of the price in order to get the blue box listing, to the extent that we just leave them to slug it out on the price front.

Fortunately, we have a unique product collection which allows us to flourish

Mister B

 

[jcm2009]

We have the FBA(Fullfilment by Amazon) and business looking great at the moment!

 

[adriennep]

We have a relatively new and unique product and immediately thought Amazon was the way to go to get it out to as many people as possible, but the first thing is you do have to sell below the RRP which are retailers wouldn't be happy about.

Our products are brainwave entrainment applications and they retail at £25 but you can download single brainwave entrainment tracks on Amazon for as little as 70p. Ours is a completely different product but the average visitor to Amazon wouldn't understand that and there's no way we could make any sales.

We've decided to wait until some of our range comes to the end of it's shelf life and that's when we'll sell it highly discounted on Amazon.

Adrienne

 

[whatsoccurring]

We have the FBA(Fullfilment by Amazon) and business looking great at the moment!

Have your sales improved from FBA and do you sell 3rd party brands or your own brands?

Our sales went slightly down when we tried FBA. We sell our own branded products, are the only sellers, and have the buy box already.
They told us it would double or triple our sales (in stronger words than that), and bugged us literally every day for a few weeks until we tried it. As soon as they had the stock, they weren't all that bothered about us..

It was worth the try, i'm just a bit annoyed still that they were so adamant that our sales would go through the roof. Whatever happened to managing expectations?

 

[Page]

Down with FBA !!

Never tried it as a seller but it means that you get to tap into their free delivery so why it should go down is beyond me.

Very surprised.

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

What is the delivery time with FBA?

I believe Amazon standard free delivery is 3-5 days, allowing them the option to charge premiums. I would be concerned (rightly or wrongly) that the same service would be used by FBA, therefore if there is a reliable looking marketplace seller offering next day delivery I would choose them.

 

[paretowasright]

I have client who has just trialled FBA and his sales have also gone down 35% + they have had loads of pending orders messing up their inventory for weeks.
Amazon have not strutured the package in a way that will work for suppliers and as whats occurring has said they bugged my client for weeks and are now disinterested. The sales guys are obviously on commission to get people to sign up so once its mission accomplished they switch off.

 

[DansDrumLessons]

Hi Everyone,

This is my very first post on UKBF!

On 21 Dec '09 I launched an online drum tuition website featuring nine drum tutors from four Countries offering drum kit tuition in all styles and techniques!

I have recorded/mixed/edited three DVD's to sell (beginner/intermediate/advanced) in all worldwide formats and i planned to use amazon for this.

I'm kinda shocked at their fee's, i wouldn't charge a customer to use my website - i should simply be greatfull if they do, amazon seem to charge a monthly fee plus charge for every sale - why can't they do one of these? Obviously the american guy who started the company is making millions.

Anyway - back to my problem - I have ploughed all my money into developing the business and simply can't afford to pay monthly fee's not knowing what the DVD sales will be - I have managed to obtain UPC's for each DVD.

I'd like a little help with adding the DVD's to amazon's catalogue if possible from someone who has a seller a/c and i can pay a few ££ if a need to - i just can't afford nearly £30 to 'test the market'.

Many Thanks in advance
Dan

 

[Page]

i am pretty sure that you do not have to have a monthly fee type account except in some restricted areas.

Go look again.

 

[Mister B]

TBH, I'm -pretty sceptical about the whole FBA scheme as well.

For us to trial it, we would be sacrificing:

1. Margin on the postage which we charge.
2. Longer delivery times for the customer.
3. Even greater reliance on one of our suppliers.
4. Risk poorer levels of customer service.

Just doesn't make sense, unless you're going for the coveted blue box. But assuming that a business does sign up in order to get into the blue box, what happens when a competitor signs up as well? How can the consumer differentiate between different sellers?

A rocky road to go down. IMHO.

Mister B

 

[mleader1]

I'm currently thinking of integrating Amazon control panel into my new development website so it will be easier to manage!

 

[DansDrumLessons]

i am pretty sure that you do not have to have a monthly fee type account except in some restricted areas.

Go look again.

Thanks for your reply

I think your right IF i wanted to sell products already listed within the amazon catalogue - for all other products which need to be added i, quite radiculously, have to register each UPC and i cant do that unless i pay amazon the monthly fee.

This is business gone mad - i have each product UPC but surely their sale charge should be enough - unless this is a company hell bent on making more than thay should and crushing glowing businesses.

 

[Innovationguy]

Anyone willing to share what charges apply for FBA? A case sample with product box size/weight would be great. What other variables are there that determine FBA cost (volume of shipping, pallet storage...?)

A common problem seems to be that FBA takes a few days and because most customers don't want to wait rather choose a different seller or different product that is available "instantly". Isn't there an option to get Amazon to fulfill within 1 day.

I am very curious about FBA, because it opens opportunities to sell in different European countries with the local Amazon, which is very very tempting. Thanks to everybody for sharing in this thread.

 

[JamieT]

Anyone knows goods websites where I can buy EAN barcode numbers to list my own products on Amazon ?

 

[bobagump]

We are pretty happy with this ean barcode provider
http://officialeancode.biz

Listing our own products on Amazon works well with their ean numbers.
Hope that helps you

 

[ca_jamesscott]

This is the site recommended by Amazon.

http://www.gs1uk.org/Pages/default.aspx

 

[ca_jamesscott]

If you're interested in meeting some key members of the Amazon UK team and learning more about Selling on Amazon, FBA, CBA (Checkout by Amazon) and Amazon Webstores then you can do all of this in one place here:-

http://www.channeladvisor.com/catalyst/eu

James.

 

[exchange4cash]

Hi all,

sorry to go over this subject again but it is a grey area , and thought id share what i have also.

I have had a good read on here about the asin code codes and sellers having problems listings under other sellers products. Is there any new info, not sure were i stand still but have found out alot , amazon have told me just because a seller has the asin number this doesnot give them the sole rights to sell the product they have to have the copyrights or rebrand it then they have sole rights. Rebrand it how does one rebrand a mobile phone case made in china !!, . Other sellers are adament that if they have the asin number is it there trademark and have IP rights and no one else can sell it, this is not correct you can sell under there lisings if they dont have the above( which most dont )
Amazon need to sort this as it a nightmare ,
any suggestions

Thanks

 

[Page]

I think they may be accepting having your own bar code for an item as making it unique to yourself - sort of own branded

(If it does not have brand on it then you can call it what you want and claim it is yours)

If they do not accept ASIN - Images - Description - Bullet points - then what else is left except the barcode

Unless they do accept ASIN or images or description or bullet points

 

[Page]

I have started a new thread on IP rights to split this side off

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1631765#post1631765