What Would You Recommend? (Amazon & eCommerce)

[Thirteen]

Greetings!

Since October last year, I’ve been selling my own private label products on Amazon.com, using FBA. In a month I’ll also start selling on the different European Amazon marketplaces (again using FBA), storing my inventory with Amazon UK.

Right now, I sell 4 different products under my own brand name.

In the near future I want to start an eCommerce site for my brand. The reason: better margins and more control (I don’t want my whole business to depend on Amazon – they can shut you down with just one click). The plan is to keep on selling on Amazon.com though.

Although I’m going to start selling on Amazon Europe (UK, Germany, France, Itally and Spain) in a couple of weeks, the US will still be the biggest market for me.


My question: what do you guys recommend I should do?

- Start an eCommerce website for the US alone?

- How about fulfillment? Would you use Amazon FBA or another fulfillment company? Since I don’t live in the US and my inventory is already with Amazon FBA, I think FBA is the way to go? Or not?

- What platform would you recommend? I know that Shopify connects very easily to Amazon FBA?

- Since I live in Belgium I’m near the UK, Germany and France. So to me it makes sense to sell in these countries as well? Or would that be too much trouble for what it’s worth?

Curious to know your thoughts on this! Thanks!

 

[Cameron Ziafat]

Hi, sounds like Shopify would be a decent solution, though you may want to consider Magento if you're looking to run a multi-region store as you alluded to at the end of your post.

It also depends on your budget really - you can set up Shopify yourself or with minimal help from a developer - but if you go down the Magento route you're looking at £5k minimum investment.

Sounds like FBA is doing the job for you - if you're happy with the fees and the service then I would suggest staying with them - especially since you're not living in the US.

If I were you I would launch in multiple regions, but do them 1 by 1. So launch your eCommerce store for the US then begin adding european territories afterwards.

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Cheers

 

[webstore]

. . .The plan is to keep on selling on Amazon.com . .

Do be aware that its reported that Amazon webstore will close in July 2016 and that on their website at http://webstore.amazon.com/ there's a notice saying they are not accepting new sign-ups.

 

[zimone]

Have you explored the option of sending some product to Amazon.com and pursue FBA that way too? A lot of people are successful doing that and if you have a proven product here in the UK and the FBA experience then it shouldn't be too difficult for you to start exploiting the US market too. All the best, would love to have a chat about your private label business if you don't mind

 

[Thirteen]

@webstore , Amazon webstore is a service enabling small business owners to create standalone ecommerce websites.In other words, it's an ecommerce platform service.

It's something entirely different than selling on Amazon! The ability to sell on Amazon.com is not going anytime soon

 

[Thirteen]

Have you explored the option of sending some product to Amazon.com and pursue FBA that way too? A lot of people are successful doing that and if you have a proven product here in the UK and the FBA experience then it shouldn't be too difficult for you to start exploiting the US market too. All the best, would love to have a chat about your private label business if you don't mind

@zimone , it's the other way around I already sell on Amazon.com, using FBA. In a month I'm going to send inventory to Amazon UK as well!

 

[zimone]

@zimone , it's the other way around I already sell on Amazon.com, using FBA. In a month I'm going to send inventory to Amazon UK as well!

Sorry I misread your original post, I thought you were looking to get into the US market. I'd say FBA is the way to go. As an aside is it possible to sell on your own website and have Amazon fulfill or this is what you are asking

 

[webstore]

@Thirteen - If you goto http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200257920 which is headlined Build an eCommerce Site then if you click on the image of the ecommerce site that takes you to http://webstore.amazon.com/ where its states:-

"The Amazon Webstore service, an eCommerce solution to build your own standalone website, is no longer available to new sellers. If you are a current Webstore seller and have questions or need assistance, please visit our FAQs or contact us."

Reported closing date of July 2016 is a long way off for existing clients of their service, but all the same its good to plan ahead in seeking alternatives.

 

[Thirteen]

@webstore , yes but selling on Amazon US or UK is different than using their Amazon Webstore Service.

The Amazon Webstore Service is an eCommerce solution, it basically competes with Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.

This is what Amazon wrote to their Amazon Webstore Service clients:

“We will support the Webstore service until July 1, 2016 to give you 15 months to prepare for the change,” the notification letter reportedly reads. “Your ability to sell on Amazon.com and your Selling on Amazon account will not be impacted by this change.”

That last sentence says it all!

 

[Matt Thorpe]

Hi Thirteen,

I also use Amazon FBA and it works a dream for one of my businesses. The margins are also very low and you can't help because reliant on it! But, you are right not to build your business around Amazon because they could increase margins or move the goal posts at any time.

We did try using Amazon fulfilment services in the UK to fulfil our website orders but it proved quite expensive once you had included the picking costs. These are most than when you sell on Amazon directly.

If you don't already have fulfilment set up then you could use Amazon Europe for the time being to see where the majority of your customers are based. Once you gain a steer on where the majority of your customers are located then you can make a judgement call on the best solution moving forward. I can't see that it would e cost-effective to send everything form the US.

I would try to find a European-based fulfilment company that you can use. It's probably more expensive in the UK because we are an island. Courier costs seem to be cheaper in Europe from my experience.

As for web platform, I would use Shopify. It's low cost and you can use multiple currencies and languages if required.

I hope this helps.

 

[Thirteen]

@Matt Thorpe ,


Thanks for your input!

You’re right, shipping your own eCommerce orders Amazon FBA is very expensive!

That’s why for the US, I’m looking at Webgistix for fulfillment. Apparently they connect with Shopify very easily, so that’s a big plus!

I read about ShipWire as well, but I keep hearing bad things about them. They're also more expensive than the competition (Webgistix etc.) so I'm not going to use them.

For the UK, I’ll have to look for another fulfillment company, since Webgistix is US only.


I’m leaning more and more to Shopify for my website. Do you use Shopify too? Also multi-language / multi-currency?

 

[IanDade]

@Matt Thorpe ,


Thanks for your input!

You’re right, shipping your own eCommerce orders Amazon FBA is very expensive!

That’s why for the US, I’m looking at Webgistix for fulfillment. Apparently they connect with Shopify very easily, so that’s a big plus!

I read about ShipWire as well, but I keep hearing bad things about them. They're also more expensive than the competition (Webgistix etc.) so I'm not going to use them.

For the UK, I’ll have to look for another fulfillment company, since Webgistix is US only.


I’m leaning more and more to Shopify for my website. Do you use Shopify too? Also multi-language / multi-currency?

We are based in the UK and we can link directly to Shopify. If you want any information or some prices, please visit www.fulfilment-services.co.uk and complete the price form

We have many customers who use Amazon FBA to fulfil sales on Amazon and then us to fulfil orders from eBay, websites etc.

 

[Matt Thorpe]

Yes, I use Shopify with a number of clients and they are all pretty happy on the whole. You can obviously get better with a bespoke build but not for the money. Shopify wins hands-on in terms of cost. Bespoke is expensive.

I haven't used the multi-language extension myself but I am believe it is fairly straightforward.

If you need translations then you can find very low cost native speakers on PeoplePerHour.

 

[Pish_Pash]

If you need translations then you can find very low cost native speakers on PeoplePerHour.

& accountants.

 

[Jayser100]

If you use FBA from UK warehouses to other countries it is very expensive. If you send inventory to the US for FBA you will become liable to pay US taxes. You have to pay tax to the state where the warehouse is based - this is nigh on impossible to do, because your inventory will most likely be split between at least three warehouses and, when Amazon fulfill an order, you won't know which warehouse they dispatched it from. In all honesty you need to either a). use Amazon's cross-border fulfillment, if you can make the figures stack up or b). fulfill the orders yourself (for which you will need a US returns agent). For European Amazon's, if you use localised fulfillment you will need to register for VAT in each country. If you don't use FBA you will need a returns agent in each country due to a recent change in Amazon's T's and C's. Recently, Amazon have made it much harder to sell on non-UK Amazon's (see other recent threads on this topic). I've spent weeks sorting this mess out, myself!

BTW Translators Cafe is a brilliant place to post your translation jobs for free. You will get stacks of applicants and some will offer you an excellent rate.

 

[antropy]

If one of the main objectives of selling through your own website is so that you're not too reliant on Amazon, then using FBA would be most illogical.