Who here sells on Amazon? Looking for advice

mrs_sparrow

So, that is it, I am moving my stuff from eBay to Amazon as I have had enough. I actually would rather not be working than dealing with the crap they expect me to each time they change their policies.

I have to confirm my Amazon account tonight - who here sells on it, how is it? Do you get more sales than eBay? And how do you find it for being user friendly?

Some of my items I cannot sell on Amazon (supplier forbids it) but the other seems fair game so I am moving.

I'd love to know any tips and advice you can give me and also how you find things, when you get paid, etc....

Thanks.

celestius

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

So, that is it, I am moving my stuff from eBay to Amazon as I have had enough. I actually would rather not be working than dealing with the crap they expect me to each time they change their policies.

I have to confirm my Amazon account tonight - who here sells on it, how is it? Do you get more sales than eBay? And how do you find it for being user friendly?

Some of my items I cannot sell on Amazon (supplier forbids it) but the other seems fair game so I am moving.

I'd love to know any tips and advice you can give me and also how you find things, when you get paid, etc....

Thanks.

I started selling on Amazon about 6 weeks ago. Pleased with it so far and had around 150 orders which is not bad as I only have a few lines listed. I have qualified to sell toys and games at xmas which is a bonus.

Still sell far more on Ebay but I am still very new to Amazon. I am so used to Ebay, and still finding my way around Amazon, a bit like getting a new mobile phone, takes me a while to get used to it!

You don't get paid immediately which is a pain but you can request disbursement to your bank account which takes 2-3 days rather than wait for payment which is what I do.

Still finding my way around and am sure someone with more experience will come along soon.

One tip though, if you get a message from a buyer you need to respond within 24 hours or mark it 'as no response needed' otherwise your 'contact response time' suffers. I replied to a question, to which the buyer replied 'thank you' and I was marked down as did not answer the 'thank you' or mark as no response needed....

hubb

Same here. Ebay is dead for me. All the various items I have sold successfully over the years do not sell at all, even stuff other sellers are selling for more money. I too am sick of the constant demands they put on us sellers, squeezing us do bend over more for the non existent buyers. More photos, higher quality etc etc. i may try Amazon too.

londondealer

Closed my ebay account my BP has gone down don't miss it one little bit. Looking for alternatives at the moment.

sequence

I wouldn't rely on amazon as a sole income, it's much harder to get an edge on amazon because all sellers share the same listing, and there's always someone willing to go cheaper. My sales on ebay are about 10x those on amazon. That being said, if I could ditch ebay, I would. Amazon is much easier to deal with.

mrcol1000

I always have inventory on Amazon but only sell a couple a week. The problem is that unless you have something rare or can afford to under cut other sellers it is very hard. Most of the time you undercut anyone they will just undercut you till it gets pointless. At least on Ebay, price is not the only thing you compete on.

Cuddles2012

I've been thinking of selling on Amazon for a while as well. There are not as many sellers in one of the areas I sell and as Ebay fees for me are 11% while a competitor (business) is still on a private shop with fees at 8%. Ebay don't appear to have a cut off point as to when they must register as a business as they have around 153 listings with the least qty avail 10 and most 2000.
I am selling older stock quite well though. I think what may have annoyed me recently was a return request for a £1 item, the first return all year. Strange how they no longer wanted a Halloween item after Halloween though - and did not work.

RFW

I do far better on Amazon than Ebay. If your products are new to Amazon inventory, I'd recommend using Amaon advertising, you can do as little as £1 per day and it does work for a few things. Amazon show you the return, so you can see the click through rate and adjust the ads accordingly. I had a couple running this last month and one was showing as being 5% of sales and another ended up too high to continue with.
If you're selling a popular/common item you are likely to be undercut. I've managed to make my inventory around 80% of my own brand so I'm mostly alone. Amazon is far better to persevere with than Ebay in my opinion.

It's also worth looking at Fulfillment by Amazon which also boosts sales. FBA items get preference over seller fulfilled items. There were a few items where the actual postage I paid was less than the FBA fee (a 750g RM small parcel).

I've been doing Amazon properly for 2 and a half years and I'm still learning. There are loads of similarities but also some fundamental differences to Ebay.

Another tip, if you're searching for similar sold items, clicking the "search out of stock items" box is helpful.

RFW

It's also worth mentioning that you only get paid fortnightly and when you do get a disbursement it takes 3-5 days to hit your bank. That's really the only reason I'm hanging on to Ebay, it helps with cashflow to get paid immediately (or when I like).

I understand Amazon are possibly going to change this early next year but haven't seen any confirmation anywhere.

mrs_sparrow

Many thanks for the replies. I have a friend who sells way more on Amazon than eBay, even though the prices on Amazon are more than on eBay.

The items I sell only recently started being available on Amazon - as I say, the suppliers always forbade - it but I checked recently and some items are on there so there are not many and I do not know whether people will think about going to Amazon for them. I think that it's the same on ebay for being undercut though, some people will sell for nothing or less.

I got a neutral as I forgot to click the confirmation on a refund (stupid I think I got distracted) and so the buyer put in a neutral - convenient that I have since had very few sales.

I am going to give it a go, I will update later when I have had a chance to sit down and read through everything. Thanks for your help.

I have a little pop up store and I am getting busier - I have only been selling word of mouth but this week I start advertising elsewhere.

bxboards

RFW wrote: »

It's also worth mentioning that you only get paid fortnightly and when you do get a disbursement it takes 3-5 days to hit your bank.

That depends on your account - I can do daily disbursements. I can sell an item, mark as dispatched and withdraw 1 minute later, with the funds hitting my account 2 full working days later (used to be around 5 until recently)