selling costume jewellery on Amazon - any comments

Grimbal

I make & sell costume jewellery as a hobby & am currently on EBay & Etsy, I'd like to use Amazon, but wondered if any sellers on there could help me answer a couple of questions please ?

Jewellery apparently requires prior approval to sell. I'd like to find out what this entails but the only way I can seemingly do this is to create a seller account which seems to also sign me up for the monthly fees

So, can anyone tell me:

- what sort of approval is required to sell costume jewellery on Amazon
- what does Amazon charge in seller fees ?

TIA

F&L

Copied from Amazon regarding getting approval, commission I think is 25% plus a referral rate:

Jewellery


Amazon limits the addition of new sellers for certain categories to ensure a high level of quality. The requirements for selling in the Jewellery category are listed below. While our site-wide selling guidelines still apply, please note the additional requirements for this category.

Please note:

Meeting these requirements does not guarantee that Amazon will approve Sellers to sell in the Jewellery category.
Amazon may remove approval to sell in the category for failure to meet these requirements.
Seller Requirements

Registered as a seller on a Professional Selling on Amazon programme.
Inventory greater than one product in this category.
Return delivery address in the local country or offer free delivery.
Able to provide local language support for Customer Service in the marketplace into which the product will be sold.
Product Requirements

The products you sell must be new.
All unbranded jewellery products must be listed on separate seller-created detail pages. Matching to existing selections other than branded designer jewellery and jewellery accessories that include manufacturer UPC codes is not allowed in the Jewellery category. All products must be intended for sale in EU and compliant with all the UK (or local country’s) Laws and Regulations.
Each product must have one of the following:
A valid Barcode registered and associated with the product, or
Barcode exemption, or
Be enrolled into the Brand Registry Programme
Note: If the manufacturer of your product does not issue EANs or UPCs, you can contact Seller Support to request a UPC Exemption. If you are the brand owner, you can apply for the Amazon Brand Registry to obtain GCIDs unique to your products.

All products need to comply with the Nickel EU Regulation.
If you intend to list branded products, Amazon reserves the right to ask for proof of purchase of those products from the seller during the evaluation of the application in order to guarantee the quality of the product. If the seller cannot provide documentary proof of purchase to Seller Support, Amazon reserves the right to decline the application request.
Local hallmark legislation for precious metals applies and must be respected for selling Jewellery in the EU.
Note: Products carrying a certain weight of precious metals require hallmarks before they can be sold in the UK: more than 1g for gold; 7.78g for silver; 0.5g for platinum; 1 g for palladium. For more information, visit http://www.assayoffice.co.uk/our-services. You may be requested to produce hallmark certification from the Assay Office during the application process. If you cannot provide the requested certificate, Amazon reserves the right to decline the application request.

If you wish to sell jewellery in Germany and France, please note that hallmarks are required for all precious metal items, except for those containing less than 30g silver or less than 3g gold.

Image Requirements

As part of your application, you must provide sample product images (JPEG, GIF or PNG file format) that demonstrate you understand our image requirements.
Each image must be:

On a pure white background.
At least 500 pixels on its longest side, although 1001 pixels is recommended.
Devoid of any borders, watermarks, text or other decoration.
Without accessories, only showing the product alone or on a model.
Showing the entire product, occupying at least 85% of the image area.
Showing a single view of the product - no alternate angles or close-ups.
A color photograph.
Next Step

If you are able to meet all of the requirements listed above, please click the button to request approval.

Grimbal

Thanks, very helpful.

But - 25% ?! Is that 25% of sale price or am I missing something ? Given that you also have to offer "free" postage which will be built into the sale price, that is a hefty commision !

Apart from that, I make/assemble the goods myself, so it looks like that I need to show Ni safe certification (obtained from my suppliers), and request UPC exemption.

I'm still in shock about the 25% though - please tell me I'm missing something?

F&L

This page should explain the fees in more detail:

http://services.amazon.co.uk/services/sell-online/pricing.html

They're currently offering three months free subscription. The Amazon seller forums have a lot of posts about selling jewellery so you may get more answers on there.

Grimbal

thanks, just had a look. It seems a minimum of £1.25/item referral fee is payable, which effectively makes it not economic to sell my items on there (around £10 mark)

oh well, would have been nice to find another outlet, but at that fee rate, it's not sensible