Amazon selling - FBA

soolin

Incidentally by dodgy medical advice I mean suggesting unorthodox ways of beating an illness that might cause harm. For instance, I am a coeliac and over the past 25 years or so random people have popped up claiming to be able to cure us by a change in diet- meaning that once cured we can eat gluten again.

We see it time and time again, nowadays that tend to start on facebook trying to sell e books about eating your way free of coeliac by re setting your body's immune system - anyone following their advice and giving up the gluten free diet is likely to become very ill, perhaps eventually dying as a direct cause. On the internet we usually just report it to Facebook or Amazon (I think some people have reported to Coeliac UK) who have a quiet word no doubt, and the e book tends to just disappear and is never mentioned again.

immuno

soolin wrote: »

Incidentally by dodgy medical advice I mean suggesting unorthodox ways of beating an illness that might cause harm. For instance, I am a coeliac and over the past 25 years or so random people have popped up claiming to be able to cure us by a change in diet- meaning that once cured we can eat gluten again.

We see it time and time again, nowadays that tend to start on facebook trying to sell e books about eating your way free of coeliac by re setting your body's immune system - anyone following their advice and giving up the gluten free diet is likely to become very ill, perhaps eventually dying as a direct cause. On the internet we usually just report it to Facebook or Amazon (I think some people have reported to Coeliac UK) who have a quiet word no doubt, and the e book tends to just disappear and is never mentioned again.

That's crazy :eek:Was it for actual Coeliac, rather than gluten intolerance?!

soolin

immuno wrote: »

That's crazy :eek:Was it for actual Coeliac, rather than gluten intolerance?!

It was suggested it cured both- and don't get me started on health food shops that tell me I can eat grains if they are organic, as I'm really only reacting to the pesticides and chemicals in normal grain (and that really happened!).

Anyway- good luck.

ballisticbrian

medical quackery and the internet = made for eachother.

FatVonD

I have very, very recently started selling via FBA. I am manufacturing my own items which are small enough to be accepted into FBA Small and Light but made the huge mistake of sending my first test batch of two SKUs to normal FBA (thank God I did do a test batch and not send all of them!) and the FBA fees for a low cost item are horrific! They appear to have lost the consignment altogether now for the best part of a month which could turn out to be better than paying 60p per item per month for storage or 60p to get them sent back to me.

The next consignment (another two SKUs) I managed to enrol onto Small and Light correctly and the fees are way more reasonable and I am selling more of these two than the other 8 SKUs that are still fulfilled by me. I'm not sure whether this is because they are now eligible for Prime or because I have a pay per click campaign running on them, I need to trial some others with and without.

I am however getting sales on two other fulfilled by me SKUs but these are more niche and only bring up two pages when you search so are more visible than the others without having to pay to get them onto the first page or pages. Whether they would sell more with FBA I don't know but for now I'm going to leave them.

I have taken a part time job to pay my bills while I try to get this off the ground so I find FBA really convenient when I'm working because I don't then have to worry about whether I can get something posted promptly as that's all done for me. I got somebody to order one of my items so I can see how they pack them and it was in a good quality padded envelope.

On the down side, I find the different layers of pricing very confusing. To start off there is the £30 per month fee just to sell anything at all, then another fee for FBA, another for storage and then, if you want to promote stuff, another fee for that. I'm sure it will get easier as it becomes more familiar but, for now, I'm finding it all quite complicated.

soolin

FatVonD, thank you, that was most helpful.

OP as you can see even with a seller manufacturing their own goods and uplifting them themselves this is not the easiest thing to launch yourself at.

RFW

FatVonD wrote: »

The next consignment (another two SKUs) I managed to enrol onto Small and Light correctly and the fees are way more reasonable and I am selling more of these two than the other 8 SKUs that are still fulfilled by me. I'm not sure whether this is because they are now eligible for Prime or because I have a pay per click campaign running on them, I need to trial some others with and without.

I'd say it was a bit of both. That said even with Prime it's hard to get new products to sell without advertising. I usually throw a new product on for a week or two without an ad and see if it works. I'd say about 10% of the time it does but mostly not.

I've found it to be pot luck which works and which doesn't.

One tip I'd give that most people miss, is to make sure you have keywords listed on the last page of the item's inventory. You get five lines of keywords that help with Amazon search and with ads too.
Also adjust the price up and down by a penny every so often. This seems to generate an Amazon email to anyone who has looked at the page and can then produce a sale.

As for fees they can look complicated, especially on the inventory pages where small & light items are often wrong. You can see an item sold/order page and if you click into that you can find what Amazon gives you back for an item.

I've taken them to task a few times on fees as they can look wrong in certain places, it is the overall charge you have to find and then see how that balances out.

If you can manufacture or have your own items produced then you're better off than most sellers competing with each other for the lowest price.

I checked out an item that costs about 70-80p that seems to be selling well in packs of 6, there are 20+ sellers selling 6 for £6 and going down to about £5.50. Less fees and postage they'll be lucky to break even. Knowing the lowest price from the manufacturer they could be making about 10p an order. They don't sell that many to be worthwhile.

Please, if you are planning on selling anywhere check how much you will get back after fees, packing and posting.

forgotmyname

RFW wrote: »

You may strike it lucky but I genuinely can't see how anyone with a small amount of cash (ie under £10k) to spend can earn money importing straight from China and sending to Amazon.


Find an item from China and you'll find a hundred Chinese sellers selling the item including postage for much less than you'll be able to earn a profit on.

It may be possible to find items in China and get them packed there, thus creating your own product.

There's also import duty to consider, if you're sending straight to Amazon you'll need to have prepaid import duty otherwise Amazon will just refuse it.

When you try aliexpress etc. you see the estimated item prices and think i can make a profit on that and then contact the manufacturer to get exact figures delivered to your door its often not as cheap as you think.

Often there are sellers on ebay who will have the items on your doorstep for less. So bulk buying may turn out dearer.

Also any faulty items maybe just waste and end up in the bin, it could cost more to try and claim a refund than just price it into your initial costings.

SuffolkSeagul

I know this post is a little bit old but i have just started learning about amazon FBA.

It seems to be that it's all about the product selection process. I've watched A LOT of videos on youtube as there seems to be alot of different bits of software you can use.

Has anyone here made a good income from selling on amazon?

RFW

SuffolkSeagul wrote: »

I know this post is a little bit old but i have just started learning about amazon FBA.

It seems to be that it's all about the product selection process. I've watched A LOT of videos on youtube as there seems to be alot of different bits of software you can use.

Has anyone here made a good income from selling on amazon?

Yes. I now largely manufacture my own products many sell exclusively on Amazon.