Amazon Selling
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A friend of ours recently re-started Amazon after a gap of several (maybe 10) years. They used to make a very good living from their Amazon sales.
This time around they admit they are really struggling even following the same business model as they previously used and they've also tried all sorts of changes/methods as well. They say margins are so tight in the area they sell in that they are making a tiny margin.
Basically, trying to say be really careful before investing significant sums. Paradoxically, it's by investing significant amounts you can drive the best discounts from your suppliers
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Nothing can prevent Amazon from dropping their own prices. Their prices aren't always driven by sales. For price matching or whatever reason they choose they can drive down prices overnight. Then there are sellers using pricing software, either within Amazon or via a third party. So if a new seller comes in selling a £25 item for £23, the £25 price will come down to £22.Hi and yes. On the video I watched he shows a similar example and according to him the capability of the software is such that it should prevent or minimise that. You would use the software to see how fast something was selling. If it was selling quickly you shouldn't get the drop in price but if it was selling slowly it would be risky to buy the stock because you'd have a bigger risk of needing to drop the price.
It's a terrible business model with way too many potential problems. It looks to me as though you're being recommended to spend £15 to earn £2 on one item. So to earn £100 you'd need to lay out £750. On each item you'll be competing with other sellers and/or Amazon..0 -
Kangoora and RFW: thank you both - really helpful info. Thanks for chatting through with me. I have made up my mind on this one.0
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Nothing can prevent Amazon from dropping their own prices. Their prices aren't always driven by sales. For price matching or whatever reason they choose they can drive down prices overnight. Then there are sellers using pricing software, either within Amazon or via a third party. So if a new seller comes in selling a £25 item for £23, the £25 price will come down to £22.
It's a terrible business model with way too many potential problems. It looks to me as though you're being recommended to spend £15 to earn £2 on one item. So to earn £100 you'd need to lay out £750. On each item you'll be competing with other sellers and/or Amazon.
Our friend thought they had found a good product with decent margins. For a few months they were making some decent cash then sales dropped off dramatically. It turned out that the manufacturer had started selling direct via Amazon at the wholesale price plus a couple of quid, essentially undercutting their own retailers. They had to offload their existing stock at a loss just to get some money back on it.
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Purchased some items from ebay with a view to testing them to make sure they comply. Turned out to be excellent items. Purchased a 2nd batch slightly more and ebay decided to remove a load of sellers. No goods.
Aliexpress is dearer than ebay and Alibaba is OK if i buy huge quantities. But as above if i order thousands and they sell directly i cannot compete because its cheaper to post them from China than me to the next town.
Finding more and more items on Amazon are from Chinese sellers also.
Maybe its the cheap tat that i buy? I do sort by price alone
Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0 -
I wondered why retailers weren't selling stock via Amazon - it wouldn't take much to set up and would make sense to me to use any available method. I've noticed NEXT sell from Tesco's clothes to higher end so don't see why Argos & Co can't use Amazon like they do Ebay. In his video Shaun Mitchell says they don't because it's too much trouble and they don't want to go to a major competitor to sell their items. Clearly that's not the case then and nothing stopping China selling especially as really cheap for them.
A man at work buys loads of stuff off Wish for his own personal use and some if it he just pays for the postage and it's dirt cheap. He seems happy and it seems to last.
I've seen quite a few of these courses coming through I did wonder if people weren't buying as much (you can only have so much stuff) and if their sales were drying up so they were getting out and making money by teaching others how they did it. He offers a money back guarantee via paypal if you aren't happy so all in all I thought it was worth looking at and getting other people's thoughts. It sounds like the market is really really tough.
I'll have to keep my eyes open for other ways of increasing my income!0 -
Argos/Sainsbury are quite well tied up with Ebay. Other retailers probably think of selling on Amazon as being a bit defeatist but there are plenty of large brands who sell on Amazon.I wondered why retailers weren't selling stock via Amazon - it wouldn't take much to set up and would make sense to me to use any available method. I've noticed NEXT sell from Tesco's clothes to higher end so don't see why Argos & Co can't use Amazon like they do Ebay. In his video Shaun Mitchell says they don't because it's too much trouble and they don't want to go to a major competitor to sell their items..0 -
Sorry to hijack this thread.
There's a bloke who lives not too far away from me, that his friends say has made £200,000+ in the past year selling via FBA on Amazon. I wouldn't be surprised by the cars on their driveway.
I'm not going to mention the product, but he only has a small line of them, and is the only seller on amazon with that brand of product. The interesting bit is that he actually sells courses for nearly £1000 on how to become an amazon seller..........
Is making that much money really plausible, and is paying that much for a course reasonable or just taking advantage of people??0 -
I've recently tried selling some Makita gear on ebay. It's great quality, and I priced it at 20% below any other sellers on ebay or the www. I had no buyers, but lots of very, very low offers. I'm now stuck with £300 worth of stock that I'll have to offload some other way. Not a disaster, but clearly not a route to riches.
Amazon are a retailer, and they have all the stats on what's selling in the marketplace. If anything is selling well, they can source it themselves and undercut all market sellers.
Consequently, the only stuff worth selling on Amazon is niche products. As RFW does, make the stuff yourself. Or maybe you can source something that isn't sold much in the UK or you can become sole importer.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
Sorry to hijack this thread.
There's a bloke who lives not too far away from me, that his friends say has made £200,000+ in the past year selling via FBA on Amazon. I wouldn't be surprised by the cars on their driveway.
I'm not going to mention the product, but he only has a small line of them, and is the only seller on amazon with that brand of product. The interesting bit is that he actually sells courses for nearly £1000 on how to become an amazon seller..........
Is making that much money really plausible, and is paying that much for a course reasonable or just taking advantage of people??
Before I read your post fully and had only got to the figures I initially thought does he sell courses and ebooks by any chance.Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...0
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