Amazon sales - experiences
Discussion
Nightmare unless you sell a super simple item.
Amazon don’t give a s
t about their merchants...and if you go the FBA route, they don’t give a st about keeping your stock in good condition (I had returns because some items turned up covered in oil...no oil in what we were selling).
Avoid. Use eBay.
Amazon don’t give a s
t about their merchants...and if you go the FBA route, they don’t give a st about keeping your stock in good condition (I had returns because some items turned up covered in oil...no oil in what we were selling).Avoid. Use eBay.
Hello,
We sell on Amazon both in the U.K. and USA quite a bit (last year we sent out via FBM and FBA about 150,000 parcels). We primarily sell coffee (although now take on other prodcust / brands who want to trade on platforms but don’t know where to begin).
We sell on other platforms as well eBay and Groupon) but Amazon is the biggest.
It is very stringent and if you don’t play by their rules, they act first against you and ask questions later which can be incredibly frustrating at times but you just have to accept that as part of trading on Amazon and quickly learn the rules.
It does depend on what you are selling as to whether Amazon is the right route but if in any way consumer related then it usually can work.
However, like any third party marketplace, I always view it as the wild Wild West where it is somewhat tricky to navigate especially when you come up against competitors who don’t always react rationally which is somewhat crazy but in the end they (usually) wash through.
Re FBA - I know what you mean about not always looking after your stuff. This happens to us occasionally and also when sending stuff in, it comes back allegedly damaged via transit only to find the product in perfect shape and cannot find any damage. Indeed, we have just lunched a pilot program for Amazon in the past few weeks where we send out FBA items ourselves from our warehouse. We had a bunch of guys fly over from Seattle to help set it up and we are in the process of rolling it out which means you don’t need to get it into their warehouse to get it available for Prime. For those who sell on Amazon, think SFP but on steroids.
Happy to answer more questions or PM me if you wish.
We sell on Amazon both in the U.K. and USA quite a bit (last year we sent out via FBM and FBA about 150,000 parcels). We primarily sell coffee (although now take on other prodcust / brands who want to trade on platforms but don’t know where to begin).
We sell on other platforms as well eBay and Groupon) but Amazon is the biggest.
It is very stringent and if you don’t play by their rules, they act first against you and ask questions later which can be incredibly frustrating at times but you just have to accept that as part of trading on Amazon and quickly learn the rules.
It does depend on what you are selling as to whether Amazon is the right route but if in any way consumer related then it usually can work.
However, like any third party marketplace, I always view it as the wild Wild West where it is somewhat tricky to navigate especially when you come up against competitors who don’t always react rationally which is somewhat crazy but in the end they (usually) wash through.
Re FBA - I know what you mean about not always looking after your stuff. This happens to us occasionally and also when sending stuff in, it comes back allegedly damaged via transit only to find the product in perfect shape and cannot find any damage. Indeed, we have just lunched a pilot program for Amazon in the past few weeks where we send out FBA items ourselves from our warehouse. We had a bunch of guys fly over from Seattle to help set it up and we are in the process of rolling it out which means you don’t need to get it into their warehouse to get it available for Prime. For those who sell on Amazon, think SFP but on steroids.
Happy to answer more questions or PM me if you wish.
SFP on steroids , I like the sound of that!
Are the logistics different to SFP?
I'm on SFP via RM Tracked 24, but it just doesn't work well for Large Letters, so my volumes are low.
£3.11 Tracked 24 LBT (Letter Box Tracked)
£0.80 FBA Small and Light
FBA wins.
Amazon Logistics do have a 3 day service for £1 just for Large Letters, but it's too slow for SFP Small and Light.
Are the logistics different to SFP?
I'm on SFP via RM Tracked 24, but it just doesn't work well for Large Letters, so my volumes are low.
£3.11 Tracked 24 LBT (Letter Box Tracked)
£0.80 FBA Small and Light
FBA wins.
Amazon Logistics do have a 3 day service for £1 just for Large Letters, but it's too slow for SFP Small and Light.
Cheekymeerkat,
Yes logistics are different.
My shipping rates are FBA rates which you would normally get if you shipping it into an Amazon FC.
It makes quite a sizeable difference vs. SFP in terms of shipping prices. I had never used SFP as the shipping rates were always too expensive vs FBA like your example shows.
Yes logistics are different.
My shipping rates are FBA rates which you would normally get if you shipping it into an Amazon FC.
It makes quite a sizeable difference vs. SFP in terms of shipping prices. I had never used SFP as the shipping rates were always too expensive vs FBA like your example shows.
thewharftrader -
Is this a new amazon program they are rolling out or somthing you are developing? I fall into the same boat with all our items being large letter and the prices do not work for business model.
We have our top sellers in FBA small and light but we would like to have all our products offered with prime which would work if the prices were simiar to the FBA price.
Is this a new amazon program they are rolling out or somthing you are developing? I fall into the same boat with all our items being large letter and the prices do not work for business model.
We have our top sellers in FBA small and light but we would like to have all our products offered with prime which would work if the prices were simiar to the FBA price.
It is something Amazon would like to roll out across the U.K. however I believe I am the sole U.K. guinea pig at the moment (gulp).
It is quite clunky at the moment but I know they are developing it all the time.
It is very early days though. After months of going back and forth, we finally launched a few weeks ago. To put into perspective, for the items in this Prime program, they are giving me 3 days to wrap and pack and then on a 48 hour service - hardly Prime!!! It’s all these things that they are working on smoothing out.
It is quite clunky at the moment but I know they are developing it all the time.
It is very early days though. After months of going back and forth, we finally launched a few weeks ago. To put into perspective, for the items in this Prime program, they are giving me 3 days to wrap and pack and then on a 48 hour service - hardly Prime!!! It’s all these things that they are working on smoothing out.
Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff