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How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

arbing.co.uk

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Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#11

Post by jameskegel »

Vibrelli wrote: post #9
ivank wrote: post #7

How risky is it to ship straight from the factory to Amazon? It seems like a supplier could switch to shipping duds/rejects, Amazon would sell them for you, and you'd get a pile of 1-star reviews on your listing. Do FBA businesses do anything to deal with supplier risks?

For a quality supplier, it's not in their interest to sell you rubbish. If you make money and are successful, then so are they. Get to know them really well but make sure you get lots of samples. In saying that, some just don't sell quality products, it's up to to filter them. You can also hire people to do Quality Assurance testing at the factory on your orders.

I'm curious how this would play out in Chinese manufacturing operations.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#12

Post by arbingsam »

Vibrelli wrote: post #9
ivank wrote: post #7

How risky is it to ship straight from the factory to Amazon? It seems like a supplier could switch to shipping duds/rejects, Amazon would sell them for you, and you'd get a pile of 1-star reviews on your listing. Do FBA businesses do anything to deal with supplier risks?

For a quality supplier, it's not in their interest to sell you rubbish. If you make money and are successful, then so are they. Get to know them really well but make sure you get lots of samples. In saying that, some just don't sell quality products, it's up to to filter them. You can also hire people to do Quality Assurance testing at the factory on your orders.

As Vibrelli says, I use an extra step where the freight forwarder quality check every item before sending them to Amazon.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#13

Post by thirdsun »

Very interesting, great guide. As a seller, it's actually very tempting.

On the other hand however, this is everything that's wrong with Amazon. This feels messy and like wild west ecommerce. If I, as a customer, wanted to shop with little to no curation I'd do that at eBay. Since I'm rarely interested in buying that way I'd prefer Amazon to focus on quality products instead of setting up a free for all environment.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#14

Post by awesomerobot »

arbingsam wrote: post #4
nibnib wrote: post #3

This looks fantastic. I am curious about reselling Chinese products - why do Alibaba sellers value FBA businesses? Why don't they just set them up themselves?

Hello. I'm the guy who wrote the article. Just created an account as I saw I was getting some traffic from Hacker News. In answer to you question: They do sell on Amazon FBA themselves. More and more so in the last year. In fact, in the seller center there are two choices for language, English and Chinese. That is why I suggest focusing on creating your own products or improving on existing ones rather than just rese…

I'm surprised that Chinese sellers aren't paying attention to language disparities and hiring translation services. Are they simply trying to streamline price so aggressively that it's just not worth it?

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#15

Post by imroot »

ivank wrote: post #7

How risky is it to ship straight from the factory to Amazon? It seems like a supplier could switch to shipping duds/rejects, Amazon would sell them for you, and you'd get a pile of 1-star reviews on your listing. Do FBA businesses do anything to deal with supplier risks?

What's to stop the factory to cut you out and just sell on Amazon?

That's why many folks use freight forwarders who break out, wrap, label, and send the items to Amazon.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#17

Post by cm2012 »

I've worked with quite a few old school manufacturers that have expanded their business by selling direct on Amazon.

Amazon's easy to use marketplace is the only online medium that has ever worked out so well for companies that make products but are not savvy in e-commerce. The profits from Amazon are giving these businesses the opportunity to dip their toes in e-commerce.

The real advantage to the world from all of this is just starting to appear: In every example that I know, the manufacturers are now getting the confidence to start seriously selling directly outside of Amazon, because of their experience on Amazon.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#18

Post by rbustamante22 »

I have been selling on Amazon for about a year now.

If you have not sold on Amazon you do not understand the scale of their platform.

If you are interested in getting started I would recommend going the retail arbitrage approach first. It is a great way to get your feet wet without much risk. Trust me you will be amazed.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#19

Post by brianwawok »

thirdsun wrote: post #13

Very interesting, great guide. As a seller, it's actually very tempting. On the other hand however, this is everything that's wrong with Amazon. This feels messy and like wild west ecommerce. If I, as a customer, wanted to shop with little to no curation I'd do that at eBay. Since I'm rarely interested in buying that way I'd prefer Amazon to focus on quality products instead of setting up a free for all environment.

Amazon has never had curation. Other places such as Jet have curation but much fewer products.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#20

Post by ilamont »

The article glosses over a critical element: Getting Amazon reviews and positive ratings.

Unfortunately, many sellers of new products take the easiest way out, and go to Fiverr or a similar service to pump up their product with dozens of fake reviews. A few also use fake reviews to bring down competing products. It's a broken mess that misleads buyers and hurts legitimate vendors.

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