How To Start An Amazon FBA Business • Hacker News Board

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#41

Post by shostack » Tue, Jul 05, 2016, 7:39 PM UTC

gregpilling wrote: post #27

I have a small factory in Arizona, and we sell products on Amazon as well as through multiple other distribution channels. A few thoughts came to mind while reading this: 1. China isn't the only place to get stuff made. Look locally. We manufacture our products, as well as products for two other companies who also sell partially on Amazon. You probably have local contract manufacturers like us who would appreciate a…

Also, there's the risk of getting big enough that Amazon decides to do their own "store brand" version of your product. cough monoprice cough

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#42

Post by brianwawok » Tue, Jul 05, 2016, 7:41 PM UTC

komali2 wrote: post #21

brianwawok wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wouldn't user reviews technically be a form of "curation?" It's not like when I search "SD card 16gb" I go past page 2 on the search results.

Sure, crowd sourced curation.

The problem is, what happens when someone buys 100 reviews? If there was marketplace curation - wouldn't matter, still only 4 listings for SD card 16gb. But with 600 people competing and buying reviews for SD cards? Who knows what shows up as the highest reviews...

FWIW Amazon has 1,826 results for that query, and Jet has 35. I am sure Amazon has more unique products, but not that many more.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#43

Post by mooreds » Tue, Jul 05, 2016, 7:53 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #40

mooreds wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, maybe I misunderstand. Is it possible that their confidence is misguided, or are they aware that Amazon provides a tremendous platform that, if they sell direct to consumer, they'll have to replicate in some way?

Sorry, yeah, misread your question. It is really hard to expand beyond Amazon because marketing is so hard. But the few that do succeed can then control the customer relationship, so its worth the risk and investment.

Ah, yes, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing it up for me.

To me, it's a bit like the relationship between an author and a platform like FB or twitter. Whoever owns the customer relationship is in the driver's seat.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#44

Post by bambax » Tue, Jul 05, 2016, 9:33 PM UTC

arbingsam wrote: post #38

bambax wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that work? Do they open 1 in 10, 1 in 100, etc.? Are products sealed at the factory? Or does the freight forwarder seal them for you?

They open and repack everything. Amazon requires a specific Amazon barcode, you can either pay them to do it for you for 20c an item or pay someone else to do it. I found I could get the item quality checked and barcoded for the same price as Amazon would do it.

Great answer, thanks! So quality check is 100%? And what is the defect rate? What happens when a defective product is found?

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#45

Post by kristianp » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 1:45 AM UTC

I don't buy stuff on Amazon because I'm in Australia (the shipping from US or UK is too expensive), but I use Ebay and there are a number of local resellers for any small electronics items I want to buy. Does anyone know of a similar site about 3rd party fulfilment centres that can do Ebay shipping?

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#46

Post by gregpilling » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 3:34 AM UTC

shostack wrote: post #41

gregpilling wrote: post #27

I have a small factory in Arizona, and we sell products on Amazon as well as through multiple other distribution channels. A few thoughts came to mind while reading this: 1. China isn't the only place to get stuff made. Look locally. We manufacture our products, as well as products for two other companies who also sell partially on Amazon. You probably have local contract manufacturers like us who would appreciate a…

Also, there's the risk of getting big enough that Amazon decides to do their own "store brand" version of your product. cough monoprice cough

Absolutely! and it doesn't even have to be a major item either. I am friends of a friend who was selling Australian Noise sticks, and had huge volume on Amazon. Then they went and launched their own line and his volume went to nothing. From 4 employees packing orders to zero, just the one guy doing it all now.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#47

Post by gregpilling » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 3:37 AM UTC

abbasaamer wrote: post #29

gregpilling wrote: post #27

I have a small factory in Arizona, and we sell products on Amazon as well as through multiple other distribution channels. A few thoughts came to mind while reading this: 1. China isn't the only place to get stuff made. Look locally. We manufacture our products, as well as products for two other companies who also sell partially on Amazon. You probably have local contract manufacturers like us who would appreciate a…

Serious question about point #1: I've thought about contacting local manufacturers, but I don't know where to find people such as yourself. Do you also get discovered through Alibaba or is there some U.S. equivalent version of the site? I'd love to try someone local for some prototypes I'm building.

Some US manufacturers are on Alibaba, and I am planning to list us also one day soon. Just select the countries you want, and they will filter the results for you.

If you know what kinds of stuff you want to make, look for someone who builds similar stuff and ask if they take outside work. Some will, some won't.

The manufacturing communities can be fairly well knit also, so if the first company you call can't help you, they might know someone who can.

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#48

Post by gregpilling » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 3:41 AM UTC

teslabox wrote: post #32

gregpilling wrote: post #27

I have a small factory in Arizona, and we sell products on Amazon as well as through multiple other distribution channels. A few thoughts came to mind while reading this: 1. China isn't the only place to get stuff made. Look locally. We manufacture our products, as well as products for two other companies who also sell partially on Amazon. You probably have local contract manufacturers like us who would appreciate a…

> 2. Getting a hit product isn't easy. Mostly it seems to be luck. One weekend I had a surge traffic to my website. Then the orders started coming in. Finally I emailed one of the new subscribers to my email list to ask why scores of people had suddenly started searching for that term. She said a radio show host had told his listeners to go to google and search for that term. Agree with your points about working loca…

Even when you get lucky, sometimes nothing happens!

My friend had his product featured twice on the John Oliver show on HBO. Total sales from that? 1 item!

NSFW: http://www.flatearthtrading.com/one-meter-hand-carved-wood-p...

NSFW John Oliver clip https://youtu.be/Vwkqh3lCgvw?t=2m22s

Re: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business

#49

Post by joshvm » Wed, Jul 06, 2016, 5:16 AM UTC

mooreds wrote: post #22

cm2012 wrote: post #17

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…

> the manufacturers are now getting the confidence to start seriously selling directly outside of Amazon, because of their experience on Amazon. Hmmm. Are they concerned about marketing? That seems to be where Amazon provides a ton of value--aggregating a tremendous number of customers that are shopping. A manufacturer's website won't have the same traffic, right?

I made a bit of money flipping things during the Black Friday sales - a bit of retail arbitrage. I didn't make much, but I got a lot of airmiles out of it.

My experience with FBA was very positive and actually made me consider finding something to sell. For me the main advantages were a) if you sell on Amazon using FBA, you get to use Prime services and people will preferentially choose that over 3rd party sellers on their own b) Amazon will (for a small cut) deal with all the shipping, packing, returns and so on. Shipping was pretty cheap and the UPS van picked up the stuff directly from my house.

It's so heavily automated that aside from the initial shipment to the warehouse - I don't believe you're allowed to dropship direct to them from China - you can sit back and forward parcels to them and they'll do absolutely everything else. The small overhead in warehouse and handling fees is well worth the peace of mind I think.