FBA and Importing Goods From China

[SJVC]

Hey everyone,

My first post here so I thought my first thread would be to answer any questions anyone has regarding to Fulfillment By Amazon (or any other questions on Amazon/eBay) or importing goods from China. I have been importing goods and selling them online for around three years so I know a decent amount but am not an expert yet

Read Mj's book around a week ago and joined the forum the other day which so far seems really great.

Cheers.

 

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[MMatt]

What is your system for finding new products that dont have massive competition and good margins. I have days where I search three hours without any success.

Average amount of profit per sale?

How many products for sale at one time?

How many sales per day on average, do you have one item that is much more popular than others?

Do you rebrand niche products or import anything that sells well?

Do you have an LLC setup, if so how long were you selling before you set it up?

 

[RBefort]

Do you stick to one niche or one peoduct, or sell a wide variety of products?

Along with that, how did you go about choosing your product(s)?

Is this your sole job, or do this for extra cash on side?

Do you strictly sell om Amazon, or do ebay as well?

It's early for me...im sure ill have more later!

PS welcome aboard

 

[JimClark]

Do you go to China to source your products and meet with the factories or deal with them using Alibaba/email? Have you or do you use importing agents?

 

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[ped89]

Getting ready to place our first inventory order (getting samples sent over first), any advice, tips or things to be cautious would be useful for me to know

Cheers for doing the AMA - appreciate it.

 

[SJVC]

Wow, great to see good questions coming from you guys!

What is your system for finding new products that dont have massive competition and good margins. I have days where I search three hours without any success.

Average amount of profit per sale?

How many products for sale at one time?

How many sales per day on average, do you have one item that is much more popular than others?

Do you rebrand niche products or import anything that sells well?

Do you have an LLC setup, if so how long were you selling before you set it up?

I usually find new products by looking at the Amazon top seller lists and see what I can source, I mainly use Aliexpress although I have used dhgate before, they are basically the same website. Alibaba is a bit different in that it is harder to order smaller quantities and is usually a bit slower to order items because you are directly dealing with manufacturers.

Average amount can vary, the rule of thumb I use is that I want to at least double my investment, eg I spend £500 I want to net at least £1000. Having said this if an item sells a lot it is okay to spend £500 to £600 back if you can do it quick.

Atm I only have around 10 products that are the main sellers, it might not sound a lot but if you find items that sell well you don't need loads of different products.

I probably average around 30-40 items sold a day, at an average of £10 an item.

Not rebrandng atm, but looking into it for protection

I think an LLC is the equivalent of an LTD here in the UK, I'm actually a sole trader atm and am in the process of changing over to a LTD.

Do you stick to one niche or one peoduct, or sell a wide variety of products?

Along with that, how did you go about choosing your product(s)?

Is this your sole job, or do this for extra cash on side?

Do you strictly sell om Amazon, or do ebay as well?

It's early for me...im sure ill have more later!

PS welcome aboard

I sell whatever sells! Although remember super obvious products like iPhone cases will always be stupidly competitive and are not worth selling due to the penny margins.

I think choosing products is answered above but also look at the sales rank of items on Amazon, try and go for <1000.

This is my sole job atm, but am looking to start my own 'real' business after reading tmf .

I did start on ebay, currently don't sell on there but am going to start selling again on there.

Do you go to China to source your products and meet with the factories or deal with them using Alibaba/email? Have you or do you use importing agents?

I would never dream of going to China to source products unless I was placing a HUGE order or it was critical to starting a new business that required tooling etc. Message sellers on Aliexpress if you have questions, 99% of the time they are happy to help.

Getting ready to place our first inventory order (getting samples sent over first), any advice, tips or things to be cautious would be useful for me to know

Cheers for doing the AMA - appreciate it.

Nice one! Samples is a good idea. One thing I would say is start small, say for example you see a potential product, buy no more than £50s worth is you can, then once those sell with no hiccups you know you can progress to the more substantial orders. This keeps the risk low and gives you an idea of how many items you can sell within a week/month/year.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My first post here so I thought my first thread would be to answer any questions anyone has regarding to Fulfillment By Amazon (or any other questions on Amazon/eBay) or importing goods from China. I have been importing goods and selling them online for around three years so I know a decent amount but am not an expert yet

Thank you for offering up the AMA.

 

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[MMatt]

Thanks for the answers, I thought of another. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors to make sure you get sales over them?

 

[JimClark]

This is my sole job atm, but am looking to start my own 'real' business after reading tmf .

Why are you not scaling what is already working for you?

 

[Harley]

Why are you not scaling what is already working for you?

I thought this too - Sounds like you are making approx !40,000 pounds a year gross. So, assuming your net profit is somewhere in the
60-80,000 pounds range. For the U.K that's a pretty decent take for small scale. As previous post stead, why not scale? Have you found to sell those 30-40 items per day, it is taking too much time and effort?
Thanks

 

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[ddall]

Thanks for doing this:

My questions:

1) Are you using Amazon.com or UK? If .com, what is your shipping process from China to FBA?
2) What methods are you using to drive sales/traffic (seo, youtube, lists, FB, ppc, amazon ads, etc?)
3) What insights or tips can you share?
4)Are you insured (product liability)

 

[SJVC]

Thank you for offering up the AMA.

Your welcome MJ!

Thanks for the answers, I thought of another. How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors to make sure you get sales over them?

No worries man. Well if you are competing against other sellers then the money is with the buy box which is primarily chosen by who has the lowest price (account rating is also taken into account). So its a case of checking prices and making sure you abide by Amazon's rules and getting good feedback.

Why are you not scaling what is already working for you?

Oh I am scaling it! This is just where I am now. What I meant was because all the stock is FBA I do have a good amount of free time to work on a business that has a higher amount of control and a higher entry barrier.

I thought this too - Sounds like you are making approx !40,000 pounds a year gross. So, assuming your net profit is somewhere in the
60-80,000 pounds range. For the U.K that's a pretty decent take for small scale. As previous post stead, why not scale? Have you found to sell those 30-40 items per day, it is taking too much time and effort?
Thanks

It doesn't take up too much time once you have found the products, just depends on how long you want to research products really, FBA is very efficient time wise. And as stated before I am scaling now alongside other projects.

Thanks for doing this:

My questions:

1) Are you using Amazon.com or UK? If .com, what is your shipping process from China to FBA?
2) What methods are you using to drive sales/traffic (seo, youtube, lists, FB, ppc, amazon ads, etc?)
3) What insights or tips can you share?
4)Are you insured (product liability)

Your welcome man, I use UK and some European Amazon sites. The stock has to go through me then to the a warehouse, the stock can't go directly to Amazon, although it would be amazing if it could! I don't use any methods to drive traffic... find something that sells and sell it! Although at the moment I am looking into my own website where of course SEO etc plays a much bigger role. Insights I would say... Don't try and over complicate things, look for a good sales rank (<1000), factor all your costs in before you buy an item to make sure it is profitable, also look at Amazons rules; things like not replying to customers within 24 hours is a negative mark on your account etc which can really add up to make your account in danger. Not insured atm no, none of my items would cause any harm I hope! Ha.

 

[pickeringmt]

Just curious -

I know you said "whatever sells" but do you stick to a general niche since you have suppliers already (like electronics or kitchen stuff for example)?

I'm also wondering how many total products you have attempted VS how many you are successfully selling

Are you doing fulfillment yourself?

Thanks for doing this!

 

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[SJVC]

Just curious -

I know you said "whatever sells" but do you stick to a general niche since you have suppliers already (like electronics or kitchen stuff for example)?

I'm also wondering how many total products you have attempted VS how many you are successfully selling

Are you doing fulfillment yourself?

Thanks for doing this!

Hey man, to be fair I stick around maybe 4-5 niches that I know suppliers will be able to get a hold of. But the great thing about is Amazon is that you can sell products from several niches which gives you a lot of potential. I have tried a lot of products... the key is to keep the initial orders low so you don't blow all your money on dead stock. Everyone buys iPhone cases thinking they will sell 30 a day and then you sell one in two weeks for 20p profit ha. Learn from that, look for items that still do a good volume of sales but are not really obvious. I did fullfillment myself for like 2 and a half years and it got to the point where I was hating it because it was basically a really repetitive job; I considered hiring someone but FBA just makes so much more sense.

 

[Harley]

How does the FBA process affect broker charges?
Curious, as I ordered a $20 item here in canada that I can sell for $40. However, the shipping was $35, then I had to pay $35 brokerage charges when it arrived and it will cost me $10 to post within canada.
I only ordered 5 as a test and obviously there will be more profit on larger orders, just curious if you found it cheaper or more expensive using FBA?
Thanks for answers.

 

[SJVC]

How does the FBA process affect broker charges?
Curious, as I ordered a $20 item here in canada that I can sell for $40. However, the shipping was $35, then I had to pay $35 brokerage charges when it arrived and it will cost me $10 to post within canada.
I only ordered 5 as a test and obviously there will be more profit on larger orders, just curious if you found it cheaper or more expensive using FBA?
Thanks for answers.

I'm not sure what you mean by broker charges, do you mean taxes? FBA shouldn't affect any of the importing of the goods, that's the end result really. $70 sounds like a really large amount for a $20 item! Have you asked your supplier about china post air? Takes around 2 weeks but is pretty much free.

 

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[Harley]

I'm not sure what you mean by broker charges, do you mean taxes? FBA shouldn't affect any of the importing of the goods, that's the end result really. $70 sounds like a really large amount for a $20 item! Have you asked your supplier about china post air? Takes around 2 weeks but is pretty much free.

This was just a quality test order through alibaba. I received 5, so will about break even. Then on larger order price goes down and shipping is acceptable (larger orders would be via sea). Should be able to make $10-12 off each item if it sells.
It shipped via DHL and it stops at customs here. The receipt showed local taxes, $10, DHL processing fee $5, some other fee for $5, then the rest was customs charges.

 

[SJVC]

This was just a quality test order through alibaba. I received 5, so will about break even. Then on larger order price goes down and shipping is acceptable (larger orders would be via sea). Should be able to make $10-12 off each item if it sells.
It shipped via DHL and it stops at customs here. The receipt showed local taxes, $10, DHL processing fee $5, some other fee for $5, then the rest was customs charges.

Ah okay that makes more sense, sounds like you could be onto a winner, get a few more products on the go and you will be surprised at how it all adds up

 

[TheSilverSpoon]

Are your future business plans tied to importing and reselling? If not, why are you choosing to move away?

Any thoughts on the future of this arbitrage in the next few years?

 

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[Nik Krohn]

I am new to amazon selling. If the product is already on amazon, how can you sell there? Does amazon keep track of how many of the item you have in stock and will display them as others sell out?

Is it even possible to list the same product at the same price and not get sales? Does that happen? Just a bit nervous!

 

[SJVC]

Are your future business plans tied to importing and reselling? If not, why are you choosing to move away?

Any thoughts on the future of this arbitrage in the next few years?

I'm not choosing to move away, I will continue to do what I'm doing but FBA does give you a fair amount of free time so I want to create a business that has more security. I think this business model will continue to be profitable, getting more sales channels would be good also just incase.

I am new to amazon selling. If the product is already on amazon, how can you sell there? Does amazon keep track of how many of the item you have in stock and will display them as others sell out?

Is it even possible to list the same product at the same price and not get sales? Does that happen? Just a bit nervous!

Everyone is new at some point If you have the same product then of course you can sell there! Amazon keeps track of your inventory if you use FBA otherwise you will have to enter how many units you have. When there is two or more sellers with the same price sometimes the buy box can vary between sellers or just stay with the better ranked. Just try one product to see how it goes.

 

[Ramo25]

Thanks for the great feedback, really appreciated.

I started importing from China recently but through Alibaba and have been doing sample orders which I just shipped out to Amazon.

Question:
1. When you make your sample order, do they create unique packaging for you or do you use the existing packaging? Since you are creating your own brand of private label products packaging is really important
2. Why do you not ship directly to Amazon from the supplier?
3. What is your process for adding the images and description for each item?

 

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[SJVC]

Thanks for the great feedback, really appreciated.

I started importing from China recently but through Alibaba and have been doing sample orders which I just shipped out to Amazon.

Question:
1. When you make your sample order, do they create unique packaging for you or do you use the existing packaging? Since you are creating your own brand of private label products packaging is really important
2. Why do you not ship directly to Amazon from the supplier?
3. What is your process for adding the images and description for each item?

Your welcome man. I assume the packaging would vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but most of the time for a sample they wouldn't give custom packaging for a sample. I can't ship directly to Amazon's warehouses from suppliers here in the UK, not sure if that is the same everywhere. The process is take multiple photos of the item by yourself (make sure they look professional) or hire someone to do it for you, then make sure you use titles and descriptions that use plenty of the keywords your are targeting.

 

[MMatt]

Will you avoid an item if it has X amount of sellers already?

Also, what is your most efficient method for finding items with a greater sales rank that 1000? On amazon, I have found the list of top 100 sellers, but these are mostly branded merchandise and where are the other 900? Is there a more advanced search option?

I also have tried the route of finding products on aliexpress then checking their amazon ranking but this process and long and time consuming.

 

[bboyu]

I'm not choosing to move away, I will continue to do what I'm doing but FBA does give you a fair amount of free time so I want to create a business that has more security. I think this business model will continue to be profitable, getting more sales channels would be good also just incase.

Hey SJVC...Thanks for the thread. Are you building a brand? when you say your're looking at other avenues for sales to retain control, im assuming that would be opening an ecommerce store? At the moment would that not look like a we sell anything and everything type of a store front or you only operating in one vertical or one niche/type of a product?

 

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[thorn]

Hey @SJVC,

Thanks for doing this. Just a few quick questions...

1) When you say you are looking at items that have a sales rank of < 1000, how far down do you drill into a given category to evaluate the sales rank. Meaning, do you look for something that has a sales rank of less than 1000 in a top ranked category like "Home and Kitchen" or do you look at the sales rank in a deeper subcategories like "Home and Kitchen > Bath > Towels"?

2) Also, you mention you aren't branding and it sounds like you are using Aliexpress as a primary source of getting your product. So you are relisting these products then generically, without any branding then....basically just repackaged and shipped to Amazon from what you received from Aliexpress?

 

[Stephanos83]

Have you done any sourcing in the UK or around the EU, or just China exclusively? With 20% import VAT on invoice of goods, what sort of margins do you project before moving forward with a product idea? What are some of the attributes you look for in products?

I appreciate you doing this. I'm also in the UK. Currently trying to get a products business off the ground.

 

[SJVC]

Will you avoid an item if it has X amount of sellers already?

Also, what is your most efficient method for finding items with a greater sales rank that 1000? On amazon, I have found the list of top 100 sellers, but these are mostly branded merchandise and where are the other 900? Is there a more advanced search option?

I also have tried the route of finding products on aliexpress then checking their amazon ranking but this process and long and time consuming.

In terms of sellers, it really depends on how active they are in being competitive on price, there could be ten sellers who are dormant on one page where you c ould take the buy box and on the other hand you could be up against one seller who is constantly checking their prices. For items with a sales rank of >1000 it takes a bit more time to find them, usually its a case of searching amazon yourself and checking products for their sales rank. You will get quicker at finding products the more your practice, its a process!

Hey SJVC...Thanks for the thread. Are you building a brand? when you say your're looking at other avenues for sales to retain control, im assuming that would be opening an ecommerce store? At the moment would that not look like a we sell anything and everything type of a store front or you only operating in one vertical or one niche/type of a product?

Your welcome man, atm on Amazon no, but it is something I need to do (just takes more time to get sales). Good question about the diversification. The second biz I'm working on is not an 'everything' store - directly competing with amazon would never work; so yes the new biz is a brand focused around a few niche products.

 

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[SJVC]

Hey @SJVC,

Thanks for doing this. Just a few quick questions...

1) When you say you are looking at items that have a sales rank of < 1000, how far down do you drill into a given category to evaluate the sales rank. Meaning, do you look for something that has a sales rank of less than 1000 in a top ranked category like "Home and Kitchen" or do you look at the sales rank in a deeper subcategories like "Home and Kitchen > Bath > Towels"?

2) Also, you mention you aren't branding and it sounds like you are using Aliexpress as a primary source of getting your product. So you are relisting these products then generically, without any branding then....basically just repackaged and shipped to Amazon from what you received from Aliexpress?

Hey man, 1. Sub categories are fine, often they have less competition. 2. Yes in a nutshell that sounds about correct, bearing in mind some of the items are already branded that you can buy from aliexpress.

Have you done any sourcing in the UK or around the EU, or just China exclusively? With 20% import VAT on invoice of goods, what sort of margins do you project before moving forward with a product idea? What are some of the attributes you look for in products?

I appreciate you doing this. I'm also in the UK. Currently trying to get a products business off the ground.

Just China atm, however I did find one company in the UK for an item but their MOQ was way too high. VAT is just one of the expenditures you have to calculate into a potential product, try and aim for 40-50% gross margins. In terms of attributes just an item that you know has a good track record of sales and that you can source... nothing fancy!

 

[Harley]

Hi.
I'm seeing conflicting posts with items < and > 1000, which is it?
Are you looking for the more popular selling items, or the off the radar items?
This might be a stupid question, but when I look on Amazon, they are typically number 1-100? if I click best sellers.
Or, as an example, if I type sd cards (something that will have more than 1000 hits), then they all show, but I don't see any rankings listed. Even if I click on the item, I can't see that info. Is it a case of clicking most popular sort, then counting the pages, or am I missing something?
Many Thanks