Do you want to do it the EASY way, or the HARD way?

[amp0193]

Yes, however, this is the old way of checking sales. It is still effective though on some listings.

As an FBA seller, I normally set the maximum purchase amount to something like 20 or 50, depending on the items I sell. So the "999" check will not work on my listings. So my competitors will not know my stocks.

Good point. I've actually never set a max purchase amount on my listings since they added that option. It'd be a good thing to do, for sure.

Thanks for the reminder

 

[Longinus]

As an FBA seller, I normally set the maximum purchase amount to something like 20 or 50, depending on the items I sell. So the "999" check will not work on my listings. So my competitors will not know my stocks.

Can you tell us how you do this? I searched online but got many conflicting information.

 

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[Paul David]

I don't see how selling 5 pieces would be enough to test. I mean if you run PPC and all 5 sell in a day, I guess that is a good metric. But what if it takes a week? Was it due to your price, listing, lack of reviews, etc?? I guess for me, I personally couldn't make a decision based on selling 5 pieces.

Depending on their price point, I wouldn't order 500 pcs either. Maybe see if you can get just 100 pcs for a test order.

Great thanks. So normally, when you identify a potential product you would buy at least 100pcs to test on FBA?








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[Thijz0]

just by reading this topic i found out i definitely have an easy product on amazon.

so I will sell out my inventory and start looking for new niches. thing is, I did an online course (a very well known) on how to research a product on amazon.

I can probably do the same but i would have to find a 3,5/4 star product and then add value by improving the product right?

@biophase

 

[Mac]

Hey Biophase,

I've found a product with high revenue, low competition and high margin. Only problem is the shipping costs drop the margin from 50% down to 20% because of the carton size and unit per carton size for my order (air freight). If doing sea freight, the quote is not much better.

You have any tips for getting around this?

 

[RickyDJ641]

You mentioned not to go through the manufacturer when creating your brand because they may take your idea. If not going through the manufacturer to private label, who do you go through? I want to ship directly from manufacturer to FBA.

 

[phenom4hire]

Hey Bio,

Question on FBA. Is it still as important as it was a few years ago? Is it the best way to move product? I have read through the costs and benefits and can see where it makes sense for what you sell, but lets say Im selling something in the 20 dollar range that is fairly lightweight but kind of big like maybe 12x12x12. Does it still make sense to use them? Also if I decide to go FBA, what would be the best way to get say 500 of a product that size at under 1 lb each to the warehouse. Thanks in advance.

 

[dude_abides]

Hi @biophase,

Thanks for the great thread!

I'm very interested in designing/enhancing products to sell through Amazon FBA or other ecommerce platforms.

My question is since I have no experience with selling through Amazon, would you recommend AMZ training or similar training to learn the basics of researching potential niches, assessing competition, setting up promotions, Amazon keyword marketing, etc? Maybe even start by sourcing an existing product as a test/training?

On the product design side, I have an engineering background and I've worked in manufacturing so I think I know enough to get started once I have a market identified.

All the best

 

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[dude_abides]

I saw your avatar and definitely thought @MJ DeMarco was getting into Amazon.

And then I was disappointed.

ahh.. sorry to disappoint although i made no attempt to copy @MJ DeMarco 's avatar.... i didn't know he was also using Willy Wonka / Gene Wilder until now

 

[AA1980]

I saw your avatar and definitely thought @MJ DeMarco was getting into Amazon.

ditto!

 

[Guest06196]

* side note: You never want to improve a product without adding your brand into it. Else you may have just paid the tooling and R&D for every other AMZseller.

Awesome post @biophase
I've just finished this Gold thread and will embark on your ongoing AMA soon.

One question: Is there an inexpensive way to create a brand? It costs a lot to have some sort of legal protection, such as trade mark or patent. Even with that the effect is only limited within one country. I don't think a logo can do much if not registered. Any suggestions? Thanks~

 

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[Elijah]

So you've decided to jump on the Amazon bandwagon and import a product and list on Amazon.

Do you want to do it the easy then hard way or the hard then easy way? I see most people on here and the thousands of Amazon class lemmings choosing the easy/hard way. I don't discount that this way works but it is way tougher. For those of you just jumping in after reading and taking an Amazon class here is what you can expect.

Here's the Easy/Hard Way

Let's say you have $5000 to spend and you choose a AMZ perfect product like a pork shredder. Below is exactly what happened to me when I ventured into an AMZ perfect product. Now before I go into this, I went into this fully understand what I had to do and what it would be like. I also have relatively deep pockets so I can outspend my competition. But the reality for me is that this is one of 80 products and I did not want to devote the time needed to succeed on this product. I will call this product AAA for the rest of this post. AMZ sellers refers to people who have taken an Amazon class.

March 2015 - I decide to import AAA after some research. There were about 15 popular models on Amazon and 3 dominant AMZ sellers. The product sells for $20, cost in China is $3. Total cost landed by air is $6.

April 2015 - After going through the sample phase I chose a supplier and ordered 800 units.

June 2015 - Before my product even got to Amazon in July, there were at least 10 more AMZ sellers who have decided to do this product. The top seller, we will call SellerA in March was pushed off the front page and is now on page 2 with 800+ reviews.

One particular seller had deep pockets. We'll call them SellerX. They jumped onto the scene averaging 75 reviews a day! From 0 to 700 reviews in 2 weeks. This moved them to middle of page 1.

I felt sorry for the other 9 AMZ sellers that were barely showing up with only 20-30 reviews. I could tell that they could not afford to give away 700 units. They probably planned to giveaway only 20-50 units.

July 2015 - My first units hit Amazon. Priced at $19.99, profit per unit was $8.33. I did a giveaway of 25 units and moved from page 17 to page 6. I then lowered my price from $19.99 to $10.99 which was a $3 loss per unit sold. This moved me to page 1 briefly. I lost $250 in this month.

August 2015 - 5 more AMZsellers hit the market. They all did giveaways of course! I drop down to page 3, then 4, then 10. I still made $400 in this month.

September 2015 - I don't recognize anyone on the first page of Amazon for this product. SellerX is holding at #1. The rest of the sellers are all new AMZ players. I still made $250 this month.

October 2015 - I don't even bother to check this anymore. Oh SellerA, he was #1 all of 2014, middle of page 2. I made $32 this month, basically sold 4 units.

November 2015 - More sellers still coming into the market. I drop my prices a little more. I made $50 this month. Profit margins are now $5 per unit.

December 2015 - Still more sellers coming into the niche. I estimate that since March 2015, 50+ new AMZsellers are in this one niche. I made $150 this month.

Many of the AMZsellers are doing monthly giveaways now. They need to keep giving away units to keep their sales count high to keep ranking. As more sellers come into your niche, they will be discounting, giving away their product. So if you want to stay on page 1 or 2, you need to do the same. Don't think that you can giveaway 25 and rank. If you are starting out with limited funds, you will get bled to death.

Some interesting notes:
To write this post I had to find my product through search. As i went through the results I saw:

• Guys who were on the front page in March 2015 are now on page 3-5
• I am on page 6, grid style. Not bad.
• I found that 2 reviews got deleted. I used to have 31, now I have 29 only.
• Front page product averaging 500+ reviews

Remember, just 9 months ago it was not like this. If this is the business you want, go for it!

So now what?

Now, I look at this market I can know I can compete. Here is why. First, my product is on page 6 and I'm still selling 1 a day with no PPC. Why? Because there is some value add. If you put my product on page 1 with most of the others, it will be the best value. Second, I have the funds to keep this product going at break even just to sustain it.

I can place another order for 3000 units. I can do a planned giveaway, 150 units a month for the next 6 months. That's 900 units. Total cost to me would be $6 for the product, $3 for the giveaway, or $8100 total.

Assuming this keeps me close to the top of page 1, I would sell the other 2100 at $8 profit to make $16800. So the profit from this would be $8700.

In this market I would have to keep my volume up. So that means monthly giveaways. My competition SellerX would likely see me doing this and also do their own giveaways.

The rest of the AMZsellers who are trying to make a living will slowly fade and give up. They just won't be able to outspend the deeper pockets.

But I'm not going this route. This market is not worth my time. In the next few months I will be at least 10 more AMZsellers per month come into it.

You don't want this to be your money maker. Just ask SellerA. They were rolling last year with no competition and then it just got flooded and will continue to be flooded as this product checks ALL the boxes on the AMZ seller checklist.

Here's the Hard/Easy Way

Last year I was selling this product made by another manufacturer that we packaged in our warehouse on Amazon. My cost was $6 and I sold on Amazon for $13. Measly $2.00 profit. Most people would avoid this like the plague. How do you live on a product like this?

Well for me, it was more of a brand recognition product. Sold cheap, no profit but got our name out. It also got annoying that we had to print labels and pack this thing. So we looked at China. They would make it for the same price basically. Cost of $6 landed into our warehouse. But the difference was that it was all packaged and ready to go. So basically for the relief of not having to package the product, we decided to import this over from China. In doing so, I was able to make a few changes so it was not the exact same product as before.

(I am glossing over the back and forth sample creation, changes in product, etc... All the hard stuff that it takes to make or improve a product)

First order from China was 1000 units. Hits Amazon. I drop the price to $9.99. Basically a loss of $1. Within 1 month it climbs to #1. Then we start selling a bunch. I raise the price back to $13. We average about 250 units a month. So we are making $500/mo.

Second order from China was 3000 units. We had a huge price drop as we found a better factory. Now our cost is $2.50 per unit. Bam, profit is now $5.50 per unit. Now we are selling 400 units a month. So we are making $2200/mo.

This little product is now making us $2000/mo. fairly consistently. No PPC, no giveaways, no competition. It's sitting at #2-#3 right now, priced at $13.69. One tiny product, $24k a year!

Which way is better?

Well I hope you can see the difference in work. With the second product, you do all the hardwork upfront and then let it sell. With the first product, you do the easy stuff up front and then spend the rest of your time trying to sell it.

I much rather do the hard work first.

As for the first product. I think I'm just going to let it sell out and die a slow death on Amazon. I'd rather put my energy into other things.

Wow, the content you are sharing on this forum is amazing! Thank you for that! So you would not recommend any amazon courses for beginners? I would like to get a deeper look to avoid (some) stupid mistakes, so I want to get a foundation asap so I can start already.

 

[TheTorche]

A lot of great lessons for a newbie like me in this thread. Thank you to everyone for sharing all this info on the forum, specially @biophase.

 

[Mario_fastlaner]

Every once in a while I come back re-reading this thread.

So underrated even if it’s gold and 250+ likes.