FBA and Importing Goods From China

[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.

 

[jazb]

You know, i think there is great money to be made dropshipping from china for the expensive items. expensive enough so that they are shipped via DHL or UPS, since delivery is fast (they would pay for shipping too). what do you think ?

 

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[Harley]

Hi,
Do you generally use the stock images form the manufacturer, or retake/use professional images? and do you find it actually makes a lot of difference in sales?
Thanks

 

[Harley]

I have a very little studio that I use with my DSLR. The background is never completely white so outsource that (elance) job so the background is pure white, you can get that done for like 10p a photo or something silly cheap

Thanks. That's not a problem, as one of my slow lane jobs was pro Photographer. Doing the shot on white (like a stock image) is simple enough. My question was more on the lines if it's worth investing the time in having the product in more of a situation type shot and if this impacts sales/ranking? Like the attached - You could shoot the wine furniture on white, but it has way more impact this way.

I don't see much of the point of shooting on white, as most of the manufacturers have these images anyway. Why not just use those?
Appreciate the help.

 

[Harley]

Enjoyable job, but slow lane. even if you are one of the lucky ones to have a successful million dollar gross studio (which I was nowhere near), you are working very hard for those dollars and with all the overheads, photographers I know with the successful studios where maybe having a new profit of $200K and working insane hours for it.
Tons of people buying cameras now and calling themselves pro and giving everything away on a CD for a few hundred bucks (crap photography, but some customers don't care, or know better).
Better to figure a fast lane way of getting some of their cash, rather than fighting against them. Then as MJ says, once you're in the fast lane, you can participate in the things you love.

 

[Luke1213]

How do you handle your customs? Do you do it yourself or do you use a customs broker and a freight forwarded?

 

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[Fastlane Baron]

Hey man, since you say ask you anything, I want to try and get started on this buy online and sell for more. What do you recommend I import from amazon? I want to do this to get some extra cash (gotta start somewhere right?) but truth be told I have to idea where to begin. What are the things that sell most easily in your opinion? I want to spend up 500-1000 usd on my first buy, something not too risky.

 

[Luke1213]

How much inventory are you receiving via DHL? Is it being shipped to US to an amazon fulfillment area or the UK?

This is my last hurdle before I pull the trigger
Thanks

 

[Fastlane Baron]

No broker or anything like that, just have to pay DHL when they turn up.

Import from Amazon? Do you mean import for Amazon? To be honest your questions are very specific, what do I recommend you import? Find something that sells then see if you can source it for a profit. Its only risky if you order too much (500-1000USD sounds like a lot for your first order) and if you don't research the product (look at its track record of sales from other sellers).

No, I live in a small 3rd world country and everything is batshit expensive due to taxes. My plan is to import stuff buying from amazon, I have to pay an extra for the weight so heavy stuff aren't very profitable. Thanks for the reply I will research more on this subject.

 

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[Villain]

Thanks for taking the time to do this thread!

I am also from the UK and have been purchasing some products from dhgate and alibaba. I am getting hit with a 2.75% foreign currency fee for all my purchases though. I'm with RBS.

Paypal also seems to have foreign exchange fees involved although they are a little tricky to work out. It might be expensive on the seller end, which means higher prices for us.

What method do you use for your purchases that is cheap but also secure? I am looking into getting a separate credit card to use just for my importing business that does not charge an exchange fee. I have just seen one that even offers 0.5% cashback on purchases! This would surely add up if you were doing a lot of business...

 

[mosdef]

im talking to a few manufacturers regarding a products with good margin but they want 200 dollars for shipping for 10 samples. Its about 10-11kg. Is this good price?

 

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[ddall]

@mosdef

That depends on the product, it's weight, and your shipper. So the answer could be potentially yes or no.

Understand suppliers will charge more for samples than their MOQ price for the obvious reason of weeding out tire kickers.

Ask for total weight for shipment, and get quotes yourself from UPS/DHL/FEDEX etc...

 

[mosdef]

the thing is this. The price of the samples i can live with but the price for shipping is really much!

 

[mosdef]

Your welcome man, atm I use a credit card for safety and am probably charged around 1% I think. Its not something I have thought about much tbh but now you mention it, it might be a good idea to reduce that cost. What credit card offers 0.5% back? (You can dm me if you want) cheers.

@mosdef, @ddall's idea about getting your own quote is a good idea. Ask them to send it china post air for you, should be MUCH cheaper/free.

Haha just got this from another manufacturer:
DHL Shipping Cost10 PCS is 0.25 CBM and delivery to Sweden by DHL cost 370.00 USD

370 dollars shipping to sweden for 10 lamps, haha amazing How the hell are one going to make any profit on that

 

[ebms]

Haha just got this from another manufacturer:
DHL Shipping Cost10 PCS is 0.25 CBM and delivery to Sweden by DHL cost 370.00 USD

370 dollars shipping to sweden for 10 lamps, haha amazing How the hell are one going to make any profit on that

How big and heavy are the lamps? That could be your problem.

 

[Luke1213]

I have listed my products on amazon and have had them listed for about 2 weeks now. No sales via amazon but I have made a few sales elsewhere and people that have purchased one of my items have left me reviews on amazon. I am selling my own private label brand and it is nearly impossible to find it using the keywords I use. My problem isn't finding my products if I search my brand. When I search my brand they appear without hesitation. My problem is finding which page my product is on when I search the keywords i have listed with my item description. I have tried finding it by searching the price, by relevance, by number of reviews, color, ect and it doesn't come up. I have searched through thousands upon thousands of listings with all my selected keywords and still can't seem to find it. Am I missing something? This is really beginning to frustrate me. How do you get your product to sell on amazon?

 

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[Luke1213]

No I fulfill them at the present time. I have to wait on amazon to approve my products prior to sending them in. It could be that I am not FBA at the present moment but many products that are merchant filled that don't even have reviews or sales rank higher than me.

 

[Luke1213]

@BGLefty Thanks. I'll check these out.

 

[Harry321]

What are your thoughts on sourcing branded products from AliExpress? I have a feeling some of the products I've been looking at are fake..

 

[Harry321]

@Harry3000 Branded products that we all know (such as Nike and Adidas) do not use Aliexpress as wholesalers. So yes there is a ton of fake goods on Aliexpress, stay clear because you will be the one who gets in trouble for selling them.

On the other hand there are branded goods that are not counterfeit, often this will be a generic item that a particular manufacturer has branded in China. The way to tell these apart is if you have never heard of the brand!

Thanks! I have had very limited success in sourcing products in the past. I am starting to wonder whether it is because I ignore branded products..

E.g. If I see a Samsung camera I assume that I will have no chance in competing if I am able to source a chinese brand camera with the same spec...IS this limited thinking? Can you compete with the big brand names? Or are you sticking to niche's that have not been monopolised?

 

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[Brentnal]

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.

If you are busy with school and have almost no storage space you can't really make alot of money with this right?

 

[Ajay2390]

Ok, so i found a product which is currently selling on Amazon for the double the wholesale price on Alibaba. i thought it was a winner a no brainer UNTIL i found out it was a counterfeit. But both Original and copy are made in CHINAAAAAAAAAAA!! lol What to do ey?

 

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[Luke1213]

Look into Amazon sponsored search, you can have your product ad show up in amazon results for keywords you specify, clicks can be pretty cheap, and I think your first $50 is free...

I setup an ad campaign. Amazon states my ad is not getting impressions because I don't own the buy box. I guess the only way to own the buy box is to have amazon fulfill it. So I started the process of packing my products to send to amazon and hit another snag. My package quantity is wrong. Not a big deal when self fulfilling but when amazon does it, someone will get 3 for the price of 1. I have to create new listings for my product and it's variants. I am just concerned that the few reviews I have from selling it through other avenues will disappear. I'm waiting for amazon to respond to my email.

 

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[Luke1213]

Hey man. First up, 2 weeks isn't very long at all for a product on Amazon. It does take time for your page to move up through the rankings and there is a chance that it won't if you are not judged correctly by Amazon.
It is kind of hard to give you direct advice if I do not know what you are selling but here are some broad points:
Is your store brand new? Message your buyers and literally ask them for a review of your product and your store. State that if they were not happy with their purchase then you will rectify the issue.
Consider reducing the cost so you get more purchases which will increase your rank for your keywords. Then once you start to rank well put your price back up to where it was originally.
Consider using Amazon's paid ad network, but do not go overboard if you are not seeing ROI.
Try as best you can to objectively compare you page to your competitors. Look at your images, description copy etc
How competitive are your keywords for your product? For example if I created a page selling HDMI cables then I would not expect to rank for a very long time for someone searching 'HDMI cable'.
The reason for this is the competition, items such as HDMI cables are in big demand and so the margins are slim and the pages that do rank have either been there for a long time and/or are well researched and optimised effectively. That isn't to say you cannot rank, just that some wars will be more easily won on Amazon than others.

Thanks @SJVC. I understand that sales won't be overnight and 2 weeks isn't giving it much time to creep up in the sales ranking. What I can't understand is that in the categories where my product is listed, it is no where to be found. I have searched through thousands upon thousands of listings. Their is 100's of new merchants with no sales record or reviews that are listed. I can search my brand and it comes up but if I search the keywords and then look at every listing under this keyword, my product is not found. Another confusing issue is that my brand is listed under the search by brand in the same keyword categories. It's just irritating...

 

[Ronak]

I setup an ad campaign. Amazon states my ad is not getting impressions because I don't own the buy box. I guess the only way to own the buy box is to have amazon fulfill it. So I started the process of packing my products to send to amazon and hit another snag. My package quantity is wrong. Not a big deal when self fulfilling but when amazon does it, someone will get 3 for the price of 1. I have to create new listings for my product and it's variants. I am just concerned that the few reviews I have from selling it through other avenues will disappear. I'm waiting for amazon to respond to my email.

Not necessarily...if your price is significantly lower, then you can get the buy box w/o FBA...you may or may not be able to create a child listing off the current one, contact support and see if they'll let you add a child listing...

 

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[Luke1213]

Not necessarily...if your price is significantly lower, then you can get the buy box w/o FBA...you may or may not be able to create a child listing off the current one, contact support and see if they'll let you add a child listing...

If I am the only one selling this brand, shouldn't the buy box be in my listing? No one competes with me on this so their is no competing for the buy box.

 

[Luke1213]

Just reread your posts...so are you the only seller, since its a private label product? In that case, I don't see why you wouldn't have the buy box??

Yea this is what I don't understand.

 

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[Ronak]

Yea this is what I don't understand.

I'd contact support on that, it doesn't make sense....

 

[debitandcredit]

If I am the only one selling this brand, shouldn't the buy box be in my listing? No one competes with me on this so their is no competing for the buy box.

If you are a new seller, it takes a while to get buybox even you are the only one selling, it depends, 2 months to 6 months.