Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

[Walter Hay]

"Consumers buy based on what the product will do for them, not on what ingredients it has."

From a book I am reading^

They actually buy on the basis of what they are told and believe that the product will do for them. It is wishful thinking, but this is why women will pay a small fortune for cleansing cream but only peanuts for a cake of soap.

They know the soap will make them clean, but the cleansing cream is always sold with the promise of making them beautiful.

See:

First published 1957, republished 2007 due to demand.

Walter

 

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[steelandchrome]

@biophase thanks for all your responses through this thread! I just finished reading through all 37 pages and it sure has opened my eyes on initial thoughts for what and how to start importing. Thanks as well to all the members asking the questions we all can now learn from!

 

[LateStarter]

Thanks I'll check them out.

For those of you considering Flexport.

"At this time, we are unable to help clients with their first shipments."

And they will only work with shipments over 200kgs.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

[TKDTyler]

For those of you considering Flexport.

"At this time, we are unable to help clients with their first shipments."

And they will only work with shipments over 200kgs.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

I remember when I talked to them earlier this year they were only accepting new clients that averaged over a certain number of shipments a year as well.

 

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[samuraijack]

@biophase

I'm having my first product shipped to me within the next two weeks.

For certain reasons I can't start selling it on Amazon just yet, but I am still considering using Amazon FBA for my fulfillment and my shopify store as the main website for customers to purchase it from.

I did some research on shipping prices and even though my product is < 1lb, the cost for me to pack, label, and ship each unit out my self will probably only save me a few bucks per unit (probably <$3). The profit margin is healhty enough that it doesn't really bother me.

I did however come across a lot of posts online saying if you are not selling on Amazon, you should not use Amazon FBA, since you have no control over the customer service and some other negative things.

I also live in a super tiny apartment, and my initial shipment is going to be a big number of boxes that most likely will not fit. So I will have to look for storage anyways, might as well have Amazon FBA take care of everything so I can focus on sales?

Can you share your opinion on this?

Thanks

 

[TKDTyler]

I did however come across a lot of posts online saying if you are not selling on Amazon, you should not use Amazon FBA, since you have no control over the customer service and some other negative things.

Maybe I can chime in:

The benefit of using Amazon fulfillment centers is being an Amazon Prime vendor.

Free 2 day shipping for Prime members is a big sell, and although you could use merchant fulfilled Prime, you will be held responsible for missing deadlines. With Amazon fulfillment centers, they take all responsibility from when it is received in their facility to when it gets to the customer. You'll never have to worry about losing your account or being a prime vendor due to shipping and fulfillment.

I also live in a super tiny apartment, and my initial shipment is going to be a big number of boxes that most likely will not fit. So I will have to look for storage anyways, might as well have Amazon FBA take care of everything so I can focus on sales?

You should always check your first shipments yourself before sending them into Amazon FBA. You never know how the quality for a large order will vary from your sample products.

That means you'll probably need a space to store and prep units before sending them into any fulfillment center.

There are prep services that will do quality check, prepping, packaging and shipping for you as well.

 

[biophase]

@biophase
I did some research on shipping prices and even though my product is < 1lb, the cost for me to pack, label, and ship each unit out my self will probably only save me a few bucks per unit (probably <$3). The profit margin is healhty enough that it doesn't really bother me.

Can you share your opinion on this?

Thanks

How can your product be that large if it is under 1 lb? Is it small enough to ship USPS first class? If so, I'd fulfill it myself as you are only paying $2.60 for shipping. $3 per unit could be significant depending on how many you are selling.

Also, Amazon fulfillment is pretty slow sometimes. So your customer may get stuff 8-10 days later.

 

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[samuraijack]

Maybe I can chime in:

The benefit of using Amazon fulfillment centers is being an Amazon Prime vendor.

Free 2 day shipping for Prime members is a big sell, and although you could use merchant fulfilled Prime, you will be held responsible for missing deadlines. With Amazon fulfillment centers, they take all responsibility from when it is received in their facility to when it gets to the customer. You'll never have to worry about losing your account or being a prime vendor due to shipping and fulfillment.



You should always check your first shipments yourself before sending them into Amazon FBA. You never know how the quality for a large order will vary from your sample products.

That means you'll probably need a space to store and prep units before sending them into any fulfillment center.

There are prep services that will do quality check, prepping, packaging and shipping for you as well.

I'm not selling on Amazon, so any opinion on that?

 

[samuraijack]

How can your product be that large if it is under 1 lb? Is it small enough to ship USPS first class? If so, I'd fulfill it myself as you are only paying $2.60 for shipping. $3 per unit could be significant depending on how many you are selling.

Its the size of a lotion bottle. But its 1000 units. So I'm just assuming it will be a large number of boxes. But I mean, I can make it work.

It should be able to ship USPS first class, and I calculated it to be almost $3 and change. I was just thinking with the cost of shipping materials, i might as well send it to Amazon FBA.

But i'm sure that has its own headaches as well.

How did you get the $2.60 number? It will probably be around 10-11 ounces

 

[biophase]

Its the size of a lotion bottle. But its 1000 units. So I'm just assuming it will be a large number of boxes. But I mean, I can make it work.

It should be able to ship USPS first class, and I calculated it to be almost $3 and change. I was just thinking with the cost of shipping materials, i might as well send it to Amazon FBA.

But i'm sure that has its own headaches as well.

How did you get the $2.60 number? It will probably be around 10-11 ounces

You send it to FBA and they will charge you minimum $5.95 shipping, and that is standard shipping which means they may sit on it for 2-3 days before they even ship it. What do you tell your customers when they ask why it's taking so long to ship.

So are you willing to give up $3000 in pure profit of this order due to fulfillment at this stage? Seems like alot of money to me.

I get $2.60 because that's what I pay for USPS postage all day every day. Get a program like shipstation to automate it. I think you get a slight discount using them or stamps.com.

 

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[UncleIroh]

I was asking if he was buying from a specific website or Factory. I couldn't care less, I'm cashing 10x times the median argentinian salary while on med school. I don't need to take on some one's bussiness, and I'm also in Argentina. You should watch your acttitude, you are a grown up man, not some 16 Smart a$$.

Omg... Who do you think you are? This is the median Argentinian. Everyone thinks they know it all. Also, you are not earning that much.

 

[amp0193]

@biophase
I did however come across a lot of posts online saying if you are not selling on Amazon, you should not use Amazon FBA, since you have no control over the customer service and some other negative things.

With FBA 3rd-party Fulfillment, you cannot ship international orders. Also, they are slow to ship. Sometimes they go out in 24 hours, but usually it's 2-3 days later that they get around to shipping your order. You don't have any point of contact, other than Amazon seller support, which is a pain. Tracking numbers are a problem, as more and more orders are being shipped by Amazon directly, and those numbers aren't trackable.

As far as per order cost goes, they are cheap. It costs me $6.10 to buy postage for a small priority mail box from the USPS, but that doesn't include my time and labor. It costs me $5.95 to ship an order through Amazon 3rd-party fulfillment, and there is zero time or labor of mine.

I use them for my website orders, because I'm already on Amazon, and it's convenient for me.

 

[Niptuck MD]

@Keithrtay

 

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[kineshma]

Kenric, I am interested in joining your mentorship program. Can you please let me know when you will have open spots again.

Thanks,

 

[Oztrepreneur]

Bio,

Perhaps a curve ball question, yet still amazon related. It looks as if Amazon may be taking the leap and bringing more than just their digital products to us down under. Reading between the lines this may include full scale warehousing etc with potential FBA Australia.

Australia's ecommerce market is predicted to hit $32 billion next year (tiny compared to USA I know), and if Amazon takes the same market share as it has elsewhere (1 in every 4 $ spent online) that is massive potential for us.

I feel like there is ripe opportunity for us in the smaller environment to position ourselves. How would you go about it, any specific strategies you would be looking at now, even without having existing brands on Amazon US.

P.S - You want a trip to Oz to do some mentoring... ;oP

 

[secondhanddog]

@Oztrepreneur Amazon hitting the au maket is going to make for some interesting times.

Bio, awesome thread man, thanks for taking the time to answer questions.

I'm getting some samples made up but due to it being a hand crafted luxury item made in italy the per item cost is close to 60usd not including shipping. The idea being it sets it apart from the chinese made stuff ($2-$10 per item) by trading on the italy quality. Product should sell for about double its cost. Is this a crazy margin to be playing with?

 

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[biophase]

Kenric, I am interested in joining your mentorship program. Can you please let me know when you will have open spots again.

Thanks,

It is open right now, please look for the other thread.

 

[biophase]

Bio,

Perhaps a curve ball question, yet still amazon related. It looks as if Amazon may be taking the leap and bringing more than just their digital products to us down under. Reading between the lines this may include full scale warehousing etc with potential FBA Australia.

Australia's ecommerce market is predicted to hit $32 billion next year (tiny compared to USA I know), and if Amazon takes the same market share as it has elsewhere (1 in every 4 $ spent online) that is massive potential for us.

I feel like there is ripe opportunity for us in the smaller environment to position ourselves. How would you go about it, any specific strategies you would be looking at now, even without having existing brands on Amazon US.

P.S - You want a trip to Oz to do some mentoring... ;oP

Yes amazon in Australia was so lacking when I was there 2 years ago. I would start a few brands in fields that may have large volume there.

I am planning to be in Sydney and maybe other parts next year. Maybe I'll need to set up a business while I'm there!

 

[biophase]

@Oztrepreneur Amazon hitting the au maket is going to make for some interesting times.

Bio, awesome thread man, thanks for taking the time to answer questions.

I'm getting some samples made up but due to it being a hand crafted luxury item made in italy the per item cost is close to 60usd not including shipping. The idea being it sets it apart from the chinese made stuff ($2-$10 per item) by trading on the italy quality. Product should sell for about double its cost. Is this a crazy margin to be playing with?

Feels like it will be a tough sell. $60 is super high for your cost, are you selling at $120?

Your competitors are at $60 on a $2-$10 product?

Numbers aren't making sense here.

 

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[secondhanddog]

Feels like it will be a tough sell. $60 is super high for your cost, are you selling at $120?

Your competitors are at $60 on a $2-$10 product?

Numbers aren't making sense here.

Competitors are 20-70 on the chinese stuff, and 150 - 400 on similar product from italy. Would aim to be a higher quality italian product for slightly less than competitors due to not having the brand recognition of the long term players. The $60 per item has no min order quanity, so it could be pushed down for larger orders once the market had be tested with a few smaller orders.

The numbers didn't look great to me, but wanted to test to see if people would pay for a similar quality item, slightly cheaper than the brand name stuff.

 

[Oztrepreneur]

I am planning to be in Sydney and maybe other parts next year. Maybe I'll need to set up a business while I'm there!

Oh great....master competition.

 

[Nerone]

Hey there,

I'm newbie here, writing from Italy, and never heard about FBA Amazon. I'm starting right now in ecommerce, i'm looking for Harry Potter and Art lovers ( itemsforwomen.com ), getting traffic trough facebook ads and posting into private groups. In a week got 1000 visit and 4 sales for now, but i'm learning how to do, doing.

I'm doing 100% dropshipping right now but i literally HATE that my client need to wait 2 - 4 weeks for delivery, that sounds crap in my mind. As client i hate to wait 1 weeks, why my clients have to wait more? :/

My questions is: i'm a newbie in ecommerce world and i'm scared to lose money, so i thought to start with dropshipping that i see more easy than others way, but i want to change asap.

Do you think that i can change to amazon? Or it's too much complicated for a newbie

Thanks a lot for your posts, i'm loving it all!

 

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[biophase]

Competitors are 20-70 on the chinese stuff, and 150 - 400 on similar product from italy. Would aim to be a higher quality italian product for slightly less than competitors due to not having the brand recognition of the long term players. The $60 per item has no min order quanity, so it could be pushed down for larger orders once the market had be tested with a few smaller orders.

The numbers didn't look great to me, but wanted to test to see if people would pay for a similar quality item, slightly cheaper than the brand name stuff.

So people are actively selling this product on Amazon for $150-$400?

 

[biophase]

Hey there,

I'm newbie here, writing from Italy, and never heard about FBA Amazon. I'm starting right now in ecommerce, i'm looking for Harry Potter and Art lovers ( itemsforwomen.com ), getting traffic trough facebook ads and posting into private groups. In a week got 1000 visit and 4 sales for now, but i'm learning how to do, doing.

I'm doing 100% dropshipping right now but i literally HATE that my client need to wait 2 - 4 weeks for delivery, that sounds crap in my mind. As client i hate to wait 1 weeks, why my clients have to wait more? :/

My questions is: i'm a newbie in ecommerce world and i'm scared to lose money, so i thought to start with dropshipping that i see more easy than others way, but i want to change asap.

Do you think that i can change to amazon? Or it's too much complicated for a newbie

Thanks a lot for your posts, i'm loving it all!

Looking at your product selection I think you would have a tough time selling on Amazon. Also, do you have enough funds to order and hold inventory?

 

[Nerone]

Looking at your product selection I think you would have a tough time selling on Amazon. Also, do you have enough funds to order and hold inventory?

Mhh, 2k for now. I'm tinking also to change a niche, thinking about that it's hard to find somenthing to improve in these niches.

 

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[Demigod]

The 3d printed nik naks will be different because I would categorize them more like art. They are products where the consumer doesn't really know what they want. The consumer is searching etsy very broadly looking at photos to see what is out there. They know they want earrings, but they also want handmade or not mass produced ones, so they look at photos to see what's for sale.

I think the consumer on etsy is looking for something different than an amazon consumer. I don't know anything about other marketplaces as the products I sell would not do well on etsy or other marketplaces. I don't know if etsy has changed, but I don't think that people are on etsy looking for mass produced products from China. They are looking for more personally produced products.

Speaking of etsy, Meastro, what's your take on the TripleClicks e-commerce site?

Their model is to allow affiliates to make sales without needing to import thr product as they handle all the delivery and stuff. How would you measure making people click on links to items that they should buy - while you get paid a commission? (that's how they work in part).

 

[secondhanddog]

So people are actively selling this product on Amazon for $150-$400?

Correct. Ended up ordering a sample from the manufacturer to see what the quality is like.

 

[New]

Good evening biophase,

Not sure if this question has been asked already, but currently, winter 2016, what would you say is the best way to go about finding suppliers?

Is the "standard" still finding suppliers from Alibaba, asking for samples, and then chosing, or would you say now a days eCommerce players are moving more to ordering from established EU/US wholesellers / local manufacturers, or even from manufacturers from other countries (i.e. Vietnam, India), to get different products/prices and gaing advantage?

I recall I asked on r/ebay and eBay forum whether people imported from China their products, and most answered No. Hence the question.

Thank you!

 

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[biophase]

Good evening biophase,

Not sure if this question has been asked already, but currently, winter 2016, what would you say is the best way to go about finding suppliers?

Is the "standard" still finding suppliers from Alibaba, asking for samples, and then chosing, or would you say now a days eCommerce players are moving more to ordering from established EU/US wholesellers / local manufacturers, or even from manufacturers from other countries (i.e. Vietnam, India), to get different products/prices and gaing advantage?

I recall I asked on r/ebay and eBay forum whether people imported from China their products, and most answered No. Hence the question.

Thank you!

I'm still looking on alibaba, but it all depends on the product you are ordering. BTW, alibaba isn't only for China factories. Factories from all countries are on there.

So where did everyone say their products were from if not China?

 

[JustWalkinAround]

Hello biophase, thanks for taking the time to do this AMA. Have gained a lot insights from reading you and everybody else's discussions.

Just wanted to clarify the process for ordering custom samples based on what you have said:

A mold may cost you $2000, but think of it as a per unit cost. On a $500 unit order, that is only $4 extra per unit.

Yes, always get samples of the final product made first. You can get the generic's first from a few suppliers, but after that you choose a few to make the custom product and then go from there. I go straight to custom sample from many suppliers from the start now. It saves more time.

From the above this is my understanding:

-get generic product samples from e.g. 10 suppliers
-you like the sample quality & communication of 3 suppliers
-msg these 3 suppliers with your modifications and get samples of the modified version
-place order with best one

What I don't understand is how do the 3 factories make the customised samples without creating the $2000 custom mold? In this layman example should I be expecting to pay $6000 to get custom samples from the 3 factories, or am I misunderstanding the process?

Thanks in advance, and merry xmas everyone!!