Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

[BlahBlahBlah]

You can hire a fulfillment company in the US or UK to handle all of your shipping and delivery needs. If you sell on Amazon, you can just use Amazon FBA to fulfill for you.

biophase would you know if fulfillment company can also be hired on a temporary basis? My problem is that I am out of the country for 2 months per year and I cannot look after the orders when I am away, therefore I would need to hire a fulfillment company, but the other 10 months I can look after the orders myself for now so I don't need to outsource the work - i was just wondering whether this is possible?

 

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[funkj25]

biophase would you know if fulfillment company can also be hired on a temporary basis? My problem is that I am out of the country for 2 months per year and I cannot look after the orders when I am away, therefore I would need to hire a fulfillment company, but the other 10 months I can look after the orders myself for now so I don't need to outsource the work - i was just wondering whether this is possible?

Bio may have more info on hiring 3rd party fulfillment companies part time, but you're good to go if you're using FBA. I'm in a similar situation and plan on using FBA with their "multi-channel fulfillment" when I'm not home to manually ship orders to website customers.

You can check out the rates for fulfillment of non-media items here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201119430

 

[biophase]

biophase would you know if fulfillment company can also be hired on a temporary basis? My problem is that I am out of the country for 2 months per year and I cannot look after the orders when I am away, therefore I would need to hire a fulfillment company, but the other 10 months I can look after the orders myself for now so I don't need to outsource the work - i was just wondering whether this is possible?

I'm not sure a fulfillment company would like to set up everything only for 2 months. It would not be cost effective for them unless they charged you alot more for those two months. Your best bet would be to hire a friend for 2 months while you are away, or just go full time with the fulfillment company.

 

[biophase]

Bio may have more info on hiring 3rd party fulfillment companies part time, but you're good to go if you're using FBA. I'm in a similar situation and plan on using FBA with their "multi-channel fulfillment" when I'm not home to manually ship orders to website customers.

You can check out the rates for fulfillment of non-media items here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201119430

But with Amazon fulfillment, you still need to log in and tell them what to ship. I think Blah wanted 100% hands off while he/she was away.

 

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[vaizbunas]

Full service site,they even fight for charge backs. Shipping rates are cheap. http://www.direct-outbound.com/ they can handle everything for you. Only problem they are based in USA

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[BlahBlahBlah]

Your plan sounds about right. This is how people did it before the review groups. But why would you need to make a discount then? Let them buy at full price.

Your color variations can go under the same listing with 2 barcodes.

I was just wondering if this is a valid way to get review in Amazon without asking for help to friends?

- Open multiple Amazon buyer accounts. with random names/addresses.
- Connect multiple emails addresses to your Paypal account, credit card will be the same but not visible to Amazon.
- Keep selling prices low to avoid paying high commission.
- Buy your own items on Amazon with each of the account, and pay for each item with a different Paypal email address.
- After a week leave feedbacks to yourself (obviously no need to ship anything).

PS: how much commission does Amazon charge for each Sale?

 

[LightHouse]

I was just wondering if this is a valid way to get review in Amazon without asking for help to friends?

- Open multiple Amazon buyer accounts. with random names/addresses.
- Connect multiple emails addresses to your Paypal account, credit card will be the same but not visible to Amazon.
- Keep selling prices low to avoid paying high commission.
- Buy your own items on Amazon with each of the account, and pay for each item with a different Paypal email address.
- After a week leave feedbacks to yourself (obviously no need to ship anything).

PS: how much commission does Amazon charge for each Sale?

Fastest way to get your seller and personal account banned for life.

 

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[BlahBlahBlah]

Fastest way to get your seller and personal account banned for life.

ok, but I would like to understand what is the difference between following this process and asking friends to buy from there account? It seems the exact same thing to me...

 

[blackbrich]

I didn't see mention of a private vpn in your steps so the difference would be something like.

You and your friends going to a free giveaway where they limit one per customer.
Vs.
You coming in multiple times except sometimes you wear a mustache, other times a hat, other times both.

Tapatalk を使用して私の SPH-L720 から送信

 

[LightHouse]

I didn't see mention of a private vpn in your steps so the difference would be something like.

You and your friends going to a free giveaway where they limit one per customer.
Vs.
You coming in multiple times except sometimes you wear a mustache, other times a hat, other times both.

Tapatalk を使用して私の SPH-L720 から送信

Wont help either. Not near the level of sophistication you would need. My advice is don't try it.

 

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[MyronGainz]

Is Amazon PPC nearly as complex as Adwords PPC? And what your process on setting up/maintaining a solid Amazon PPC campaign?

 

[aprabhak]

Hi All,

I've been a long time lurker, and have picked up on so many golden nuggets from this forum! Want to thank all of you for that.

I've been exploring the idea of selling on Amazon FBA in the past few weeks and have done a lot of research:
-Have identified my product
-Have spoken to supplier and ironed out details to give my product an edge over my (limited) competition.

Now for my question - I reside in Toronto, and would like to sell on Amazon US. I'm a little bit confused on import duties etc. that I may have to face when importing my product from China. Can anyone shed some light on this process? Should I be looking into hiring a third party company to manage this part of the business?

Basically, I am looking to ship from China to Toronto, at which point I will then ship to Amazon DC's in the States.

Any help is much appreciated!

aprabhak



EDIT: Once I tackle this obstacle my next challenge is how to manage giveaways to increase product awareness/ranking and obtain reviews. Would love to hear how some of you go about doing this

 

[Mr_Maravish]

Hey Kenric,

What would be the simplest way of accepting debit/credit card payments on my own website without a bank account? I took your advise of forming an LLC once the business is profitable. My website is set except for the most important thing, how will I collect payments! Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

 

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[MoneyDoc]

Hey Kenric,

What would be the simplest way of accepting debit/credit card payments on my own website without a bank account? I took your advise of forming an LLC once the business is profitable. My website is set except for the most important thing, how will I collect payments! Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

I use stripe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mr_Maravish]

I use stripe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And you have it linked up to your personal account?

How do you deal with taxes at the end of the year? Or just screw it all!

 

[biophase]

ok, but I would like to understand what is the difference between following this process and asking friends to buy from there account? It seems the exact same thing to me...

Way more complicated... why not just ask your friends? It's nowhere near the same thing.

 

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[biophase]

Is Amazon PPC nearly as complex as Adwords PPC? And what your process on setting up/maintaining a solid Amazon PPC campaign?

No, Amazon PPC is super easy to set up. First let Amazon pick the keywords by running an auto campaign for a week and then sift through the data to find the keywords that converted. Then set up a manual campaign using those keywords.

 

[biophase]

Now for my question - I reside in Toronto, and would like to sell on Amazon US. I'm a little bit confused on import duties etc. that I may have to face when importing my product from China. Can anyone shed some light on this process? Should I be looking into hiring a third party company to manage this part of the business?

I can't really help you here. I would think that you end up paying duties in Canada and then again in the USA? I would probably just ship to a USA location, or company that handles this kind of stuff?

 

[biophase]

I use stripe.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Stripe doesn't require you to have a bank account? How do you get your money then?

 

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[biophase]

Hey Kenric,

What would be the simplest way of accepting debit/credit card payments on my own website without a bank account? I took your advise of forming an LLC once the business is profitable. My website is set except for the most important thing, how will I collect payments! Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

Wouldn't paypal fit this requirement? They act as their own account and hold you money. Most other payment processors just take the transaction and send the money over to your bank account.

If you are worried about taxes, you can easily keep track of your income in your paypal account, even if it is linked to your personal bank account.

 

[DamienP]

Hey Kenric,

What would be the simplest way of accepting debit/credit card payments on my own website without a bank account? I took your advise of forming an LLC once the business is profitable. My website is set except for the most important thing, how will I collect payments! Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

If you're serious about your business and committed to its success, you need a business bank account. It's a basic fundamental, not an optional luxury.

 

[Mr_Maravish]

If you're serious about your business and committed to its success, you need a business bank account. It's a basic fundamental, not an optional luxury.

Its that I am in the testing phase of this product, and to get a business account it would total up to around $1300 just to for the business for a product that I'm not 100%, if the product fails then there goes $1300

 

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[Mr_Maravish]

If you're serious about your business and committed to its success, you need a business bank account. It's a basic fundamental, not an optional luxury.

Its that I am in the testing phase of this product, and to get a business account it would total up to around $1300 just to for the business for a product that I'm not 100%, if the product fails then there goes $1300

 

[DamienP]

Its that I am in the testing phase of this product, and to get a business account it would total up to around $1300 just to for the business for a product that I'm not 100%, if the product fails then there goes $1300

Being in business is a lifestyle change and a commitment to better your circumstances. This commitment is independent of any single business idea. You still need a business bank account, regardless of whether you pursue this idea or something completely different. If you're concerned about losing $1300 for something so important, with respect, you need to consider how much you really want this.

You won't get very far without a business account, and when you find later on that you do need one, you'll just experience delays whilst you wait for it to be set up.

Worst case scenario, get a fresh unused personal bank account and use that.

 

[MoneyDoc]

Stripe doesn't require you to have a bank account? How do you get your money then?

Oops... Sorry, didn't see the "without a bank part."


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[JAJT]

Now for my question - I reside in Toronto, and would like to sell on Amazon US. I'm a little bit confused on import duties etc. that I may have to face when importing my product from China. Can anyone shed some light on this process? Should I be looking into hiring a third party company to manage this part of the business?

I live in Ottawa and only sell on amazon.com right now.

My process is simply order the goods from China, receive them at my house in Ottawa. Slap a new shipping sticker on them and ship them to Amazon's warehouses.

I pay duties when the goods enter Canada and I've never once had to pay US duties for shipping it out. If I ever have to, I'll figure it out then but it hasn't come up in the 2 years I've been doing this.

 

[DrkSide]

Being in business is a lifestyle change and a commitment to better your circumstances. This commitment is independent of any single business idea. You still need a business bank account, regardless of whether you pursue this idea or something completely different. If you're concerned about losing $1300 for something so important, with respect, you need to consider how much you really want this.

You won't get very far without a business account, and when you find later on that you do need one, you'll just experience delays whilst you wait for it to be set up.

This is bad advice plain and simple. You don't need a business account to get started at all to start a business. I was doing 10k a month in sales before I even thought about setting up business account. The only reason that I did it then was because of the tax advantages that it provides over a personal account. Any payment processor that I have used including paypal, shopify, stripe, and amazon do not require a specific type of account.

get a fresh unused personal bank account and use that.

This is good advice. You want to be able to easily track what you spend and what you make so keep it separate from your normal spending account.

 

[DamienP]

This is bad advice plain and simple. You don't need a business account to get started at all to start a business. I was doing 10k a month in sales before I even thought about setting up business account. The only reason that I did it then was because of the tax advantages that it provides over a personal account. Any payment processor that I have used including paypal, shopify, stripe, and amazon do not require a specific type of account.

This is good advice. You want to be able to easily track what you spend and what you make so keep it separate from your normal spending account.

I respectfully disagree. However, we may be playing on two different fields here. I am from the UK, and generally payment processors wont touch you unless you have a business account (except Paypal). Getting a payment processor to accept you isn't always easy for a new business, and here in the UK Paypal is seen as second-best. Therefore opening a business account is mission-critical and is the first thing that any entrepreneur should do after registering their company.

Your view may be from a US or other perspective where the rules are different?

 

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[PureA]

I respectfully disagree. However, we may be playing on two different fields here. I am from the UK, and generally payment processors wont touch you unless you have a business account (except Paypal). Getting a payment processor to accept you isn't always easy for a new business, and here in the UK Paypal is seen as second-best. Therefore opening a business account is mission-critical and is the first thing that any entrepreneur should do after registering their company.

Your view may be from a US or other perspective where the rules are different?

I'm from UK, and have never had a problem without a business account...

 

[aprabhak]

I live in Ottawa and only sell on amazon.com right now.

My process is simply order the goods from China, receive them at my house in Ottawa. Slap a new shipping sticker on them and ship them to Amazon's warehouses.

I pay duties when the goods enter Canada and I've never once had to pay US duties for shipping it out. If I ever have to, I'll figure it out then but it hasn't come up in the 2 years I've been doing this.

This is very helpful! Can you comment on the dollar amount of an average order of yours? Are you bringing in multiple, smaller shipments or larger (say >$5k) orders.