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E-Commerce Brand Kick-Started By The Pandemic

AdamB

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1 pack = 1 item
2 pack = 1 item
3 pack = 1 item
4 pack = 1 item

you just put them in one box with a barcode like @biophase mentioned above

Thanks for the info.

Despite the benefits of FBA, I think fulfilling the orders myself is the better option at the moment for the following reasons:

1. 2-4 items has the same fulfilment cost as 1 item. If I go FBA, fulfilling 2-4 items would be much more expensive.

2. Stock control - Rather than deciding how many 2 packs, 3 packs or 4 packs might sell and then sending them into Amazon, I can use my stock to fulfil all orders. With FBA, I could send in 3 pack SKUs, for example, that might not sell well for whatever reason. And them I run out of stock of 1 packs and I have to order more even though I have 3 packs at the FBA centre. I'd rather be able to pack up orders when required from stock that I have 5 mins from my house - if that makes sense?

I know it's not very fastlane to be fulfilling the orders myself, but I think to begin with it's the better thing to do in this situation - until I get a good feel for the business and customers, anyway.

I just need to get this buy box issue sorted. I'm still not eligible and I'm only making 1-2 sales a day.
 
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amp0193

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So send in the 1-packs, make them FBA, and leave the 2 3 and 4 pack options merchant fulfilled.

FBA should give you the buy box.

It’s interesting that you worry about running out of inventory on an FBA sku because you would sell too much, and instead are choosing to sell almost nothing, without a buy box.. but at least you don’t go out of stock.

Here’s the other thing... you will sell more with FBA. Many Amazon shoppers won’t touch anything that’s not prime (myself included).

PM sent about weight and shipping info
 

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So after yet more days with no sign of buy box eligibility (and some encouragement from @amp0193) I decided to explore FBA.

I think I’ve actually been putting it off because I find it quite confusing. I have quite a bit of experience selling on Amazon, but I’ve never shipped anything into FBA. I’ve messed around with the shipment tool etc a few times but that’s about it.

I can’t send my main product in yet as it needs to pass a hazmat review (it is considered hazmat so a Safety Data Sheet is required). They rejected my first SDS but the reason they gave didn’t make much sense. I got onto seller support about it and they just told me to submit it again as it should have been accepted. Strange... we’ll see what happens.

Anyway, my secondary product has been selling well and is just a standard product that anyone could get a hold of, so I decided to send 50 units of that in to familiarise myself. I sell this product as a 5 pack, so that was the first cause of confusion when creating a shipment.

I’m 99% sure (in fact, 100%) that I’ve done it wrong. I have 50 boxes, packed and ready to go to the customer without any prep from amazon, all labelled individually with UPS labels ready to be collected tomorrow. I’m pretty sure they should all be cling wrapped on a pallet together with one UPS label. The UPS label is the size of one whole side of the box and I’ve tapped it on pretty good to make sure it doesn’t tear on any of the boxes. So will Amazon have to take each one off before shipping the box out to the customer? Surely they won’t send it out with my UPS label?

I just hope they take it in. I had been dancing around the prospect of FBA for too long and just needed to get going. I will do it properly next time.

33409

I’ve only been making 2-3 sales per day with no buy box and it’s hugely frustrating.

Hopefully these arrive into FBA safely and I can start to get some sales with the buy box - guaranteed eligibility to FBA sellers.

Thanks for the encouragement @amp0193
 

biophase

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So after yet more days with no sign of buy box eligibility (and some encouragement from @amp0193) I decided to explore FBA.

I think I’ve actually been putting it off because I find it quite confusing. I have quite a bit of experience selling on Amazon, but I’ve never shipped anything into FBA. I’ve messed around with the shipment tool etc a few times but that’s about it.

I can’t send my main product in yet as it needs to pass a hazmat review (it is considered hazmat so a Safety Data Sheet is required). They rejected my first SDS but the reason they gave didn’t make much sense. I got onto seller support about it and they just told me to submit it again as it should have been accepted. Strange... we’ll see what happens.

Anyway, my secondary product has been selling well and is just a standard product that anyone could get a hold of, so I decided to send 50 units of that in to familiarise myself. I sell this product as a 5 pack, so that was the first cause of confusion when creating a shipment.

I’m 99% sure (in fact, 100%) that I’ve done it wrong. I have 50 boxes, packed and ready to go to the customer without any prep from amazon, all labelled individually with UPS labels ready to be collected tomorrow. I’m pretty sure they should all be cling wrapped on a pallet together with one UPS label. The UPS label is the size of one whole side of the box and I’ve tapped it on pretty good to make sure it doesn’t tear on any of the boxes. So will Amazon have to take each one off before shipping the box out to the customer? Surely they won’t send it out with my UPS label?

I just hope they take it in. I had been dancing around the prospect of FBA for too long and just needed to get going. I will do it properly next time.

View attachment 33409

I’ve only been making 2-3 sales per day with no buy box and it’s hugely frustrating.

Hopefully these arrive into FBA safely and I can start to get some sales with the buy box - guaranteed eligibility to FBA sellers.

Thanks for the encouragement @amp0193


Ok, so you have 50 boxes that are ready to go to the customer. So you are shipping into Amazon FBA, 50 units. You created a shipment in Amazon and said that you have 50 units to ship in right?

So now you are shipping 50 individual units all separately into Amazon? Did they print you 50 labels?

Or did you say that they were case-packed 50 units into 1 case, so they sent you 1 shipping label?

If so, you need to put the 50 boxes into 1 big box and then put the UPS label onto that box.

Where is your UPC barcode on that box in the photo?
 
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AdamB

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Ok, so you have 50 boxes that are ready to go to the customer. So you are shipping into Amazon FBA, 50 units. You created a shipment in Amazon and said that you have 50 units to ship in right?

So now you are shipping 50 individual units all separately into Amazon? Did they print you 50 labels?

Or did you say that they were case-packed 50 units into 1 case, so they sent you 1 shipping label?

If so, you need to put the 50 boxes into 1 big box and then put the UPS label onto that box.

Where is your UPC barcode on that box in the photo?

I said that I was shipping 50 units into Amazon and they gave me 50 labels to print. I forgot to take a picture of the shipment at the warehouse last night, but I'll take one today and post it here.

If so, you need to put the 50 boxes into 1 big box and then put the UPS label onto that box.

I think this is what I need to do next time.
 

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I said that I was shipping 50 units into Amazon and they gave me 50 labels to print. I forgot to take a picture of the shipment at the warehouse last night, but I'll take one today and post it here.

I think this is what I need to do next time.

You probably flipped the numbers when you did your shipment. You put down 1 per case and 50 cases instead of 50 per case and 1 case. This would have given you one large shipment.

However, even with that, how would you have put all 50 boxes into 1 case? You will have to figure out how to case pack your stuff before the next shipment.
 

AdamB

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You will have to figure out how to case pack your stuff before the next shipment.

I think I will put all of the boxes on a pallet and package wrap the whole pallet. Then I can put one shipping label on it just put the FBA barcode on each box.

To me this makes the most sense. But I might be wrong.
 
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I think I will put all of the boxes on a pallet and package wrap the whole pallet. Then I can put one shipping label on it just put the FBA barcode on each box.

To me this makes the most sense. But I might be wrong.
Pallet shipments are an entire different process.
 

AdamB

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I will post a picture of what today's shipment looks like and I will let people weigh in on what I'm best doing. It'll be really useful for me because all of my main products currently go in the same sized box.
 

biophase

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I think I will put all of the boxes on a pallet and package wrap the whole pallet. Then I can put one shipping label on it just put the FBA barcode on each box.

To me this makes the most sense. But I might be wrong.

Um, yeah you can't do that. How do you expect a regular UPS driver to pick up a pallet?

You need to ship it as a pallet on Amazon which is a totally different process and schedule a pickup. Do you have a forklift?
 
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AdamB

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Um, yeah you can't do that. How do you expect a regular UPS driver to pick up a pallet?

You need to ship it as a pallet on Amazon which is a totally different process and schedule a pickup. Do you have a forklift?

I know I can’t just try and give a pallet to the UPS driver, but I noticed a pallet option when creating a shipment.

Yes I have access to a forklift.

Here is what my shipment looks like today. Overkill with the UPS labels as each box is labelled, but I didn’t know what kind of box to put these smaller boxes in.

33422
 

biophase

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I know I can’t just try and give a pallet to the UPS driver, but I noticed a pallet option when creating a shipment.

Yes I have access to a forklift.

Here is what my shipment looks like today. Overkill with the UPS labels as each box is labelled, but I didn’t know what kind of box to put these smaller boxes in.

View attachment 33422

Are you blacking out the Amazon label? Where is the barcode for the actual product. I hope it is on the box somewhere.

Edit: Nevermind, you are doing that in the photo so we don't see the product name. I thought it was a black marker on the actual box.
 

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I know I can’t just try and give a pallet to the UPS driver, but I noticed a pallet option when creating a shipment.

Yes I have access to a forklift.

Here is what my shipment looks like today. Overkill with the UPS labels as each box is labelled, but I didn’t know what kind of box to put these smaller boxes in.

View attachment 33422

Are these case packed, or is there one product per box? It seems you could have been easier on you had you made one large case packed box instead of a dozen individual labels

We ship LTL to amazon all the time (Less than Truck Load), but we sell heavy/big products. It's great for volume, but with so few packages I would just UPS them for now. LTL Freight is usually expensive for one pallet, but when you're sending in 6+ pallets it starts making a lot of sense.
 
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AdamB

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Are you blacking out the Amazon label? Where is the barcode for the actual product. I hope it is on the box somewhere.

I opted to use the Amazon SKU label when given the choice between that and the product UPC when creating the shipment. Blacked it out because it contains the title of the product.
 

biophase

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I know I can’t just try and give a pallet to the UPS driver, but I noticed a pallet option when creating a shipment.

Yes, the pallet option will create a freight shipment. It will be a little different than UPS. But based on your photo, that is exactly what you need.
 

AdamB

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Are these case packed, or is there one product per box? It seems you could have been easier on you had you made one large case packed box instead of a dozen individual labels

We ship LTL to amazon all the time (Less than Truck Load), but we sell heavy/big products. It's great for volume, but with so few packages I would just UPS them for now.

Yes, there is one product per box.

My next shipment will be bigger as this is just a test given it's my first time. I suppose I could either pack a small number of these into bigger boxes or just put them on a pallet.

I didn't put them in bigger boxes because the boxes themself are quite big, so I didn't see the point as I may have only got 4 or 5 in each box.

However, midway through labelling them all, I thought to myself - "I'm being stupid here". But I had already bought the shipping and printed the labels at that point.
 
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So while the 'no buy box' sales of 2-3per day trickle in, I decided to use this time to work on my website a little and start to play around with ads.

The good news is - I got my first sale directly through my own website.

The bad news is - I spent around £60 in ads to generate that one sale of £19.99. Obviously not sustainable to be running at those kind of results for long, but I'm trying to get some initial data.

I'm running an ad on Facebook and also on Pinterest. I've had around 100 sessions on the store, so with one purchase, I have a conversion rate of around 1%. I don't think that's too bad for a brand new store when I'm still trying to figure out advertising on social media. But the cost of getting those 100 sessions seems astronomical.

I'd imagine I should be able to get 100 potential customers onto my site for way less than £60. So, I'll have to spend a lot of time getting my head around all of this.

But, hey, moving in the right direction.

Waiting to hear back from the hazmat team about my main product. Hoping to get that sent into Amazon asap too.
 

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UPDATE

So, on Sunday I awoke to find my account was buy box eligible again. Great news!

Then, on Monday my 50 units arrived at Amazon FBA. So things have been good.

I have 2 solid days of sales under my belt now and I have sold 20 units both days. I now have 4 SKUs listed, one of which is FBA. I'm going to have to send more stock in immediately to make sure I don't run out.

The product that I have in FBA is a generic, unbranded product. However, I can already tell that this is going to sell well and it is particularly necessary for businesses and homes during this time. I'm worried about the fact that it is not unique and another seller could jump on the listing. The product is plastic and I've spoken to the manufacturer about branding the plastic during manufacture. They have told me that this can be very pricey and it also means there will be a long lead time on the product rather than just being able to order it and get it immediately as they always have it in stock.

So, I'm trying to think of the best way to brand it myself once it arrives with me. I'm not sure whether I should just go with a small sticker with my brand logo on it to begin with. It means that can be used in the listing image and it's easy for me to apply.

However, I'm worried it may seem a little unprofessional if the sticker starts to wear or come off after multiple uses. If I had made this an INSIDERS thread I'd be more willing to give out information.

At the moment, I just need to focus on making sure I don't run out of stock.

All in all, it's been a good start to the week. I'd like to do £500 per day in sales as a target to begin with. So, I'll keep everyone up to date over the next couple of weeks.
 

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I'm running an ad on Facebook and also on Pinterest. I've had around 100 sessions on the store, so with one purchase, I have a conversion rate of around 1%. I don't think that's too bad for a brand new store when I'm still trying to figure out advertising on social media. But the cost of getting those 100 sessions seems astronomical.

You need to on just ONE channel. You don't have the marketing budget or expertise to use two.

One sale on $60.00 isn't bad. Remember, you need to buy the data before you can optimize.

We spent about $6k-7k at a loss just to start optimizing. Now we're seeing 7x-8x ROAS on $20k+ spend a month.
 
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You need to on just ONE channel. You don't have the marketing budget or expertise to use two.

One sale on $60.00 isn't bad. Remember, you need to buy the data before you can optimize.

We spent about $6k-7k at a loss just to start optimizing. Now we're seeing 7x-8x ROAS on $20k+ spend a month.

Thanks! I'll keep this in mind. The thought of throwing thousands at it is daunting, but I know you're right.
 

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UPDATE

My main product is selling quite well 15-20 units per day. I'm consistently beating my £500 per day sales figures target.

My first shipment of 50 units sent into Amazon sold out within 3 days. Unfortunately, I've been struggling to get more from my supplier to send more in.

I've managed to get a pallet of a smaller version of the product which I am going to package up to send into Amazon FBA this weekend. I've purchased clear, plastic FBA bags which is going to allow me to package them together in 5 packs, and then put about 20-30 units in a box. This seems to be the answer to my packaging 5 units problem.

It seems pretty simple now that I've come up with a solution - but I guess it all comes back to 'you don't know what you don't know'. I can see myself getting more comfortable with this and I'm hoping I can start sending a lot more units into FBA.

My slight concern this week has been the space I am using.

As mentioned in a previous post, a friend of mine is (very kindly) allowing me to use warehouse space free of charge. I currently have around 3 pallets in there and I think if I use up any more space, I'll start feeling like I'm taking advantage.

I guess I just need to see how it goes. I'm going to try and make sure that I get shipments out to Amazon very quickly after I take delivery of pallets to the warehouse.

It's going well so far. I'm looking forward to really getting into the swing of things with FBA as I'm just addicted to seeing those sales come in knowing that I don't have to do anything to fulfill them.

I'm self-fulfilling my main product and I'm consequently spending an hour or two at the warehouse every day and then transporting the products home where the courier collects them. So my main product is a bit more time-intensive. This is fine at the moment due to lockdown, but this will be far more difficult when I need to work it around my daily travelling for my normal work.

I'll find a way though!

Hope everyone is well.
 

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So this happened today...

33818

Refreshed the app and it jumped up by 90 units! Someone purchased 90 of my 5 packs at a total price of £1799. Crazy! Who buys 450 units at full price from a random seller on Amazon?

I increased the price on my main product last night from £24.99 to £29.99 after consistently selling around 20 units per day. I was spending a lot of time in the warehouse prepping orders and I felt that I should be making more profit. I was worried that it had been too much of a jump after a slow start this morning. I've ended up selling around 16 units even with the price increase though.

Today's big order really got me thinking - "You need to be in the game".

The product that they ordered is one I only recently bought from the supplier. I wasn't going to list a seller fulfilled offer. I sent 100 units into FBA (got picked up this afternoon) and I was just going to wait until they went live. But I just quickly listed a seller fulfilled offer and decided to test demand while I was waiting on the shipment being processed into FBA. If I hadn't taken action, I would have missed out on this order.

I just made over £1200 from one order placed by a customer I have never met and may never speak to. I suppose these are the things that can happen when you just take some action.

You need to be on the pitch playing the game, not watching from the stands. No matter what level you're playing at.

Take action. Make a move.
 
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I just made over £1200 from one order placed by a customer I have never met and may never speak to. I suppose these are the things that can happen when you just take some action.

You need to be on the pitch playing the game, not watching from the stands. No matter what level you're playing at.

Take action. Make a move.

Congrats! Do you start seeing an improvement in rankings / reviews ? When I sold on Amazon I saw a huge increase in sales after getting the first few reviews.

Any more sales on your website ?
 

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Congrats! Do you start seeing an improvement in rankings / reviews ? When I sold on Amazon I saw a huge increase in sales after getting the first few reviews.

Any more sales on your website ?

I got my first review on my main product yesterday. 5 star review complimenting the delivery time and value for money. So, I believe that helped with the sales as it coincided with my price increase.

Absolutely no sales through my own website at all. Twice I’ve tried to focus on it and just haven’t been able to get any traction at all.

I considered branding the secondary products I have to try and drive people to my website. I just don’t want them to look tacky. I’m also not 100% sure if you are allowed your URL directly on your product label for everyone to see both in person and in the listing images.
 

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I got my first review on my main product yesterday. 5 star review complimenting the delivery time and value for money. So, I believe that helped with the sales as it coincided with my price increase.

Absolutely no sales through my own website at all. Twice I’ve tried to focus on it and just haven’t been able to get any traction at all.

I considered branding the secondary products I have to try and drive people to my website. I just don’t want them to look tacky. I’m also not 100% sure if you are allowed your URL directly on your product label for everyone to see both in person and in the listing images.

Awesome thread! I love this! Following.
 
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Thanks Sandy. Do you sell on Amazon?

Nope.

I really don't know too much about Amazon tbh.

I am however trying to decide on something to execute on. I work as a programmer, and building a niche / webshop is one idea I'm thinking about, but don't have any idea of what I would sell.
 

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33877

New problem - I can't get my products into FBA quick enough to keep up with the demand! I need to spend a lot of time in the warehouse packing up FBA shipments this weekend.

But... I get the keys to our new house today.

It's going to be a busy weekend!

Sales of my main product that I fulfil myself have slowed over the past 2 days (7-8 units per day), so I've spent some time working on the ad campaigns a little this morning to see if that helps. It's very clear from all of the previous orders I've had that it's business customers who are buying the product. I have also noticed that my best conversion rates come from other similar business-specific products on Amazon, so I have just launched a campaign aggressively targeting all of the other products that business users might bee browsing. Let's see how it goes.

As for the products I'm sending into FBA, I don't even need ad campaigns. They are just selling out as soon as they become available. I need to take advantage of this and figure out the best way to brand them without them looking tacky and it affecting sales.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the best way to brand a basic plastic product? Would nice, permanent stickers do the trick?

Also, are you allowed to list your website on the branding directly on the product which would make it appear in the listing image? I suspect not, but hopefully I'm wrong.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

EDIT - as I was writing this, someone purchased 4 of my main product. I send these out in one box and make £65 profit on the order. This is addictive...
 
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I've been meaning to update the thread for days, but I just haven't been able to find the time.

Buying a house that needs a full refurb, starting a new business and trying to do your existing day to day work all at the same time is not recommended. However, I am drunk on life at the moment.

We could not be happier with our new house and it's going to be fantastic when it is finished. Work is going well. Being able to work 100% from my laptop gives me the freedom to be at the house with the guy who is doing most of the work for us. I'm lucky in that sense.

The Amazon business is doing well too. Here's a look at today's sales.

34129

I make £10 profit per unit - so, I made over £700 today. That may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but it's a game-changer for me. I can't get enough of it!

Something has happened over the past week or two. You have probably read me talking about my main product (which I self-fulfil) and my supporting products (which are related to my main product and are FBA). What has happened is that my supporting products have turned out to sell WAY more than my main product. So much so that I am considering creating a new brand and focusing on what I refer to as the 'supporting products'.

It turns out there is a worldwide shortage of one of the components of this product and they are very high demand. I managed to build a good relationship with a supplier in my city just in time and they are helping me out with some stock.

The funny thing is, the only reason he replied to my very first email is because I was honest. I sent an email to the company explaining that I was local and just getting started in the business, looking to buy some stock. The Managing Director of the company told me he was having a glass of wine in the garden with his wife when he read my email and felt like he wanted to help.

I've kept in regular contact with the Managing Director over the past few weeks, asking for as much stock as possible and making it as easy as possible for them to sell to me. I've been paying upfront and taking whatever stock I can get. I've had to create a few different listings on Amazon to cater for the slight product differences. I've been buying a pallet at a time which contains around 1,100 units. I then sell them in 5 packs.

I was asking for more stock a few days ago and he said there may be an opportunity of 15,000 units, but I'd need to take them straight away as they are desperate for the space. 15,000 units is 16 pallets.

From this thread, you'll know that a friend is (very kindly) allowing me to use some warehouse space. I try to not have any more than 3 pallets in the go at any given time as I feel like I'd be taking advantage of him if I were to take up any more space. But I couldn't pass this up.

I explained the situation to the supplier and said I'd try to sort something out. That same day, I rented a shipping container in my town for £130/month. I immediately emailed them to let them know that I could take the 15,000 units whenever they wanted.

The Managing Director's business partner read my email and then intended to reply to the MD, but accidentally sent the email to me. It read - "I like this boy". That put a smile on my face. I don't know if he's realised his mistake yet - I didn't tell him.

Anyway - I am now eagerly awaiting the stock arriving as I sold almost all of my current stock today. Once I have created the 5 packs, I will have just under 3,000 units. I plan to build a big FBA stock in the UK and start sending stock out the fulfilment centres across Europe.

The only problem is... I'm not sure if my shipping container is big enough! I might have to rent the one next to it as well.

Sorry for the long post - I'm just very excited about the business at the moment.

I intended to take a picture of the shipment I have waiting to go to FBA as I have made good progress when it comes to packaging up the units. I started off sending small boxes which contained 1 unit (you'll see a picture in an earlier post). I sent in 50 units at a cost of around £80.

I now package 20 units in clear cellophane bags, into one large cardboard box. It costs me £4 to send each box. So, before I'd send in 50 units at a cost of £80. I now send in 100 units at a cost of £20. Nuts.

You don't know what you don't know...
 

AdamB

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Does anyone know the best way to ship to US fulfilment centres from the UK?

I've been getting quoted quite high prices - £700-£1000+ plus to send 10 boxes 60x45x45cm 6kg in weight.

Does this seem right, or is there a better way to do it?

@biophase @JasonR
 

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