Learning the process with Amazon

[Quark]

I debated starting a progress thread for many reasons, but decided to go ahead.

I have no experience with online sales, but have been intrigued to say the least reading posts on this forum. Today is day 12 for me on this forum and I made the decision to get something rolling this weekend.

I am going to follow the plan laid out by @biophase and launch a product on Amazon to learn the process.

Every step from getting an Amazon sellers account, buying from China, getting UPC codes, shipping, Amazon FBA will all be a new process for us (my wife & I)

Our main focus for this initial outing is to learn this process and try our hand at proper execution. We would eventually like to make sales and sell all the units we buy, but the real goal is to come away with first-hand knowledge of the Amazon process.

Pretty much, what we had prior to starting this is a decent Nikon DSLR for the photos

We decided to grab a product relatively quick and we had a little criteria that we tried to stick to.

• We wanted the item to be relatively inexpensive
• Smaller item that would not cost a lot to ship
• Something that did not have a huge minimum order requirement
• It needed to have (in our uneducated opinion) the potential for a large enough profit margin to absorb our mistakes along the way.

Our start:

• Took some money and put it in an account just for this project.
• Got accounts with Alibaba and DHGate
• Contacted the seller of our product choice to see if they will sell a sample, currently the smallest size shipment is 50 pieces.
• I also researched UPC codes and it seems like I will need only one if I have one product and no variations. When we lock a product down, I need to determine if I can print it myself or have to have it printed. It can’t be printed on the currently selected product.
• I searched Amazon for this exact product and cannot find it. I wanted to see if there were sales and if so, what kind of feedback it was getting. There are other “brands” and variations but not this exact one.

If we can’t get a sample order we will have to decide if we roll the dice or look for a different product.

A 50 piece order would be $348.00. I don’t mind the gamble that it doesn’t sell, but I don’t want $348 worth of falling apart, trash can filler.

As for our product it is a “Gadget” in the women’s health and beauty category. In this thread it will simply be referred to as a gadget.

We did not pick a product we love or are especially passionate about. Unless this surprises us and sells like wildfire, we probably won’t reorder if we sellout.

We are passionate about learning this process and attempting to do it right or at least get it right in the end. It took some time and a lot of reading here to grasp this idea of not needing to love the product. It is the process, execution and adding that value that are important. We get it now.

After attempting to read as much as possible in the first 10 days on this forum, I do feel kind of silly posting a thread of my own. I have learned a ton of information from threads that truly deserve to be read, by people who really have something valuable to share.

A really big thanks to @biophase @Vigilante @Kerin12 @JAJT @jon.a and a slew of others for their contributions, as well as MJ for the book and forum.

 

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[jon.a]

good hunting!

 

[Grinning-Jack]

Smaller item that would not cost a lot to ship

Shipping shouldn't be over the product cost.
Probably, that's trivial, however, I many times faced with this stuff when I was an ebayer.

Sorry for off topic.
Good luck.

 

[SSimz]

Don't feel silly about starting a new thread, the things you learn and share throughout this process can be very beneficial to others including myself who also decided to take the plunge into selling items on Amazon today in the event of learning. So far this video has helped me gained a better insight to the whole process

Look forward to reading your updates

 

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[ZCP]

Suggest trying to get the listing going on Amazon and at least researching the updates to barriers of entry in health and beauty on Amazon.

Will send you some rep$ .... it won't buy inventory, but it will let you know that what you are doing is great for the forum.....

 

[Quark]

@SSimz, thanks for the video, that is my first look into the control panel of Amazon. I am sure I will refer to it again when I sign up for our account.

@ZCP thank you so much, I just finished my back and forth emails with the supplier and they did allow me to buy three units for a sample price. Now that we have something coming to look at, we will get an account going and take a look at the barriers. - I especially like how the story turned out in his experiment.... At least the part about your boys.

Based on the post by Biophase, I (think) we avoided and item that could be a "Hazmat" I forget the actual term. This is not ingested or applied, has no ingredients so I'm hoping we don't have the inspection phase, but if we do, I'll send them the samples & get in the Que while we wait for the full shipment.

I'll get in there tomorrow and look at what we are facing. Thanks for the rep!

 

[biophase]

@SSimz, thanks for the video, that is my first look into the control panel of Amazon. I am sure I will refer to it again when I sign up for our account.

@ZCP thank you so much, I just finished my back and forth emails with the supplier and they did allow me to buy three units for a sample price. Now that we have something coming to look at, we will get an account going and take a look at the barriers. - I especially like how the story turned out in his experiment.... At least the part about your boys.

Based on the post by Biophase, I (think) we avoided and item that could be a "Hazmat" I forget the actual term. This is not ingested or applied, has no ingredients so I'm hoping we don't have the inspection phase, but if we do, I'll send them the samples & get in the Que while we wait for the full shipment.

I'll get in there tomorrow and look at what we are facing. Thanks for the rep!

Almost everything goes through Hazmat inspection now. Even clothing.

 

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[Quark]

We did get the supplier to sell us some samples and got those ordered last night, got confirmation they have been shipped.

Ordered samples - $45
Picked a company name for this product
Got the matching domain name / No website - $10
Amazon sellers account in company name - $40+ free month

Now to start learning our way around the sellers side of Amazon.

 

[Sean P]

Good luck with your journey.

I was reading Spencer Haws post on his blog(nichepursuits dot com) where he discussed his April earnings and about why he is moving to selling physical products on Amazon. In that post, in order to illustrate his point he has linked to 5 people who are doing extremely well with Amazon. I glanced through their stories quickly due to lack of time(will read them in detail later) but you will be able to learn a thing or two from those posts, as well as Spencer's post. Will provide you with more inspiration too.

But of course you have all the help you need here with some veterans in the field as members.

 

[Kerin]

Congrats on taking your first steps. Great to hear that your mindset is in the right place. A lot of people get stuck on trying to find that 'perfect product'; that product that will give them the home run and make them a millionaire in the process. Time is then wasted over-researching and over-analysing when what they should be doing is moving forward. Learning. Evolving. Staying curious.

Figuring out the 'how' rather than the 'what' is especially important at the beginning, and a lot of people forget that.

Looking forward to seeing your progress. Anything I can help you with, just give me a shout.

Cheers
Kerin

 

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[Quark]

So we got our samples in today, which seemed pretty quick.

Opened them up & there is a slight variation to what was pictured in the listing we ordered from, which is not a huge deal.

The real problem is the ones we ordered were plain gadgets, the ones we received were branded with three letters on the case and the gadget. We researched this and basically learned this is a Chinese counterfeit of a high end gadget company here in the U.S.

So, not the same exact product advertised, branded as a counterfeit. Glad we ordered samples & not $350 worth of these.

What this did do for us was reinforce the fact we need to get to a manufacturer and get our own gadget branded, with our company info.

While waiting for the samples we did some research on Amazon, and in the niche we are looking at and learned some things. We think we might have a way to get in and add more value in the industry.

Also got a merchant words account and began researching search volume for specific key words.

Today we ordered Walter Hays book. I'm going to read it and then we will decide if we want to try and get an unbranded sample from the same supplier to test the market, or try and hook up with a supplier and get some samples from them. Either way, researching this U.S company that is being counterfeited really reinforced what we thought we could do to fill in the gap in this industry.

So in a way, these counterfeits probably propelled us into another gear.

I'm going to take some photos of the product we received and point out the variation and the branding for the supplier and see if they have something plain we can sample.

 

[Quark]

I took picture of the incorrect counterfeit product we received, used photoshop to point out the problems and also included a picture of the listed item they displayed on their product listing.

This is the response I got from the seller:

hi,

i am terribly sorry about this, factory must pack the wrong product to you,

would you please try to sell them? because they are also great quality, i am sure it will sell,

next time, we will send a gift or offer some discount to make up for this mistake,

thank you,

I was polite and informed her we would not sell them and would have to shop elsewhere in the future. Lesson learned.

 

[Sean P]

It seems to be a common issue - that of shipped products not matching what has been ordered. In this case it was a very wise step of ordering samples first, and not ordering in bulk.

I don't know whether it is possible but maybe you could have the supplier send you pictures of the items before they ship it to you(for the next time). Not sample pics that have been done up as they may display on their website, but real pictures of the actual samples shot from close range. I think a supplier who is ready to do that for you would be genuine and eager to get your order, as well as maintain the quality of the items in the future when the end-customer orders begin to come from you.

 

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[Quark]

A quick catch up post:

During the last 5 days, I read Walter Hays book and learned a ton.

Using the methods in his book, we located what we believe is a manufacturer, even if they are not, they have been accommodating and say they can add logos to our product for free if MOQ is met, other wise there is a fee to add the logo.

They arranged door to door air Currier, sent us a list of compatible products from their catalog and offered to send additional samples from the list with our sample order. We picked three additional items that would complement our original product. The sample package should be shipped in the next couple of days.

On a side note, I was able to respond and build a small amount of trust and credibility by directly using techniques in Walter's book. I read it first and immediately recognized what was happening in the first couple of emails with the manufacturer. I referred to the section of the book and was able to keep up with the conversation and answer correctly, or at least adequately to get to the next step.

• We also bought our bar codes
• Researched packaging companies until I'm tired of reading. Still have not found anything suitable, and custom orders have huge minimum orders. We may be able to get away with out packaging in the beginning, we will see how the samples arrive.
• We have ordered a logo from a company we have used many years ago & they have always been very good, and inexpensive.
• We took a field trip to a couple of local malls and studied competitors for packaging and quality.
• Ordered a photo light-box (30"x 30") and two lights from Amazon - Total $69.90
• Set up a FedEx account for shipping
• Working with DHL for an account (phone tag so far)
• Played around with Amazon's FBA cost tool to try and figure out cost and pricing for our product (to see if there is a profit in it)

I still have concerns about shipping / freight costs, but we wont really know until we get down to the first real sized order how much that will add the the cost of each piece.

This week we will be working with the logo company to get it finalized
Waiting for samples
Finish setting up account with DHL
This weekend I'll used our previous counterfeit samples to practice taking photos with this light-box setup.