Product Testing Strategies - FBA

[MetalGear]

FBA experts,

What are your product testing strategies to get around having to pay FBA fees for a relatively heavy product, especially when you are just getting started?

• Let's say I have a relatively heavy 3lb product with an MOQ of 500 units.
• According to my estimates, it would cost me ~$2,000 in Amazon FBA storage fees each month

I am considering the following supply chain strategy to cut the storage fee down risk until demand is more certain:

1. Storing 100 at an Amazon FBA center for fulfillment
2. Storing the remaining 400 in my garage until orders come in
3. Driving the remaining quantity as needed to the FBA center myself

Some have said to not go through Amazon FBA for fulfillment for the first 100 and suggested listing my product on Amazon but shipping them from my garage.

I am reluctant to take this route because I'm afraid something will pop up at home or my day job and I won't be able to ship the product as quickly as needed.

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks,
MG

 

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[SquatchMan]

How much do you value the time is the real question?

You're paying Amazon to save you time. You also get higher search rankings from being listed on Prime, which is likely an EV+ move. Depends on your margins.

Anyway, you can't just show up at an AMZ warehouse and drop off products (Am I understanding that correctly?) I worked at an Amazon warehouse and I know for a fact you can't do that because we we'd have people try to drop stuff off... or try to shop at the warehouse like it was a WalMart (wtf).

Do you really want to package product every time you get a sale? Can you package product every time you get a sale?

The answer to the above sounds like a no from what you've described.

So based on that, it looks like your best bet is to send 100 to the warehouse and then ship it when your stock is low.

EDIT: Read question a little wrong.

 

[biophase]

FBA experts,

What are your product testing strategies to get around having to pay FBA fees for a relatively heavy product, especially when you are just getting started?

• Let's say I have a relatively heavy 3lb product with an MOQ of 500 units.
• According to my estimates, it would cost me ~$2,000 in Amazon FBA storage fees each month

I am considering the following supply chain strategy to cut the storage fee down risk until demand is more certain:

1. Storing 100 at an Amazon FBA center for fulfillment
2. Storing the remaining 400 in my garage until orders come in
3. Driving the remaining quantity as needed to the FBA center myself

Some have said to not go through Amazon FBA for fulfillment for the first 100 and suggested listing my product on Amazon but shipping them from my garage.

I am reluctant to take this route because I'm afraid something will pop up at home or my day job and I won't be able to ship the product as quickly as needed.

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks,
MG

Amazon warehouse fees are based on size not weight.

I would ship 100 at a time to Amazon and keep the rest in your garage.

Easy solution.

 

[amp0193]

FBA experts,

I am considering the following supply chain strategy to cut the storage fee down risk until demand is more certain:

1. Storing 100 at an Amazon FBA center for fulfillment
2. Storing the remaining 400 in my garage until orders come in
3. Driving the remaining quantity as needed to the FBA center myself

Some have said to not go through Amazon FBA for fulfillment for the first 100 and suggested listing my product on Amazon but shipping them from my garage.

I am reluctant to take this route because I'm afraid something will pop up at home or my day job and I won't be able to ship the product as quickly as needed.

I know several guys who do exactly this plan.

Will FBA even let you drive the product there? Pretty sure not... but I'd be interested to here if you've done it before. Anyways, it's so cheap to ship to Amazon using their UPS partner rates, it can't really be worth the additional time/hassle.

If you're worried about not having time to ship, just have everything packed and ready to go, so all you have to do is put the shipping label on a box and schedule a pickup.

Worst case scenario, is you can always list as "fulfilled by merchant" if your FBA listing goes out of stock suddenly.

 

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[amp0193]

Amazon warehouse fees are based on size not weight.

They're based on size AND weight. However, the products have to pretty heavy to get weight to come into play. 3lbs, like in the OP, won't make a difference.

Amazon Seller Central


I've got a product launching in a few months that is the size of "Large Oversize", but the weight is over 150lb. so it's bumped into the "Special Oversize" category, which adds $60 an order, plus an extra $0.12 a pound over the Large Oversize rate, which adds another $8-10 additional cost.


I'm going to be doing this product FBM.

 

[biophase]

Will FBA even let you drive the product there? Pretty sure not... but I'd be interested to here if you've done it before. Anyways, it's so cheap to ship to Amazon using their UPS partner rates, it can't really be worth the additional time/hassle.

I bet you could drive there if your shipment happened to be going there. You just label the box and drop if off where Fedex would.

But, as AMP said, if you can drive to your warehouse the shipping fee to that warehouse will be under $5.