teribithia
Newbie
- Dec 11, 2013
- 17
- 1
Yes We are selling items in amazon.Just want to improve our brand popularity to make the customer trust our product . We have some lists in the top 3 of amazon searching result (more than 60K results ) .
Amazon Physical Product Sales - Ask me Anything!
- Thread starter stretch361
- Start date
Yes We are selling items in amazon.Just want to improve our brand popularity to make the customer trust our product . We have some lists in the top 3 of amazon searching result (more than 60K results ) .
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Assuming you are actually SELLING the item on Amazon (when you mean promoting) as a 3rd party seller, I definitely think you could make some money there. This is the PS4 listing on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4/dp/B00BGA9WK2 As of right now, there are only 2 sellers. With it being so close to Christmas, you need to get it up now. The problem you may be running into is that Amazon cuts off new sellers to the Toys and Games category every year during Christmas. If you don't already have a working account (where you have sales on it), you won't be able to sell in the toys and games category until mid January.
If you don't have a working account, your best bet would be to partner up with someone that can put it on Amazon for you. The price its selling for is good ($754 with shipping), so the margin should be in decent shape. I know you probably paid $400, so even with Amazon's commission and shipping charges, theres still about $225 or so of profit to be made.
And no, I'm not soliciting to partner up with me on it.
TheVigilante
Banned - Multiple Rules Violations
- Aug 31, 2010
- 14,993
- 16,105
I am gonna start with Amazon soon so will bookmark this thread...
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Here's the reality of the "holy grail" of selling product on Amazon...
A product gets a ton of sales on Amazon for three reasons:
- It ranks well organically in the Amazon search engine (which has many run offs, such as the "customers who bought this also bought" and the "frequently bought together" widgets).
- It ranks well organically in google / yahoo / bing
- Affiliates are driving sales
If you think about it logicially, affiliates tend to drive products that are best sellers, because that's when they get a commission. So one tip could be - try to figure out who the affiliates are that are pushing your competitors products. Contact them, and try to convince them to either write a "product review" (which you could offer to supply the content on), or ask them to put your product on their websites. Unlike standard affiliate sales, you can't offer larger commissions, so you have to think outside the box. What would an affiliate want in return for putting your product up?
On the flip side, do some keyword research on google about your product. If it's not showing up organically on your main keywords, and your competitor is - that's a big problem for you. Remember, I'm talking about buying keywords, not brand keywords. I.e., if you are a side loading fridge, the keywords would be something like "Side loading fridge", "side loading refrigerator", etc....not "Whirlpool MXN1234 Fridge". If you find yourself ranking poorly in google for those keywords, use standard SEO methods to drive those organic rankings up in google. Change keywords directly on the page for on page SEO, and drive backlinks.
Ultimately, the reviews, best seller ratings, and amazon organic listings will rise when sales occur. Focus more on driving traffic to the listing, instead of trying to somehow get more reviews. If your product is good, and already has a few reviews going, driving more traffic to it should result in more sales.
In theory, you could pay people to leave reviews for your product. Just remember, reviews are just a small component of what makes a good selling item sell on Amazon.
weepingwillow
Junior Member
- Dec 21, 2012
- 145
- 18
Doesn't make sense to me.
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
EXTREMELY thin. Our margins this year, after commissions, etc are about 16-17%. This is before any actual expenses like rent, debt service, labor, shipping supplies, etc.
This mainly has to do with the fact that we compete hard on the buy box on Amazon. The philosophy has been - if the product doesnt make any money / loses us money, we just don't rebuy it. There are cases where we take steep loses on some products just to free up working capital to buy product. On about 30% of our sales, we would have margins in the 30-35% range. What makes the overall margin so thin is that there are many poor buying decisions. In some cases, we almost have to give away product to get rid of it.
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Like the stock market - would you put all of your eggs in one basket?
Here's the reality. Every year, for the niche I'm in, I have to do purchasing 9 months in advance of when the product is likely to sell. Trends change over a 9 month time span. Item's that I thought were sure fire gold end up being flops. Amazon carries products that we didn't expect them to carry, which effectively kills our sales for those items. Add it all up, and it causes thin margins, with massive debt to carry the product. Going into the busy season every year is like a crapshoot - if we sell through 70% of our product at X% margin, we break even. If we sell through more than that, or have higher margins - then it's a great season. If we sell through less than 70% or our margins dip, we run into a serious cash flow problem. During busy season, all I can basically do is sit back and hope sales start pouring in, or we start dropping prices like a rock. Because we are selling highly seasonal product, if we don't sell it during our busy season, it's like dead weight. That dead weight turns into laying off employees and potentially pissing off creditors and suppliers.
My goal is to counter balance that heavy risk with other holdings. I know someone from the outside might say "Wow, this guy did millions of revenue, why is he trying to do adsense sites". Adsense sites from a monetary standpoint represent very little working capital to do. You can pay people from the philippines, or hire other people to do the services with the right plan to do the work. At least you can gradually see results. In the business I'm currently in, I'm making blind purchasing decisions - hoping I'm right. As the years have gone on - I'm better at doing purchasing. But now, it's gotten to the point where I have to hand off purchasing to someone else, and it's quite a chore to find someone that will likely have the experience I have buying $1 million + of product - and getting it right.
Hopefully this helps make sense.
Hey,
It would be great if I could get your advice on the following issue:
I'm currently in Europe, selling products trough my website and using PayPal for accepting payments. I would like to get my products listed on Amazon, but I don't have an US bank account (nor in the other countries specified in the Amazon terms).
I have found Payoneer as a solution for accepting Amazon funds. However, at the moment, according to their terms, I can only sign up for an individual account, not a company account. So, basically I would get my company funds in my personal account, which I'm not sure that would be ok.
The solution would be to sell on Amazon as an individual and receive funds in my Payoneer account.
However, I think operating as a company would be more profitable for me.
As I have understood from your posts, your are also selling on amazon as a company, right?
Do you have any knowledge regarding these payment aspects, or maybe some alternatives to Payoneer?
Thank you in advance
,
It would be great if I could get your advice on the following issue:
I'm currently in Europe, selling products trough my website and using PayPal for accepting payments. I would like to get my products listed on Amazon, but I don't have an US bank account (nor in the other countries specified in the Amazon terms).
I have found Payoneer as a solution for accepting Amazon funds. However, at the moment, according to their terms, I can only sign up for an individual account, not a company account. So, basically I would get my company funds in my personal account, which I'm not sure that would be ok.
The solution would be to sell on Amazon as an individual and receive funds in my Payoneer account.
However, I think operating as a company would be more profitable for me.
As I have understood from your posts, your are also selling on amazon as a company, right?
Do you have any knowledge regarding these payment aspects, or maybe some alternatives to Payoneer?
Thank you in advance
,janstastny
Junior Member
- Apr 13, 2012
- 147
- 30
I'm just wondering why everyone wants to see his screenshot earnings. If you don't believe him now why would you believe him after he shows you a screenshot that may or may not be real. no disrespect to the op as I think he has given some good pointers and advice and know what he's talking about
thatkoreanguy
Newbie
- Nov 27, 2013
- 28
- 1
What are the 5 most important things you would tell a beginner who wants to get into amazon / selling products
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Hey,
It would be great if I could get your advice on the following issue:
I'm currently in Europe, selling products trough my website and using PayPal for accepting payments. I would like to get my products listed on Amazon, but I don't have an US bank account (nor in the other countries specified in the Amazon terms).
I have found Payoneer as a solution for accepting Amazon funds. However, at the moment, according to their terms, I can only sign up for an individual account, not a company account. So, basically I would get my company funds in my personal account, which I'm not sure that would be ok.
The solution would be to sell on Amazon as an individual and receive funds in my Payoneer account.
However, I think operating as a company would be more profitable for me.
As I have understood from your posts, your are also selling on amazon as a company, right?
Do you have any knowledge regarding these payment aspects, or maybe some alternatives to Payoneer?
Thank you in advance
A very interesting question here. I'm in the US, so I don't necessarily have to deal with those sort of issues. I do know that amazon has two types of accounts - individual and pro merchant. From my understanding, the pro merchant account CAN be used by individuals. There are a lot of people that just do sole proprietor type accounts on amazon, which is kind of where this falls in for you. If you are thinking on the profitability angle of the individual account vs. pro merchant account, that's probably a non issue. You need to be a pro merchant to have any traction anyways, as you can't get approved for the buy box on Amazon without a pro merchant account. I guess the question is weather Payoneer is requiring you to be just an individual to sign up, or if they won't let you be a pro merchant. Frankly, if you can't be a pro merchant, I wouldn't waste your time.
As far as alternatives to Payoneer - sorry, it's not something I am familiar with. We haven't ran into that problem, so I can't really be a good source of information on that.
It sounds to me like it is a viable work around if you really want to sell on Amazon. Just take a look a little deeper into that Payoneer solution to make sure it's on the up and up.
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I get it, I like to see screenshots of what people make. It's curiousity. Not to mention, there are so many people on here claiming they make millions, when they barely have a quarter to their name. I'm not claiming to make millions at all. Retails a different beast than affiliate marketing. When you get $200,000 in commissions, that's almost $200,000 in pure profit. On that $6.5 million in sales, our company has netted about $250,000 in profit (after I take a salary of course). If you don't believe how slim margins are in retail, take a look at walmart. They did 466 BILLION in sales in 2012. Their profit on that was "only" 13 billion - less than 3% of sales. Amazon's in the same boat.
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
We sell a lot of volume at lower price points. Our "average" sale is about $20 retail. Our wholesale cost for a $20 product is probably in the range of $10-$12. That same item on a website with good SEO driving qualified traffic could probably sell for $25 - $27. That tells you the amazon effect of driving down prices on non-self branded items.
Veyron
BANNED
- Jun 3, 2013
- 1,451
- 1,307
teribithia
Newbie
- Dec 11, 2013
- 17
- 1
Thanks for your reply. We do not want to control the customer review in amazon , we hope the customer leave their real review there.
We now find a way to get some review in internet
Your suggestion is really useful.
stretch361
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2010
- 175
- 129
Great question. Here's what I would say:
- In the beginning, get to know your target niche of products extremely well. You'll want to know exactly what will sell well. When you have limited working capital, you need to be able to sell the products fast, so you can reinvest that money into more products.
- Understand that you can't compete against Amazon.com directly, if you want any sort of volume. If Amazon runs out of stock on something, you can pick up the slack and sales will skyrocket. But, it's a risky game to play when you first start, because you can't afford to let that stuff sit.
- Be willing to take a loss on some items. Sometimes you just make bad buying decisions. It happens. There are two ways you can handle it: Take a loss and move on, or sit on the product and hope it sells. At least if you sell it even below cost, you are getting SOME money out of it that can be reinvested into other product that you can sell faster and make a profit on. When you are starting out and scrapping for every dollar, losing even a penny on a sale is very tough to swallow. Just be prepared that you'll need to do it. I'll repeat - you WILL make purchasing mistakes. I overbought on Silly Bandz when they were the craze. To this day I still have silly bandz sitting in my warehouse rotting. When I originally bought them, the wholesale cost of those items was about $2200 for what I have sitting now. Today - they are basically worth nothing.
- When you are starting out - you need to try and avoid negative feedback, and A to Z claims (Amazon's version of chargebacks) at all costs. Make sure you are shipping items quickly with tracking numbers (I would recommend signature verification on large ticket items) and answering incoming customer service questions as quickly as possible.
- Understand ALL of your costs: your packing materials, the "cost" of the warehouse labor (if you are doing it yourself), the outgoing shipping costs (THIS IS A BIG ONE), the cost of the product INCLUDING freight, and any other expenses you can think of that are involved (rent, electricity, etc).
Here's one bonus:
- Use FBA. The pick / pack fees they charge are piddly compared to the actual outgoing shipping costs you'll pay if you ship them yourself. Make sure you really read the guidelines Amazon has put out there for incoming FBA shipments. They have really gotten picky recently on things you can / can not do. There's certain things you have to bag, you have to re-label certain items, you have to package items a certain way...it's pretty ridiculous. But if you want to play their game, you have to follow their rules.
One main reason for using FBA - it's nearly impossible to get the buy box on Amazon as a merchant fulfilled seller if you are battling against sellers that are using FBA. If no one is using FBA for an item, and you can - you'll win the buy box even if you are 10-15% more expensive.
FYI - if you don't know what the "buy box" is on Amazon, read this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200401830
Hope this helps!