Amazon Physical Product Sales - Ask me Anything!

[stretch361]

Only $13 Billion? That's $13,000,000,000!

Veyron

I know, when you use the word "only" in front of $13 Billion it sounds insane...But when you compare to say apple - who did $156 billion in revenue (about a third of walmart), but pulled in nearly 42 billion in profit (over 3 times as much)...it shows the difference between retail and other industries.

 

[stretch361]

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.

Another thought...if you are selling the items outside of Amazon, you could always use the 7878 approach to OPM. Use a form that captures customers information prior to leaving a review. If it's going to be bad, send it directly to you. If it's going to be good, send them to amazon to leave the review.

 

[blackhatbeginner2010]

Great thread. is amazon better than ebay?

 

[10101]

i am sorry if i understood you wrong but you are saying that your revenue is $6.5 million and your profit is just 200k ? You must spend around $5million for the products. If it is like that, it is too low.

i am an amazon seller too and my profit rate is almost %1300. but i can't sell a lot; 5 orders/week.

 

[stretch361]

Great thread.
My question is, I hear its 15% for their commission..how did you make a decent profit with them getting 15%. Thats why I am a bit hesitant.

Yes, it is 15% for MOST categories. There's some categories that do 8% (like consumer electronics and cameras), and go up to 25% (kindle accessories).

It is tough to make a decent profit. We play the volume game. There are items that we may only make 50-80 cents on. But, we sell 200-300 of them in a month.

If you actually want to make good margins - stay away from the "best selling" items. Those typically have the lowest margins, and the most competition. Just like SEO, go to the medium / lower competition items when you are starting out. Your margins can be a lot higher, even though your volume won't be nearly as high.

The other option is to try and time the market on specific items when you believe there will be much more demand than supply. Playstation 4 / Xbox One would be a perfect example this holiday season.

Finally, the last thing you can do is source some sort of unique product that noone really has that makes sense for your niche. Order legit UPC codes from UPC code companies. Find best selling items on amazon, and 'bundle' your unique product with that best selling item, with a new UPC code. Why a new UPC code? Amazon requires you to list every item via UPC code. If you use the one on the best selling item, you'll just get attached to the existing listing, competing against 100's of sellers. If you "create an item", you can make a brand new listing with a new UPC code. Once you do this, do some offsite SEO to bump up the ranking of your listing. You'll likely get no competitors, because noone can recreate that unique product as part of the bundle.

 

[stretch361]

i am sorry if i understood you wrong but you are saying that your revenue is $6.5 million and your profit is just 200k ? You must spend around $5million for the products. If it is like that, it is too low.

i am an amazon seller too and my profit rate is almost %1300. but i can't sell a lot; 5 orders/week.

It's right. You have to keep in mind, that's after paying all employees - including myself. Our expenses this past year ranged between $35,000 - $45,000 PER MONTH. These expenses do NOT include outgoing shipping charges, or Amazon commissions.

We also took some one time capital expenditures this year - specifically upgrading ERP systems. We spent about $30,000 in programming costs. We also got new warehouse shelving, equipment, and other things that totalled $80,000. It's all part of a growing business.

 

[genebadd]

Total newbie question here. I have my own tangible product that my new startup is manufacturing. I would like to sell it on amazon. Any recommendations on where to start?

i tried signing up and entering my product into Amazon. Somehow I ended up in their payed listings section and it was 30.00 a month just to have an account. I don't think I was in the right place. Your quick guidance would be much appreciated.

 

[hatimyal]

Hey

I am not into amazon atall.
but in future i might start so its good information.

I would just likes to ask.
If i become amazon affiliate, what are the methods of promoting a product ?
Is youtube marketing effective ?
do building a amazon reselling website and doing seo on it and promote it, is better ?
What kind of product should be least hard to start with.

Thanks

 

[stretch361]

Total newbie question here. I have my own tangible product that my new startup is manufacturing. I would like to sell it on amazon. Any recommendations on where to start?

i tried signing up and entering my product into Amazon. Somehow I ended up in their payed listings section and it was 30.00 a month just to have an account. I don't think I was in the right place. Your quick guidance would be much appreciated.

It kind of depends on what type of item you are selling. It's possible it may be in a closed category, and they will only let you sell if you are a "professional" seller. This should be the link you are using to sign up: http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-product-page.html

That link has two options - professional and individual. The professional one is the paid one, and it's $40 / mo. If you are being charged $30 / mo..I'm not quite sure where you are at.

Hope this helps!

 

[stretch361]

Hey

I am not into amazon atall.
but in future i might start so its good information.

I would just likes to ask.
If i become amazon affiliate, what are the methods of promoting a product ?
Is youtube marketing effective ?
do building a amazon reselling website and doing seo on it and promote it, is better ?
What kind of product should be least hard to start with.

Thanks

Thanks for the questions, but these are more on the affiliate side - and not on the physical product selling side of things on Amazon. There are MANY threads that should be able to cover your questions already on BHW.

If you have physical product selling questions, I'll be glad to answer them!

 

[genebadd]

Thanks stretch. It may have been $39.99 or something. It threw me for a loop because I signed up, looked around, got confused and put it away. A month goes by and their charging me. I'm like wtf? I got my money back. I guess I need to get back in there and put some effort into it. Looks like setting it up takes some serious patience..

Thanks for the link btw...

 

[teribithia]

Another thought...if you are selling the items outside of Amazon, you could always use the 7878 approach to OPM. Use a form that captures customers information prior to leaving a review. If it's going to be bad, send it directly to you. If it's going to be good, send them to amazon to leave the review.

Yes We had sold very well in our site before (as we got high rank in google) . But after google panda update , my site rank reduce. All the products search result are Amazon produt page. So we transfer to amazon selling our product

Now our own sites only can sell 20 item per day.

 

[star7rip]

Hey,

I'm just starting off on amazon too. I have one tip for every starter with low capital before I ask a question myself: Go for used books. I basically "stole" the idea from the "Barcode Booty" book and I know its a very old method, but it is working extremely well.

Go to local booksellers, Garage sales, universities etc. and always take your mobile phone with a Barcoder Scanner app with you. Quickly check if the book sells on amazon (you will get an idea of sales rank etc. pretty fast). If you're working hard and diligent you will find a lot of gems and can earn a nice second income/capital for the next steps. I bought one book for 1 Euro and sold it for 350. This happens regularly.

I did this for almost a year and now I have enough money to finally start importing.

So my question is: I'm from Europe and I'm importing from US and China.

The chinese wholesellers always have very low shipping costs but it takes 15-30 days, which is okay for me.

But for american wholesellers the shipping cost is often extremely high. It arrives fast, yes, but it eats up the margin.

Is there a cheap alternative to import from the USA to Europe (Germany)? I dont care if it takes a bit longer.

Regards

 

[belalang]

Hello OP, a quick question for you, Im from outside USA (Malaysia), can i be a seller in amazon? if so, can i use FBA as well? If its not too much to ask, can you guide on how/where to start?

 

[hannibal tesla]

1) What % of sale do you have on your websites compare to amazon and ebay?

 

[NagacomesforU]

Yes, it is 15% for MOST categories. There's some categories that do 8% (like consumer electronics and cameras), and go up to 25% (kindle accessories).

It is tough to make a decent profit. We play the volume game. There are items that we may only make 50-80 cents on. But, we sell 200-300 of them in a month.

If you actually want to make good margins - stay away from the "best selling" items. Those typically have the lowest margins, and the most competition. Just like SEO, go to the medium / lower competition items when you are starting out. Your margins can be a lot higher, even though your volume won't be nearly as high.

The other option is to try and time the market on specific items when you believe there will be much more demand than supply. Playstation 4 / Xbox One would be a perfect example this holiday season.

Finally, the last thing you can do is source some sort of unique product that noone really has that makes sense for your niche. Order legit UPC codes from UPC code companies. Find best selling items on amazon, and 'bundle' your unique product with that best selling item, with a new UPC code. Why a new UPC code? Amazon requires you to list every item via UPC code. If you use the one on the best selling item, you'll just get attached to the existing listing, competing against 100's of sellers. If you "create an item", you can make a brand new listing with a new UPC code. Once you do this, do some offsite SEO to bump up the ranking of your listing. You'll likely get no competitors, because noone can recreate that unique product as part of the bundle.

I have a question. Do you use your 'normal' bank or do you use Paypal? Do you avoid taxes or do you pay them off?

Thanks!

 

[stretch361]

The chinese wholesellers always have very low shipping costs but it takes 15-30 days, which is okay for me.

But for american wholesellers the shipping cost is often extremely high. It arrives fast, yes, but it eats up the margin.

Is there a cheap alternative to import from the USA to Europe (Germany)? I dont care if it takes a bit longer.

Regards

The short answer: no. Unless you are shipping a LOT of stuff and are using a freight forwarder - no.

The main reason why China has such cheap shipping costs is because their government subsidizes a good chunk of the cost to encourage trade to states such as the US. It's impossible to match Chinese shipping rates. Shipping to other countries from the US is just expensive. All of the standard carriers here use air to ship to Europe.

 

[damagesmith]

What is your margin?
Do you have too have a US bank account too sell on Amazon.com?

 

[stretch361]

Hello OP, a quick question for you, Im from outside USA (Malaysia), can i be a seller in amazon? if so, can i use FBA as well? If its not too much to ask, can you guide on how/where to start?

You need to have a bank account in whatever country of Amazon you are looking to sell on. So, if you are looking to sell on Amazon.com, you need to have a USA bank account. There are companies here in the US that will help you open bank accounts in other countries, so I would have to assume you could do the same.

 

[stretch361]

1) What % of sale do you have on your websites compare to amazon and ebay?

For a while, it was near 100% on Amazon and eBay. As time went on, we started shifting the focus more on websites, which made it a little more balanced.