Former E-commerce Seller in China Looking to Start FBA – Would Love Some Honest Advice

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Register your own brand and avoid selling counterfeit products when you want to sell on Amazon. If you are truly able to sell goods from China to Europe, you can use promotional programs and targeted advertising in countries like the US, UK, and Canada, as they are very popular.

Having direct factory access in China is genuinely one of the strongest advantages you can have in FBA, but most people underuse it.

Start with product research before manufacturing. Use Helium10 or Jungle Scout to find products with decent monthly search volume, low review counts on the top listings, and margins above 30%. Filter out anything with heavy brand dominance or IP risk.

Your factory access changes the game on a few levels. You can do real private labeling instead of just rebranding Alibaba stock. You can negotiate smaller MOQs to test demand before committing to big inventory. You can iterate on product quality faster than any overseas seller.

Practical starting point: look for products under 2lbs, not seasonal, not fragile, no electrical certification required. Electronics and supplements have serious compliance headaches for China-based sellers. Home goods, kitchen accessories, outdoor gear are much simpler to get started with.

One thing people miss: compliance documentation. CPSC requirements, CE marks for EU, category-specific certifications. Your product may be perfectly fine but if the paperwork is wrong Amazon will pull your listing fast. Sort this before shipping inventory.

Also worth considering: launch in EU through FBA alongside the US. Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it. With China access your cost basis is lower and competition in EU categories is generally less fierce than in US.

What product categories are you looking at? That changes the advice quite a bit.

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

I think you should sell household goods to avoid real brand competition. Actually, many kitchen products are made in China, which is quite interesting.

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

i hope you can find a good partner to get started with.

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

If you’re serious about FBA, the hard part isn’t manufacturing, it’s ranking, PPC burn, review velocity, and surviving in saturated categories.

If you’ve already sold ecom in China, you know that.

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Hi, your access to manufacturers in China is a big advantage for Amazon FBA.


I have 5 years of working experience in the eCommerce field, so from my perspective if starting from zero today, focus on three things first:


1. Product Research: Choose products with good demand and manageable competition.
2. Differentiation: Use your factory access to customize or improve the product.
3. Cost Control: Negotiate better pricing and maintain strong profit margins.


Your biggest edge is the ability to create better versions of existing products at a lower cost with strong quality control.

Your direct access to factories is a big advantage, but the key today isn’t just cheaper production, it’s finding products with real demand and low competition before ordering inventory. If I were starting now, I’d focus heavily on product research and differentiation first, then use that factory access to customize the product, improve quality, or bundle items so you’re not just selling the same thing as everyone else.

Definitely not highjacking your thread here; I wonder if having a pal with good 3D printing skills would help out with the likes of FBA

jeordW said:

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from experienced Amazon FBA sellers.
A little about me:
I’m Chinese and currently living in China. One of my biggest advantages is direct access to manufacturers and suppliers. I can communicate directly with factories, negotiate pricing, customize products, and control production more closely than most overseas sellers.
Now I’m seriously considering starting Amazon FBA.
Here’s where I’d really appreciate some advice:

If I were starting Amazon FBA from zero today, what should I focus on first?

Since I’m based in China with strong, direct access to manufacturers, how can I best leverage that advantage?

I truly appreciate any honest, practical feedback — even if it’s blunt.

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

I'm very interested. I'm currently selling on Amazon wholesale and I'm looking for partners, suppliers, distributors and direct agreements with the brands.

How can I contact you?

i can't understand why people keep talking about good things. usually amazon really hate chiniese seller and whaever whenver you will do they will take your money and suspend your account. that's the problem. even everything is aunthentic you will be banned.
so if i were you i'll consider more about shopify or some your own webpage.

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