Anyone here SELL on Amazon?

Anyone here SELL on amazon? (as a merchant, not affiliate). I am new to Amazon but plan to start selling on there - nothing big, just some small accessories here and there. I noticed that I don't have the best price, but I ship directly from North America (rather than China), which gave me the location advantage. However, I realized that because my price isnt the 'lowest', the default seller isn't me.... So buyers have to click on 'more sellers' to see me listed.

Any advice on this? I have seen some other sellers getting their own UPC code and re-list as a different product. Any success on that? Looking for some advice from some Amazon PRO here. Thanks in advance.

bump. still looking for an answer.

I have a little experience selling on Amazon and Ebay.

I know if you want the buy box you need to be a Amazon Featured Merchant.

Getting your own UPC is nice but you probably wont get as many sales as a more popular UPC.

ytr191 said:

I have a little experience selling on Amazon and Ebay.

I know if you want the buy box you need to be a Amazon Featured Merchant.

Getting your own UPC is nice but you probably wont get as many sales as a more popular UPC.

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Thanks for the info and I am sorry for my poor knowledge and experience with Amazon.
Whats a 'buy box' and as for UPC, i thought I can simply purchase a UPC from third-party, and then i can become the ONLY seller for that UPC (so i can stand out from others?)

Thanks again

I sell "homemade" stuff on there. Got exempt from UPC but I believe it will be forced soon. Europe has one also. It's just a tracking number like your SSN #. Each product will need it's own. Guess it could help buyer confidence. Aint cheap!

I'm leaving the tri-opoly but from what little I know, you got money and 5 stars cha-ching. just watch the ROIs

Good luck w/ it there is a reason it works

seoactive said:

Thanks for the info and I am sorry for my poor knowledge and experience with Amazon.
Whats a 'buy box' and as for UPC, i thought I can simply purchase a UPC from third-party, and then i can become the ONLY seller for that UPC (so i can stand out from others?)

Thanks again

Click to expand...

Two things that I know of will help you win the buy box almost everytime...

1. Create a bundle. Take a couple of related products and bundle them together with a new upc. This way you are creating a new product with no competition. I know of several people who are doing this successfully. I've been told you can even include a related book in the bundle that amazon is currently selling.
2. Have Amazon ship the product for you. It does take a little of the profit margin, but it will help you win the Buy Box.

Both of these combined will certainly help. You can also sign up for Skip McGrath's newsletter (just google him). In his newsletters he gives some great tips on selling on Amazon. Both of these ideas I first heard about from him, then a few other people started talking about similar methods.

Hope this helps.

Hey seoactive,

I'll give you the quick abc's on amazon.

"what is buy box"

Amazon has a featured called Buy box aka featured seller, go look here http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200401830
Basically same as ranking #1 on Google but for that product page.

From my experience in order to get buy box you need.
1. 100+ Feedback
2. Feedback Rating vs other seller (yours needs to be better)
3. Inventory quantity
4. many many other factors..
OR you could simply use Fulfillment by amazon program which gives automatic buy box with even with a slightly higher price vs other sellers..

Different UPC CODE

1. Just because other sellers are getting their own UPC code and listing the items doesn't mean they are making tons of sales.. rather probably very few if any, if the UPC is new..
2. each of the product pages on amazon has a sales rank feature which is tied to that UPC and listing.. 0 sales rank on page? = 1 sale every couple months..

Example
Sales rank #30000 holding buybox 100% = 1-3 sales every 3-7 days
Sales rank #1000 = holding buybox 100% = 10-20 sales a day
sales rank #200 = holding buybox 100% = 60+ a day

If you're not in a hurry to sell you inventory then by all means create new UPC and build up their sales rank. But keep in mind this could take weeks to even months depending on the popularity and demand for the product.

These are just examples from my experience selling on amazon. hope it helps.

sorry my english grammer = teh suck..

Fulfillment by Amazon definitely helps a lot. Of course the other factors play into it, but this is huge.

The products I plan to sell are third-party products (import from China), no brand names. In this case, would it be a huge disadvantage for me to sell on Amazon?

1. How would I obtain a UPC code? I did a quick Google search and found a few sites selling UPC codes (that claims to work on Amazon) ranging from $10 - $100. No idea whats the big difference there.

2. Can I just make up a random UPC just to bypass Amazon filters? (to get my product listed)

3. The products I plan to sell is already quite competitive in the market and the margin is not too high. If I opt in for the 'ship by Amazon' feature, I am afraid I wont be making any money at all.

Any suggestions on this? Should I not consider Amazon at all in this case?

Another quick question that came to my mind is: How <b>legit</b> does the product have to be on Amazon?

For example, I know on ebay, people sell all kind of sh!t, like modded Xbox, Jailbroken Apple Iphones etc. I dont see those on Amazon. So the question is, is it possible to say jailbroken Apple Iphones on Amazon at all? I know it sounds stupid as I did a quick search and nothing came up (as expected), but this is just an example.

seoactive said:

The products I plan to sell are third-party products (import from China), no brand names. In this case, would it be a huge disadvantage for me to sell on Amazon?

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Not necessarily. Depends on what you are selling.

1. How would I obtain a UPC code? I did a quick Google search and found a few sites selling UPC codes (that claims to work on Amazon) ranging from $10 - $100. No idea whats the big difference there.

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there are many sites selling UPC codes. Some of them go for as little as $1. Just continue searching you'll find them. Google is your friend in this case.

2. Can I just make up a random UPC just to bypass Amazon filters? (to get my product listed)

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I wouldn't.

3. The products I plan to sell is already quite competitive in the market and the margin is not too high. If I opt in for the 'ship by Amazon' feature, I am afraid I wont be making any money at all.

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Can you combine them with other products that have a higher margin? Think outside the box for selling on Amazon.

seoactive said:

Another quick question that came to my mind is: How <b>legit</b> does the product have to be on Amazon?

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There is stuff on eBay that would never be allowed on Amazon. The customer bases are completely different. Amazon's A-Z guarantee can, and will, destroy your business if you are not selling a legit product. Too many complaints, and poof!, your business is gone.

In my opinion, Amazon is for sellers who are looking to create a long term business in online retail... Not for those looking to make the quick buck.

Whats the disadvantage using a 'random' UPC (made by myself)? Sorry for being a noob, but isnt it the same thing as buying from a $1 third-party seller?

I was just on another site and they ask for the 'quantity'? Do I just put 1 in this case? (assuming I am just selling 1 product - but with huge quantity, of course)?

Thanks again!

Re: UPC - You can create your own if you know the UPC algo... Amazon of course doesn't like this but it's no different from you buying UPCs from a third party (You're not suppose to do this either )

escoentllc said:

Re: UPC - You can create your own if you know the UPC algo... Amazon of course doesn't like this but it's no different from you buying UPCs from a third party (You're not suppose to do this either )

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Wow nice. So does that mean I can just 'make one up on the spot'? (since to be honest, I am a total noob at this, I have no idea about the algo)

Yes, as long as the checksum digit ends up being correct you can make up your own UPCs

Buy UPC codes in bulk for cheap

wangotango123 said:

Buy UPC codes in bulk for cheap

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And what exactly is the advantage of buying UPC when we can randomly make 1 up anyways?
The ones that most sites are selling are 'fake' anyways?

What about listing products on amazon ? And PPC from Google?

You need some excellent AMAZON Customer Reviews for your products ( General & Purchase Verified Reviews both); then it'll increase your sell. And if your product is in WISHLIST from many accounts then it'll definitely make your product more popular.

- and to do that, I can help you{ you can check my Service thread - Signature}.