Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Service (Selling On Amazon)

How to Start Selling Products on Amazon

Have you heard about "Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)", an eCommerce Service?

The way eCommerce works is pretty simple… you buy a product(s) at one price, and sell it online at a higher price to make a profit. Fulfillment by Amazon fits this scenario.

What if I told you there was a way that you could buy products on clearance and then resell them on Amazon for a profit? You can make a profit selling clearance items, but read on to learn how you can save time, make more profit and scale your business much higher using a product supplier.

Amazon has created one of the most advanced fulfillment networks in the world, and if you are selling physical products (or want to start a business selling physical products), your business can benefit from using their expertise.

It is easy to sell your products on Amazon Fulfillment (FBA):

• You do NOT need to have your own website

• You do NOT need to have your own branded products

• You do NOT need to spend more than $100 on inventory to start

• You do NOT need to run any kind of paid advertising (like newspaper or Facebook ads)

• You do NOT need to spend months in preparing to start selling

• You do NOT need to worry about customer support

• Amazon does the heavy lifting in making all your FBA product sales.

In simple terms, with FBA, you select and ship your product to Amazon for sale. With FBA, you store your products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and Amazon packs, ships, and provides customer service for these products for each sale. Here are some of the benefits of using FBA:

• Your products are eligible for Amazon Prime Free Two-Day Shipping and other benefits

• Your customers get Amazon's trusted customer service and return policy

• FDA services let your business grow quickly, as you can focus on your business, not details

• You can fulfill orders from your other sales channels using your inventory stored at an Amazon fulfillment center

• It's cost effective and simple. You pay as you go, as you are charged for storage space plus a fulfillment fee for the orders shipped

• The best benefit is that you have Amazon's largest Marketplace in the world to sell your products.

You can create separate Seller accounts on Amazon’s international platforms such as Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom), Amazon.ca (Canada), Amazon.de (Germany), Amazon.jp (Japan), and others.

We recommend that new sellers start with Amazon.com (United States), because it has the highest sales volume. We feel that this is where you can build the biggest sales volume the fastest.

FBA has been great for many individuals and businesses. It is amazing how using FBA frees up your time when you don’t have to warehouse, pick, ship, and handle Customer Service for your business. Think about being able to actually spend the majority of your time growing your business instead of renegotiating shipping contracts with shippers.

Select Supplier(s) for Your Product(s)

This is an important step in establishing a FBA business. It starts with you being able to find a Supplier who can provide you with products that you can sell at a profit margin. It will be your job, whether personally or farmed out, to find products from the Suppliers that will sell well. To be able to reach a broader market, we recommend that it is best to find a Supplier that can provide you with a bigger list of products. If you want to sell within a narrow niche (e.g., cat food), this may not be as important.

For example, finding a large supplier of "Pet Products" will be a better source for this type of selling than going after a small supplier that sells only "Cat Food."

Selecting Your Product(s)

Once you have selected your supplier, the next step is to choose the products that will give you a good and fast return on your investment. When selecting a product from the Seller, the first thing you want to look at is the Sales Volume on Amazon for that product. If it's not selling well on Amazon, look for another product.

Amazon Reviews are another way to indicate the Sales Volume of a product, along with the quality of the product. If a product has a low Star Rating, it is best to stay away from the product. You may find some products that do not have a Review (e.g., new product), it can be fine to sell that product. For similar products, I would select the product that did have good reviews.

There are other analytical ways to help select products for sale, but I am not covering them in this post.

Once you have completed the selection of your product, you will proceed to setting up your product listing on Amazon.

If you need some guidance on what to sell on FBA, go here:

Shipping Your Product(s) to Amazon Warehouse

You can order product prep supplies directly from Amazon or you can buy them locally. You can now get Amazon-Preferred polybags, boxes, stretch wrap, bubble pack, and more directly from Amazon. Using their global shipping expertise will bring these business-critical supplies directly to your doorstep. You can order these supplies here.

You can send your inventory to Amazon fulfillment centers by creating a virtual shipment, packing your products, and shipping your inventory to designated fulfillment centers using the carrier of your choice.

Inventory that is sent to an Amazon fulfillment center is generally scanned and made available for sale within three business days of delivery.

What are the overall costs of using FBA?

• Product Unit Cost - This is price you pay the supplier for the product. You need this data to include in costing out your profit margins.

• Shipping Costs - Most likely, you will have two shipping fees. One is from the supplier to your home or Prep Center. The other shipping fee is from your home/prep center to the Amazon Fulfillment Center (warehouses).

• Amazon Fees - U.S. FBA fee changes - effective February 22, 2018. For complete details of the fee changes, visit https://www.amazon.com/fba-fee-changes. Currently (Jan 2018), basic Amazon fees consist of 'Fulfillment Fees' and 'Selling on Amazon Fees.' These fees vary with product, size. weight and your selling price. Since fees are subject to change, I will not show specific fees here, but I will show one example for your information. You can checkout FBA fulfillment fees for Amazon.com orders here

• Amazon has a Fee Calculator which is free to use in calculating your costs. It will show you the fulfillment costs and see real-time cost comparisons between your fulfillment and offering for customer orders fulfilled on Amazon.com. You can access it at the link below. Amazon Fee Calculator is available here

• Amazon Storage Fee - A semi-annual Long-Term Storage Fee applies to units that have been stored in an Amazon fulfillment center for 6 months or longer. Units that have been in an Amazon fulfillment center for 6 to 12 months as of the Inventory Cleanup date are charged $11.25 per cubic foot. If you have selected a good selling product and turn over your inventory frequently, you will not run into this charge. Advertisement

Can you make a profit selling with FBA?

You may be wondering how all the FBA fees will allow you to make a profit. Most users of FBA agree that using FBA is a win - win situation and that selling items on Amazon costs LESS than if they were doing it all on their own, plus the sales volume is higher. Many sellers make millions annually, selling on FBA.

And again, it frees you up to concentrate on growing your business instead of attending to daily details for each sale and shipment.

If you want to sell your products through the broad reach of Amazon, the largest Marketplace in the world, then it may benefit you to take a look at FBA Services.

Summary

1. Set up your Amazon FBA Account.

If you don't have a Selling on Amazon account, Get started today.

2. Create your product listings

Add your products to the Amazon catalog one at a time, in bulk, or by integrating your inventory-management software with Amazon's API.

3. Prepare your products.

Make sure your products are "e-commerce ready," so they can be safely and securely transported all the way into a customer's hands. Need supplies? Get Amazon preferred prep and shipping supplies delivered to your door.

4. Ship your products to Amazon.

Create your shipping plans, engage discounted partner carriers, and ship and track your shipments to Amazon fulfillment centers. Amazon's online seller tools can help you through the process.

5. Customers order your products, and Amazon picks, packs, and ships them.

Amazon Prime customers get fast, free shipping on your products, and all customers can qualify for FREE shipping on eligible orders. Amazon fills those orders quickly and efficiently using their advanced, web-to-warehouse, high-speed picking and sorting system. Customers receive tracking information from Amazon.

6. Amazon provides customer support on products you sell.

Amazon's world-class customer-service team manages customer inquiries, refunds, and returns for orders on Amazon marketplaces, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

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