Amazon is more than just a place to sell books. You can also buy exercise equipment, electronics, and lawn furniture on Amazon. You can pretty much find anything on Amazon. You can also ship anything on Amazon, such as toys, gardening tools, televisions, and many other items.
When it comes to choosing what you should sell, books are a good item because they sell, however, they have a very limited price range. Non-book items can sell for much more, and you don’t have to sell many, many units to turn a profit.
What Are the FBA Fees?
FBA is great when you are first starting your business, because the fees are relatively low. The fees are updated from time to time, however, you can expect the following fees:
- Picking fee for each order ($1)
- Packing fee for each order ($1)
- Weight based fee for each order ($0.40 per pound that is shipped to the customer)
- Storage fees ($0.45 per foot of cubic feet that you need to store your items)
- Inbound freight fee (whatever it is going to cost you to ship your products to the FBA center)
When it comes to the inbound freight, you can partner with Amazon on the shipping, and you can take advantage of their low shipping rates. All you need to do is go online and let Amazon know the size and weight of the package, and you can print a shipping label for your packages.
Is FBA Just for People Working From Home?
The answer to this question is no. There is a company who was selling products online, and was doing a $1 million in online sales This is before they started using FBA. After they started, their business picked up, and they did $2 million the next year. After that year, Amazon became their main channel for selling their items, because FBA made it much easier for their customers to buy their products.
Is There a Right Way and a Wrong Way to Use FBA?
The answer to this question is yes. There are certain strategies that can help your business when you start using FBA.
One rule is, you don’t want to send many items to Amazon, only to find out that 100 other sellers have done the same. You need to think strategically. You need to ask yourself, if there is anything that makes your product unique, and what value is your product providing to your customers that no other seller has. If you can sell a product that is not currently in FBA, your sales will reflect this. You will also be able to sell your items without worrying about the competition. If you have a unique item that will be of use to many customers, FBA can be extremely beneficial.
What is the FBA Power Feature?
Because so many sellers are using FBA for their businesses, it is very likely that third party providers will likely come out with FBA applications. The first company to provide companies with a one stop FBA option is FBAPower. They provide a variety of services, including FBA listing, repricing, and mobile price scanning It was originally made to process and submit books and media items quickly and easily to FBA. Since that worked out so well, they add the ability for sellers to create original listings, replenish their inventory, and upload and batch listings into the FBA listings.
This tool also offers a mobile scouting tool. It lets users see what other sellers are listing their items for in the Amazon catalog. It also allows you to find any item that could help you make a profit on Amazon.
FBAPower Programs
There are several benefits of this program. You can process inventory in under 30 seconds by hitting one button. You can enter an item, select a price and condition, add custom notes, print out an FBA label, affix it to the box, and place one inside for shipping. This program can be placed on multiple terminals for large companies who need to prepare multiple shipments at the same time.
Fulfillment Center Identification
As you process your items, the fulfillment centers are identified. This allows you to divide your items as you go. It also has FBA Conversion and Bulk Inventory Upload. If you need to convert to FBA in bulk, you can upload the inventory that you already have from Amazon for your convenience. You can also take advantage of Individual and instant FBA label printing. The FBA labels can be printed on demand while the items are being processed for shipment to Amazon. This program reduces the amount of times that an item is touched while being processed. Finally, there is less chance of items being mislabeled.
Built-in Error Catching
FBAPower is great for catching mistakes. If many results are returned for ISBN or UPC searches, you would be alerted so that you can verify the item that you are trying to list. Any incorrect items would be deleted. It also prevents sending mismatched items to FBA. For example, it can catch DVD vs CD, VHS vs Blue-Ray, and Import vs Domestic. These are just a few examples.
