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It seems that Amazon has decided to deal with the demand of household staples, and will not be processing other categories until April 5th, essentially telling sellers to not ship in things that aren’t in the 6 approved categories for now.
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Apparently, most of their essential goods are running low. They are trying to stock up on grocery and medical items in order to keep up with demand. 5th of April is long way off…. Hopefully, this is a short term thing. This will seriously affect Amazon resellers, especially if Amazon extend from the 5th.
I guess Ebay will gain!
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I’m confused. From the photos and videos I’ve seen of “the crazy” it’s low-income folks who are going to the wall buying supplies. What happens at the end of the month? Even worse if they’re laid off on unpaid leave due to closures. Are they going to pay rent in toilet rolls? What are they thinking?
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I’m really glad I never took the FBA plunge. While sales have been down this month, they do have a possibility of picking back up once all of the FBA copies of items are out of stock.
I’ve always felt uncomfortable with an outside company handling stock. They can change the rules whenever they want for whatever reason. At least if a relationship sours when you’re MF, you can just take your stock and figure out what you want to do with it. As resellers, we are solely defined by the stock we currently have or will have in stock. Having another variable to potentially mess that up is just way too stressful.
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Yeah, I completely see the siren song of just sending things to Amazon and let them do all the work. When it works, it seems to be intoxicating.
But I also would be hesitant to risk the capital costs of storing inventory at Amazon’s warehouse. Ive read those nightmare scenarios where people get suspended and need to spend thousands to get it all back.
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The convenience of it is what is so alluring, both to sellers and customers. But you really pay for it in fees.
Something I have noticed (apologies if this is the wrong thread) is the amazon vs ebay mindset. I got an email from a fba marketer who sells a lot and he was critical of the ebay/thrifting method suggesting you couldn’t scale it up. Rubbish, in my opinion.
I also hear ebayers who hate the amazon method of selling new items. For instance, on ebay you can sell something with a box not in pristine condition. Fba sellers know that won’t fly on amazon and is bound to lead to a complaint or return.
I think both are valid methods, provided you use the correct mindset for that particular platform.
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Absolutely. Its all about how you want to spend your time. We tried Amazon FBA and just didnt like the stress and day-to-day of running that business. Other people only do FBA and love it. All good.
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Thanks Jay. I think I was a little annoyed at a well known marketer downplaying the thrifting/ebay method when I know it works. Especially right now when so many people in this country are unemployed.
I mostly loved fba because it was easier for me to ship. Going to the post office everyday was difficult. And getting a pickup at my previous address was a nightmare. But you definitely pay for the convenience of it, and people wonder why some amazon prices are high. It’s to cover the seller’s expenses and make a little profit.
I do think some items do better on each platform but I have been doing ok selling mostly new items on ebay. I put some things up yesterday that are probably better suited for the artsy etsy crowd but I am just going to wait and see.
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We built our business foundation on ebay, and gradually moved into amazon.
Income-wise, they compliment one another really nicely. When one is up, the other is down, ebay provides us a higher ROI while amazon provides us a more steady income base.
With all of that being said, and somewhat on topic with the thread, amazon sales have been INSANE since the pandemic hit. March was our best month ever by more than $2000 (we did around $18k USD gross). April has blown that number away. With two days left in the month, we’ve already done $28k gross.
Amazon has been taking a LOT more time than usual recently as we’re working like mad to keep products in stock, but it’s paying off in spades. Ebay keeps chugging along, and we continue to list when we have time. The biggest benefit of a large (3200+ items) ebay inventory is the ability to dial back the work temporarily and still have a solid income being generated.
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That’s awesome. Amazon always sounds amazing when all cylinders are hitting. Congrats.
When you say $28k gross, what do you think you’ll net after FBA fees and COGS?
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All cylinders are definitely firing right now. We’re sending 200-350 units out in each shipment, and sending two to three shipments per week right now.
On average, across all of our skus, we average 25-35% net after fees, cogs, shipping, prep, etc. So between $7,000 and $9,800 USD ($9,450 and $13,230 CAD) net (before taxes) for the month of April. Insanity.
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At this point, profits are being rolled back into more inventory, supplies/etc, and a large portion is being withdrawn as dividends to pay down the remainder of our mortgage, do some maintenance/repairs on the house, etc.
We buy from a number of different sources, some manufacturers, some wholesalers, and some retail stores. Out of curiosity, I looked this afternoon, and in the month of April, we’ve spent $16k CAD (~$12k USD) on Amazon inventory alone, so roughly $4k CAD/week.
It’s rare for our amazon inventory to be in our possession for 24hrs. It comes in, gets prepped/labelled, and ships out the following day.
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