Amazon FBA business 101 ( What is amazon FBA, how does it works, + mistakes to avoid)
You can be making x10 sales and profit off your business with the help of Amazon FBA without any doubt. However, this is only possible if you utilize the system correctly. The dream of every business owner is to make more sales off his/her products. However, Amazon has made the process easy for all business owners where you do not have to keep products in your possession nor even take orders, with Amazon FBA, all done for your business dreams. Nevertheless, what is amazon FBA, what are the benefits of Amazon FBA, How does Amazon FBA works, what are some mistakes to avoid.
I will help you answer all these questions in this post. You will get started with all you need to know about Amazon FBA so you do not make mistakes in the process. So let us get started right away.
Before we begin let us first know what amazon is.
What is Amazon?
Amazon is one of the biggest eCommerce in the biosphere, with over 6billion visits per month across the world. Therefore, if your business is not selling on Amazon then you are making a lot of loss because it needs to be. One of the best ways to put your business on Amazon is through the FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) system.
What is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA is a great program offered by Amazon to small business owners, which enables them to get their products to potential customers faster with little to no stress. Amazon has made all business process easy in the sense that, you do not have to rent and maintain a warehouse nor take each order on your own; Amazon will help you handle all of the hard works.
However, Amazon does charge a little fee for this service, nonetheless, since your products are moving at a faster rate, this fee easily beats the cost of managing your shipping and inventory on your own. With the FBA program, you stand a chance of making more sales meaning more profit, whilst you sit back and let amazon do the job for you.
How do Amazon FBA works?
How the FBA system works is simple. Before you start selling, you will need to send your products to Amazon and it will help you store them at their warehouse until a customer places an order. Once the order is confirmed, the amazon team will do the packaging and shipping directly to your customer. The refund policy also applies to your product, meaning once a customer is not satisfied with the product, Amazon will also handle the process of refunding. You will receive payments on a weekly basis; however, the FBA fees will deduct automatically from your sales.
Looks simple right, that is because is as simple as this. This will make your business better organized and effective without you putting in the extra effort.
Benefits of Amazon FBA
You will gain many advantages when you let amazon run your business for you. It is very important you take your time to learn these benefits because, once you are able to understand them and utilize them properly, you will be able to boost your business to the next level without any hassle.
- Managing your customers
Customer services can be a full-time job. One of the greatest benefits of FBA is that they help you solve some minor problems faced by your customers on your behalf. Instead of your customers coming to you for every problem, clients can intermingle directly with Amazon’s expert customer services. This does not just save you time but also gives your customers a convenient option to contact supports.
- Faster shipping
Since we have been talking about your savings, now let us talk about your customer’s savings as well. With Amazon FBA, your customers will have the opportunity to save because; FBA products are eligible for free delivery meaning they do not have to pay extra costs for shipping. More interesting, if they are prime members, they will get free next or two-day delivery. This is extreme quicker than you would possibly be able to deliver a package using your own warehouse setup, more exclusively if your organization have just one or three employees.
- Low fee delivery
Another major benefit of amazon FBA is getting your products to clients at a lower delivery fee.
Items fulfilled by amazon face low-cost shipping, as amazon offer is a huge discount with all of the big shipping carriers. This will enable you to earn more profit per order than if you shipped out packages yourself. You will not need to spend money on shipping or hiring someone to pack everything up.
Paramount of all, you will not pay any extra fee for the two-day delivery amazon provides to prime members. In addition, if you have an interest in shipping your products to international countries, amazon provides an export program that handles customs regulations and shipping practices for you.
3 Amazon FBA mistakes to avoid.
With Amazon FBA all, your business dreams have come into reality, but for you to achieve these goals you will need to familiarize yourself with some common mistakes so that you can avoid them.
Not Reading the Requirements
Do you know that they need to have a barcode already attached? Do you know what products amazon cannot accept or require them to first assess them for suitability?
No?
If you are not aware of this, then you have not done your due attentiveness as an amazon FBA reseller.
These are the important requirements and there are no going back on them. If your products do not meet amazon requirements then your products would be sent back and you would have wasted a lot of money.
There are also a few things you are required to do yourself,- such as getting a barcode. You will also need to familiarize yourself with the fees that Amazon charges, it relates with respect to the warehouse for storage, the cons and pros of dissimilar types of memberships accounts. This will enable you had better evaluate the sum of profits you can make from selling each product at a particular rate, and it helps you make the right decisions.
Therefore, it is important for you to read the requirement and understand the requirements before enrolling in the FBA program.
Getting packaging erroneous
You might be speculating what packaging has to do with an Amazon FBA business. However, it is not the entire petition of amazon FBA, which you need not handle packaging. Is this not what Amazon is doing for me? Yes, but with a limit.
Now you know, there are two types of packaging for your items: the envelope or parcel your product will go in which Amazon handles – and the box or bag they will be. This is your one chance to display your business potentials and show off your brand.
Moreover, consider some of the mistakes that can occur with this other aspect of packaging.
- Not making it superb
You cannot exaggerate this: Providing attractive packaging for your products makes a MASSIVE difference to familiarity. It also helps your products look more appealing in photos and marketing tools. It is a bother to be involving yet another party before your items get to your clients, and it does not cost much as well. Moreover, with this, you will make an enormous difference to the satisfaction of your clients.
- Making the package too soft
This is a particularly big problem with boxes, which can be degraded easily in water. So it is important to use well harden boxes, so that rain does not dissolve the boxes and leave your products exposed. So if your product is not waterproof, then make sure your packaging is for safety reasons!
- Wrong Marking/labelling
Packages that have breakable parts should be marked out on the box. This way exporters will not fortuitously stand them the wrong way. One thing you must put in mind is that, when it is being stored in amazon’s storeroom, there will be no packaging to prevent it from getting damaged other than yours. Proper marking could also make your products more futureproof, in case you ever want to sell them through retailers.
If you work with a manufacturer, they will be in place to offer the basic packaging, but in the case, you wish to provide better packaging, then you will have to use a third-party contractor. I recommend that you do this!
Not trying the product
It looks simple, but most marketers make this mistake countless times in the Amazon FBA business. Because you have the potential to send your products directly to amazons’ warehouse, you may be tempted to find a product that sounds interesting and could boost your earnings, and you have it sent straight there without confirming the condition of the product.
This could bring back bad results because, there will be a lot of unhappy customers, returns, and large amounts of catalogue sitting in amazons warehouse which will in return cost you a lot of lost. Even if you manufacture your products yourself, it is imperative to get a prototype for yourself before ordering in bulk. This process will enable you to identify minor and dangerous issues which give your products a bad reputation. Is easy to assume everything is fine, but even the biggest companies make mistakes.
Check my previous post on Killer MArketing mistakes to avoid.
Also, consider checking this video on Youtub>>How To Setup Your Amazon Seller Central Account 2020 (Step-By-Step Tutorial) | Seller Registration
Conclusion
If you avoid these 3 pitfalls, then you will be x100 ahead of your competitors and you would stand a great chance of having a highly successful Amazon FBA company.
Properly usage of Amazon FBA could let you get so much off your online deals; this is possible only if you are able to optimize your product to the minimum requirements of amazon, and have profitable products. I know that with this article you are ready to start your FBA program and make sure that you keep these mistakes at your fingertips. Why not bookmark this post for future reference.
Have questions? Let me know in the comment below I’ll try my best to answer all of them!
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