The secret to FBA (and any online ecommerce endeavor) is
Find It
List It
Ship It
Repeat
You have to have something to sell. Finding that ONE item seems like the ultimate goal, but it’s not. Products come and go. Styles, interests, fads, new technology, celebrities, even companies, all change over time.
There isn’t a ONE thing you’ll find. Maybe a ONE Category, but not a one product.
In 2016, we sold $135,000 of a niche of products. But, the supply is dwindling. We’ll not likely do that well in 2017 unless we…
Find It
We went to the ASD Market Week show in Las Vegas this past March. We visited with our long-time vendors and got some good deals with them.
We found some new vendors, and found a few more deals.
We re-established connections with others, and did more deals.
We Found It!
These deals have been arriving every few days since then. We’re scrambling to find room for it all. (I’ve even been cleaning out parts of the barn! Good thing we have this farm…)
But, having it in the barn doesn’t help business at all. It won’t sell there. We have to…
List It
Many of the items we found are already listed on Amazon, so we only have to add our name to the list of Sellers. I’ve been happy using the free Amazon Seller App on my phone to do this quick list.
I scan the UPC bar code, and elect to Sell it. The abbreviated listing form lets me price and SKU it right then and there.
I could have done this while at the show — DOH! next year…
Some of the items aren’t there. I’ll have to take photos, and create the listings on my own. This takes more time. It’s easy for me to put it off in favor of “more important” stuff, like walking the dogs, or reading, or playing games, or — Naps.
But, if I don’t get it listed, it just stays in the barn gathering dust and going even more out of style.
Take the time to create the listing. That is far more important than playing games — (but not more important than Naps.)
Finally, some of our deals are destined for becoming part of a bundle. A bundle is a combination of 2 or more complementary items packaged together to be Unique, at least for awhile. The goal is to find the bundle parts from different brands or suppliers to make it harder for others to duplicate.
But, bundles not only have the same issues of creating listings as above, but also require a UPC Code assigned to it. You need the number, but not the barcodee that represents that number.
Amazon requires the UPC NUMBER, and they require them to be GS1 compliant.
GS1 is the keeper of the keys, and you can buy one or hundreds from them. Five Bucks! or there-about. If this is a new bundle, it might not sell. This can get very expensive.
We bought 1,000 for less than $10 on eBay. Be sure they guarantee the numbers to be compliant with Amazon’s requirements.
Listed is better than not. BUT, still no sales unless we…
Ship It
Part of the process of shipping, or listing, is Prepping it ready for sale – or shipment. Package it, and label it.
I said earlier that you don’t need the UPC barcode for your bundles. BUT, you do need some sort of barcode so Amazon can track it.
We elect to cover all manufacturers’ UPC code with the label we can print through Amazon. This is known as the “Amazon Barcode”. The code scans to Your FNSKU, or “Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit”. This code identifies this item as yours, not another Seller’s.
We have the items in hand. We’ve listed them, and printed labels for each one. We’ve packaged the bundles. Everything is ready to go.
In “Inventory/Manage Inventory,” we select the items we plan to send, and choose “Send/replenish inventory” from the pull-down menu.
The next steps gather the how many of each, and where it will be going. Working on the shipment lists the quantities and weights of boxes. We print the labels, tape and label the boxes, and hike them up to our front porch.
We notify UPS that we have a shipment for them to pickup.
That means that all is left is to…
Repeat
We’ll be doing this process over and over until we decide to to outsource, or decide to quit.
The trick is to keep it from becoming a J O B. That’s why we do this – to avoid the J O B.
What are you doing with this process?
John-L
Thanks, this is helpful.