Growing Your Amazon FBA| Retail & Online Arbitrage? Private Label? Whole...

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Sh*t Amazon Sellers Say

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Amazon Grows Sales 31 Percent in Second Quarter

By Ina Steiner

Amazon grew sales 31% to $30.4 billion in the second quarter of 2016, it announced on Thursday. It also reported a profit, revealing net income of $857 million for the quarter. And based on its report, it's clear third-party sellers remain a key contributor to its success.

During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky and Head of Investor Relations Darin Manney answered questions (quoted below) and revealed the following statistics:

• Worldwide paid unit growth was 28% for the second quarter.
  
• Worldwide seller units represented 49% of paid units.

Amazon is opening 18 Fulfillment Centers in the third quarter, compared to opening 6 in the third quarter of 2015. "This will bring us up to 21 net FCs for the year by the end of Q3. That compares to 10 FCs for the first 3/4's of last year on a net basis."

Amazon's CFO said, "Why are we expanding so much? If you remember back in Q4 and the capacity restraints we had in Q4 primarily due to really strong FBA growth." He revealed some statistics, giving signs of expected growth in the 2nd half of the year in terms of unit sales.

In the second quarter, Amazon saw 28% paid unit growth - but for FBA, it was higher than that.

That compares to last year in Q2 which saw 22% unit growth - and that turned into 26% in Q4 last year.

Amazon executives declined to update customer numbers or reveal how many Prime members it had, including declining to reveal how many new members were added as a result of this year's Prime Day.

The executives said "there's a lot of room in Prime," and said there were "a lot of different flavors of Prime," referring to tailored programs for students; tailored video programs; its new monthly membership option; and plans related to grocery delivery.

"We are aggressively looking for the perfect Prime for everybody."

In a press release announcing earnings, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was quoted referencing the importance of India. "It's been a busy few months for Amazon around the world, and particularly in India - where we launched a new AWS Region, introduced Prime with unlimited free shipping, and announced that Prime Video is coming soon, offering Prime members in India exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies - including original content featuring top Indian creators and talent. The team in India is inventing at a torrid pace, and we're very grateful to our Indian customers for their welcoming response."

Amazon called out the performance of its second annual Prime Day, calling it the biggest day ever for the company. 

"Compared to Prime Day 2015, worldwide orders grew by more than 60%, orders from third-party sellers with Prime Day deals nearly tripled, and Prime members saved over twice as much on deals."

Someone reading the press release who was unfamiliar with the company would be hard-put to determine if Amazon was a retail marketplace, a hardware company, or a Hollywood producer. But among the many shout-outs to its devices and content were some significant factoids about its ecommerce business:

• Amazon Business now serves more than 400,000 businesses and generated more than $1 billion in sales in its first year. Amazon Business has more than 30,000 third-party sellers who fulfill over half of Amazon Business orders.
  
• Amazon Prime Air and the U.K. government announced a partnership to advance the safe use of drones for small parcel delivery, providing Amazon with permission to trial new methods, including beyond line-of-sight operation.

Amazon also mentioned the launch of its Pan-European Fulfillment Program, the launch of AmazonFresh in its first international location (London), its growing selection in Mexico where it launched a year ago, and some milestones in India.

It also called out Amazon Marketplace's inaugural Women's Entrepreneur Conference, which will be held in August in Seattle, stating, "The full-day event will bring together over 300 women entrepreneurs and business owners from around the world to network and learn from experts on how to grow, lead, and scale a business on Amazon."

(SOURCE)

- Great news all around! We're excited to grow along with Amazon. What do you think? 

How to avoid long-term Amazon FBA fees

Feedvisor has made some strategic hires of people with deep knowledge of how Amazon works.

In this case, and this video, you’ll hear from several people who have genuine internal knowledge of the Amazon infrastructure. 
-Why aren’t your items shifting? 
-How do you have more access to the Buy Box? 
-Is the Sponsored Products the way to drive discoverability?

The sources talk about what Amazon wants from FBA sellers and why they don’t succeed. 

You’ll hear from Peter Kearns, formerly of Strategic Sales FBA, Amazon and now Customer Success Manager at Feedvisor. 

Also sharing her expertise is Lori Vardi who is Director of Customer Success at Feedvisor.

This video/audio will be useful to anyone using FBA. It’s a deep dive and detailed. Required listening.

Watch it here.

(SOURCE)

We'd love to have your feedback. Please comment and ask any questions!

How to start selling on Amazon UK and Europe with FBA

by Kiri Masters

As an Amazon Seller, what do you do when you think you’ve “tapped out” of the market on Amazon.com? You could design and release new products, sure. But why not leverage the winning products that you already have in a new market that’s hungry for innovation? Just like in the US, Amazon offers their FBA program in Europe and the UK. That means that you can ship your inventory to an Amazon warehouse in Europe and they will handle order fulfillment for local customers. This means that you can access millions more Amazon customers, and continue to leverage the operational simplicity of the FBA program.

So how does it work? Let’s answer some frequently asked questions from Sellers about Amazon FBA in Europe.

HOW DOES FBA WORK IN EUROPE AND THE UK?

Once your inventory has been imported into Europe and is with Amazon, there are two fulfillment options to choose from - European Fulfillment Network (EFN) or Multi-Country Inventory.

EFN allows sellers registered for FBA in Germany, France, Italy and the UK to store their inventory in one country’s Fulfillment Centre, and still fulfill orders throughout Europe, regardless of the marketplace the item was sold on. Alternately you can arrange to have inventory held and shipped from FC’s in individual countries, known as Multi-Country Inventory.

Once your Amazon Europe Seller account is set up, all your orders will be managed in the one Seller Central account.

DO I NEED TO SEPARATE PRODUCT LISTINGS FOR EACH COUNTRY?

When you register to sell in any of the Amazon European marketplaces, your seller account is automatically enabled to allow you to sell in all other Amazon European marketplaces.

However, this does not automatically create listings in each of the Amazon European marketplaces - you need to set each listing up individually on each marketplace.

WHAT ABOUT THE LANGUAGE OF LISTINGS, PRODUCT PACKAGING, AND CUSTOMER SERVICE INQUIRIES?

• Product listing language: each country’s Amazon marketplace has different rules. But regardless of Amazon’s requirements, you’ll undoubtedly have better results if you translate your listings into the local language.
• Customer Service: Amazon asks that you provide general customer service, including handling customer’s VAT invoice requests, in the language of the marketplace you list your products on.
• Product packaging: Technically, product packaging is only required to be in the language of the country of origin. However for the best customer experience, you should consider having your packaging, instructions, and inserts translated into the local language.

But finally, good news! You can still view Seller Central in the local marketplace language of your choice, as well as in English.

DO I NEED TO IMPORT MY PRODUCTS TO EUROPE?

Yes. Using FBA will require importing your products to another country for storage in an Amazon fulfillment center to sell them to customers in that marketplace.

To import products into the UK or Europe, you’ll be paying import taxes and duties upon arrival. Your shipping carrier may assist with this process. You’ll also need to apply for an an Economic Operator Registration and Identification Number (EORI) in order to import your goods.

Tip: Your company (or your freight forwarder) needs to be listed as importer/consignee and nominate a customs broker. Do not import goods as "Amazon" or to show Amazon as the declarant, importer of record or consignee!

Inventory sent to Amazon’s fulfillment centers needs to be sent under “Delivery Duty Paid Destination” freight terms with all relevant import duties, import VAT and other taxes paid by you. If inventory arrives at Amazon with unpaid taxes or duties, it will be returned at your (predictably exorbitant!) expense.

DO I NEED TO REGISTER FOR, COLLECT AND PAY VAT WHEN SELLING ON AMAZON IN THE EU?

Yes. You must collect and pay VAT if your inventory is sent to and held in the EU. Amazon will require a VAT number from you to complete your account registration.

VAT can be avoided only if items are sold from outside the EU, are genuinely low-value and are imported in small packages already addressed to individual consumers. And in that case, you’ll probably be either paying hefty international shipping fees or having to pass that onto your customers, inevitably resulting in less sales or profits for you. Sometimes the end customer is even sent a bill by the customs authorities for the import duties. Not a good customer experience!

Best to buckle up and invest properly in being compliant in this new potential market. For that, you might want to consult a professional firm that specializes in VAT applications and ongoing reporting on your behalf. 

WHAT IS vAT?

VAT, or Value Added Tax, is a consumption tax which applies to goods and service that are bought and sold for use or consumption in the EU.

As a seller, you collect the applicable VAT (currently the standard rate is 20%) from  the buyer at the point of sale. You’re then required to forward on the VAT payment to the relevant country’s revenue authority on specific dates.

If you’re familiar with Sales Tax in the US, this concept may be familiar.

SO HOW DO I GET STARTED ON FBA EUROPE?

1. Apply for a VAT number. If applying in the UK, go to www.gov.uk and follow the links to apply for a VAT number. You can also apply for a VAT number in other European countries.
2. If you apply for a VAT number in the UK, you should get a VAT registration certificate within 14 working days, though it can take longer.
3. Once you have your VAT number, you can apply for a new Seller Account in your chosen marketplace. This will be a separate account than your North America Seller account. To apply, you’ll need:
   1. A valid credit card
   2. Phone number
   3. Tax information - your EIN (or equivalent if you’re not a US entity), and your VAT number.
   4. Bank account which is in a country and currency supported by Amazon.
4. Enroll in FBA in your chosen marketplace. You may have a payout restrictions placed on your account while Amazon goes through the process of further verifying your business registration information.
5. Start preparing your inventory for import into Europe.  To start importing inventory, need to apply for an EROI number. Consider working with a freight forwarder or customs broker to help with the importing & customs process. Some shipping carriers such as DHL offer this service for a fee.
6. Create a plan for product returns. You’ll need to provide Amazon with a returns address in the country of the fulfillment centre. Without a local returns address your products can’t be returned and may need to be disposed without reimbursement to you. However, just like with FBA in the US, Amazon can repackage and re-sell returned items for you, as a default option. Just be sure to work this into your selling costs and avoid surprises.

So, it can be a long journey to get started on Amazon in Europe, but from many accounts it is well worth it. We’ll cover in more detail Why Selling On Amazon in Europe is Worth the Hassle.

If you have questions about the process, please leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to answer!

SOURCE

 

10 Tools to Scale Your Amazon FBA Business

By MonetizePros

Everyone hates top tens, but everyone loves making money. That’s why having an Amazon FBA Business is so popular today, it’s all online entrepreneurs are talking about. And it makes sense.

Entrepreneurs invest in themselves. Amazon’s all about upfront investment – time and money. Put in the work and pull relatively passive profit every month. What entrepreneur wouldn’t want that? There’s a problem though.

We Only Have 24 Hours

We all get it. There’s only 24 hours in a day and even entrepreneurs need sleep. So how do you scale? Scaling is the only way to true, mind-boggling profit. I certainly couldn’t run my business on my own. Packing and shipping hundreds of orders a day? No thanks.

Here’s the thing..

Amazon makes it easy. Fulfilled By Amazon, that FBA acronym we all hear, it means Bezos handles the logistics. Ship product to warehouses and then just focus on sales – it’s that easy, almost…

Only Half the Battle

But maintaining is not growing. There’s more to Amazon FBA success long-term. You NEED to rank higher or launch more products, or do both – that’s the ONLY way to grow. And that takes time. Time to search and source products, time to promote and gather reviews. All of this takes time, time a solo-preneur doesn’t have. And there’s a cliche for it.

You Have to Work on Your Business, Not In It

Boring. Yeah, you’ve heard it before. But for Amazon it’s more true than ever. Individuals are commanding massive wealth and cashflows, all without touching the product or worrying about the little details. Automation and software is the key. Here are my tools of the trade.

Top 10 Tools to Amazon FBA Success

I’ve never liked Top 10 lists. I’m process-oriented. So, here’s a step-by-step process for Amazon success. This is how Amazon sellers start faster. Enjoy.

Product Selection

Nothing trumps this. Pick a loser and you’ll have to restart, pick a winner and the game accelerates. It’s that simple.

Here’s how I do it, in order!

1. The Jungle Scout Webapp

Today, I start here – a database of Amazon success. I have to thank Greg Mercer for this one. He’s a personal friend, a two time guest of FBA ALLSTARS and owns Jungle Scout. But believing bias motivates this selection is foolhardy. The webapp provides a custom filter system for searching Amazon products and a huge database of information. You can choose categories, target BSRs (or Best Seller Rankings), sales, reviews, sizes – the options are vast.

Pros:

·         Fast product ideas

·         Easy to search

·         Filter based results

·         Free 7 day trial

Cons:

·         Recurring billing

·         Helps others find my products too

·         Not a complete database

This makes finding profitable products easier – way easier honestly. It’s almost scary. But I start here searching for my brand. After setting filters, everything fits my criteria for successful private label products. I track these in a Google spreadsheet.

Then it’s time for Amazon + Jungle Scout.

2. Jungle Scout

I thought this was stupid INITIALLY. I’ve done a complete 180. Jungle Scout is a Chrome extension which saves you hours. It automatically pulls BSR stats, seller data, review reports and estimated sales and revenues of all the products showing in an Amazon search. I used to manually open and search every listing. This is a must have for serious sellers.

Pros:

·         Save tons of time

·         Export data

·         Analysis markets instantly

Cons:

·         Stats are estimates (real data on sales is impossible)

·         Price

3. CamelCamelCamel

The name sucks, but it’s free. And it’s helpful. CamelCamelCamel picks up where JS left off, it tracks historical data. Specifically sales price and BSR. This helps in determining the legitimacy of sales data. You can tell if products are just launching and spiking sales or consistently performing. It also helps identify trends over time, a big plus for seasonal products.

Pros:

·         Totally free

·         Tracks historic data

Cons:

·         Non-friendly interface

·         No other functionality

Amazon Product Sourcing

After ideas it gets physical. Finding products and getting samples is an unavoidable bottleneck. It’s often intimidating, especially since most suppliers are overseas. So, here’s a free guide to get you started. And it’s easier than you think, sort of.

4. Alibaba

There’s nothing better. Excluding supplements and skin-based beauty products, most items are manufactured in Asia. The majority of these are Made In China. And short of flying there (which I’ve done), Alibaba is your best bet. It’s a matchmaker for suppliers, like Craigslist on steroids with Yellow Pages added in.

And it’s overwhelming at first. You just have to get started.

Here’s a few rules of thumb:

·         Submit buying requests – these allow manufacturers producing what you want to contact you

·         Search product offerings – you can find most things if you are crafty

·         Migrate to email or Skype communication ASAP

·         Do your homework and get samples

·         Always start with Trade Assurance

·         AliExpress is essentially Alibaba for samples

·         Many “suppliers” are just trade companies, middle men for sourcing – they make things easier but slightly more expensive

·         Don’t be stupid

Pros:

·         Basically the only option

·         Connects buyers and suppliers anywhere

·         Trade Assurance protects your investment

·         More legitimate than some sites

Cons:

·         A million and one scams

·         Scary to get started

That’s the basics. The rest you learn as you go. But production takes time. While waiting, work on your listing. It’s time to optimize.

Copywriting and Keyword Research

Sales depend on being found. Even a time machine would flop if no one knew about it. Keywords and optimization are critical to Amazon. You need traffic to get buyers.

5. Google Keyword Planner

Amazon’s bad about data. They don’t like sharing search numbers, or sales. For these you need 3rd party software. Google’s the biggest search engine in the world, Amazon’s the biggest for products. That means search data in Google will be similar to Amazon. You can get an idea what customers are searching for, look at keyword trends and find terms to target for PPC (paid ads).

The easiest way is to copy/paste competitor URLs into the tool. Google then spits out its idea of the page’s keywords. BINGO. Now you know.

Pros:

·         Free

·         Easy to use

·         Tons of data

Cons:

·         Requires an AdWords account

·         Has lots of irrelevant keywords

Review competitor listings and reviews. Here you will find gems of keywords, phrases and customer complaints, all of which can help your listing shine.

MonetizePros Tip!

Google Keyword Planner does the trick but can be difficult to use. We recommend using SEMRush for everything keyword research related. It also has a lot of other features that’ll come handy with your Amazon FBA business. Spy on your competitors, see where they’re spending their PPC budget, what keywords are bringing them the most traffic and much more.

You must measure progress or you’ll be spinning your wheels indefinitely. To do this, sales and profit are king. But rankings are important too. Where you rank determines sales and success. Tracking this is the only way to monitor your efforts. There’s two I like.

6. AMZTracker

I push hard. It’s the reason my business and FBA ALLSTARS has grown so fast. To do that I need data. I need to know which keywords I rank for, what to optimize and the 80/20 of increased sales. AMZTracker allow me to do all this, plus monitor negative reviews and launch products easier (and faster) with their review club. Recently they’ve released a solid competitor to Jungle Scout, Unicorn Smasher, which makes things interesting as well.

Pros:

·         Simple keyword tracking

·         Product launch review club

·         Negative review monitoring

·         Email updates

·         Unicorn Smasher Free tool

Cons:

·         Monthly cost

·         Doesn’t track PPC data

7. Amazooka

Similar to AMZTracker but different in several key ways, Amazooka’s making a splash in the Amazon FBA world. While offering keyword and BSR tracking, negative review monitoring and it’s own review club (although a bit premature on this), there’s a few features I love. You guys will too.

First, Amazooka let’s you export customer phone numbers. That means you can target existing customers on Facebook. That’s big. But there’s also the autoresponder. Amazooka’s working on a feedback follow up sequence to make customer communication and review gathering simple and effective. But that’s not all.

The dashboard is the gamechanger. See all your sales by product, by country (even by state) right on an easy to use interface. Any seller with multiple products knows the poor job Amazon does of displaying this.

Pros:

·         Keyword tracking

·         PPC tracking

·         Negative review monitoring

·         Email updates

·         Customer phone number exports

·         Powerful dashboard

·         Feedback follow up

Cons:

·         Monthly cost

·         Still in its infancy so occasional bugs

Customer Interactions

Emails get excessive. When you sell hundreds of units a day, you cannot email everyone. That hurts. Rankings are partly dependent on reviews (likely feedback as well). But gathering reviews is hard. Have you ever left a review on Amazon? There’s a trick.

Email automation, it’s vital. Like an autoresponder, Feedback Followup software allows entrepreneurs to individually, automatically email every customer. This automates customer service and allows sellers to ask for seller feedback and reviews. That means more organic reviews and sales – it’s a flywheel.

But what’s the talk of feedback and reviews, what’s the difference? Well seller feedback reflects your performance as seller, it also has minimal impact on rankings and conversion rates. Reviews on the other hand are product focused. These directly affect ranks and build customer trust and boost conversion rates. I ask for the feedback prior to reviews, despite their lessened importance as this provides a filter. I’ll only then ask happy customers for reviews which as you’d expect, leads to better reviews. There are two solid softwares, I use the first.

8. Feedback Genius

While Feedback Genius allows Amazon sellers to automate their messages and track negative seller feedback as well – avoiding customer complaints and issues before they begin. But that’s not all.

The biggest differentiator for me in Feedback Genius vs Salesbacker is in the reviews. Feedback Genius filters customer feedback. When a customer leaves a positive feedback, that triggers a custom message asking for a review, hence my safety net filter. And it’s automated, Salesbacker can’t.

Pros:

·         Automates feedback requests

·         Automates review requests

·         Tracks negative seller feedback

·         Automatic safety net

Cons:

·         Analytics software is ineffective

·         Hard to track open and conversion rates of emails

9. Salesbacker

Salesbacker doesn’t have this feature of feedback triggers. It does however have quite a lot Feedback Genius lacks. Chiefly, improved analytics and testing. It’s also got canned emails which help you get setup. And in case you haven’t got a rank tracker, Salesbacker’s got your back on BSR tracking.

Pros:

·         Automates feedback requests

·         Automates review requests

·         Tracks negative seller feedback

·         Tracks BSR

·         Offers enhanced analytics

·         Comes with template campaigns

Cons:

·         Doesn’t enable feedback filtered emails

Product Launches and Reviews

Sales don’t start themselves. You need to do a blast to build up reviews, boost your rank and get sales going. That’s how the algorithm works. Amazon makes money on sales. That means your product needs to sell to make Amazon succeed. Sell and you’re rewarded, stagnate and your rankings drop.

It’s not all about sales though. Reviews help too. Reviews are social proof that strengthen conversion rates. A solid base of reviews with spiked sales and your listing will start itself.

10. Tomoson

Reviewers love products. Sellers love sales, and reviews. Tomoson’s a way to work together – matching sellers offering with promotions with product testers. It has an awful interface and is challenging to use, but it’s free, it’s easy and it will help you find reviewers faster. Plus Tomoson has a free month trial so time it right and you won’t pay a dime. Play with the site before getting started and then scouting reviewers. It’s time to promote your product with coupon codes and speed those sales.

Pros:

·         Plenty of experienced reviewers

·         Free month trial

Cons:

·         Painfully bad interface

Pro tip: use one time use claim codes for your promotions or risk ALL your inventory evaporating overnight. And NEVER use a percentage off. It’s a recipe for disaster. Imagine one person buying your entire stock,90% OFF. That’s a bad day.

Source