Is FBA really worth it?

Countries

Read only
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Egypt
France
Germany
India
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
United Kingdom
imgSign in
user profile
Seller_7AriJtmb9tlz8

Is FBA really worth it?

Hello everyone, i’ve been intrigued with the whole idea of a little side business selling on Amazon, but never managed to get round to doing anything about it.

I watch all these YouTube videos about people making £100’s to tens of thousands per month in revenue etc.

Is it really possible to make money from doing FBA? Enough for it to be worthwhile? I read some of the forum comments and it seems that there is ALOT of issues to doing FBA??

So, if it is worth sticking with and i could actually make a good side business…how the heck do i get started, how do i roll the ball forward and start my first business adventure?

Any links to help me get going or advice would be greatly received.

Kind regards, hope to chat soon.

822 views
65 replies
00
Reply
65 replies
user profile
Seller_DxiY1k6k2tMp0

If you find a good product that is in constant demand, stuff like electronics, one-time-use items etc, then yeah it can definitely land you in for a good side business, I started a little under a month ago and made about £800 minus amazon’s fee etc with a start-up cost of roughly £300.
There is some company called jungle scout that apparently can tell you what’s good and what’s not but I’ve never used them so can’t say for certain.
If you’re unsure if you want to plunge right into it, you could do post the items yourself so you save yourself some fees from FBA.

10
user profile
Seller_x4sIiMyhtvyfE

Hi whatever you do… do not rely on You Tube for understanding Amazon… go to the seller University run by Amazon to get all your info and get a good understanding of how Amazon works. The more good research you do the less pitfalls you will stumble into !!!

40
user profile
Seller_MAo514yIz77Tl

Have a look through the forum for all the reasons NOT to watch you tube videos. Or pay for a course from some guru.
Read through seller University. Research products.

10
user profile
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD

First and foremost, you need to totally ignore anything you may have seen on YouTube, scan the forums and you will see dozens of cases of people jumping in and getting themselves in serious bother with it,

Selling on Amazon is not easy, you will certainly not make huge profits in a short time without much work, that is a myth. You can make it work on here, but it takes a lot of time and effort, and more importantly you need to do a huge amount of research including reading Amazons Seller Univerity end to end, then do it again. There is a lot of hoops to jump through to make it work on here, and Amazon will think nothing of suspending your account, and keeping hold of your money if you fall foul of their rules.

A lot of people jump in without really checking the costs involved to sell on here - which can be quite substantial, especially with FBA. You need to research your products you want to sell, then check the authenticity, and make sure that you are purchasing direct from the manufacturer, or from an authorised wholesaler - this is important you cannot purchase from a retailer as the goods are then deemed second hand, and you cannot sell as new.

It is also worth checking how much competition you have on the products you want to sell, what YouTube does not tell you is that if a product is selling for say 10.00 and you believe you can sell for 9.00 so send in loads of inventory, there is a very good chance another seller will just undercut you and drive the price down to rock bottom so nobody makes any profit out of it.

Not in any way trying to put you off, just don’t want to see you come back in a couple of months having dived in without knowing what you were doing and get yourself into trouble.

You also need to make sure you are registered as a Business with Amazon, which is another mistake a lot of new sellers make.

Please also make sure that your acount is 100% verified and active before you even contemplate sending any inventory to Amazon, this is not a process that can be rushed, take your time and get it right.

80
user profile
Seller_6sxtIS0RbZ5k7

As others have said, ignore everything you see on YouTube, if they can make so much money on Amazon why are they spending hours making videos about how to it? Firstly they wouldn’t want the competition stealing their sales and, secondly, they make their money from people watching their videos and buying their courses, not from Amazon.

You keep calling it a side line, at least at the start you are going to have to invest a bit more time than that. What do you do in your day job and/or what are your interests? If you have no experience of buying and selling for profit a good place to start is with a product that you know something about. If you are, for example, a plumber you will know which are the most common fittings, if you are into skateboarding you will know which are the best wheels. What you WON’T know is the latest toy craze, how import duties from China work or whether the toy you’ve bought is actually safe.

Be aware also that some categories are gated and, as a new seller, you are unlikely to get approval so start in an ungated category until you have some sales under your belt.

The other thing I would bear in mind with stock selection is size, weight and price of whatever you are selling. The fees for the Small and Light programme are a lot less than standard FBA.

50
user profile
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl

Just to add to what others have written.
FBA/FBM, really doesn’t matter as it’s just the method of fulfilling the orders.
The absolute main thing that you need to concentrate on, is understand the associated costs.
Only then, can you work out whether or not it’s worth selling something.

Yes, it’s worth sticking with and can make you a good full time business, let alone side.
To get started, you register as Self Employed, get your Amazon account fully activated.
Then find and sell goods.
There really isn’t anything particularly complicated about it at the end of the day.

Don’t start with buying from China etc. Find something in the UK, that you can test the market with. You don’t have to go down the route of private label. It’s much harder than it appears to be, especially after you have watched all of those YouTube vids, who make it appear really easy.

40
user profile
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc

And a good guide is this forum
Spend an afternoon reading all the posts and see where the common mistakes are

30
user profile
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc

Your very first step before you even think of deciding what you want to sell and buying your stock, must be to register with HMRC as self-employed (probably sole-trader), wait for them to send you your UTR and you will need to upload that to Amazon to verify your Business Seller Account.
(hopefully you did not open an Individual Seller Account, as that is only for selling off your own personal, second-hand items, not new goods).

Remember you will need to keep accounts, and submit a tax return every year, and pay tax on any profits over and above your personal allowance (which I assume you will use in your ‘day’ job)
Your self-employed registration can be done online and the HMRC website is very good, clear and explains everything involved, what you can claim as business expenses etc.etc…

40
user profile
Seller_gOlDFgS5Li5Jc

yes fba can be profitable as you will get more sales than fbm generally and your metrics will be a bit safer as no A to Z or delivery problems as amazon will be responsible but there are
negatives with it as well for example immediate refunds before the items are even returned
we sell well known brands that people are already searching for so no money spent on advertising so thats a plus forget you tube go to seller university and learn from that and as mentioned make sure you source from manufacturers or proper suppliers/wholesalers

00
user profile
Seller_PtSZDCRO4f7e5

I’m thinking of becoming an [quote=“JLG_Supplies, post:1, topic:521354”]
I watch all these YouTube videos about people making £100’s to tens of thousands per month in revenue etc
[/quote]

Very lucrative business. Thinking of doing the same.

Someone I know paid a guy £1000 for this.

I asked him to tell me what they told him.

Told him he got scammed as I could have told him that for free.

00