Is FBA worth it in 2023?
I discovered FBA in 2022 and went on the complete freedom ticket 3.0.
After completing the course, I looked for my first product for around 6 weeks. Nothing worked out; I immediately jumped on a call with an experienced seller who helped me shift course and quickly find something. The issue is that it took far too long to determine whether or not I could move forward with the product I did find.
After taking a break in 2022, I spent the last three weeks going through a tonne of ideas. Right now, profitability seems to be my problem. I now have three reliable methods for finding prospective ideas, so finding FBA product ideas is not an issue.
Profitability: I can’t find any product that doesn’t generate a loss or even just 15% profit margin.
Therefore, I wonder if it even makes sense to keep going down this path and just close my account and move on to something else?
56 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
It works fine for me however , I came to it from the other angle , I already had products I was selling elsewhere for 12 years and moved to fba instead of employing staff
Rather than going through paid courses etc go back to the beginning -
Why do you want to sell via fba ?
Do you have a hobby or interest in a product you know something about ?
And why are you looking to import most importantly ?
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Works for me
But like Littleshop I use FBA for items I’m already selling, sending to FBA allows me to focus more on other things while Amazon picks, packs and delivers for me, and it means I can do more orders without hiring staff.
I don’t look at FBA for items I could then source and buy, that feels backwards to me…
Seller_0lQP368tpx7Wc
Works for me for sure. With my wife, I manufacture my own products. We spend 1 week a month working long hours, 7 days a week and we then send the stock to Amazon and enjoy 3 weeks enjoying semi-retirement. We make enough to bolster up the state pension. We have been selling on Amazon for over 15 years and tried both ways but everyone’s situation is different, of course.
Seller_wqciCXuQbNS4p
Many of us make it work, and I’m sure that you could too.
I have to ask though, are you really spending £4.50 on PPC for an item that sells for £12.50?
It may simply be a case of revisiting your cost and selling price.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Don’t forget your question was - is FBA worth it
Not , is selling online worth it 
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I think your looking at it the wrong way.
FBA at the end of the day, is just a method of fulfilment. Nothing more than that.
As a general rule, there are advantages to using it. Such as postage (for me anyway), tends to be cheaper than I can buy elsewhere, buy box visibility is better and people seem to prefer to use Prime.
If your selling products that your buying wholesaler etc you won’t get much better than about a margin of 10% or so. It’s all about throughput. ie. sell lots, for a smaller profit.
You need to really do your homework before you send anything in. There are products out there that are worth selling, it just takes a lot of time and effort to find them.
Seller_K71iKhD8kX1da
As Neil pointed out that FBA is merely a fulfillment method and not a standalone business. FBA like dropshipping is a popular term that is frequently used by social media swindlers.
Most successful sellers on this platform have established their own niche or area of expertise through years of experience.
Seller_g0hK8Fa5sCNj5
If you are asking is FBA worth it as a method of shipping then yes 100% however if you’re asking is selling on Amazon profitable in 2023 I would say generally no.
If you are selling someone else’s products chances are you have a race to the bottom cut throat scenario.
If you are selling your own brand, PPC costs will eat away at any profit you do make or if you build it into your price you will find pricing is uncompetitive relative to other sellers of similar products.
The are of course exceptions to the scenarios I mentioned above I am just giving my personal opinion on the state of selling on Amazon in 2023.
Seller_N0kQDKMgwda6y
if you are looking to build a business from a standing start, without a product or even an area of interest, then I think that you will always struggle. And if you are trying to do it FBA then you will struggle even more. Especially against those that have a product, a supply line, a hobby or some similar starting point.
Seller_OCPQ5x3o5snzU
I’ve been slowly reducing the amount of products we sell by FBA and changing them to FBM due to the condition our products are arriving with the end customers. ( messages from customers)
We spend so much time in QC making sure our products are inspected, packed securely, labelled correctly and despatched to Amazon that after a small recall what we received back, the condition it was returned back to us, was more than enough to make us realise we made a massive mistake putting 100% trust in Amazon fulfilment centres.
We want our brand to grow and to give our customers a product that arrives in the same packing we sent it to Amazon not ripped open, look like its been thrown around a dirty floor, twisted, bent and damaged.
For me its FBM all the way, if I were about to start again.
