Why I am quitting selling on Amazon
Hi all - wanted to share my experiences as I am preparing to quit sellin on Amazon completely, after 3 years of experience, with fiscal representations in UK, Germany, France and Italy.
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Unbearable fees - I feel like many sellers are in the same boat of trying alternative routes.
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Prime costs : People around me continuously speak of cancelling their prime membership as they dont use it that often. If it’s losing the USP effect, why bother stay…
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The user experience… All amazon cares about is its customers ( which I very much enjoy as a customer ) but not sellers. I was never made feel like a customer as a seller. The attitude and level of knowledge in the helpdesk team, the frontend systems we are using from 1990s… never easy to add a product a variant etc. I have lost around 5k Euro of items because Amazon Italy didn’t want to accept it for no reason. No reason.
I hope and wish that some of you guys are doing fine out there, but apparently Amazon is not a good fit for a UK small business like mine.
All the best!
90 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
I suppose i’d say number 3 has merit, but can’t see fees being particularly outside the range of other marketplaces or how some people cancelling Prime has much of an impact.
I wish you well in whatever is next.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
yep not easy is it, not sure why you need a fiscal rep everywhere.
1 You only need it in one Country and then do pan-eu to serve the rest. Going through France and doing pan-eu is actually starting to work for me after years of trying.
2 i don’t really care much for Amazon prime either, I don’t do sfp but it helps with fba sales.
- Yes they are customer centric, but if you learn to not take it personally and visit the forums regularly I find it helps. Italy is a nightmare, I even switched it off at one point. Never sent anything specific to that marketplace. " good markets are Germany and France, let them fba pan–eu to the rest and it should work ok.
Lastly if you have lost around 5k in Italy alone then there must have been some sort of market or indication that you could do well if you peresevered.
Seller_9vYzAspLN0bEC
Any business is a hard work. The fee is fine for what you get around 15%.
for that you get the platform to sell on, advertising and many other functions. If you were to start your own website it will cost you more just with fees and advertising.
Seller_9vYzAspLN0bEC
You will see that in most cases cost per acquisition is around 8-10% from your own website. You are paying per click not per purchase. Also you need to set this amount to at least for front page and low product price otherwise you might end up keep paying for clicks without any sell if product was on 3rd or 4th page
Seller_EpDRYbHD8fbWm
Understand those reasons.
number 2 I would be careful about. A lot of people say the same around here too; but they don’t cancel it. There was a person who wanted to cancel their amazon prime video but couldn’t without canceling their amazon prime delivery.
Seller_SnNztJIII3ZP5
True it is getting really frustrating trying to make a honest living on Amazon. Too many YouTube videos sucking in gullible fools telling them they can make tens of thousands of pounds by just sending all their stock to FBA to post out and continuing to stay at their current job. Have they tried to keep on top of the customer emails all asking why their goods haven’t turned up. I use the countries biggest couriers , not one man and his dog to get the item to them, but apparently its always my fault when the courier lets me down. There has been a marked increase in false claims. I do not buy shipping from Amazon, so amazon send out automatic emails to customers to tell them that the item has not been delivered so they can claim a refund. Once I receive their email, I have to put time in to find the tracking data and discover that I was delivered within 48 hours with pictures of the customers opening door to accept the item. these customers then fail to respond to any more emails, having just tried their luck. Last year the money that was made from trading two thirds went to Amazon and I got a third. Thats the real bottom line.
Seller_JVrK6emk6S3ur
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Amazon refunded a customer in Poland his £950 order because it was stuck in customs for 2 weeks due to the customer not supplying correct information.
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Amazon is threatening to destroy £1600 worth of my inventory due to an inauthentic complain out of 1/400 orders. Even after providing all purchase invoice, they wont accept it.
Its nothing but stress on here, but sadly they have the market share and can easily bully sellers into submission.
Seller_77IcbQKVGdZo0
I really don’t understand the dislike of Amazon by some sellers on here and why we have to have these I am quitting posts like it is some sort of triumph.
Yes sure it has its problems but in return you get a very big customer base and lots of sales.
I am not saying it is easy going and there are times when I feel like pulling out my hair (what little I have left). At the end of the day any type of business you run for yourself will have problems and you will have good days and bad days.
Seller_Orj98eHth1YV4
I am thinking of doing the same. The following annoying things are allowed to happen, to give just a couple;
Amazon only lets you sell products under existing listings. Whomever wrote the listing in the first place resents others piling in. Once the original seller who wrote that listing has sold all their stock, they sabotage their listing by changing the product description to completely incorrect, swapping out photos, pluralizing the product so the customers complain and give you bad feedback. And you have to withdraw your units. Amazon allows this. Little things such as this make you hesitate to buy up a lot of a good item from your suppliers thus stunting business growth.
Amazon will disable a listing for a reason like food contact safety, as in the case of certain bamboo food containers but do not take down an identical less successful listing so all the sellers pile onto that one. And If you have sent units to FBA, you have to spend a lot to get your units back-so its best not to send very much to FBA thus stunting business growth.
I’ve been selling on Amazon since 2017
