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IF YOU'RE NEW - DO NOT SELL ON AMAZON FBA
This is a message to all potential new Amazon FBA sellers - do not sell on Amazon FBA unless you've read through ALL their policies in detail.
As a new seller, I've had an extremely negative experience selling here with many surprises, and I ended up being charged over $3,100. Some of these surprises come from policies that are hidden and you won't know, until it's too late.
With a failing business (from the ridiculous FBA fees that are charged just for storage), I decided to stop selling on Amazon FBA. With this, I was given an option to stop Amazon FBA and have the items returned to me. In this return process, I tried to look to see if I would be charged for this - nothing was to be found during this process. Amazon ends up charging me over $3,100 for the FBA removals. If you didn't search for their policy using the exact search terms of "FBA removal order fee" then you'd also be unaware of this policy, and subsequently charged.
Getting in touch with Amazon support has been horrible. My feeling is that this is intentional, making the process of contacting an actual person difficult while they have their support team offshore. I have a couple of email responses from members of their "leadership team" (Amala S. and Kurt L.) who both give me a copy and paste exact same response. No real help there, unsympathetic, while treating you just as another number.
From what I've experienced, I wouldn't doubt many others feel the same. If you have experienced something similar, I would encourage posting here and discussing, in order to help and save others the headache and financial hardship. This has left an extremely negative experience with Amazon as a whole, and this is my genuine warning to all potential Amazon sellers.
0 replies
Seller_qN3zRHYwF3Mpb
I can't aggree more, there are too many inappropriate charges, and the last straw for businesses will be overcome in the near future
Seller_RJ2F4mEAQyNy1
Now Amazon is really difficult, the key is that some reduce the storage configuration fee to separate the delivery, they will lose your goods, and then ready to charge you more money, which is very passive, no contract spirit. If the business is wrong, that is fine, the key is Amazon itself logistics inventory problem is very upset. The decline in traffic will inevitably divert, everyone be careful, I am ready to enter temu, Amazon is too expensive.
Seller_XL7ifTfWWerQA
I feel your pain. We went through a similar process several years ago when Amazon arbitrarily added a $1.80 service charge to each transaction in the Media category. When the average selling price was $10, that was a hit that we could not overcome.
You probably should have expected that Amazon would not return your items for free. They're going to charge you for handling and shipping. The problem we had with the returns is that over 50% of the items came back to us damaged. They literally just through them in a box and included no protection. All in all, it was a bad experience.
Prior to Amazon's changes, we had a long successful period with FBA. We probably didn't adjust to the demand of many of the items and should have sent them less. For years now we have been FBM. Volume is down but no more surprises.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
I depends on what you are selling. You MUST take all expenses into account, including all of the FBA fees.
Years ago, when I started, I did quite well being 100% FBA. (and this is selling books). Now, perhaps 5% of my books are worth sending to FBA, which has the benefit of winning the BB over less expensive FBM (and showing up for the people who insist on Prime). Basically, if the lowest FBM price is within $5 of the BB, it's not worth sending to FBA, as there won't be any extra profit. And if it's much over 1M sales rank, it's not worth the risk regardless. But sometimes, it can result in extra profit, which is what it's all about.
BUT, this takes actually paying attention to all of the various factors.
And of course, for some sellers, it makes much more sense than FBM. But the important thing is to look at what works for YOUR business, and don't go by what someone else (especially someone selling different products) tells you should be your model.
Seller_oDXVaydIpi3Hi
Legally speaking, Amazon has a duty to reduce the barrier for due diligence and its marketing for new sellers does not include a lot of these issues, nor are they easy to find unless you are familiar with the forums and spend an extensive time looking into things. Amazon could easily require a seller test before being allowed to sell that included these issues. But...that doesn't make as much money. Probably will be another FTC issue in the near future.
Seller_6LJ5LpRbOV4Dw
Couldn't agree more. The whole process is so complex and there are so many hidden fees that you won't fully get an understanding of everything on unless you're going through it. I guess most of these sellers have been doing for quite some time and started when the process used to be more straightforward, so they don't understand how overwhelming it is to just jump in now that amazon implements a new policy and a new fee each week. Part of my inventory was stranded so I decided on a removal request and was really surprised to see amazon charge me nearly $15 for each unit. That on top of the crazy high return rate... just doesn't make any sense unless you're a chinese factory selling in this platform. Even vine program is a fiasco, a bunch of people getting things for free just to complain about it. I've been switching all my items to FBM once my inventory sells out, but I only made 2 sales in the past 4 months.
Seller_RQvHKbXKWuPpx
how long were your products at the warehouse? How may Asin where there
Seller_iYwO05jubifNY
FBA is a disaster. I quit FBA many years ago, and it was a much better deal then. They are making life miserable for the FBM guys to make FBA "seem" better by making FBM deliberately and gradually worse. Terrible, just terrible. Just put everything back the way it was.
Seller_QpjAYaxSgnkDj
Actually I am here (newbie to Amazon selling) but was looking for something else. I had considered using FBA but thanks to this thread I will NOT so thank you!
Seller_6sRY5WHMxfFBB
FBA is one of the best things that ever happened for small businesses, like anything else you will need to learn what you are doing to be successful. Amazon provides all the answers for you, you may have to dig sometimes but the answers are there. Selling on Amazon since 2014 and it has enriched our lives.
Seller_5qltytBx2ZYMz
In all honestly, Amazon FBA is a huge piece of my business. They are terrible at support, I will give you that, which is why you need to work with a freelancer or someone who knows the ropes when you are starting. Many think this is just a set it and forget it type of thing, but it's hard work. Couple tips: Don't start with Amazon FBA, make sure your product is selling at a decent profit point as FBM first, and budget for advertising.
When you start as FBM you realize all the costs and work required. Storage, Shipping, Boxing, Traveling to Post Office, Marketing, Labeling, EVERY DAY. It's difficult to sell the same volume on your own website, so Amazon is a huge boost to any business.
TLDR: Don't start with FBA, start with FBM, realize the difficulty, look at the fees in a different light.
Seller_wmT5RayIg3iVV
I agree with you, Amazon's search algorithm is really unfair. Amazon just wants sellers to pay them a lot of PPC money to get traffic from them. I tried to search for my product by keyword in the title, and it did not appear on any page from 1 to 20, although my product price is half or even 1/3 cheaper than some products and the quality is even better.
After calculating the costs, up to 70% of the cost of revenue is paid to Amazon to get 1 order and it is not certain that every time you run PPC, there will be an order.
You can't sell? Pay more for advertising to Amazon.
The products that are on the first page will stay there forever and traffic will flow to those products.
If you can't sell, the cost of storage will be your burden every month, the longer the storage, the more expensive it is.
If you want to throw away the product, you will have to pay more for throwing away the product.
Seller_T04e1Xn1Myjhp
We pulled off Amazon all togther ! tired of them ripping us off and giving away our product for free.
Seller_RVhTrI8GjXuVL
I'm starting to buy some things on Alibaba and sell on Amazon FBM shipping costs and the supposed profit per product would be 10 dollars in the end the profit goes to Amazon I don't understand how they are buying in China for example Alibaba and sell On Amazon, can someone help me.
Thanks.
Seller_Lu3bFSNnS57zM
Did you calculate the loss if you just liquidated at a no brainer sale price and then fbm new inventory? May have been headache than removal fees
Seller_z4B4YHXbqLGkU
je suis nouveau et je viens de tomber sur ta publication. que dois je faire ? j'ai lu les commentaire mias je n'ai pas vu une solution.
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