Help with best way to sell glass jar food items e.g. jams
Hi. We are a new Amazon seller that needs some advice that all the Amazon videos, PDF’s and telephone customer services don’t seem to be able to help with. We want to sell glass jars of long-dated (12mths-24mths shelf-life) foods, like Jams or preserved fruits via Amazon. I have a few questions, any help would be massively appreciated:
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Sounds like we would have to individually wrap every jar in enough bubble-wrap to survive a 4ft drop (with a barcode on it because our manufacturer barcode is now obscured), then place each jar inside our usual cardboard shipping box/case (with a barcode on it again telling Amazon they’re all the same thing), then finally put all the packed cases on our usual pallets as we would usually do, but also remember to shrink-wrap and barcode again for the total pallet. Is that the summary of our best possible option for these sorts of products? Because that’s obviously going to be at a huge cost, which we either swallow (and can’t) or pass on to the consumer (which isn’t fair).
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We would like to know that if we go FBA they will get our jar to the end customer in good order. I can’t find a nice brochure or manual showing all the different packaging options available to us that Amazon will use to send to the final customer once they’ve broken down the pallet of stock we have sent them.
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Because selling 1 X £4 jar will be cost prohibitive due to fee’s, we were hoping to have this listed as an ‘add-on’ item only. I can’t seem to be able to do this, and even if I could, would that impact our FBA fulfilment fee’s on that products or would we get hit for the usual amount and Amazon banks the difference. Or am I confusing postage & packing with FBA fulfilment fees in some way? Is the add-on system only designed to help the consumer, and not the seller/brand who is selling low-value items?
Sorry for the newbie questions. We thought FBA would enable us to trade with Amazon like you do with Tesco, Sainsburys etc. Just sent in a pallet of stock and pay them/give them a margin to send it out to customers at their end. Doesn’t seem to work that way!
Thanks
10 replies
Seller_hC0hNVDuILaKO
As you have already noted, in order to guarantee this you will have to pre pack accordingly and then send your goods to Amazon.
That alone may make your items cost prohibitive for FBA.
Seller_EHYOwAkoZV3Hb
I would have thought that grocery items are handled differently. I have purchased from Amazon Grocery and they were not packed in any special way. Saying that, they were sold by Amazon rather than marketplace sellers.
You could look into being a supplier to Amazon rather than selling yourself through FBA, same was as you deal with Tesco etc.
Seller_QlN0mmCAFPtjZ
Send me some jam and I will tell you if its worth the effort and bubble wrap , shrink wrap , and more wrap . For a £4.00 item , such packaging requirements may as Adrian states wipe out any profit margin .
I’ll have strawberry , organic of course .
Seller_6sxtIS0RbZ5k7
If you are worried about presentation and are going to package to protect it for the drop test can you not seal it so it can be used as the postal box as well?
Is it also worth considering doing it as a mixed gift pack instead of single jars so only one fulfilment fee per three or four jars? I had a stall next to a woman selling jams, chutneys and cordials at a fair a couple of weeks ago and she sold more gift packs than single jars.
Seller_qZO3ZCjoBXEeL
Gift/Selection Packs of 6? Make it worthwhile?
