Where to start!
Amazon FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon is an effective way of doing business these days. It is a simple yet efficient method of selling that is proven beneficial for a business. Amazon FBA represents a great opportunity to sellers who are looking for a relatively low barrier to entry venture. With FBA, the storing, packing, processing and shipping will be done through Amazon, so it gives business owners the chance to focus on product and the business growth.
My biggest tip is: do not just to buy stuff and try and resell it. You're not building a sustainable business or brand by doing that. Let's say you find a great product that you can get cheaply and resell for a nice profit. You put in a lot of work marketing it and for a while, you're making good money. The problem is that pretty soon someone else will discover what you're doing and just piggyback on your hard work, buying and selling exactly the same thing and driving your profit margin down. Rather look for factories that offer OEM (original equipment manufacturer). At the simplest level this can just mean they offer white labeling - so you can put your own brand on something they already make. At the next level, it means you can design and build your own products or modify items they already sell. Even if you're just re-branding an item they already sell, it immediately stops anyone from being able to piggyback on your listings. Plus it doesn't normally cost any more than just buying their products. You can get your branding done cheaply on Fiverr or 99designs. Apart from that, I recommend using Amazon FBA, especially to begin with. What that means is that Amazon deals with the warehousing, fulfillment and customer service for your items. You just need to get the items to them and then focus on the marketing.
The basic steps you'll need to take are:
- Find a product you like on Alibaba
- Start conversations with the factory
- Buy some samples or prototypes
- Request any changes you want to be made
- Buy some UPC codes for your products (Universal Product Code). These are the numbers on the barcode
- Negotiate on the price and minimum order quantity with the factory - - you'll want to negotiate the price FOB (freight on board), meaning they pay all the costs up to putting the stock on a ship
- Work out all the fees involved (manufacturing, freight forward, customs, Amazon fees, tax) and see if you can still make a profit
- Sort out a freight forwarder and customs broker to get the stock to your country (someone like Flexport)
- Create an Amazon Seller Account (start with the free one) and sign up to Amazon FBA
- Create the shipment on Amazon Seller Central
- Instruct your freight forwarder on how to deliver the item to the Amazon FBA warehouses
- Market your product
Once you get a nice flow going you can sit back let your business run itself. Be aware though that your items won't sell themselves. You will need to market them and drive people to the Amazon listings. Start with a smallish order (a few hundred) and then work up if you're successful. If you're still interested, I go into a lot more detail on the process in this post: Step-By-Step Guide to Creating and Selling a Physical Product. Good luck! It's a great business model and a lot of people are doing very well from it.
Submitted January 27, 2018 at 02:18AM by Dethacol23 http://ift.tt/2FiC2ZZ
