Reasons to Consider Fulfilment by Amazon

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a remarkable tool for the small business owner.


Since joining FBA wholeheartedly last year I have seen my online book selling business grow by multiples.


Books that had stood months on my shelves as a merchant fulfilled retailer, fly out of the Amazon fulfillment centers.


OK so costs, as in fees to Amazon have increased. I now allow abvout 33% of my selling price as a cost to cover fees.  That is up from about 25% as a merchant fulfilled seller.


Other costs have shrunk though.


I do not have storage problems.


I could not physically ship the volume of books per day that I now regularly ship.


Amazon cover the packing and delivery and offer a good retail experience.


I can go away from my business for a day or two anmd not come back to dozens of angry customers, waiting upon their orders.


I now only spend about ten hours per week actually working. Nine of those hours sourcing new stock and one hour packing and shipping consignment to an Amazon Fulfilment Center.


The system is fully expandable. It can create the business that you weant, you are in command of the ship, it is not in charge of you.


I can plan a schedule, no calls from customers to distract, no dealing with suppliers, for my business model.


FBA is just a fun way to manage a business. My only regret is that I didn't begin sooner.

Protect the Top Layer of Books in Your FBA Shipment

Once in a while a shipment of books can be damaged upon opening at the FBA Fulfilment Center, by an over zealous box cutter or knofe.


This has happened to me twice since last August.


While I suffered no financial loss. Amazon paid me the full value of both books, Amazon are very honest about damages at their end of the transaction.


Now when completing a box of new stock I top off the piles of books with a strip of corrugated cardboard.


I use old delivery boxes for a supply of card strips. One box can be torn into several strips for several shipments.


I complete my packing as normal with the FBA shipment paperwork and then as I close the box I lay the corrugated card over the books but under where the taped seam of the lid will be.


This means that when the box is opened with a sharp blade, the corrugated card will take the brunt of any damage and not the covers of the books beneath.


Since employing this tactic, I have not lost a book to accidental cutting. Better for me in that I have one more happy customer and better for Amazon in that they are not having to pay me for accidental damage.

Weak November

I have spent some of this morning analyzing my first half year sales figures.

The first four months until October showed a good sales record with a 100% growth from June until September, October showed identical sales to September.

November however shoed a 59% decline in sales.

I knew November had the potential for a bad month, with the FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) system almost nothing was shipped between the Monday before Thanksgiving until the following Sunday. But these disappointing sales are not only due to the loss of a whole trading week.

I think from analysis of weekly ssales my downturn actually began mid October, co-incidentantly at the same time as the Government shutdown.

Not saying here that government workers spend all day shopping online, there could be the worry of people expecting lower paychecks in November and December, maybe unpaid benefits etc. A host of Government inspired worries.

December figures are looking as though they are above the level for September and early October so we could see a bumper sales season over my first online Holiday period.

We will be back again in about a month with the real December figures.

Until my next post. All the best for both the Holidays and a A Happy New Year.

Beginnings

As 2012 closed I was looking around for new money making opportunities, with only a part-time job and becoming legally blind with a large student loan repayment coming due, there were limits on earning more money and finding time to add more work hours to my day.

I first looked at eBay. I heard stories from friends of great success on eBay. Selling used books on eBay however was more work than reward. Getting photographs of books, uploading inventory and waiting for sales was just too frustrating.

I also posted some of my old textbooks on amazon.com as being fulfilled by merchant. From January to July 2013, things moved at a glacial pace. Books did sell, but not as fast as I had hoped and listing fees with eBay ate into my sales profits.

Amazon however with free listings, until the item sold, did nothing for my cash flow. I was not selling but neither was it costing me money.

Then finally in August I got my first order with amazon.

Excitedly I packed the item and shipped it off to the buyer.

Being a novice did not help me when it turned out that I had misunderstood the e-mail from amazon telling me to dispatch the item within two days.

It also said that the customer required two day shipping. I did not understand that part and shipped the item incorrectly.

A few days later I received an e-mail from a disappointed customer. Seeing my own fault clearly was a no-brainer. I issued a full refund and looked around for a way to improve the situation.

This is when I opted for Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).

With FBA I ship the items to an Amazon fulfillment center and they take care of the mailing.

In a few hours I converted all my previous listings to FBA with a click of the mouse, packed the items in a box and sent them UPS across country.

It took five days for the items to arrive and a further twenty-four hours for them to be entered into inventory at Amazon.

But wonder of wonders, of twenty-one items sent in that first shipment, fifteen had sold within one week. Bear in mind these items had been listed as merchant fulfilled for several months.