Gaining the Buy Box

There is much talk about "Gaining the Buy Box" among FBA sellers.

What is the "Buy Box"?

The "Buy Box appears on all amazon product screens, it is to the right of a product photograph and directly beneath the title of the product. Amazon often are the first choice to buy from in the box, but they also provide alternate sellers. Most of the time these sellers will be FBA sellers, not always, but most of the time they  are.

Gaining the Buy Box on  mosst occassions is luck of the draw with a little help from an amazon algorithm that examines your data. The Buy Box cycles through several sellers on items where there are several FBA sellers. Each appearing in turn, to different customers or the same customer returning to a product page at a later time.

One good way to secure the Buy Box though is to be the ONLY FBA seller of an item.

I have noticed on several items where I have been the only FBA seller, that my name is appearing in the Buy Box, more often. Some of the Fulfilled by Merchant offers have appeared but more often it is my name that appears.

So Why is the Buy Box Good for Business?

Having the Buy Box is good for your business because, buyers don't have to find your listing, amazon have put you right there on the product page and a buyer may even click on your item without realising that  they are not buying from amazon themselves.

Do I need to be the LOWEST PRICE to gain the Buy Box?

No you don't need to have the lowest price. I have sold items against penny sellers, some priced at over $10 or $20. The Buy Box is a nice place to get a sale from. Being an FBA sellers gives you that little extra chance of gaining this powerful online selling real estate.

So in your future stock buying trips look for items with as few FBA sellers as possible. Best of all those where there are No FBA sellers.

This raises your odds at  gaining the Buy Box and hopefully catching the sale.

Please feel free to offer any feedback on this subject. Help your fellow sellers, make a decent living from FBA.

Amazon FBA Smarter Scouting Tips

For those of you thinking about usingg  Amazon FBA shipment as a business model. Take a look at this very educational video about using scouting apps on your phone or tablet.

I personally do not take advice from any scouting app, I do check prices on amazon's website when looking for stock, but I often go against the advice given by the app as to a hot buy or leave it alone item.

This video helps to explain why apps are merely tools to be used and should not be used to make serious business decisions.

Aren't There Too Many Sellers Already?

A few days ago I was browsing my YouTube reccomendations list and came across a few rants and complaints from other fulfilment by Amazon sellers who complained of too many people now coming into online selling to make a fast buck.

Their major complaint was that these people make it harder to find items at good (low) prices and that they drive down prices on Amazon.

I do agree that there are a lot of people now taking up selling on Amazon. I see new sellers everytime I log in. It is also true that prices are falling in some categories. I notice books which once sold on F.B.A. for a minimum of $6.00 selling at $3.99.

But the complainers forget several things.

1. Every seller is different. I could guarantee that we could both go into a thrift store and come out with a very different selection of items. Even if we scoured the same bookshelves your selection of books would be different from mine.

2. I cannot buy all of the supply of saleable items in an area, and the same applies to you. Even if you or I were as rich as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined. The world is full of resellable goods.

3. Falling prices mean lower margins. A seller who sells at the lowest margins will eventually run out of cash. Amazon's costs are rising and they are passing on some of the cost to sellers. The prices of storage and handling at Amazon Fulfilment Centers rose on February 18, 2014. Though the rise was only pennies, it still costs more to sell via FBA. A seller chasing the lowest price will make less money per sale. So needs to fface economic reality. Set profitable prices or fail.

4. There is an old saying, "Mind your own business." Basically you can only control your own actions, you know your costs, you know your goals and you know your own risk assessment.  Set your prices to suit your business and let the competition do the same.

5. "Never interrupt an opponent when he is making a mistake." This saying is sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. If you see your opposition making decisions to cut their own throat, let them do it. Don't worry that they are probably saying that you are pricing too high. You will get a sale on your terms, at your profit margins. You may have to wait awhile but you will get the sale, unless you look to sell a $1 mass market paperback for $5,000, then you may have to wait a very long time.

6. The resale market is a "Free-Market," It exists because of market inefficiencies in all areas. If I see a book on the History of Maine on sale in California I realisze this books market in a store in California is limited. I buy it and send it to Amazon. In the end I may sell it to a buyer anywhere in the world but  the probability is high the buyer might live in Maine.

To be serious that scenario actually did occur. I bought a book in California on anther states history and sold it within days to a person living in that very state.

7. Some people come to the business seeing it as a way to make easy money. In some ways it is easy money. Buy something, post it online and send the item when it sells or send it to an FBA center. Kerrching.

But behind the easy money, doing the job properly is hard work. Accounts to keep, managing taxes, finding supplies of stock. That is a lot of hours for what may be a dollar or two of profit, if you are chasing a low price.

Don't forgeet that if you do begin to make money in a serious way, you will come under the scrutiny of the Internal Revenue Service and State authorities. Amazon is bound by law to inform of your activities and Amazon is not in the business of breaking the law.

When the "Fast Buck" folks realize the I.R.S. is wanting a piece of the action, many will no longer see onlinne selling in quite a rosey light.

8. A market needs a constant supply of new blood in the shape of both buyers and sellers. Saying I don't want competition is foolish, competition is a fact of life. In a stagnent market with no new sellers there is no choice for the buyer and so quality falls and prices at least stay the same or rise, see the old Communist centrally controlled markets. Capatalist markets demand competition on quality and price, we want the best quality for a reasonable price.

What is a "Reasonable Price"? Who knows it is a price where you as a buyer  see the cost of ownership[ as being more  valuable to you than the cost to you of losing the item of transaction.

You may see two items almost identical one new for $10 the other in Good condition for $5.  For you used and good may be of great enough value to convince you to buy. Another person may only want a new item and would pay the $10 happily.

In conclusion. I do not think that we should rant and complain of people who come to selling online. Those who are out for a "Quick Buck" will soon fall away. Those looking for "Easy Money" will do likewise. Business has always seen these people. It is human nature to follow the rumors. "There's gold in them thar hills!" but when most get to the hills they find the gold is buried and it takes some damned hard work to dig it out.

The shirkers and lazy folk go home, to be replaced by another batch of wide eyed speculators. Some will stay but why waste time worrying about the many who won't be around next week. I for one have stock to buy, books to list and accounts to file.

Do you have any thoughts on this matter?

Is it Possible to Build a Bookstore by Bootstrapping?

First what is Bootstrapping?


Bootstrapping is merely a method of building a business at minimal cost. You can easily bootstrap a business by constantly reinvesting income from sales.


I opened Bretsuki's Books last year with just seventeen old used textbooks and which I had been trying to sell on amazon.com privately for a few months.


I changed the supply status from merchant fulfilled at the end of August to fulfilled by amazon. Within days of going to this new mode of selling fourteen of the books had sold and I began building my store.


Fulfilment by amazon does come with some costs, I received about one third of my asking prices for those books, but the income was such that I went out to local thrift stores and bought new stock with the income.


Again using some of the income to pay shipping fees and storage fees, as each batch of books sold I bought new stock.


On the whole I look for new looking books or at worst very good, if they are in quick selling areas.


I generally avoid hardback fiction and biographies unless they are in popular sub categories, Civil War Generals are popular, especially Robert E. Lee and President Lincoln is another good prospect.


My online stock levels are now about to top the five hundred book mark. All of this made possible by bootstrapping and reinvesting as much of the income generated into re-stocking my store.

Pricing

When purchasing books for resale pricing is very important.

Recently I went on a trip to find some new sourcesof books. I don't like to visit my sources too often because I tend to see less stock potential if I visit more than twice per month.

My usual sources, thrift stores and libraries have good value books at very competative prices. My average purchase price is just over $1.00 per item.

This last weekend I moved my region of search to the Central California coast. I had little expectations of finding deeply discounted bargains there. Sadly I was not in for a shock.

Book prices there were in the region of $4.00 per hardback and $2.00 for a paper back. Tough pricing means less chance of a long shot purchase.

A long shot purchase is a book of marginal interest that I decide to risk a dollar on. At four dollars a book I am very risk averse if my profit may only be $1.00/

I did come away from the coast with fofty books. for $100 so I aveaged $2 per book, many of these were made up of hardbacks from a store which had a half price sale  on Saturday. Normal prices reduced from $4.70 per book.

Contrast that to a trip on Superbowl weekend to thrift store just forty miles inland from the coast at which I bought 60 books for $83.48. All of equal quality, at least Used Very Good if not Used Like New.

This weekend's trip will need to see some higher pricing to maintain margins.

Remember if you figure 33% of your sale cost will probably be taken up in FBA fees, Amazon partnered shipping will cost about another 33% Leaving you with about 33% to cover costs and profit.

Since this business makes you think in terms of averages it is safer to look at the overall selling prices. All of those books bought this week end need to sell at $6.00 or more.

50x6.00=$300.00

$100 each to UPS and me for transport, $100 to Amazon for fees and commissions, $100 to me to just retain cost of items.

Of course I plan to sell some items for $7 or $8, a couple of the best items may sell for up to $30 but if I had bought them  at a lower price I would have had much more leeway to sell at lower prices at the same margins.

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.