Slow Sales

There is a lot of talk on the amazon seller forums in recent days of slowing sales. People say that they saw very high sales throughout January until March, now those sales levels have fallen off a cliff.

I saw very high sales levels too in the  first quarter of the year.

It was actually those sales levels that pushed me towards switching over to a pro-seller account on April 1.

People often see a fall in sales as a result of something either they are doing wrong or something that someone else is doing to disrupt their business, but I do not feel that is the case here.

The first quarter saw very poor weather across the U.S. people spent well at Christmas and the amazon gift card was a common purchase. All that money has to go somewhere before it gets lost at the back of a drawer. So people shopped at amazon.

I have been in the retail business for thirty some years and the period from March to late May was alwys a tricky period to call. It always saw a fall in sales  even in England, a nice spike for me in my newsagent/sweet shop was an April Easter, lots of chocolate to sell then. Today with books it is not so easy.

Anyway we have funds to continue our stocking plan to have over 1,000 items in inventory by the 31st August this year.

Ups and downs are all part of life and this is just one more down.  Without downs would we even know what up is?

Goodbye Packing Slip

Over the weekend I was preparing a couple of boxes  to send to the amazon fulfilment center, when I came across a problem. Or so I thought.

There was no longer an option to print a packing slip!

I hunted and searched everywhere. No print option.

Then in small print, in a greyed out box, in grey print, a note said,

:Packing Slips No longer required."

Err? Last week I needed one?

For a year I've needed one.

Now suddenly, without warning, no big song and dance as they usually  do, after all for three months now they have been telling me they are updating the FBA shipment procedure. But on packing slips nada, nothing, silence. They let it slip away without fanfare, but  not without half an hour of frustration and irritation on my part as I searched fruitlessly for a packing slip print option.

In the end it is  nice not to have to print that extra piece of paper, a mere barcode, it is probably nice for amazon not to have to dispose of that piece of paper too.  Can you imagine that paper mountain?

So goodbye and farewell packing slip. I for one brief moment did suffer at your loss.

How Soon Do Items Post After Being Received at a Fulfilment Center?

I have found a wide range of times for my items to post in my storefront after delivery of a shipment.

I always set up a delivery alert with UPS to tell me when a shipment has been delivered to the dock area of the Fulfilment Center. This alert generally comes to me within a few minutes of the actual delivery.

Amazon itself also informs me of the delivery, but this can be several hours later. Remember the Fulfilment Center may have received hundreds of shipments allof which take time to leave the dock area.

I have had occassions when amazon actually tell me of the delivery first. But it generally takes up to six hours, that was in late November during the pre-Christmas rush.

After delivery amazon say it can take up to 48 hours for a shipment to process. I have had all shipments even at the busiest times process well within that time.

On average I see items posting about twelve hours after the amazon delivered notice arrives.

One time however I received a delivery notice from amazon and all the items were up on my storefront two hours after delivery was confirmed by UPS. Now that is very fast. I can only guess my shipment was last off the delivery and so on top of the pile and processed first.

Cheap Packing for Your FBA Shipment Boxes

When packing boxes with your items for shipment to an amazon fulfillment center there are often small spaces which can allow shipped items to shift and become damaged.


Having spaces happens all the time with my book shipments. No matter how carefully I pack similar sized items a small gap remains and I am searching for a packing item.


Amazon doesn't allow packing peanuts and bubble wrap or plastic air bags are expensive when you are building a business. By all means put these items to one side when you received them and recycle used portions of bubble wrap and air bags.


An addition to your armoury of packing materials can be the thin plastic carrier bags that you may receive at the supermarket.


Roll these into a tight ball. you can fill one bag with two or three others to make a large packing filler. Tie the handles around the ball or sausage shape and use this to fill those small area.


Remember preventing slippage and damage will mean less items are damaged in transit. Less damages mean better prices for you.

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?