Answers to your Amazon questions

Last week in the SellerEngine Newsletter, I asked for questions about selling on Amazon. I got tons of great questions! So many in fact, that I have to split it up between two blog posts.

You’ll get the next batch of  Amazon questions and answers next week.

And if you’d like your chance to get your Amazon questions answered, subscribe to our newsletter, join the SellerEngine Facebook group or leave a comment on this post.

Q: When scouting, I would like to visibly see if Amazon is selling the item.

A: This is easy! In Profit Bandit, look for offers that are highlighted in brown. These offers are from Amazon themselves!

Q: I buy my books in wholesale lots of 300+ at a time. Is there a rule of thumb you use to determine which books you send to FBA and which ones you trash?

A: This is a little tougher! If you had a Profit Bandit buy list with all of the items in it, I’d recommend importing it to SellerEngine Plus and then seeing what you have on hand.

I’d immediately junk anything with a sales rank of worse than 3 million or so, but then I’m very picky.

Depending on what you have left, I’d start culling anything with lots of offers. How you define “lot of offers” is up to you, but I don’t like holding a longtail item that has more than 5 or 10 other sellers.

I’d also be careful about sending truly valuable books into FBA. If a book is really special or collectible, or has a selling price of over $100, consider selling it MFN rather than FBA.

The most important thing will be to continue evolving your “rule of thumb” over time. Keep trying new things and see what’s the most profitable for you!

Q: Where do you get more reliable sources for inventory?

A: Branch out, try new things and look for new items and new categories to sell in.

If your current sources of inventory aren’t reliable, then you need to make a change.

Start by looking for wholesale opportunities. Look for local companies with products you can sell on Amazon and negotiate with them. Visit a local or regional tradeshow and start looking for products.

Q: How do you set thresholds for pricing limits to prevent racing to the bottom? How can you prevent the repricer from going below your minimum?

A: I’m combining two questions here because they have similar answers.

Of course the answer depends on the repricing software that you’re using. First, remember, repricing isn’t just about lowering prices. The first thing to do is to minimize the number of repricing rules and strategies that actually lower your price.

Then, make sure you have a floor price set. Sellery will use your item’s cost and your estimated Amazon and fulfillment fees to create a minimum price that you’ll never sell below. You can also use what we call a reference price to set a different price that you never price below. This can be useful to make sure that you’re not violating any MAP agreements with your suppliers.

If your repricing software is going below your minimum price, you need to contact support! For Sellery, email us at Sellery@SellerEngine.com and for SellerEngine Plus, email support@SellerEngine.com.

Q: What is the best advice you have for someone starting out trying to build up their inventory quickly?

A: If you’re truly a 100% newbie, just getting started, you’re probably not ready for wholesale.

It’s tempting to want to dive in and start buying tons of inventory at the very beginning, but remember that you’re new at this and you need to learn to walk before you run.

Several of the most successful Amazon sellers that I’ve met (including several at SCOE Philly this past week) started out by selling items in their homes. Start by listing books and other products you have at home to get your feet wet.

Then, once you’ve succeeded at that, start looking for other sources of inventory. Scanning with Profit Bandit at thrift stores, library sales and big box stores can help you build up your inventory faster than you might think.

Starting with wholesale can be tricky. Here are a few ways to make your first connection:

• Look for local businesses with innovative products not on Amazon. You may need to get a barcode for them, but this can be a great opportunity.
• Work your network. Ask people you know if they know any sales reps for companies that they can introduce you to.
• Try a trade show, industry meet-up or even a local craft show. Look for products that interest you and start asking questions.
• Start with what you know. Think about your hobbies. What brands do you know well? What do people who share your interests want to buy? The more you know about an industry or a niche, the more success you’ll have in finding a profitable wholesale product line.

Q: How long is too long for an item to sit unsold at FBA?

A: Forgetting about perishable items with expiration dates, I would start to get nervous after about 4-8 months, depending on how many of the item I had available to sell.

If I bought a large inventory of a product and 3-4 months have gone by with little or no sales, I’d need to re-evaluate your position on the item. Ask yourself why you bought it? Did you mis-interpret the sales rankThe sales rank of products on Amazon ind... More? Is your investment low enough so you can keep holding the item? You may need to consider dumping the product at a low price.

The longer an item sits in an FBA warehouse, the closer it gets to accruing longterm storage fees. Avoid these if you can!

Of course, if you’re selling books or other one-off items, you don’t need to worry about these longterm storage fees. One inventory item of every ASIN is exempt.