(1) Choosing FBA certainly brings many advantages to Amazon sellers, but you should also pay attention to which products are proven to be unsuitable for FBA.
① Products that are too cheap. Since FBA charges a basic fee for each transaction, the seller’s costs increase a lot, and products that are too cheap are not profitable. Therefore, products with a retail price of less than $7 are not suitable for FBA.
② Products that are too large and too heavy. Amazon often adjusts the FBA fee standards and continuously increases the fees for large and heavy products. If the products are large, heavy or thrown away, they are not suitable for FBA.
③ Products with strong functionality. Since the after-sales service is completed by Amazon FBA, the return rate of products with strong functionality is often very high.
④ Unpopular products. FBA has storage fees. Although they are not high, they are also a considerable expense over time. If some products are stored for more than 6 months, Amazon will charge storage fees. Therefore, Amazon cannot be used as a warehouse, and unpopular products should be avoided as much as possible.
⑤ Products with strong seasonality. It is not recommended to choose FBA for seasonal and festive products, because FBA basically predicts the shipment volume based on sales volume. If a product has strong seasonality, it will be difficult to predict the sales volume. If the inventory is too small, the ranking and sales of the product will be greatly affected if it is out of stock; if the inventory is too large, it will lead to a backlog of goods if it is unsalable, which will increase storage fees.
⑥ Dangerous goods that are expressly prohibited. As the name suggests, items prohibited by Amazon are taboo items for Amazon’s product selection.
In summary, not all products are suitable for FBA. For unsuitable products, you can choose to ship by yourself or ship from an overseas warehouse.
(2) Before shipping to the FBA warehouse, you need to make the following preparations in accordance with the requirements of the FBA warehouse.
First, the seller needs to accurately fill in the actual shipment quantity, weight and packaging size of the product in the store background. When the Amazon FBA warehouse finds that the number is incorrect during calculation, it may calculate the fee at the higher price, which is an unnecessary and avoidable expense for the seller.
Secondly, product labels and outer box labels must be prepared in accordance with Amazon’s logistics requirements. It is recommended to use a laser printer to print labels and ensure that they are consistent with the actual products.
Finally, it is recommended that the weight of the product plus the outer packaging should not exceed 50 pounds, that is, 22.7 kilograms.
(3) The requirements of the Amazon store backend for product packaging and shipment preparation for shipment to FBA warehouses are as follows.
① Product packaging must comply with Amazon FBA requirements, such as fragile items must not be exposed outside the packaging, liquids must be sealed, textiles must be packaged intact, etc. Simple packaging cannot be used as a substitute.
②Since Amazon FBA does not have an assembly service, for bulk products, sellers must package them firmly or fully package them before shipping. Set products need to be marked with a set mark on their packaging. For example, the words “sold as a set” or “set product, please do not split” can be marked.
③ For boxed goods, the boxes should be sealed so that they cannot be easily opened or loosened. Plastic bag packaging should be marked with warning information or a label should be attached to the plastic bag; the shipping box of the original packaged goods should not have a scannable barcode.
④ Confirm whether the product needs to be affixed with Amazon labels. Labeled goods will not be mixed with similar goods, and the seller can track their inventory throughout the process; unlabeled goods will be mixed with similar goods, but can be completed more quickly.
(4) Amazon FBA inventory management is related to the seller’s cost expenditure, and sellers should pay special attention to it. The best way is to first understand the length of time from stocking to stocking, so that if the inventory is low, it can be replenished in time. After replenishing Amazon FBA, the seller should calculate the average sales volume of the product in the recent period and the daily sales trend, and start stocking up based on the estimated sales volume of the product to ensure that it is in a safe inventory state. If sales are slowly increasing every day, more goods can be stocked in the next replenishment cycle based on the estimate. If there are holidays in the near future, additional inventory will be required. If the sales off-season is about to begin, the replenishment quantity can be appropriately reduced. The amount of replenishment each time should be based on the estimation of sales volume and the actual judgment. Do not replenish blindly.