I have been looking into this the last week or so and it seems like an interesting business model and business opportunity. Has anyone here done this before (Amazon FBA, specifically)? Maybe know someone who has done it before? Looking for advice and feedback before I put any real capital to work.

this maybe interesting for you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FulfillmentByAmazon

Thanks, that is an interesting message board. I will definitely start following that page.

Here is a little more about what I am doing and how the opportunity came up --- A few weeks ago I came across a podcast for a guy who had started doing this on the side and in less than a year he had hit the jackpot (was private labeling 3 products and grossing over $400k/month, netting over $200k/month).

I have no illusions that I will be able to accomplish that, but I do have a stay at home wife/mom who can help administer some of the business and I am the type who enjoys this type of thing. For example, I went into a bbq galore store in Dallas a few years ago and they were going out of business and most things were 50% off or so. I asked the guy what his deepest discounted product was and he said it was the doors in the back ($5). On my way home I googled those doors and found they were selling retail for $220! I turned around and bought 3 truck loads. It took me about 4 months to sell all of them on Ebay (a few on Craiglist) but I eventually netted about 10x my investment.

All that said, Amazon FBA would make that particular type of thing much easier than how I did it. I stored those things in my garage in 4 stacks up to the ceiling almost. I handled all of the shipping and handling, etc. Amazon FBA offers a solution where you ship the products directly to Amazon and then when you sell an item they handle all shipping, handling and returns. They also handle a decent chunk of the customer service.

Now, the fees involved probably make large, heavy items like outdoor kitchen doors a difficult item to turn a profit on. The ideal product is going to be under 2 pounds and the longest side of the package will be less than 18 inches long. Another filter for me is I want the item to cost between $15-60 on Amazon (any lower and its tough to make money after their fixed fees and any higher and I am guessing returns become a bigger problem, not to mention the cost to get started goes up).

Here are some ideas I am currently thinking:

• Trash bags (probably too competitive, but maybe you could make them biodegradable and give yourself a differentiating factor from Hefty and Glad)
• BBQ accessories (gloves, tool sets, brushes, spatulas, tongs, thermometors, etc)
• Baby accessories (sound machine, humidifier, nursing related accessories, etc)
• Sonic tech items (there are sonic pest control machines to keep rodents and even bugs away, also sonic tech is used in some anti dog barking devices)

I am sure this board could help me come up with better ideas than those above. Any thoughts or ideas?

That's a cool idea, but how do you make your product stand out?

That is certainly the key to success and if I knew a fullproof answer than I would be on my way to being rich!

I don't have a great answer at this time. I would say once I have selected my first product, that is something I will have to spend some time brainstorming. If I pick trash bags, I would certainly have to do something very unique. Being environmentally friendly as well as durable and with features people like are all important. Also, reviews on Amazon are extremely important.

One option is to find something where the most popular item in a category still only has about 100-500 reviews. You give discount codes to friends and family so they can buy your product on Amazon (having them search for your product with the key words you want them to search with) and then if they like your product they leave a good review. Say you breakeven on your first 500 sales but you get 250 reviews and you develop your product as a top selling product under certain key words. Now all of a sudden you can sell your product at full price. To me the key to ongoing success at that point is having a QUALITY product.

Also, I have 3 contacts in China (two missionaries, one person who is in business there). These people should be able to help me out by making the product sampling a lot cheaper as I won't need samples sent to me necessarily. I am hoping that drastically reduces cost (my understanding is getting a sample here cost ~$100 so if I need samples from 5 different manufacturers, that gets pretty costly (given my hope to keep the entry cost low).

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All that said, Amazon FBA would make that particular type of thing much easier than how I did it. I stored those things in my garage in 4 stacks up to the ceiling almost. I handled all of the shipping and handling, etc. Amazon FBA offers a solution where you ship the products directly to Amazon and then when you sell an item they handle all shipping, handling and returns. They also handle a decent chunk of the customer service.

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From what I gather, it needs to be something you can do volume on because Amazon certainly charges you for all this. For sure, it will be more lucrative to do it yourself...but the tradeoff maybe worth it. You also have to deal with competing with others (and even Amazon itself in some cases) and playing games to get the purchase box.

It depends on your strategy. If your play here is simply arbitrage, then just do that. Sell rubber ducks one week, and car stereo equipment the next. Your job here is to simply find liquidation deals or other ways to quickly arb easy profit.

If you're trying to find a market niche, I would avoid trying to sell branded goods, as most companies will have some kind of minimum advertised price (MAP) policy. When you sell on Amazon, you're competing against all other 3rd party resellers, and Amazon themselves, for the "Buy Box", or the box the consumer clicks on to buy something. The lowest price always wins the buy box, and losing the buy box means almost no sales. That puts in you in a tricky situation where you have to violate MAP (and eventually get blacklisted as a vendor) to win the buy box, or adhere to MAP and lose business to Amazon.

Good luck.

Completely agree with the last two posts. My goal is to private label a product that I would source from China. Then you aren't competing for the buy box and you are instead competing for people to pick your product instead of someone else's. That obviously has its own challenges such as sourcing a quality product and then having something unique about it that people will appreciate and choose your product over a vareity of other options.

I know a bit about trash bags. Glad (Clorox) and Hefty (Used to be Pactiv, now KKR?) are the brands in the category. Berry Plastics makes most PL trash bags in the US.

Costco's Kirkland Signature and (secondarily) Sam's Member's Mark trash bags are the best value in the market off the shelf. (price per lbs of resin) Costco KS trash bags are a top 5 item on Amazon in the category. They are such a good value someone is marking them up on Amazon and still selling A LOT.

You can buy full truckloads of items from Costco FWIW. Just talk to a store manager.

Costco KS trash bags are a top 5 dollar sales item at Costco according to Nielson.

Feel free to PM me.

Interesting dlp. My strategy is not to acquire an already branded product and resale it on amazon. In that case you are competing for the buy box on Amazon and lowest price wins and I have to think the margin after Amazon fees is pennies and if it's not today it will be eventually.

My business model I plan to pursue is to have a manufacturer in China make my product and J will brand it under my own (new) brand. This certainly has its own risks, but I should have a little more control over my profit margin with less control over my volume.

In my research I have purchased some software called jungle scout that helps in the product research phase. I could look for a product for months, but need to make a decision or will never act. I'll post my top 3 or so ideas once I narrow it down so you guys can tell me why they are all bad!

Yep. Just wanted you to know the absolute best value in the marketplace (KS trash bags at Costco) so you would know how your product cost and price stack up.

It is widely known in retail that Costco never marks any item up more than 14% so it's fairly easy to figure out their approx. cost on an item.

Good intel DLP. I doubt trash bags makes my top 3 for my first product, but to the extent I am considering trash bags (or any other product costco sells) in the future, this will certainly be helpful as i evaluate.

I am actually gravitating towards toys right now. Mostly toys for ages 1-3. My main concern is that the data I am reviewing from Jungle Scout is skewed by the seasonality making these items look better than they really are. I am not sure how the Jungle Scout algorithm accounts for seasonality (my guess is it doesn't).

from reading that reddit page, it seems there's a pretty big risk that whoever you contract with to manufacture your "new" product will quickly market it themselves on Amazon for a lower price and compete with you. That would suck.

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from reading that reddit page, it seems there's a pretty big risk that whoever you contract with to manufacture your "new" product will quickly market it themselves on Amazon for a lower price and compete with you. That would suck.

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I've seen this mentioned 1 time in my research as a risk. Where are you seeing it's a significant risk. I perceive the bigger risk to be someone else buying the exact same product on Alibaba and competing with you. My understanding is you can register your brand with Amazon so no one else can sell it under your listing as a new item, but they could create their own listing and own brand and sell the same item as you.

There's several reddit threads about it on the first couple pages.

I PL a few products on Amazon on the side. It's pretty fun once you get the system in place and have good manufacturers.

There are a lot of facebook groups that help out quite a bit as well.

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I PL a few products on Amazon on the side. It's pretty fun once you get the system in place and have good manufacturers.

There are a lot of facebook groups that help out quite a bit as well.

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Any suggestions on which Facebook groups to join?

If you follow the StartUp Bros, they have the best one. You have to join their mastermind to get invited into their facebook group. They have people like Daymond Johns, Scott Mitchell, etc. who post every once in a while.

The others:
Amazon FBA Private Label Sellers
The Amazing Seller

^ Scott Volkner has a pretty good group as well as an awesome podcast on the iTunes Store. There are other groups, but usually people post their message in all of them.

Anyone experienced in sea shipping? As I have started reaching out to suppliers it's very clear that shipping costs for air shipping are going to kill the margins for the products I am looking at.

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Anyone experienced in sea shipping? As I have started reaching out to suppliers it's very clear that shipping costs for air shipping are going to kill the margins for the products I am looking at.

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put it in a container.

while back.

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Anyone experienced in sea shipping? As I have started reaching out to suppliers it's very clear that shipping costs for air shipping are going to kill the margins for the products I am looking at.

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put it in a container.

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And then? How do you get it through customs? And how do you get it on a ship, off a ship, to my door?

Yeah, I suppose freight forwarding is the solution. I just was hoping for an easier solution... From what I can tell you probably need a freight forwarder in the US and a freight forwarder in China who offers a service where they consolidate your packages with other people's packages who do not fill a container.

I dabble in FBA and mostly do arbitrage. However my job as a sales rep for the largest shipping company has led me to meet very successful people that do PL and FBA

I work with million dollar sellers and have set them up on worldwide Amazon and seen the good and the bad

My goal is to make enough in 16 to pay for the fun stuff in life

How exactly does the shipping work? You said that you ship it to amazon then they handle the shipping. Do you ship all of your product there or just as orders come in?

Amazon will store your inventory up to a level you qualify for based on your volume of sales.

What would you do for qc with kids toys? If it is sold under your brand and has a defect caused by the Chinese manufacturer, I am assuming you are on the hook. Or at least your insurance is. What about patents?

Well, I haven't gotten that far but have thought some about it. I suppose if I am successful in any meaningful way I will form an LLC. If any of my products is worth insuring against a major loss, then I will get insurance.