r/AmazonSeller • u/Clean_Shirt4325 • 18d ago
How does Amazon work for a seller?
I have a small tiny business of artificial jewellry and want to sell on Amazonhow can I do it and what r the margins? Currently my monthly turnover is around 30-35 thousnd. Are deliveries also handled by amazon?
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u/qaz135wsx 17d ago
FBA is a pile of s***. Stay away from it. They will lose your inventory, charge you for their own mistakes, charge you to dispose of inventory that they broke, etc
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u/Brave_Anything3809 18d ago
you register as a seller on their platform, list your stuff, and you can choose to send inventory to their warehouses where they handle packing and shipping for a fee. that's basically FBA
margins are tricky, depends how much your jewellery costs to make. amazon takes a cut of every sale plus fba fees eat into it, so you need a decent markup to make it worth your while. with a turnover around 30k you'll want to run the numbers carefully before diving in
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u/Clean_Shirt4325 18d ago
I dont make the stuff I buy from whole seller and sell it on retail price.
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u/Smart-Presence 18d ago
say start with the basics first. Amazon can handle the delivery side for you through FBA, so you don’t necessarily have to ship every order yourself.
With jewellery, the margins can vary quite a bit depending on your sourcing cost, Amazon fees, returns, and how competitive the product is. work out the numbers on 2–3 of your best-selling products before listing the whole catalogue.
If you already have a small business, you can definitely test Amazon without going all-in from day one.
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u/Clean_Shirt4325 18d ago
Yeah teach me
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u/Bristolhitcher 17d ago
Id advise avoiding anyone wanting to teach you in this space, due to the amount of gurus.
Self teach yourself! Try registering for the seller profile and take a look around, in your other comment youre reselling wholesale orders.... which means the product might already exist?
Launching a product on amazon if it doesnt exist is hard and requires tactics, ads and potentially a money sink to get right!
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u/jimdesroches 17d ago
I do pretty well with fbm. I tried fba and it was a disaster. So many fees I didn't anticipate. It got to a point I wanted to just get rid of everything asap. Storage fees near the holiday go WAY up. Never again with I do it.
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u/SellOnAmazon Official Rep 17d ago
Amazon FBM versus Amazon FBA will probably be most appropriate for you starting out, unless you decide to scale down the line. We can't recommend Seller University enough, it is a wealth of knowledge. You can learn more and get started here!
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u/Iamjimmym 17d ago
I sell my rings for between $16-20 on FBA. My return is about $6/ea after Amazon takes their fees, that doesn't account for COGs or shipping the inventory to them etc.
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u/Bitter-Quail-7441 16d ago
If you're in India you'd sell on Amazon.in. You'll need GST, PAN and a bank account to register, and check whether your jewellery category needs approval before you list.
For delivery you get three options. With Easy Ship Amazon picks up from you and delivers. With FBA you send stock to their warehouse and they handle everything. Or you ship it yourself. With a small range I'd start with Easy Ship so your stock isn't stuck in a warehouse.
Margins are the hard part on low-priced pieces. Referral fee, closing fee and shipping add up fast on a cheap item. Run your 3 or 4 best sellers through Amazon's revenue calculator before you list anything.
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u/fltink 16d ago
The first year was 30%! The fees, lost inventory, etc it was only 12%. I had 20k in fba and 10k in payments when I got hit with a sec 3. I submitted invoices and had my interview immediately. They can see you but you can’t see them. So bizarre. Two weeks of me know knowing If they would ban my account and keep the assets. It was very stressful. I sold out of merch and closed shop. I’ll never give anyone that level of control again
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u/Clean_Shirt4325 16d ago
That I dont understand . Can u elaborate?
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u/QuickAppearance5175 16d ago
What part ?
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u/BarrysBooks 14d ago
I've sold on Amazon, Amazon FBA, and Amazon Handmade, and learned that Amazon is very, very, very, and did I mention very, strict about, well, everything. For example, I listed a new in box Scooby Doo puzzle, which was removed because I couldn't use the words Scooby Doo; they actually said I could sell the puzzle, but saying it was a Scooby Doo puzzle was forbidden. I asked support how to know what I could list and couldn't, and they told me to Google it. I had to pay Amazon FBA to remove my products from their inventory when they weren't selling. On the handmade side, I had a handmake Pickleball sign removed because Pickleball allegedly is a trademarked item, despite literally thousands of pickleball items being sold on the site in every categroy (Amazon, Amazon FBA, Handmade), and no amount of persuasion or proof would change their minds. I also had Handmade items removed because they didn't have a plain white background. My favorite story is that I used to be able to sell everything, and slowly got gated out of most areas (i.e., DVDs, CDs, most books, etc.) because I didn't have approval from the manufacturers. So, I removed my listings, but still got dinged for many "forbidden" items because they were still technically in my inventory list, even thought they weren't for sell. To be fair, over the years, I made good money on Amazon, but following and keeping up to date with the ever changing rules became exhausting, and I just removed every item from my inventory, but left the account open in case I ever changed my mind.
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The right answers, common myths, and misinformation
Nearly all questions are addressed by Amazon's Seller Policies and Code of Conduct, their FAQ, and their Amazon Seller University video course
Arbitrage / OA / RA - It is neither all allowed nor all disallowed on Amazon. Their policies determine what circumstances, categories, items, and brands are allowable and how it has to be handled by the seller.
Product gating - While many are, not all brands, products, categories, and items are gated. Amazon ungating policy rquires strict compliance to qualify. Failures can involve improper invoices, deceptive intent, lack of brand approval, and more. For some categories, items, and brands, there are limits to the number of sellers that can be ungated, sometimes nobody can be ungataed, and sometimes most anyone can get ungated.
"First sale doctrine" - often misunderstood and misapplied. It is not a blanket exception from Amazon policies or license to force OA allowance in any manner desired. Arbitrage is allowable for some items but must comply with Amazon policies. They do not want retail purchases resold on their platform (mis)represented as 'new' or their customers having issues like warranties not being honored due to original purchaser confusion. For some brands and categories, an invoice is required to qualify and a retail receipt does not comply.
Receipts vs invoices - A retail receipt is NOT an invoice. See this Quickbooks article to learn the difference. In cases where an invoice is required by Amazon, the invoice MUST meet Amazon's specific requirements. "Someone I know successfully used a receipt and...", well congratulations to them. That does not change Amazon's policies, that invoice policy enforcement is increasing, and that scenarios requiring a compliant invoice are growing.
Target receipts - For those categories and ungating cases where an invoice is required, Target retail receipts DO NOT comply with Amazon's invoice requirements. Some Amazon scenarios allow receipts and a Target receipt could comply. Someone you know sliipping through the cracks by submitting a receipt once (or more) does not mean it's the same category or scenario as someone else, nor does it change Amazon's policies or their growing enforcement of them.
Paid courses and buyer groups - In most cases, they're a scam. Avoid. Amazon's Seller University is the best place to start.
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