Hi,
I’m curious about other sellers thought’s on this.
So let’s say that you’ve done your product research and you’ve found a product that you believe should sell around 500 pcs per month, through FBA.
Do you do a trial run first and try to sell eg 200 pcs before proceeding with the larger order from your supplier or do you dive straight in and order 2 months of stock or more?
Thank you.
I suppose it somewhat depends on the cost of the stock against the amount of capital available and whether you can afford to tie it up.
And are you talking about a branded product already on here, well ranked where you can afford to slip in on the same asin at the same price as the competition
Or a PL product on a new listing where someone else is selling a similar product. In which case, do you know what they’ve spent to get that product ranked ?
Hi,
I’m talking about a PL product on a new listing.
An improvement with added value to similar products for sale.
I wouldn’t know how any of the competing products are marketed (perhaps apart from PPC) and I wouldn’t know how much has been spent in doing so.
Then from your pot of start up funds, you’ll need to work out , as demel says, how much you can afford to tie up in stock and how much you’ll need to advertise , with possibly no immediate sales
Is your stock from uk or China etc ?
Trademark in place
MOQs ?
Import / customs fees etc ?
Thanks,
Importing from China
Trademark in place
MQQ is fine for trial order
Yes - accounted for
I guess I’m asking to get a general feel for sellers attitude to risk.
A new product idea may not work for a number of reasons - my thinking being it’s better to realize this on a batch of eg 200 rather ordering a batch 1000 or similar
Then yes it goes back to funds tied up in stock as well as stock taking up storage space in fba
I personally would not go as high as 200 for something that I am not sure will sell.
It does depend on your suppliers MOQ, with suppliers I deal with it tends to be anywhere up to a case which is normally no larger than 36 or 48 units. I would therefore not order more than a case to see if it sells and if it does then order more.
If it is a private label then I would go as low as possible, if the MOQ was say 50 I would just buy 50. You can always buy more if it does sell well.
Obviously there are many other factors such as you may get quantity discounts for buying more items which makes it more profitable, how much money you can afford to tie up.
Also in cases like this it is good to have an exit plan if it doesn’t sell. Can you get the stock returned to yourself, how much would it cost? If you can’t get it returned how much would it cost to dispose?
I have always believed in buying as little as possible for a new line to get the feel of whether it sells or not.
Remember also that even if you would think it’ll sell 500 a month it won’t instantly. It’ll be a brand noone knows and a product with no feedback,
Does it need testing, ce marks etc?
Have you seen a sample?
Hello @Berto,
I hope this great info helped you in making the best decision.
@Demel, @The_Little_Shop, @Smiley_Guy and @Sequin - thank you for your posts!
Regards
Nickolas
A definitive answer to this question does not exist as there are so many variables. I can, however, tell you how my journey went.
I ordered 300 units which began to sell quickly enough for me to have to keep putting the price up to avoid running out of stock (and also to see what market price could be achieved).
I then re-ordered more stock, but did fall short from the original supply leaving me out of stock for a period. So if you can afford to keep your money tied up in stock until sales do pick up, then you will be in a good position, because it will allow you enough time to have more stock manufactured before your existing stock is sold out - that way you will preserve your ranking better than if you had run out of stock.
Hi The_Little_Shop
How would you find out what someone has spent in order to get a product ranked?
Thanks
TWIS
I think the less risky way is to order some qty between 300 - 500 and use that as your experience. Depending on the sales, you can now increase your next quantity.
If it sells well, you can go full on.
If it doesn’t sell, you won’t loose much money and move to the next product
There is no one size fits all method
Many thanks to everyone for their responses.
It’s been very helpful to get a feel for sellers thoughts on this.
With a new product, not currently on sale, and no clear evidence as to how many will sell, if at all, the question really is how much can you afford to lose ? Selling a new product is a Gamble, and does take time to build up ranking / search results and can take some time even for a very good product.
Business is always a gamble, you do need to take gambles, but also need to make sure you can afford it if it does not go to plan.
I think it depends on the price of each unit. If it was 10 pence a unit then I would agree with you if it was £10 a unit then you have an outlay of £3000-£5000 which for some businesses could be a considerable amount for others it could be a drop in the ocean.
Yes I agree the is no single good answer to this question but my advice would always be to buy a small quantity that is affordable and see how it goes.
I list new products and never pay for advertising. Sometimes they can be a great seller straight away other times they can take a few months to build up to a good seller, other times they never sell no matter what you do.
It all depends on the product I am trying to sell .
I definitely would not consider ordering 500 TV,s or computer to sell on Amazon FBA .
I might think about ordering 500 pens or pencils though .
The 3 r’s of retail
Right item at the Right price at the Right time .