FBA Double TAX?

#102

I agree, and by posting on here about it they have made the ice even thinner, since amazon read this, and she’s basically showed everyone the exact product

#103

I agree; I was using Nike as an analogy. The feature of interest here is what is or is not acceptable to Amazon in terms of the word “wholesaler”. Some are, many are not. Costco is more of a retailler than a wholesaler whereas Booker is agenuine, cash and carry wholesaler. You can only buy from Bokker if you operate a bonafide business. Both are not acceptable forms of supply chain to Amazon (though as I mentioned, there was an article on a previous thread which suggested palletised goods from Costco had been accepted).

So, as you say, “a true wholesaler will only work with businesses or trade”; which is what Bookers do, but Amazon still don’t accept them. To take this back to topic, whilst I understand the difficulty with the OP’s predicament, I think he / she has made, probably inadvertently, made many rods for his own back by not doing the homework first.

#104

you are right about nike ian we sell nike and casualy pick your suppliers at your peril you have to be so careful
we know that our suppliers are accepted(and there are more than 1 incidentally) because we have been asked for invoices from all our nike suppliers and they have been passed very quickly in some cases in minutes of submitting them

#105

Absolutely Chris and you can understand why, from the perspective of Amazon and the manufacturers. When you are dealing with household names, the slightest anomaly can be incredibly damaging.

#106

I agree with both of you on this part, if amazon let people get away with unauthorised selling of brand new items, they could face litigation themselves from the major brands (and have done). I did 6 months research before listing my first product as a wholesaler just to make sure I’m not putting a foot wrong

#107

Alright, that’s on me for not doing that yesterday.
I just had a look and it is indeed very dodgy and they will most likely get their accounts suspended.

I did wholesale myself when I started, that is, I formed an LTD, found official suppliers for the manufacturers of the products I wanted, opened an account with them and listed/shipped the products to Amz.

As with everything there are right and wrong ways to do things and it is on them for not researching first.

This is what I meant by “do wholesale”.
If I tell you to “get” a bottle of milk, I’m going to assume that you’re going to do it the right way and buy it, but you can very well steal it from a shop instead.

#108

Fees are correct… welcome to Amazon

#109

I never thought about that one. Cheap stock :laughing:

Seriously though, it can be a bit of a minefield. I responded to a lady on another thread, on a similar line. She was suspended because she was selling products without an acceptable supplier chain. So, she went to another place, set up an account with what she thought was a suitable supplier and…Amazon won’t verify the supplier. As @CGI_Enterprises has rightly pointed out:

Now that is a smart move :wink:

#110

100% correct, though personally I tend to assume that if there is a link on the manufacturer’s website or if I have an email by them directing me to that supplier I am safe (maybe I shouldn’t?).

Regardless, I now try to stay away from wholesale and have slowly dropped most of them.
Someone can (and objectively should) just copy you, so competition is fierce.
As a rule of thumb, if it is easy to find a qualified wholesaler it’s probably not worthit.
This is not mentioning the fact that Amz can simply just add the product and you won’t sell again.

This is just to satisfy my curiosity, would she have been fine if she listed it as Used Like New instead of New?

#111

Absolutely because Used - Like New does not require any documentation from the supplier chain. Used - Like New is the only legal way to do retail arbitrage without the need to have verifiable suppliers. We use this process all the time. I might find a mint and sealed version of an old board game, like Colditz, for example, in a charity shop. It’s all still in its original shrink wrap etc but I can’t sell it New, even though it’s never been opened, because there is no verifiable supplier chain. I therefore sell it Used - Like New and then add my description which says the item is in mint condition and still sealed.

I always find this one a strange concept in a way because charity shops would advertise (and say), the Colditz game was new, but it isn’t. It was donated to them and is technically second hand. It is a bit of a contradiction of the Trade Descriptions Act I think :thinking:

#112

That and IP infringement potentially if the products IP specifically prohibits anyone but authorised distributors from selling that produc, since you have not gained prior approval to sell that brands products as Brand New. Its a huge can of worms you can land yourself in, its one of the reasons why amazon and other auction based market places don’t allow retail arbitrage or the old version of DS, because they would be liable also.

#113

Someone remind me… what’s the little rhyme involving turnover & profit, vanity & sanity…

#114

You need to sell more expensive items.

If you sell cheap items, the % of the proceeds are smaller.

For examples,

I currently sell an item for £5.99 and the proceeds are £3.56 per item - which is 59%
I sell another item for £13.99 and the proceeds are £10.47 - 74%

This more expensive the item, the better the margins.

I guess all of your items are cheap?

ALSO - I can’t see any PPC on your screenshot, i spend £1400 per month on PPC and this is averaging at 15% ACOS. - Getting the ACOS dialled in is very important too. optimise the listing, remove any keywords that are not relevant, and utilise both manual and automatic campaigns to rank.

#115

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity :joy:

#116

I love this saying from Duncan Bannatyne! All too often you hear crazy high turnover that wows you, but then when you drill down to the important stuff you find a pitiful net profit, or worst a loss!

#117

yes and im sure a lot of new sellers do this price things really cheap to get the sales and looks great as the orders come flooding in then later on down the line realise that actually they are losing money in their quest to the race to the bottom you have got to be more savvy than that

#118

you can only do PPC if you got the buybox AND if it is a branded item, keyword can be changed by anyone and not up to you.

For such cheap item, doing PPC will guarantee to lose OP even more money.

Fine if it is your own brand, just saying

#119

yeah know what you are saying and that is the beauty of selling top brands like we are as there is no money needs spending on ppc as people are already searching for these brands

#120

it be nice to be at a point to be able to sell top brand. Most people that watch youtube and join FB get-rich-quick Amazon-is-so-easy crowd never seems to gasp is that to get to the top of the game of anything, you have to put in time/effort to get there.

success do not just drop in your lap.

#121

absolutely a lot of research of suppliers and rankings of products its not a walk in the park
especially if amazon are your competitors on the items