How Do You Distribute Products?

If you have not done so you may want to look into using FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) as part or perhaps all of your business model. I gives you the benefit of having Amazon take care of all the order fulfillment issues (shipping to the customer, returns, etc) and you have the HUGE benefit of having you inventory listed on the largest online marketplace with the largest amount of buyer traffic anywhere!
It works for me and many others.

DWaters,

Thanks very much for the advice. I have heard of Amazon fulfilment. However I wasn't planning on selling solely through amazon. I want my own standalone site and other sales channels. How does that work? Can I have a plugin on my site that makes sure the backend is all amazon without the customer actually having to go to amazon? Any other thoughts/alternatives

Many thanks

You can use FBA as well as your own site. It does not have to be one or the other.
Remember - no matter how good your site is it will NEVER get as much buyer traffic as Amazon does.
I do not think you want to send people on your site (assuming they want to buy) to Amazon. They could simply buy direct from you. Of course than you have the responsibilty of fulfilling the order your self.
Remember the vast majority of online buyers will be going to Amazon. If your product is something they want they will find it there.
I would suggest using both your own site as well as having some of your inventory on an FBA account with Amazon.
It would be interesting to see which site produces the most orders/income for you.

Yeah. My issue with Amazon is you don't really get the chance to build a brand and nurture your customer. People turn up there pretty much knowing what they are looking for and you are just one product among millions. How do they even find your product? There are probably 30 or 40 people selling exactly what you are for whatever you sell. But with a website you get to give your pitch and your brand etc.

That's my inexperienced take on it. Would be interested to hear your views

On Amazon you may not have the same chance to build your brand (although you may, it depends on your brand, if it is your own brand (referred to as white labeling or an existing brand). Yes people know what they are looking for and will they find your product simply with the keywords, usually the product name. If you have the Amazon "buy box" you will get the majority of sales. If your product is an exclusive you will get all the sales once a demand exists.
You are indeed correct that with your own website you can "give your pitch and your brand" so it is worth doing, just keep in mind it will be to a lot fewer people (buyers).

Have you thought about using a shipping company to help you get products out? We hear great things about ShipStation. An inventory management tool that either integrates with a shipping company or has their own in-house shipping app could help too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're looking for help with the end-to-end process of pulling in sales orders, creating pick lists and getting stuff out the door, while managing all your sales channels? If that's the case, I'd be happy to talk you through some tools that may work for you. I work for an inventory management tool (ecomdash), but given my position in the market I could lead you in the direction of some software that looks like a good fit for you.
I'd also recommend checking out the blogs of other ecommerce sellers who have really foraged success. Andrew of Ecommerce Fuel (Build a Store, Change Your Life | eCommerceFuel) is great. He quit his 9-5 and started his business from scratch, and offers a lot of his own tips and experiences. Since you're UK based, you may have heard of Web Retailer? It's a UK based website that acts as a meeting place for ecommerce sellers and posts articles, news, forums, etc. The site's creator and owner, Andy, is fantastic. He participates in the forums himself and is an incredibly knowledgeable resource. I highly recommend browsing his site.

Good luck to you!

Tiana with ecomdash

I work for a UK based Fulfilment company. This year, interestingly enough we have had an influx of eBay and Amazon shop owners enquire about our fulfilment services with the objective to move away from FBA as well as outsourcing the fulfilment if they were doing it on their own.

It boils down to cost and service. To be successful with eBay and Amazon its all about transparency and communication. Orders need to be processed asap and customers need their enquiries answered fast without any hold ups. Most fulfilment companies offer an API pluggin that automatically connects to your store and allows a ''push and pull'' process to take place. So when an order is placed it automatically is sent to the fulfilment house, where the fulfilment team picks and packs the product and send its out immediately.

The main difference between using a Fulfilment house rather than FBA is that the fulfilment house manages your stock and orders and has direct access and understanding of the scope of your business. Fulfilment account managers can offer ample insights on what products are doing well and which are not. These account managers can be a saving grace, offering invaluable information that will help leverage your company that will increase your sales and profits. FBA is a digital platform making you the business owner responsible for digesting all the information provided.

So it comes down to time. Would you rather spend more time focusing on the fun bits. Which I personally find the growth related activities to be fun (marketing, product testing and source, customer engagement, etc...) Or would you prefer or have the time to manage and maintain stock, customer service, order processing and so on.

One thing to keep in mind, you can normally cover your fulfilment costs through the cost of postage.

It seems that you are looking at buying overseas, but you need some understanding of how that process works before you jump in and place your first order.

You refer to wholesaler/manufacturer so you clearly do not understand that there is a massive difference between the two. A wholesaler buys from a manufacturer, adds a big margin and then sells to you.

There is no doubt you can make much bigger profits if you buy direct from the manufacturer. I teach how to get genuine manufacturers to supply much smaller orders than the big MOQs you will see quoted.

Most suppliers will quote FOB, but there are other options for freight. Depending on the size/weight/value, you may choose air courier service for door to door delivery. Door to door is available by other means also, but it is usually best to have a local freight forwarder arrange that for you.

Erik9595 makes some good points about fulfillment services other than Amazon and I suggest you should investigate that further. UK postal charges are very high and you may well save a lot of money by using a Royal Mail competitor. I am sure most fulfillment services do that.

Why don't you start with Amazon FBA then expand once you're big enough. I know a lot of people get attention from Fiverr then, once they're big enough, set up their own websites. Buyproxies.org is actually the seller mazgalici on Fiverr.