Anyone doing Amazon FBA, would appreciate some insights

Don't FBA any product that can be faked:

Third Party Sellers Need To Rethink The Amazon FBA Program » StartupNation

Hey there! Let's see which of these questions I can help you out with.

In terms of finding a good drop shipping service, there's a thread right here on the Warrior Forum that's quite popular and has a lot of people sharing their favorite drop shippers.

http://www.warriorforum.com/building...ites-here.html

In terms of the packaging quetsions, I'd check the specific sites on which you plan to sell. Even if someone does know that answer off the top of your head -- I'd go straight to the source. If you want the clean water, you go to the top of the stream. I'd find the rules on your marketplace (you can use FBA to sell on eBay, believe it or not) and verify the packaging rules for yourself, rather than let someone tell you them here.

On that last question -- again, I'd go straight to Amazon. I've spent a good bit of time on various eCommerce forums, and deal with a lot of our customers and online sellers here at the office -- Amazon is not shy when it comes to throwing down the so-called "ban-hammer." They'll toss some pretty serious penalties your way if you break their rules, and they won't really care if you knew you were in the wrong or not. eBay is the same way. I have read many a Shakespearean tragedy in message boards and on forums as a result.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

I think before you start dropshipping from China and plan to use FBA or another third party marketplace you should ship to your warehouse. This will give you the chance to inspect the goods - crucial as many of these third party marketplaces have strict rules on what you can and can't ship to them.

I think many entrepreneurs have lost site of the Amazon FBA Opportunity because they think they must private label a product from China to make money. While private label is how the big money is made, you can also earn a full time income without ever importing the first product if you are willing to work. This article explains how: 3 Ways to Source Amazon FBA Products We will make six figures very very part-time this year just scouting and flipping products as talked about in the article.

Amazon FBA is one of the strongest online opportunities I have seen since I got online in 1994. It brings you the one thing all businesses need …… CUSTOMERS!

While importing and private labeling products is vogue, don’t leave money on the table while you are trying to figure out the importing details.

In regards to most of your questions, find a freight forwarder/customs broker (in most cases they are the same outfit.

Most of your questions are process (and the attendant cost) related and those folks know how to do things. They know the tariff issues, how to stay out of trouble and can ship the product to you.

For the most part the advice you'll get here are guesses. Only a few folks have actually done it and they are not likely to share their exact secrets. Or, they want to tell you how they did something that is not similar. As one of the posters said, go to the top of the stream. And that is where the customs broker/forwarder is!

BTW, you won't know the tariff until you get the right number for your product. Some IDs have duties some don't. It's a minefield. An agent can help you there as well and in some cases get it so you have no duties. The differences can be minor that save you money.

As far as the US goes, there are tons of these folks. Especially in cities like LA, SF, Seattle and so forth. If there is a ocean port, there are lots of these guys.

I ship about 1 to 2 full container loads to Amazon for FBA monthly from Shenzhen port.

It's will need to have their own UPC's, you can buy them on eBay in bulk to make sure they aren't already registered to another product. I bought 1000 UPCs from someone on eBay and about half of them were already registered to products manufactured by Dollar Tree Stores.

You will need your items prepped, and I would recommend getting your suppliers to do it for you even if you have to pay. If you are using Chinese suppliers, then chances are the cost of them doing it is going to be less than the cost of Amazon doing it. I pay .005 per label per item, I think Amazon charges like .20 per label. That's a lot of money for 5000 items. Some items will need to be bagged (polybagged) - and really, all of your items should because Amazons warehouse is actually very dusty and causes exposed products to not smell to great. I've had someone complain about the dust on exposed HDMI cords before.

In your situation, you will also have to pay for inventory placement unless your are shipping in such a volume that you could afford the logistics of having your inventory split up in sent to different distribution centers. Believe it or not, 200 of an item can go to 1 location, and only 8 could be sent somewhere else. Here is a link for amazon placement fees:
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/...emID=200735910

I pay .40 per items, and about 50% of my inventory doesn't go to their main distribution where I have an entire container shipped to which means I pay a good bit for placement. As for import duties, I have no idea for your product or volume.

I have been selling via FBA for about one year and overall I am very pleased with the way it is going. I have not yet considered importing from China - not sure if I will, but as mentioned above I know it can be a real minefield. There are many things to consider and many hurdles to jump thru.
If you have not done so yet I would become an FBA seller on a small scare first, get uesed to selling on Amazon and than after you have completed extensive research add the importing from China portion to your business.

Im a starting FBA seller also looking for some good tips to startup to make this my full time job. Any recommendations?

Shipping from China to Amazons warehouse.
Is there a reliable company that can handle the whole process. A door to door service?

I expect my first consignment to be around 150kg. Would $2,000 for air freight shipping and agent fees be realistic?

- i can send 150 kg to a fba warehouse from china for under $1600 via fedex

Proper packaging and labeling
Do I need a UPC Code and bar code... are these the same thing? Would this do, Buy UPC Codes Instantly for Amazon or In Stores - InstantUPCCodes.com

the UPC code should have been entered already when the item was listed , if you are listing against another UPC , make sure your item is exactly the same ( brand , size , color, etc ) when you create a shipment via fba , amazon will provide a amazon barcode label for you

As it's made in China, does it have to have "Made In China" on the box, product or both?

this is not required , but your shipping invoice will have to say made in china for reference to customs

Does my box need to be plastic sealed? It's about the size of a shoebox.

box does not have to be sealed, just make sure that the item will not fall out of the box

Import duty
Is there a reliable way to find out the import duty beforehand. I found calculators online, but not sure how reliable they are. I know there's different duty for different products. Mine is pet related, any idea of the import duty?

pet items should have no major duties to be paid


30 days after creating product
I read on here that you have 30 days after creating your product on Amazon to get it to their warehouse. Is this true? Doesn't leave much room if you're shipping by sea, which can take over a month.

not true , they give you plenty of time ( should be around 90 days or more )

PM me if you have other questions, i can help , as i send fba goods from asia to USA all day long

Check out EALOGISTICS for china shipments. I've used them for years, good price, great communications, and they really know their stuff. I think their site address is ealogistics.com

Why no just open your own GS1 account for UPC codes? It cost 100 dollars per year, and you can create 100 upc codes before they charge you more. Then the UPC codes are YOURS and YOURs alone.

Home | GS1 - The global language of business

Hi Guys,

I am in the process of starting my FBA based business. I am based in Sweden but would like to import from China to either Germany or the UK. Since I will pay VAT in the country that I import to, will I have to register my company in the same country? If not, how will I be able to do my VAT return? If possible I would like to keep my company registered in Sweden since this would simplify the start-up significantly. I would appreciate any advice! Thanks!

The Freight Forwarding issue is very lightly, if at all, mentioned in most of the Amazon FBA courses.

This is crucial, because without really reviewing this in detail, and finding a reliable freight forwarder, you can't get the product from China to the US.

And then, this cost has to be factored overall in determining your profit margin.

Any tips would be helpful.

Thank you!

Anyways, it is normal to experience some day-to-day volatility. Some of it may be due to the day of the week, the weather, or a million different other factors. The main thing that you want to be focusing on is your ranking. Your ranking is obviously based on Amazon's algorithm and should be your main indicator as to whether or not this spike in sales was random or indicative of a future trend. It will take into account variables such as positive feedback, seller ratings, popularity, and sales momentum. Knowing your historical ranking number should help you greatly in understanding WHY sales were up.
I have found this information from a udemy course. You can try it for your self. https://www.udemy.com/how-to-make-mo...uponCode=najma

First off - the term "Dropshipping from China with Amazon FBA" is just a weird thing to say.

Secondly, one thing people overlook all the time is the fact that you CAN have china ship directly to a warehouse/distribution center BUT China has to conform to Amazon's labeling rules.

Also, if you're selling individual units/or packs of units, China needs to package them appropriately to fulfill that order. (For example, China isn't going to sell a '10 pack of towels' if you have all of your towels packed individually. They'll put 10 individuals in a box - this can increase your costs.

Importing products to sell on Amazon is costly business. To help you reduce of your costs i would like to offer a voucher for buying UPC and EAN codes. Use SAVE10 at the checkout on https://www.ean-upc-codes.com to save 10% and receive your codes instantly.