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Old 03-27-2015
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Default FBA in the UK for small value items.

I've never tried FBA, mostly because I am clueless as to how it works.

I sell items worth £1.99 - £2.99, profit margin is 50%.

Would that be worth doing FBA?
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

I think that would depend on how many you sell Geegee, if you only sell a few each month then no it wouldn't be worth it because there are fee's involved of course, I am looking into it a bit myself with my Amazon account. The main thing I have picked up from reading around on their site and on here is that you do need to have quite a good amount of turnover to be worthwhile, then I think it can make life easier.

They have just brought a new option for scanning barcodes and uploading shipping details onto their site, but that still involves printing labels for every single item in each box being sent in to them, unless everything in the box is just a multiple of the same item. Everything has to be a plastic bag with danger of suffocation printed on it unless it has its own box. So there is quite a lot involved with going down the FBA route. Nothing to stop you giving it a go with a try out shipment to see how you feel about it when you are actually working the system. I am not busy enough I don't feel to try it yet, concentrating on eBay for a while.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Thanks Rosie.

I used to only be on eBay, but Amazon has been amazing for me this last year.

Turnover on Amazon is 3k a month so far, but I make my own products, so that is going up each month quite swiftly.

Label printing is something I can do myself very cheaply, the bags wouldn't be too much of an issue either.

Just wondering if you sell more with FBA items though? If not, I might as well just stick to doing it myself.

I'm considering FBA as I'm too busy to cope now, so I don't want to waste any time getting into it for no reason.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

I would say definately if you are doing that much each month, you will find it easier to use FBA once you get used to their shipping requirements. Sounds like you have the ideal scenario with creating your own items, you are at the point as well where you definately need to offload some of your work and getting into FBA could do that for perfectly, leaving you more time to create more products.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Haha Rosie, you must be reading my mind!

I work on my own, and it can be a bit of a struggle after a busy weekend.

FBA will be almost like hiring an employee, just need to work out the margins for it I guess.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Geegee83 View Post
Haha Rosie, you must be reading my mind!

I work on my own, and it can be a bit of a struggle after a busy weekend.

FBA will be almost like hiring an employee, just need to work out the margins for it I guess.
That is a lot of orders for you to handle Geegee, I'm amazed you even have time to work anything out especially when you are making all those items yourself!, your ideal scenario would be to come up with something you could make yourself and then charge a lot more for, less work more money, win win!!
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

I do orders in the day, new designs in the evening..

Little tweaks here and there help with managing the orders, but I don't mind working a lot of hours for the money, I just want to think of the next few steps ahead I guess.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

There is no point at all in selling via fba if you are selling them for 2.99 max. For a start anything under around £4.20 will be an add on item and your customers will have to spend over £10 Just to get it shipped free and that's only if they are prime members.

Try the Amazon fba caculator for yourself but fees will be starting around £1.50 and with only 3k turnover that's going to really eat into profits.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Barry - thanks for the info.

I was just looking at the pricing, looks like it would be around £1.10 ish in fee's, then packaging and sending the item.

I didn't know about the minimum spend.. hmm.. Maybe I'll think about what products would work for it.

Appreciate the info, it was just what I needed, thanks.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

No worries. If you make things yourself one option is always to put the price up. If you have good reviews and traffic people will pay a few pounds extra for the convenience of fba.

Also you don't have to exclusively do one or the other. Maybe just send 10-20 items and put the price up to £4.99.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Great input Barry, you clearly have the extra 'hands on' experience of using FBA that was needed here.
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Default Re: FBA in the UK for small value items.

Good idea.

I might have a few idea's for higher priced items then, around £4.99 would make it more worthwhile, so I'll work on that info for now.

eBay is still my biggest market, but it's quite unpredictable, and I'd like to spread my bets across as many area's as possible really.

Thanks again for the help!
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