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Experience with FBA
 

I am thinking of signing up for FBA and would be grateful if anyone has any advise or experience using this - both good and bad - Thanks in advance

Pros:

1. Easier BuyBox winning
2. Somewhat feedback protection
3. Shipping costs (in many cases) is lower
4. Amazon less likely to delete FBA heavy account, more likely to suspend (my opinion)
5. Adds legitimacy to inventory in the eyes of customers, thus more sales (generally)
6. Good for risky items such as DVDs because Amazon has more access to the inventory (assuming you're legit; also my opinion)

Cons:

1. Costs of FBA have gone up a LOT in the last couple years (especially with oversized stuff)
2. Cheap items (under $10 usually) really suffer because of that "flat fee" that you get hit with using FBA
3. You can now only ship up to 50 lbs. per box to FBA ... if you would only be shipping a smaller amount anyway, you would be saving less on the shipping in general
4. Customer returns suck; Amazon manages it and gives the thumbs up whenever the hell they want (more likely to get BS returns: a different item or broken item in place of your actual stock)
5. FBA loses your shyt; it happens more than you'd think; their employees are quite incompetant as this is an Amazon entry level job (confirmed), Ex: if you have an item in a single box going designated to be received for two different listings, good luck!
6. You now have to split up your inventory between Amazon warehouses when shipping FBA ... this is just to keep AMAZON's shipping costs low; in the end it adds a lot of complication to shipments, thus slowing down the process; you end up paying more because some warehouses they choose are not very local
7. This could be a pro for you, but in my experience, FBA is more worthwhile if you live more in the east: their preferred warehouses are often KY, TN, PA, DE from what I've seen (I live on west coast, shipping from here to FBA is crappy)

This is coming from 2 very solid years of experience with FBA, I hope it helps!

n8zzz has it pretty spot on, but for UK you won't encounter some of the problems.

You won't have to split your shipments between FBA centres being the main one.

Biggest benefit is buybox on new accounts, easier to pass reviews

biggest problem by far is the way Amazon deal with returns. We have had items (high value) obviously smashed / ruined by the customer and Amazon just refund them without question, because it is not their goods or profit that are going in the bin.

Ah, right, I didn't see the UK emblem next to their name. Well I hope I cleared things up for US fba people at least ^^

I recently signed up one of my accounts for FBA to test the waters. Sent my shipments to 3 different warehouses on Monday. Hopefully this will work out good!

Thank you everyone for your replies. As I understand it I can run FBA items alongside my other listings so I think I will dip my toes in and see if it works for me - thanks again for the input

Re: Experience with FBA
 

how did it go?

Re: Experience with FBA
 

I would recommend FBA. From shipping, customer service, metrics, feedback removal/excuses, you can't beat FBA. They'll handle all returns, it improves your metrics and if someone gives you bad feedback for no reason, AMZ will take the blame for it without you even needing to ask them to or whatever.

The only negative thing for me is location. If you're out West it can really be a hassle. Sometimes I get the PHX location, which is LOVELY for me, but thats rare. It's usually TN or IN, which for me takes 5 days. So unless I send the package on Monday (so it arrived on Friday), it won't get on AMZ until the next week. I sent some stuff on Tuesday last week and it got to IN warehouse this morning, and my stuff still isn't up yet. The waiting can get annoying. I wish I could always ship to PHX or LV

Re: Experience with FBA
 

[QUOTE=n8zzz;470191]Pros:

[*]You now have to split up your inventory between Amazon warehouses when shipping FBA ... this is just to keep AMAZON's shipping costs low; in the end it adds a lot of complication to shipments, thus slowing down the process; you end up paying more because some warehouses they choose are not very local

N8zzz, good post, but in FBA settings on USA you can select to send all your stock to a single warehouse rather than splitting it. Amazon charge about 10c per item for this service.

Re: Experience with FBA
 

Dont know about UK but I love everything about US FBA besides the returns. You get hit left and right with returns and Amazon doesnt charge a restocking fee/test returns. Customers get free returns when they are marked as defective, you get hit with a huge return fees. Have not seen one "defective" return this year. They just get resold on Ebay as used.

Re: Experience with FBA
 

Look into "Inventory Placement Service", which is what micky is talking about. Its 30c a peice but sends all inventory to one location at a time that is close to you. Ive only sent to TN and Ind since, which is 2 days for me. no more shipping out west.

Re: Experience with FBA
 

Sorry to jack a thread...

Anyone know if you can use "Inventory Placement Service" in the UK? I live close to an FBA centre and could deliver with my 7.5 ton wagon, but everything seems to go 200 miles away to Dunfermline.... -_-

Re: Experience with FBA
 

[quote=MICKY H;521608]Thank you Micky, I need to look into this later when I ship more item to them

Re: Experience with FBA
 

UK all your goods go in one shipment to whichever depot amazon chooses. The shipping cost are the same.

Re: Experience with FBA
 

forgot one VERY important thing, commingled inventory if you do sticker less inventory. Your stuff gets put with everyone else and those may not be legit items. So in the end you may get slap with a policy violation for cr@p you don't even sell

Re: Experience with FBA
 

I just received an email from Amazon that the refunded one of the FBA order.
- How is this work?
- Is buyer return the item?
- Where is that item now?

I don't see any email/note/information about this order till now (the refunded)
I have check my inventory and didn't see that item put back to my inventory.

Any help would be appreciate.

Tony

Re: Experience with FBA
 

tony the item is put in the return to sender pile or thrown away if you have the settings that allows them to do that.

If you request to have you defectives returned it should be there but it is not RE-ADDED to inventory and put back for sale.

Re: Experience with FBA
 

Where is the return to sender pile?
How do I request to have the defected return?

How do you know there is a return request if FBA?

Thanks

Re: Experience with FBA
 

you don't, all you see is amazon giving customer refund and in the listing you will see a mark next to it noting that you have defective ones there that you can request to be sent to you.

A lot of the stuff i get back is not even mine but what can you do. customer returns their junk and keep my new stuff

Re: Experience with FBA
 

Yep!

Once amazon issues a refund the customer has 45days to return it. It will then show up either sellable or defective. If it is not returned in 45 days Amazon is suppose to automatically issue a reimbursement but they dont do that always and I have yet to figure out a way to track returns. Anyone have suggestions?

http://www.aspkin.com/forums/amazon/...turns-fba.html

Gamefreak, do you have a system in keeping track of returns? Also any tips in getting Amazon to issue credits for returns that are "customer damaged"?

Re: Experience with FBA
 

no tips honestly, I've been messing with the system to see what i can figure out but nothing yet.

customer damage goods usually automatically get you a credit. On the listing it says defective customer return, customer damage or warehouse damage or something like that.

the stuff i send to FBA i send to FB becuz my profit is at least 100% some as much as 1000% so its worth it and i don't really have the time to keep up with that stuff. too many other things to do on ebay and all the other sites i deal with to mess with a few fba returns

Re: Experience with FBA
 

The only thing I ever get credited from customer damaged is shipping. Example, they paid 6$ shipping amazon will refund the original price minus shipping. example $100+6$ shipping, and order is refunded, amazon will deduct 100$+return fee.