TAS 073 : Ask Scott Session #17 - FBA Amazon Questions

Welcome to another episode of The Amazing Seller Podcast, where Scott Voelker coaches you on how to make your Amazon FBA business rock! This episode is the 17th edition of the “Ask Scott” format where listeners get to ask their questions about FBA Sales and Scott answers them from his experience. In today’s episode Scott answers 5 questions ranging from whether or not the Fulfilled By Amazon option is always the best option, to how to pay suppliers in the safest, most efficient way. Listen in to get all the details!

Why should I use Fulfilled By Amazon?

A listener who has been selling products on Ebay for a long time asked Scott about the differences between Seller Fulfillment and Fulfilled by Amazon. Scott’s answer is clearly in favor of the FBA model for a number of reasons. When using FBA, Amazon takes care of all shipping, no matter how many items are ordered. You may be able to handle shipping 5 products a day, but what happens when you get 20, or 50, or 100 items ordered each day? Then you’re doing a lot of work you don’t have to be doing. In addition, Amazon likely gives preference to FBA sellers in the search rankings and you won’t want to miss out on that. Plus, if a customer decides to return the item they purchased from you, you’ll have to deal with all that stuff yourself if you’re not using FBA, whereas Amazon will take care of it if you are doing FBA. Find out more reasons to use Amazon FBA on this edition of The Amazing Seller.

How do I decide if it’s wise to sell a product with many variations, like color and size?

This is a great question and one that Scott knows is an issue for many would be and veteran Amazon sellers. Variations do put a lot more issues on the table for an Amazon seller and Scott recommends that people new to selling on Amazon try to find products that have as few variations as possible, just to make the learning curve a bit easier. But if you’re dead set on selling a product with variations, focus first on the one that you believe sells the most. That way you can work out all the kinks on one product instead of multiple products. Find out more ways to work out the issues with variations on products as you listen to this episode.

How should you pay product suppliers?

Is Paypal the best option? What about bank transfers? Is there a way that protects you and the seller? A listener had this great question and Scott answers by sharing what he does and what he knows other sellers have done that seem to work. The best option is working through a channel that provides an escrow type account, where the payment is put “on hold” until the order is completed. Then when you, the purchaser are satisfied with the products, you can release the money from escrow. This is what Scott’s done through the Alibaba interface since he first started and has never had a problem with a supplier. He’s also worked with various suppliers to include escrow arrangements when they didn’t have one already in place. There are all kinds of options to pay your suppliers, and some are better than others. Hear all of Scott’s recommendations by listening to this episode!

In order to expand your sales, should you add more products or move into other Amazon markets?

A listener had this great question and Scott had to honestly answer, “I don’t know.” That’s because the answer depends a lot on what you’re wanting to accomplish. For now, Scott is focusing only on the U.S. market, simply because it has a broader customer base, thus there’s more demand for his products. But he readily admits that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be making money in some of the other markets. He feels like for now, he’s better off maximizing everything he can in his current U.S. based market before moving on to other things. What do you think? What markets are you currently seeing success in? Listen in to this episode of the podcast to find out more about what Scott thinks about expanding into additional markets.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER

• Welcome to this Q&A episode!
• If you have a question, submit yours!
• Today’s questions:
  • Should I ship products myself or make use of the Fulfilled By Amazon option?
  • Should I launch products that have many variations (color, size, etc.)? If so, how do I go about doing it in a smart way?
  • I’m getting confused with all the options for paying my suppliers. Can you walk me through how you go about paying suppliers?
  • In order to expand my business, should I add more products or get into new markets/countries through Amazon?
  • What are the best tools to use as I work on my Amazon FBA business?
• Scott will be attending the Podcast Movement event in Ft. Worth, TX and invites you to join him for a meetup!

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Submit your question for a future Q&A podcast - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/ask

How to get started with Private Label sales - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/start

Scott’s resource page - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/resources

The Amazing Seller Facebook Community - http://www.TheAmazingSeller.com/FB

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