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Level 2 - Intermediate
Lesson 1 - Creating a shipping plan
When you're ready to send inventory to Amazon, you begin by creating a shipping plan. A shipping plan specifies:
* The products you want to send to Amazon
* The quantity of each product
* The shipping method and carrier details
* Whether or not you want to prep and label your inventory yourself or have Amazon do it
How to create a shipping plan on Amazon (FBA)
Lesson 2 - Amazon PPC advertising (basic)
When you create a PPC campaign, you are paying for your product to be displayed to customers regardless of organic ranking.
How does PPC auction work ?
The Amazon PPC auction process is pretty simple. Each advertiser submits a default bid and competes against each other for ad spots.
However, the bid set by the highest bidder is not necessarily the cost-per-click. For example, If you have bid $2.00 for a keyword. The second-highest bidder has a default bid of $1.50. As the highest bidder, you will win the ad spot, but you wonât have to pay $2.00. You will only have to pay $0.01 more than the other bidder. This means you end up paying $1.51 instead of $2.00.
This means that the cost-per-click (CPC) for a keyword or targeted ASIN will depend on the highest bid, but it isnât always the highest bid.
Lesson 3 - Creating a private label brand (basic intro)
Definition; Private label products are those manufactured by one company for sale under another company's brand.
âPERCEPTION IS REALITYâ
Branding is a very important part of your FBA journey, it will convey exactly what kind of message the customers receive, so be diligent.
Your brand name should directly influence the PERCEPTION you want your customers to feel.
Look at Energy drinks, what kind of names do those have ? - Pretty cool, fiery names, right ?
Next will be a logo which will be on every one of your packaging and most likely products as well. Donât over complicate it, simplicity works & it will even save you money when you have the designer create it.
Pay attention to the colours, again, this is also part of the message you want to convey.
Remember, those who are perceived to be the best are the ones that get the sale - regardless of whether they are the best.
Lesson 4 - Suppliers
This is an important cog in your machine and you need to get this right.
A good supplier should have the following;
- Excellent communication
- Competitive prices
- On time track record
- Reasonable MOQ
- A good representative who can help you in many areas I.e shipping,negotiating with their manager, speeding up production etc
- Contacts with other suppliers
NEGOTIATING WITH SUPPLIERS
The price is never the price, they always make the price higher than you will be able to get it for - always be prepared to walk away. Some factories will try to sell you a high price as they believe you are the end user / consumer - always get at least 5 quotes! Here are some methods to getting a better price;
- Always have the supplier to believe in your business, convince them you are the best!
- Make the deal, âWe have to get traction on this product, if you do us a good price on this 1st order, we will make you our sole supplierâ
- Always let them know they have competition, if they DONâT give you what you want, take the offer to their competitors.
- increase the order quantity
Lesson 5 - Product selection
This will be directly related to your niche & brand - itâs a bad idea to brand unrelated products under the same name
This is an important step, that needs to be researched.
Most important rules of selection;
How many multiples you can sell the unit for, this must be a minimum of three times (3x) cost of unit - if the sale price is under $30. There are very few exceptions to this rule but generally 3x at least.
I aim for 4-5x
My first product was $2.68 per unit, then landed price was roughly $3.20 - I sold those for $22.95, not bad right?
You may use tools such as jungle scout or helium10 (I donât myself) But many sellers use that, so (in my opinion) you will likely just be copying others.
Be very careful not to select a product that contains liquids, hazardous materials, glassware or electrical items, you will experience delays on an unfamiliar level. You can do this later down the line but for your 1st products - avoid these.
Your products must be centred around your brand, do not try to be a general brand - STAY IN YOUR LANE!
Once you have decided the niche you are going to enter into you can plan what you are looking to get from each product. What does that mean ?
Some products are better than others (for your business).
For example, I have products that require zero advertising and they stay #1 best sellers.
And even better they are a consumable product which people buy regularly and they come back to you because they know your brand !
Many FBA entrepreneurs go for the âhome runâ products which make $20,000 a month alone which is great if you get one (I had one - #1 best seller in two categories) But those generally require a lot of advertising cost (bet they didnât mention that)
So looking for consumable products can be a real winner.
What kind of products you ask ?
Dog play balls they get lost/destroyed all the time and people have to buy more Alternatively you can think about something that businesses use - envelopes, pallet wrap, boxes etc
These are quite competitive products but you get the idea.
One thing you must remember when selecting a product is the practicality of the product.
For your first few products, go for ones that are NOT oversized.
I made this error without realising, and the fulfilment fees were pretty high for a lightweight product.
One adjustment I made to lower fulfilment costs was how my product was packaged; I had the factory reset how the product was laid out - so that it would fit in a standard envelope, this reduced my fulfilment cost by roughly $1.35 on a product that only retailed for $8.95
Also keep in mind the weight of the product will factor into fulfilment fees.
Lesson 6 - Winning the Buy Box (Wholesale, dropship, RA/OA)
84% of Amazon sales go through the buy box - this is an important asset to have if you want a successful Amazon business
Since there is no limit to the number of sellers who can use the Amazon platform, multiple merchants frequently sell the same item. These are known as resellers
If you are selling the same item as others you will need to compete for the âBuy Boxâ
There isnât one metric that will ensure you win the buy box, it is a combination of many factors, these are;
- Price
- Prime status
- Seller account health
- Seller performance
What criteria must be met ? You need;
- Professional seller account
- Item must be new
- Available inventory
- Your eligibility status
If you are a private label seller, you will win the buy box over 90% of the time as there is no other seller that has a buyable offer on your product
Here is a table on what contributes to winning the buy box the most
Lesson 7 - Importing your goods
For those doing private label, you will most likely be importing from abroad, when importing you will need to understand there are some rules & guidelines to follow.
You will need to check your local laws on imports and what is required, however many countries are synonymous.
Many countries require an import number (EORI in the UK) which can be obtained from the government website. For those in USA Your importer number is your IRS business registration number. If you do not have this number or you do not own a business, then your importer number is your Social Security number (SSN).
Forms you may require;
Bill of Lading
Commercial Invoice
Packing List
HS / commodity code
For first timers, I recommend you agree DDU/DDP for shipping terms as all paperwork will be handled by the freight forwarders
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