GOODBYE FBA
After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path. Thousands lost in revenue because of the way they go about making it impossible for fairness. Inventory "lost" constantly. Fees upon Fees upon Fees. For the last 10 months my "call me now" feature doesn't even work and there's no alternative to contact them other than email or chat. The people that work chat don't know anything other than copy and paste answers. When you have an actual problem, no one wants to help. I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end. Even in closing I lost more. Requesting my inventory to be sent back to me only caused most of it to be damaged during shipping because they do not package your things like they do for buyers. They take no care in how they ship things back to us sellers. So many items broken during shipment. Then they use Amazon partnered carriers that you can not track. These are just a few of the reasons that I feel like Amazon could care less about us. I am hurt, but I guess why did I expect it to be any other way. I just want to get the rest of my items out of inventory and close the account, but even that is causing issues. Every time I request certain items in a removal order they just cancel it. The worst is I have 35 of an item that is stranded. The ASIN has been deleted from the catalog and it has a hazmat review request. I can not submit my paperwork because there's no listing. It gives me an error that says ASIN is invalid. I can not make a new listing because there's nothing in the catalog for it. I can not remove it because it is stranded. Can anyone help me with this last issue?
GOODBYE FBA
After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path. Thousands lost in revenue because of the way they go about making it impossible for fairness. Inventory "lost" constantly. Fees upon Fees upon Fees. For the last 10 months my "call me now" feature doesn't even work and there's no alternative to contact them other than email or chat. The people that work chat don't know anything other than copy and paste answers. When you have an actual problem, no one wants to help. I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end. Even in closing I lost more. Requesting my inventory to be sent back to me only caused most of it to be damaged during shipping because they do not package your things like they do for buyers. They take no care in how they ship things back to us sellers. So many items broken during shipment. Then they use Amazon partnered carriers that you can not track. These are just a few of the reasons that I feel like Amazon could care less about us. I am hurt, but I guess why did I expect it to be any other way. I just want to get the rest of my items out of inventory and close the account, but even that is causing issues. Every time I request certain items in a removal order they just cancel it. The worst is I have 35 of an item that is stranded. The ASIN has been deleted from the catalog and it has a hazmat review request. I can not submit my paperwork because there's no listing. It gives me an error that says ASIN is invalid. I can not make a new listing because there's nothing in the catalog for it. I can not remove it because it is stranded. Can anyone help me with this last issue?
79 replies
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: "After 13 years of playing by the rules. Amazon has made it impossible for the small business to get ahead. After some serious consideration I have decided to close the doors and take another path."
Well, don't shut the door, simply take another path. Amazon, by design, uses FBA to extract as much of a seller's profit as it can get, Give up FBA and switch to FBM where you only pay one commission per sale. Nothing else.
OP: ".I put my heart and soul into my business only to lose myself in the end."
Actually, you didn't put your heart and soul into your business. You put it into making Amazon rich off of your products sold. You bought into Amazon schemes and the idea of letting Amazon run your business for you.
OP: "Can anyone help me with this last issue?"
Yes. Start placing all of your effort into yourself by selling your products using FBM.
1. You already know the salability of your products and how much profit you will make per sale.
2. You can list 300,000 different products and only pay one commission (known up-front) after the sale takes place.
3. Shipping- The buyer always pays for the shipping, so calculate the shipping to event address in the USA and add it into the product cost.
Seller_mFUNUCCYB0cok
You go 100% FBM and your sales drop in half! Profit is even less!
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: "You go 100% FBM and your sales drop in half! Profit is even less!"
Well, not in all cases. Having over 2.5 million sales using FBM, we avoid all of the traps Amazon sets for sellers into believing what is necessary to turn a profit on the site.
We control all aspects of our product sales, and only give Amazon one simple commission, known upfront, per sale. No advertising necessary, just make sure you do all the calculations before the product is even purchased for sale, and it can offered as one of the 3 lowest price offerings.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: " How about advising Amazon to fix the FBA issues!"
Good suggestion, but probably not going to happen. Selling on the site worked a lot better when the company started. But since that beginning FBA has just kept getting worst. When the company was really run by humans, the humans cared. How it is managed a lot by One-Size-Fits-All Bots who have no mind and can only do one thing.
In addition, today the cash pours into the company like water running over a waterfall. It's an endless supply. This simple factor creates the mindset in the company that no one seller is of any importance to the company. What is important is extracting as much of a seller's profit as it can get, in as many ways as they can.
Seller_guCaS93YGnu0t
That is the trade-off. You turn all control over to Amazon in exchange for higher volume. However I've seen several posts on Reddit, here, youtube and elsewhere that the FBA revenue looks and sounds impressive...but at the end of the day all you are left in many cases is profit of less than 5%. A million dollars in FBA sales yielding only $50k in profit is an awful ROI. The only one making money is Amazon.
Seller_AF6uF6gvn0yie
Sales drop significantly. We are at 2 days in a row with ZERO sales. Before that ONE sale per day. We feel bullied big time. Pic attached of our metrics. We are -84% compared to last month. We had this morning an ASIN search suppressed for us only. Other sellers with way higher prices still on the listing and we were gone. Yesterday another ASIN showing us charging almost $12 for shipping and the Free Shipping option not showing. The comparison of prices with other companies outside of Amazon is stupid. The list was on and on
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
It is all in how you structure your business. Comparing FBA to FBM is not comparing apples to apples. They are not the same. With FBA, a seller pays Amazon to run their business at the seller's expense. With FBM, a seller runs their own business.
Seller_AF6uF6gvn0yie
I am very aware of that. However is Amazon the one with control of the visibility of the stores and the listings. If they don’t provide it, which by now we believe is our case, you don’t get decent sales on a daily basis. They also somehow control the prices comparing them with the competition outside of Amazon and then remove the Featured Offer eligibility. FBM runs their own business but it’s also mandated by Amazon.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
OP: " However is Amazon the one with control of the visibility of the stores and the listings."
Not quite true. Amazon runs on short 3–5-word titles and a ranking of sellers of the same product by Lowest Price Offering First.
The Buy Box has always been a ploy to get sellers to buy into FBA, however we only sell FBM, and it comes and goes over our many offerings, so we don't pay it any mind.
We will not sell a product on Amazon if we cannot offer it within the 3 lowest price offerings, which only differs by a penny.
Most new sellers don't realize the products they select to sell on Amazon make all the difference in the terms of salability. There are several products i=on the site that only we and Amazon sell. They are manufactured local. Amazon created the listing, and we sell for less under it. I've delt with this manufacturer for 25 years and know that our sales on the site are double Amazon's.
Don't give up, just keep looking for better ways to make a profit on the site.
Seller_wM0nLLkM8WJfx
I would also add get a storage unit to store inventory or use another company for FBA shipping and inventory.
Seller_vrhLSQE91Ezwp
Clearly you did not comprehend my message. When I said that Amazon is supposed to require the buyer contact the seller and give the seller 48 hours, my point was not that I did not respond within 48 hours. It was that the buyer never contacted me. Amazon refunded the buyer the same day the package was delivered without my knowledge of any issue. And as far is your ignorant response regarding my selection of carrier. My issue there was that Amazon did not require proof that the carrier damaged the package, which I would have if I was given an opportunity to handle this claim. Now I cannot file a claim with the carrier because they require proof. Learn reading comprehension before accusing sellers of being the problem. Amazon is the problem 100%. I have none of these issues on other selling platforms. Only here on Amazon. Because Amazon does not follow their own policies.
Seller_SV3BzBufuMSWd
Not true, with FBM Amazon still controls your business, period. For the litany of reasons already given. Stop shilling.
Seller_Dx0S3nyuJzIkC
More fba sellers need to do the same. Amazon needs to be taught a very important lesson. They are out of control
Seller_K7LqHXdiKwZFk
The biggest problem is the constant loss of goods on Amazon for incoming goods, too long calculations and all the confusion related to that.
Seller_DoE5ubBCyvPjv
I feel you. One of my brands did 45k in sales last month, but had a net loss of 4k.
13.5 to Advertising, 2k to refunds, 26.5k to Amazon fees, and 7k was the COGS. Insane. 4th quarter is not my season, but if I don't smash it out of the park this spring after everything I've invested to increase my profit margin, I'll likely throw in the towel as well.
Seller_Cj39FIFBjVLNf
sorry to hear that.
I'm in the same boat. Amazon fees are getting outrageous.
I'm running out of energy. not sure I have it in me to switch my business model, advertise in other places, and do my own fulfillment. U.S. production is too hard post COVID, and no one wants to buy businesses with U.S. labor. Not really worth it.
