Selling On Amazon - Starting To Feel Collossal Mistake
Here to vent, I put a fortune into an amazon store and I've lost almost everything I put in. Advertising is nearly impossible and is eating up all of my cash. When I turn off ads, sales completely stop. Debating pulling everything from amazon and never looking back. It is starting to feel like a scam to milk sellers. It feels like they dangle this unattainable carrot at all times to perpetuate the never ending forking-over of cash to them from sellers. My internal contact is rude and not very helpful, seller support is almost useless. Is anyone having a better time? Any suggestions? I am doing my best to not feel entitled to anything, I know it is a competitive marketplace and I did choose to enter high volume / competitive categories, but something isn't feeling right. The only times my sales really take off are when I'm selling at a loss. Amazon feels like a site to liquidate products, not to build a brand from the ground up.
Selling On Amazon - Starting To Feel Collossal Mistake
Here to vent, I put a fortune into an amazon store and I've lost almost everything I put in. Advertising is nearly impossible and is eating up all of my cash. When I turn off ads, sales completely stop. Debating pulling everything from amazon and never looking back. It is starting to feel like a scam to milk sellers. It feels like they dangle this unattainable carrot at all times to perpetuate the never ending forking-over of cash to them from sellers. My internal contact is rude and not very helpful, seller support is almost useless. Is anyone having a better time? Any suggestions? I am doing my best to not feel entitled to anything, I know it is a competitive marketplace and I did choose to enter high volume / competitive categories, but something isn't feeling right. The only times my sales really take off are when I'm selling at a loss. Amazon feels like a site to liquidate products, not to build a brand from the ground up.
85 respuestas
Seller_ToPPYvOWlyp9j
Advertising is nearly impossible and is eating up all of my cash. When I turn off ads, sales completely stop{....}It feels like they dangle this unattainable carrot at all times to perpetuate the never ending forking-over of cash to them from sellers.
Depends on what your sell. We sell books and booksellers on this platform may have issues other sellers don't have and vice-versa.
After several shrinking years and ready to pull most of our inventory , we're doing surprisingly well this year. We don't advertise or offer coupons-don't want, as you say, to fork over to Amazon more $$ than we must.
Nearly thirteen years ago, when we began, it was possible to build up a brand/business. We weren't deluged w/ BOTS engineered by those who've never run a business or even sold merchandise in their lives. As for the C-suite, TPTB are equally clueless, wanting to automate(take over) one's business w/ meaningless rules, which are against both the sellers/customers best interests. Such as holding orders for days instead of shipping same day (Fulfillment Insight Dashboard for FBM). A work of Lucifer, in my opinion.
I would suggest SELLERS ASK SELLERS. Many long-term sellers, no longer on this forum, congregate there and give advice.
Seller_xxW58rBfTNz9Y
Same - But I didn't put a fortune into it. Just going to stop ads - get the occasional sell and sell down inventory. Walmart system looks much more appealing.
Seller_9e0aMxU4qS2gx
Never thought of Amazon as a way to " Build a Brand from the ground up " ... seems like your building Amazon up and then the Chinese and Amazon copy cat your item and your out of business.. there is good reason Name brands avoid Amazon
Seller_awYU0oH8skccg
Find Another Way to Sell Things...AZ is only a supplemental way don't Depend on It.
Seller_0EiTWTPC4Lbig
Are you trying to do this all yourself or are you using a consultant and/or third party vendors to do pieces?
For example, if you don't have experience with PPC - hire a best of breed PPC vendor. That is ALL they do. They will do a better job than you guaranteed.
If you have never launched products and an Amazon store - hire someone who has to represent your brand or help guide you.
Over half of the people I have helped over the last 20 years have failed on their own, as they just didn't understand the nuances of Amazon. This is NOT an easy platform to succeed on.
Are you selling your own branded products? Or are you selling in price-driven categories?
YES - many people have a lot of success here - that is why we are here. But it takes a lot of patience and expertise. And an ability to take your own ego out of it and hire in the best players to help with certain aspects of your business.
All that being said - if you are trying to sell only "high volume / competitive categories" without any real differentiator, you will likely fail.
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
We consistantly have an ROAS between 7 and 15. It takes time to learn and optimize but its worth it.
Amazon is a self service marketplace. All support is designed to assist with system errors, not guide sellers.
That feeling of it not being right is a product of your decision making, not the marketplace.
Seller_y79MQHIY0I76X
Amazon has the largest market but there are other platforms out there that are more seller friendly.
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
Thanks for venting. It is something all new sellers need to hear.
OP: Here to vent. I put a fortune into an amazon store and I've lost almost everything I put in.
The first rule of online retail sales is this. It costs no more to fail at online sales as it does to succeed in online sales. The difference is, the amount of knowledge one has is operating a successful business, and that is what each seller brings to the site.
OP: Advertising is nearly impossible and is eating up all of my cash.
Absolutely Correct. Amazon hype makes it sound so easy, but never alludes to the fact that all advertising is paid for from a sellers UNEARNED PROFITS, no matter is the product sells or not.
OP: When I turn off ads, sales completely stop.
A fundamental flaw in buying advertising is sellers just believe what they read and jump in feet first. It is always best to test sell a product for a month before making any decision to buy.
The bottom line in advertising is this. Advertising will not help sell a dead product that no one wants, and if you have a good selling product, it is not necessary.
Without this per purchase testing data, sellers are selling blind and have no bases on which to be guided to a solution.
OP: Debating pulling everything from amazon and never looking back.
When a seller gets that feeling in their gut, it is usually correct, and time to take action.
OP: It is starting to feel like a scam to milk sellers. It feels like they dangle this unattainable carrot at all times to perpetuate the never-ending forking-over of cash to them from sellers.
It's true. Amazon is a for profit company and it very good at extracting as much of a seller's UNEARNED PROFIT as it can make, without the seller even knowing it is missing.
94% of Amazon sellers use FBA. FBA sellers believe it will, (As the Amazon HYPE says), FBA save them money. The reality is the 6% of sellers using FBM, only give Amazon a commission once the product sells. FBM sellers know all fixed costs before they sell the first item and have total control of their desired profit to be made.
OP: My internal contact is rude and not very helpful; seller support is almost useless. Is anyone having a better time? Any suggestions?
Yes. Most Reps in the USA are work at home employees. They are only allowed to state Amazon's policies that could help the situation at hand. We find to get good help we call in the middle of the night.
During those hours we get a foreign all center. If the Rep on the line can't find a good solution, they ask others in the room for a solution. Things can get resolved a lot better this way.
OP: I am doing my best to not feel entitled to anything, I know it is a competitive marketplace, and I did choose to enter high volume / competitive categories, but something isn't feeling right.
Amazon selling is simple. Sell only products that buyers want and need and sell then at the lowest price. These are the products that sell themselves. Amazon even has an internal word for products that don't fit the aforementioned sentence. The Word is C.R.a.P, Can't Realize a Profit.
Personally, Selling FBM, we know all fixed costs associated with selling the product. We will not even buy a product at the wholesale level if we cannot realize our desired profit.
OP: The only times my sales really take off are when I'm selling at a loss.
It all starts with planning before one purchase the items to sell.
OP: Amazon feels like a site to liquidate products, not to build a brand from the ground up.
Correct. The Amazon site lowers the retail price of everything sold on the site. However, sellers can make substantial profits. It is all about what knowledge the seller has before they come to the site to sell.
Seller_CBCZfnhh8RTmh
1. The links are not good enough! May not be able to get more non-advertising orders, very dependent on advertising
2. Too many other links, crazy bidding/undercutting behavior, affecting your high price sales.
Seller_tz74iYhHLULoK
We've been selling on Amazon for 6 years and every year it goes down hill. Every year there's a major issue to resolve - last year it was having to prove UK VAT establishment, and this year it's having products removed from the PAN-EU programme unbeknown to ourselves and shipped using EFN for incorrectly being determined to be food items, costing us thousands.
Then there are the smaller issues, such as having our products banned for being blades when we sell no blades with our products, not being able to reinstate them and then seeing Chinese sellers come in behind us, copy our designs and sell without an issue similar products. Seller support are totally inept, costs increase all of the time, Chinese sellers steal our photography, undercut us with cheaper alternatives... The list goes on.
The best thing you can do is sell on other channels too, and diversify your business. We actively tell our customers who find us through our own website not to shop on Amazon and to support local businesses, rather than a massive company who only cares about their profit and not their selling partners.
