Power Sellers Unite

JohnnyMax · Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 53

Hi,

Been selling on eBay about a year now and can't complain. Sales and all have been very good. As of lately I seem to be buying too much inventory so I can get the best prices so I am getting overstocked. I was thinking of expanding to Amazon to see if I could move excess stock. Any of you guys using both? Hows things going? Any info appreciated, thanks.

John

razmatazcelebrations · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 25 Location: New York

Hi John
Just some thoughts from our experience. Have sold on ebay since 1997 and last year registered with amazon. Starting really utilizing in June 2010 sold enough to be approved for holiday selling in our catergory.

Must ship within 2 days of receiving order. The fees are the fees, IMO you decide if that works for your product. Listing is different UPC codes are important. Have you checked if others are currently selling your product? If so you just add yourself in to the listing.

For us amazon is less of of hassle. Buyers in our case very rarely contact you or leave feedback. They buy u ship and unless there was problem you are done. For us this is a good thing. Customers who do not leave feedback does not bother me. It is sales and a satisified customer (no complaints) & reorders that gauge our business.

All fees are deducted from your total sales and every 2 weeks on Sunday the deposit is sent to your account. When you first register there is I believe a 14 day hold around the banking and if you change bank accounts a 7 day hold but for security reasons.

Personally we like the ease of amazon and it appears less stressful. We do not use any data feeds, listing programs as our inventory is the overflow from ebay or stock that did not move on ebay. We have sold items on amazon that were stale on ebay.

ebay is aggravating but it is still the big gorilla for sales. We developed our own web site. One for a niche product that does okay and our core name web site which is a work in progress. Selling on the venues has been our biggest successes. Recently was approved to sell on Buy.com and find their process to be challenging.

Our internet income is supplemental. Have full time jobs so our out look may be different than a person who sells on the internet as their FT job.

Good luck

Vintage Girl · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 162 Location: Seymour, MO

How does Amazon work with the listing of vintage and antiques? I have been considering, but every time I go in, the set up seems so hard. Thanks

Schistosomiasis · Joined: 19 Jan 2010 Posts: 192

Hi JohnnyMax,

I'll add some comments:

1) Start slow. If you ramp up too fast, your account will be placed under review where they hold your funds until they make sure you're reliable. Actually this isn't that big of a deal if you expect it. Just thought I should mention it because some sellers are taken by surprise when they can't disburse payment. They are more likely to put your account under review if you sell in a high risk category, like electronics. Having your account reviewed isn't a problem if you conduct an honest business (except for the delay in payment), but they need to weed out the bad guys.

2) If you are making new catalog items (using the create a product detail page), be careful of your photography. They want a pure white background, and sometimes they check, sometimes they don't. In order to list new products, you must a Pro-Merchant account at $40/month. It's well worth it.

3) Important: keep track of your inventory. If you have to cancel sales because of stock-outs, they take that pretty seriously. I wouldn't recommend using a drop-shipper for Amazon sales.

4) Be super, SUPER, careful about following their rules. Don't list things in the wrong category, even if you see that other people are doing it. Some of the categories are restricted (ex: jewelry). They have a habit of suspending accounts with no warning and no appeal if they catch you breaking the rules.

5) They have a habit of merging product pages using some automated system that doesn't quite get it right. So, once in a while check your product pages to make sure they look right.

6) They do in fact have bulk listing tools, but they are for items already in their catalog. Adding new items with photos, etc. must be done manually unless you're into the API thing.

Best of luck in your Amazon selling. I sell on many venues, and fussy though they are, Amazon is absolutely the best venue for high volume sales.

ArthurIhde · Joined: 01 Oct 2010 Posts: 43

Hmmm,good replies.