Amazon sales are rubbish compared to Ebay
hi guys first post on this platform I currently sell on Ebay with good sales and returns
a friend of mine suggested I try amazon on this platform I had heard many horror stories from people who sell on this platform but the discussions became more common and more stronger so thought best way to find out is to open an amazon account now the fact I buy stock from failed amazon sellers didn’t give me a lot hope but I thought you have to give it a try
so I opened account but never listed anything for about a year 2 weeks ago I got the right type of stock to sell on this platform so thought good time to use it so on logging in I found I owed amazon £150.00
and my account couldn’t be used till it was cleared I had no one to talk to about it and amazon help desk was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard so I cleared the amount I still have no idea what’s it was for but hey ho I thought I will make it back on sales
so I started listing products some went on fine others I found I couldn’t without being approved
not knowing how to get approved I moved on with the products I could list
and matched prices with others and sat back awaiting sales to come
sadly the sales haven’t come its been pretty poor so friends says don’t worry sent some products into amazon and they will sell them for you OMG what a load of work that is I swear I could work out meaning of life quicker than sending a test amount of product into amazon but I did it and thought sit back awaited the rush of sales that this platform will produce as I was told
sadly no sales on that either. so I’m reaching out to fellow amazonian people to find out have they had this much fun dealing with the monster called amazon
meanwhile Ebay just keeps producing sales happily and without fuss and without all the drama I can list what I want within reason
so summing up my opinion of amazon is that it only works if you sell it for nothing and pay amazon your profit in fees I would love to be proven wrong but sadly facts are facts and the figures don’t lie
Amazon sales are rubbish compared to Ebay
hi guys first post on this platform I currently sell on Ebay with good sales and returns
a friend of mine suggested I try amazon on this platform I had heard many horror stories from people who sell on this platform but the discussions became more common and more stronger so thought best way to find out is to open an amazon account now the fact I buy stock from failed amazon sellers didn’t give me a lot hope but I thought you have to give it a try
so I opened account but never listed anything for about a year 2 weeks ago I got the right type of stock to sell on this platform so thought good time to use it so on logging in I found I owed amazon £150.00
and my account couldn’t be used till it was cleared I had no one to talk to about it and amazon help desk was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard so I cleared the amount I still have no idea what’s it was for but hey ho I thought I will make it back on sales
so I started listing products some went on fine others I found I couldn’t without being approved
not knowing how to get approved I moved on with the products I could list
and matched prices with others and sat back awaiting sales to come
sadly the sales haven’t come its been pretty poor so friends says don’t worry sent some products into amazon and they will sell them for you OMG what a load of work that is I swear I could work out meaning of life quicker than sending a test amount of product into amazon but I did it and thought sit back awaited the rush of sales that this platform will produce as I was told
sadly no sales on that either. so I’m reaching out to fellow amazonian people to find out have they had this much fun dealing with the monster called amazon
meanwhile Ebay just keeps producing sales happily and without fuss and without all the drama I can list what I want within reason
so summing up my opinion of amazon is that it only works if you sell it for nothing and pay amazon your profit in fees I would love to be proven wrong but sadly facts are facts and the figures don’t lie
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
That’s exactly what a lot of people do. You see it happen all the time, as the newer sellers especially, who really don’t know what they are doing, price far too low.
I’ll purposely drive a price down, to see how far it will go.
The other advantage is that once they have realised that they are losing money, they don’t come back.
89 replies
Seller_VJFloi7Cs0iaR
This is actually the most entertaining read I’ve had on the forums.
The amount of good advice being offered is ridiculous, the OP clearly drives a 3 wheeled yellow van.
“My dodgy clearance gear sells great on eBay, why is the Amazon cash waterfall not flowing?”
We were doing eBay for years, selling all new stock, fighting in the fleapit with all the market traders chancing their arm, undercutting each other whilst dodging taxes and flouting the rules, the fight to the bottom was bloody, struggling to achieve any kind of growth year on year.
We now turn over easily 10x the eBay income each month on Amazon with half the effort.
Brand ownership has changed our business model, no more working hard on products, descriptions, photos and listings, only to have lazy Dave steal it all for a quick buck.
You want to tame the beast? you have to think like the bots do, everything on here comes down to numbers and rules.
To the OP - Good luck, but learn quick or like others have stated, you will find the sales will be as scarce as access to your account - and money. Leave the cigar and ropey fur jacket, you need to actually have a little business acumen to succeed here.
Seller_vlOfuiHHYSQQ3
You started selling “2 weeks ago”??
I would suggest giving it a lot longer before you start making any judgements.
Seller_QuOnfVPGqdVsh
Hello Phoenix Thanks , I think - Amazon provided seller forums to talk about issue so that everyone helps each other But I sure - Not for advertising ebay . Amazon is completely different than eBay but one point is common is both are online market place to sell . I also do not think Amazon force anyone to sell in their market place too . The best option will be - Check why not getting sales ?. Sort it out to get sales . It is amazon world but ebay . It has its way to do things. Good Luck .
Seller_bTU6KR1ZObRRF
Sorry you were not able to sell on Amazon. I started selling just before the first covid lockdown. It started with a boom sales were 10x more than we expected. I like yourself didn’t know exactly what i was doing and as things opened up again sales dropped to next to nothing. I took time and read threads in the forum as well as go through seller university.
Guess what? Sales picked up again and are at a steady level.
Although we do get frustrated time to time with Amazon but when you understand the platform I am certain you will think differently.
Seller_sHJB1ugXOUNJP
Hi Phoenix-wholesale,
Don’t worry you are not alone I am facing same issue, I am also selling on eBay and Amazon comparatively my eBay sales are doing extremely well, But amazon is completely different story. I have tired FBA & FBM both not worked for me.
Funny thing is that I hired VA to get some sales, that VA guy spent £1200 on campaigns and ROAS is £700 I did it 3 times and after all losses I understand Amazon just want your money to spent on advertisements nothing else.
I am very disappointed.
Seller_77IcbQKVGdZo0
My advice is never to hire a VA most of them have no idea of what they are doing. You are best of reading advice on these forums if you are struggling to get started.
That is not true I not used ads for many years and my sales are really good. If you are selling popular products they will be found on Amazon.
Ads maybe useful if you have a new product to get initial interest. They are also okay if you know what you are doing and set your budget and keywords correctly. However for a lot of sellers they are just not needed.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
Have to agree wholeheartedly with that. I never, ever use advertising on Amazon.
Seller_l78koE9kGCu59
I gave it a very short test and then another to double check that the insanel loss was correct. LOL it was.
The Amaazon report showed it as a glowing success - but in reality as I have to actually buy the product and not steal it, and pay Amazon themselves (they convieniently forgot that in the revenue summary) and postage etc etc It came back as a huge no-no.
Something like £50 worth of sales and ad cost of £35. 
Apparently this was something to be happy about. The same products sold at a very slightly higher price (by less than a pound) on eBay and brought in around £360 with no ad fees. All in the same time frame.
Still I tried it as a test and the mistakes and errors are what you remember in business. Hence forth I shall never ever use Amazon Ads again. £35 and whatever the first test was = a very cheap lesson really.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
Oh, I don’t know.
Advertising can work. But you really need to know what your doing. It’s so easy to get it wrong and cost you a fortune.
It’s great for getting a new product off the ground, but for general day to day use, it’s a complete waste of money.
Seller_LlN72PsELSe8c
ive just do test on an item and sellers are like lemmings they just copy and go low I was tempted to put the price right down see who follows then buy there stock and put my item back up and sell their stock on my Ebay account and with free postage can’t go wrong
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Probably have automated undercut set up - which is one reason I don’t get involved, they keep automatically matching/undercutting each other - its silly in my opinion.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
That’s exactly what a lot of people do. You see it happen all the time, as the newer sellers especially, who really don’t know what they are doing, price far too low.
I’ll purposely drive a price down, to see how far it will go.
The other advantage is that once they have realised that they are losing money, they don’t come back.
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
Theres also a benefit in forcing the price low, making your competitor loose out on profit while driving the sales rank up, so when they run out of stock you sell more at higher 
Seller_MKi6wqe68YZuu
What you have to realise is that Amazon is very different from ebay and other selling platforms.
Amazon has never been primarily a retail company. It was a marketing company, now a marketing a data company, that thrives by creating brand value. That’s why, back in the late nineties, its market capitalisation was greater than British Airways despite never having made a penny in profit.
It’s approach, like so many new companies, was to disrupt. We ZShop sellers were part of the first wave. We could stay in bed until lunchtime and still compete with Waterstones and Ottakars and Dillons. Even when Marketplace started, the postage credit was £3.75 with only 43p deducted in fees. Kerching!
And like so many new companies, the real product is the users. Us and the browsers and the buyers. The bigger Amazon became, the more data we generated for it. What we sold mattered less than the volume of data we generated. Get your stock from a skip? Come on down! (Next time you’re at your local dump, ask who buys all the mouldy books people throw away). Shonky Chinese seller offering cheap knock offs of expensive kit? Come on down!
Like Starbucks after they’ve chased away all the independents in a town centre, Amazon now no longer needs to pretend. To sell on Amazon, you have to work for Amazon. Do things their way, to their schedule, in their format, due dilligence to suit their procedures. In a true stroke of genius, they invented FBA - they take your stock, charge you to store it and don’t pay you til they’ve sold it. They even charge you to dispose of it. Your risk, their profit.
On other platforms, and in the real world, we sell our stuff our way. Our stuff. Our photos. Our listings. Our clients, with e-mail addresses and phone numbers so we can contact them directly, sell them more of our stuff, take their wants lists, that kind of thing.
If you are prepared to work Amazon in Amazon’s way, you could do well here but you will always be as vulnerable as the rest of their staff - only with your money on the line. If you prefer to sell more loosely, flexibly and pragmatically, this isn’t the place for you.
Seller_HB2MC8FR8Gmz5
I hope this information will be useful to the original poster. Key difference between Amazon and eBay.
On Amazon you list against a product listing for. For branded items there are usually multiple sellers of the same prodcut so you compete to win the buy box. If you have less known brands then they will rank lower and not appear as high in searches. So you need to advertise more for less popular products. You cannot as easily promote a listing and get it to the top. Where as eBay you simply increase the advertiseing rate to rank higher on Amazon item popularity, search terms, price, number of items in stock and many other factors help win the buy box. But the volumes of sales for high ranking items will massively increased compared to eBay if the price is competitive.
On eBay, you can be creative and change titles and images and find other ways to promote but amazon in all about standardisation for each product.
As others have said spend some time on seller university it will help you massively and yes it will take some time. But the long term beneifts can be huge. My move to amazon 4 years ago has resulted in a a huge swing to amazon sales and i sell 4 times more, do less work but do get a lower margin. But overall I make more money for less effort.
Seller_ZpRCk4Ny3pa7z
RUN…As fast as you can, do not look back just keep going, don’t get sucked into the most complicated, over engineered, soulless platform ever created…
