Newbie - Send to Amazon but have to get product to myself first?
I thought I could directly put Amazon’s warehouse address as destination address when I order from my supplier, but looking at the workflow it looks like I need to add my own address, have the products shipped to me first before I can ‘send to Amazon’?
I feel I’m not understanding correctly here, how do people scale to 1,000 items? Do we all need a warehouse eventually? Then what’s the point of FBA saying ‘not needing warehouse’
Newbie - Send to Amazon but have to get product to myself first?
I thought I could directly put Amazon’s warehouse address as destination address when I order from my supplier, but looking at the workflow it looks like I need to add my own address, have the products shipped to me first before I can ‘send to Amazon’?
I feel I’m not understanding correctly here, how do people scale to 1,000 items? Do we all need a warehouse eventually? Then what’s the point of FBA saying ‘not needing warehouse’
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I would suggest that you get the basics sorted out first.
You need to understand the various things already mentioned, such as CE marking and so on.
Without that sort of thing in place first, you will crash very quickly.
Have you got an understanding of how to keep accounts?
One thing that you will find, is that it is EXTREMELY easy to lose money selling on Amazon.
You need a full understand of the costs involved.
All of the various things like Helium10 and so on, can be useful, but only if you use them to their full extent. Otherwise, they are just an additional cost.
If you are doing Private label, do you understand all of the problems as well as advantages to doing that?
Shipping to the UK, can take 12 weeks or more. Yet shipping plans only remain open for 90 days.
This can cause problems.
36 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
You can ship from your supplier direct - but its not recommended if its a new supplier as you need to check quality etc
Where is your supplier , UK, China etc ?
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
You need to balance out the costs, Amazon will label and prep for you at a cost but you’d have to factor that in. You also may not want to send all your items in at once depending how many you’ve ordered
Seller_Lny3Rvp3RJhVd
I see. So in reality when people start selling into hundreds or thousands, you still need your own warehouse…?
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
You’ve got several issues to look at with importing from china
Costs - MOQ, duties, vat etc
You as the importer are now responsible for all safety testing and docs
You’ll need an EU responsible person if CE required
You need to inform your business insurers that you are importing as many charge extra - some won’t insurers at all
Then there’s the added costs of PPC to get your listings off page 1000…
And to get a good deal on price you’ll need a decent quantity and FBA storage isn’t as cheap as it seems
Seller_Lny3Rvp3RJhVd
Thank you for telling me those hidden fees! I was reading storage cost is like pennies if you have small amount.
If its not electronic do I still need CE…?
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
You need to find out about the product before you buy it.
CE marks cover a lot of things, not necessarily electronics.
If you buying goods from another country and rebranding them, it essentially makes you the manufacturer. Which means you have same rules imposed upon you as any other manufacturer.
Have you looked at product liability insurance? This is required if you are sending to FBA and is more expensive, if you are importing your products.
You should also have in place public liability insurance.
Your products could need testing, if for instance they are cosmetics etc.
And yes, business’s as they grow, need more space, whether using FBA or not.
I would assume that your not limiting yourself to only selling on Amazon, as there is a multitude of other sites to sell on, let alone having your own website.
If you can possibly avoid it, you need to have other avenues of income and not just Amazon.
If you only have Amazon, then you can lose your income overnight, if there is any kind of problem.
Seller_Lny3Rvp3RJhVd
This is valuable information 
Do UK people buy a lot from other sources? I feel majority goes to Amazon or Etsy.
Personally I’m wary of Shopify websites. But I suppose that’s something I need to be more open about.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
Of course we do. There are literally loads of places to buy from.
Are you not actually UK resident?
If so, then you will also need to be registered for VAT.
Seller_Lny3Rvp3RJhVd
London, Amazon prime next day is too good…
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
There is literally nothing to be wary about Shopify websites. They are just websites. And Shopify is just the means to build them. I would bet that half of them, when done properly, you wouldn’t even know they were built on the Shopify engine.
Seller_Lny3Rvp3RJhVd
I think so, only recently I got some trial apps I can see which shops are shopify. Quite a lot of my regulars are!
Are there some other apps to recommend? Trying Helium 10 at the moment and on the fence for Jungle Scout.
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
I dont have a warehouse but I use a storage unit because I dont want everything at home and they take in and offer parcel collection too
Seller_0Amk0hnQkPWMH
Don’t you want to check the quality first? I would
Winston_Amazon
Thanks for creating such an interesting thread @Sheepirate ! Seeing as you are new, (welcome to the Forums by the way) highly recommend to check out Seller University
