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Old 03-15-2019, 04:08 PM   #1
Incogneto
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Does anyone on this board dabble with selling on Amazon? If there are, this could be a good place for discussion between us....?
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Old 03-15-2019, 04:10 PM   #2
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I've got a little side venture and we've done some Amazon selling. I had super high hopes for that avenue, and to be honest it's been rather disappointing and expensive.
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Old 03-15-2019, 04:22 PM   #3
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I've got a little side venture and we've done some Amazon selling. I had super high hopes for that avenue, and to be honest it's been rather disappointing and expensive.
are you importing, or your own products? running PPC?
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Old 03-15-2019, 04:25 PM   #4
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shoot, this should be in the Off topic forum, not the Food and Entertainment...
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Old 03-15-2019, 04:33 PM   #5
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are you importing, or your own products? running PPC?
We have a combination, depending on what it is. It's hard though because you're (we are, in any event) competing against cheap junk from SE Asia. It seems unbelievable, but we've had more success and sales on eBay than Amazon. I personally find that astounding and never would have predicted that at the outset!
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Old 03-17-2019, 10:46 AM   #6
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Huh, I should try ebay again.

I have some stuff on Amazon and I find it neat when the stuff sells. My stuff is fulfilled by Amazon, so the stuff is in their warehouse and it's neat when I get a notification that some rando bought my thing in some far flung city somewhere.

It was a surprising amount of work to get everything set up with buying barcodes, meeting their packaging requirements, etc. You can also only do it with high margin stuff because after you pay all the costs, storage fees, shipping fees, etc. with FBA you have to make sure you're getting enough to make it worth your while.

I don't have anything set up that I'd ship directly to a customer, but I have a few things I should put up there.
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Old 03-17-2019, 11:21 AM   #7
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If I could jump in on this thread - I'm looking to start selling some tshirts I designed to a fairly niche market I feel is underserved. Most buyers will not be local, and I expect early sales of about 100-150 shirts per design. There is potential to expand however and the market would be much larger if I do.

Is Amazon a good way to sell these? Etsy? My own online shop on a website I build? I'm looking for something that is easy for the buyer and adds protection and safety for both of us. Also, obviously I'd like to keep fees and costs to a minimum. Suggestions?
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Old 03-17-2019, 05:14 PM   #8
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If I could jump in on this thread - I'm looking to start selling some tshirts I designed to a fairly niche market I feel is underserved. Most buyers will not be local, and I expect early sales of about 100-150 shirts per design. There is potential to expand however and the market would be much larger if I do.

Is Amazon a good way to sell these? Etsy? My own online shop on a website I build? I'm looking for something that is easy for the buyer and adds protection and safety for both of us. Also, obviously I'd like to keep fees and costs to a minimum. Suggestions?
If you're only selling that many shirts, I would suggest looking into the print-on-demand options. Dealing with printing, sizing, packaging, shipping, customer support, etc is a huge pain when you're not doing mass quantities of merchandise.

Shipping from Canada is atrociously expensive and will immediately cut into any profit you think you'll make. Most customers aren't willing to foot the bill on shipping.

https://www.michaelessek.com/best-pr...ompanies-2018/
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Old 03-17-2019, 08:24 PM   #9
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I could be wrong but I think shopify gives a discount on Canada Post shipping when you use them to make a website. But if not it would be tough to make decent margins on a lot of products in Canada simply because of expensive shipping costs
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Old 03-17-2019, 08:49 PM   #10
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I could be wrong but I think shopify gives a discount on Canada Post shipping when you use them to make a website. But if not it would be tough to make decent margins on a lot of products in Canada simply because of expensive shipping costs
Yeah you get a discount, but it’s a discount from their usurious rates to begin with. There are some options though. I prefer shipping to the US now because it’s cheaper than within Canada. It’s more work on my part (or my business partner), but it’s a big saving also.
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Old 03-17-2019, 10:18 PM   #11
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For tee shirts, just sign up for Merch by Amazon. You upload your designs, they handle everything once a sale has been made.


https://merch.amazon.com/landing



There is a process to get accepted, but it is pretty simple. It took them about 2-3 months to accept me. I'm not even a designer, just signed up on a whim. Never followed through with it even--I wonder if I am still considered a partner...
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