Sourcing is the first step of selling on Amazon and it entails the process of visiting stores, scanning items, analyzing data, finding profitable inventory and buying all the winners.
You can source at virtually any store, whether it is Costco, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, Target, Ollies, Nike Outlet, Nordstrom Rack, CVS, HomeGoods and more.
The possibilities are endless and there are unlimited opportunities available.
That being said, you cannot source all day and expect to get rich.
You have to move your inventory.
You have to get it into the hands of the consumers.
How can you do this?
You need to create an offer on Amazon.
What is an offer?
Unlike eBay, you do not create a brand new listing for each item that you sell.
Instead, you find an existing listing and match it up to the product you are trying to sell.
You then create an offer on that listing with other sellers and compete for the BuyBox.
You want to match the BuyBox price so that you will be rotated with the other sellers who are selling on that listing.
When you create an offer, you can either create an FBM (Fulfilled-By-Merchant) or FBA (Fulfilled-By-Amazon) offer.
What is the difference between FBM and FBA?
FBM is another way of saying “I will ship and store this item myself.”
With this method, you keep the items at your home, storage unit or warehouse and list it on Amazon.
When a buyer purchases that item, you purchase a shipping label, pack the item and ship it to the customer yourself.
Fees are considerably less with FBM but you will have to buy your own shipping labels.
FBM is good for meltable goods during the summer, toys during Christmas and items that are categorized as “dangerous goods” such as aerosol cans.
Because FBM takes more effort, it can be an incredible opportunity for those who are willing to put in the work fulfilling orders themselves.
FBA is different because instead of shipping out items one by one, you package them up in bulk to Amazon and they do the fulfilmment and customer service.
All you need to focus on is sourcing and shipping, and they take care of the rest.
Another benefit of FBA is the ease at which you can remove negative feedback if the issue is caused by Amazon.
FBA fees are considerably higher than FBM fees, but it includes the shipping to the end customer.
When you source for FBA, you have to take into account the higher fees and find items that are profitable even after those fees.
Listing FBM orders is quite simple and can be done from your phone.
Watch these videos to see how I list FBM products for sale:
The same process can be done to add FBA products to your inventory.
Just select “Amazon will ship and provide customer service”.
For FBM offers, your listing will be available for sale on Amazon immediately.
For FBA offers, your listing will only become available once your items are received by Amazon.
Sending to Amazon seems complicated but isn’t very difficult.
You can either use Amazon’s “Send To Amazon” feature available on Amazon Seller Central.
Method 1: Send To Amazon Feature
When you utilize this method, you first add all the products you want to send to Amazon into your inventory like the video above demonstrates.
Once you have all the items in your inventory, you want to visit the Send to Amazon page. You can do that by following the pictures below.
Once you get to Send To Amazon, you want to search the items you want to include in your shipment in the search bar and when you find them, enter the quantity you want to send.
Continue the prompts until you have all the items you want to send in the workflow.
I will make a full length video on this process, however it is pretty straightforward.
Method 2: Inventory Lab
The next method you can use to send to Amazon is what I do.
I use Inventory Lab.
This replaces the Send To Amazon feature and creates a streamlined workflow for you to create shipments.
I have made several videos detailing the full process from start to finish.
When you first start off, I recommend you learn how to use the Send to Amazon feature.
It’s good to know how to use it just in case you run into issues with Inventory Lab.
That being said, I highly recommend you invest in an Inventory Lab subscription as it will save you a lot of time.
Best regards,
Alex Chung
Itís difficult to find experienced people for this topic, but you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks
May I simply say what a comfort to discover somebody who genuinely knows what they are talking about over the internet. You actually understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More people ought to check this out and understand this side of the story. I cant believe you arent more popular because you surely possess the gift.