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Selling Lego on Amazon.com


Deeker

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One of our accounts was invited to join a new beta on Amazon dubbed the North America Remote Fulfillment program a few weeks ago. This is one of their more interesting betas. It allows you to have your USA fba inventory listed across Canada and Mexico with the Prime badge on your unified selling account. After a sale in Mexico or Canada amazon USA picks, ships, takes care of customs and remits taxes so you will no longer need to have an entity setup in each of those countries.

They state they hope to have it rolled out in June/July to everyone. As with all things amazon their projects are either on point or amateur hour and so far this one has definitely been on the amateur hour side of things but they are learning and trying to problem shoot. Biggest issue right now is the lag time (9 days to get to Canada, around 6 to Mexico). I have my doubts this will be rolled out this summer (if at all) but certainly interesting and if it is could affect local fba sellers in those markets. Sales so far are around 5% of USA sales but only cost a few hours in setting up and a few conference calls so not a bad return on investment. The other issue is returns right now they are sent to canadian warehouses so you will want to setup a service with a canadian address that will conglomerate all the returns and ship them back in bulk to make it worthwhile. As usual for cheaper items it is not worth the time so having them destroyed is the better strategy.

I still feel setting up your own company in those countries and sending directly to fba yields far better results as 2 day delivery converts far more but there is more work and investment upfront. This will involve little extra work for current USA fba sellers and costs nothing extra so will be a perfect fit for those still working on maxing out the USA market before tackling europe/canada/mexico on their own.

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I am quite new to selling on Amazon as FBA.

For example, 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01A00A25C/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

I see multiple seller selling for $36.97.

And I know I sell it as 35.99 as FBA, my price will be on the front page.

But if I price it as $36.97, how Amazon handles since 10 sellers have the same price set.

do they do it randomly or any specific order or any way?

 

Thank you

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2 minutes ago, toni8284 said:

I am quite new to selling on Amazon as FBA.

For example, 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01A00A25C/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

I see multiple seller selling for $36.97.

And I know I sell it as 35.99 as FBA, my price will be on the front page.

But if I price it as $36.97, how Amazon handles since 10 sellers have the same price set.

do they do it randomly or any specific order or any way?

 

Thank you

The buy box will rotate sellers who have the same price, so just match the $36.97.

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Just now, Jackson said:

The buy box will rotate sellers who have the same price, so just match the $36.97.

 If I want to increase my chance to be sold, then make my price lower is the best way?

Or is there a login how they rotate?

sold 1 and next seller is up for the buy box? 

Does qty determines who gets the buy box more frequently? 

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1 minute ago, toni8284 said:

 If I want to increase my chance to be sold, then make my price lower is the best way?

Or is there a login how they rotate?

sold 1 and next seller is up for the buy box? 

Does qty determines who gets the buy box more frequently? 

If you price lower, you will inevitably initiate a race to the bottom and will never win because many sellers use automatic re-pricers.

No one except the Amazon gods knows the algorithm used for the buy-box rotation. 

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you could be an fba seller with a higher price than a fbm seller and still get the buybox.  

i sell stuff all the time fba  that is higher than fbm price because people want it in 2 days PRIME.

remember that when pricing.  you have muscle  because you are prime and that's where the juice is to make up for having amazon take more fees so don't leave that on the table keeping pace with the fbm'ers.  i price myself to sell with the lowest fba and that works out just fine.  fba price-matching fbm invites a price war.  start price matching toycentric and you hurt everyone on ebay and amazon.

you are getting 2 different customer pools on amazon.  lowest price (usually fbm) and i want in 2 days (fba).

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Your question could be rephrased as "how does one win the 'buy box' with FBA"? If you search 'buy box' FBA, you'll find lots of lengthy advice.   In short, the buy box is more often given to sellers with higher metrics and shortest shipping distance.  I don't think quantity on hand has any influence on the buy box, except when the item is in multiple FCs and thus gives a better chance of shorter shipping distance. That said, new sellers are not blocked from the buy box, and I also recommend listing at the matched price.   How fast it will sell depends on the rank of the item.   After some time, you'll be able to predict how quickly the item will go based on rank and number of competing sellers.  With your example, the rank is 21,022.  With my (small-time) metrics and 5 competing FBA sellers I would expect to sell 1 item about every week at the equilibrium FBA price of $36.97.  Those with higher metrics probably sell 1-2 a day.

If you list at a lower price, others will follow---often with automatic price matching software.  So a lower price does not guarantee a quicker sale.

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Your question could be rephrased as "how does one win the 'buy box' with FBA"? If you search 'buy box' FBA, you'll find lots of lengthy advice.   In short, the buy box is more often given to sellers with higher metrics and shortest shipping distance.  I don't think quantity on hand has any influence on the buy box, except when the item is in multiple FCs and thus gives a better chance of shorter shipping distance. That said, new sellers are not blocked from the buy box, and I also recommend listing at the matched price.   How fast it will sell depends on the rank of the item.   After some time, you'll be able to predict how quickly the item will go based on rank and number of competing sellers.  With your example, the rank is 21,022.  With my (small-time) metrics and 5 competing FBA sellers I would expect to sell 1 item about every week at the equilibrium FBA price of $36.97.  Those with higher metrics probably sell 1-2 a day.
If you list at a lower price, others will follow---often with automatic price matching software.  So a lower price does not guarantee a quicker sale.
Listing at a lower price might not guarantee a quicker sale, but it does guarantee lower revenue :)
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2 hours ago, marcandre said:

Amazon will pay zero federal taxes this year. Wonder if they will pass those savings along by reducing seller fees.... :lol:

 

https://splinternews.com/amazon-will-reportedly-pay-0-in-federal-income-tax-yet-1832638628

Amzn decision to reduce FBA storage fees makes more sense. I thought they were doing it out of the goodness of their non-existing hearts :P

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30 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Amzn decision to reduce FBA storage fees makes more sense. I thought they were doing it out of the goodness of their non-existing hearts :P

They'll just give us the reach around a bit until the next holiday season before the sand paper comes out again in October.

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Anybody have advice on what to do with a set that requires "Taping" in its Prep? Trying to send in 30148 Lakeside Lodge as part of a shipment and Amazon states that I need to provide additional taping because of loose parts. I opened a case yesterday, but it was denied pretty quickly and confirmed that Taping was required. At this point I will probably just not send it in until Amazon resolves it unless there is an easy way around it. Adding more tape to the box will only make it look tampered with. 

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Anybody have advice on what to do with a set that requires "Taping" in its Prep? Trying to send in 30148 Lakeside Lodge as part of a shipment and Amazon states that I need to provide additional taping because of loose parts. I opened a case yesterday, but it was denied pretty quickly and confirmed that Taping was required. At this point I will probably just not send it in until Amazon resolves it unless there is an easy way around it. Adding more tape to the box will only make it look tampered with. 
IIRC I just sent mine in, since I consider the seals "taping"
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4 hours ago, woodyhtc said:

How accurate is the Toy sales ranking on Amazon? The #1 selling building toy is...Mia's Tree House 41335. Is this set really that popular?

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Creative-Building-Learning-Roleplay/dp/B075RDRJLW/ref=zg_bs_166092011_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5JVYWSEFVBM5HPF7E2BG

The set is in sale and was on SD , you are better off tracking BSR over an extended period of time rather than a one time snapshot . 

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