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FBA or FBM ? Which brings better results and sales?
I’m new to selling on amazon and so far I’ve used both FBA and FBM I’m trying to discover what method will bring the best results. Any and all advice helps.
16 replies
Seller_zDXVpmGz86diF
Without more specifics about your products and market, I think you’re only going to get very general info regarding the benefits and drawbacks of FBA and FBM.
Seller_vnN5CfaqlN0ZP
I sell mostly books, and many are high ranked. So, to avoid long term storage fees on FBA, and since I’ve got free warehouse space, definitely for me it’s better to stay FBM. I guess it’s an individual thing. Hopefully many respond.
Seller_wMHteBtdSuBMr
Half of all buyers select “Prime” sorting when searching for items. If you are not seller fulfilled prime and you do not use FBA, then your listing will not appear.
For our category, FBA shipping is actually a little cheaper than when we have to buy postage. You have to keep an eye on inventory.
Seller_puAMl1iqvARny
The answer is entirely different for each seller based on entirely different factors. I do FBA because I live in a small apartment and I would rather do anything else than pack up a bunch of individual orders or deal with customer service. Other sellers have lots of space and don’t mind the hands on approach. Follow your heart.
Seller_hZOSj2ZSpuwWC
If you have a company and a warehouse and staff to fulfill FBM, that is usually going to be more profitable.
If you have a full time job (like I do) and do Amazon on the side and have limited time and space to store and ship your product then FBA is the better route. It also depends on your volume and how much you want to be involved in the picking/packing/shipping/customer service aspect.
You pay higher fees with FBA than FBM. It’s very case by case. I do some higher value, lower volume items FBM too because they do ship less frequently and I get a lower fee shipping myself.
Seller_BeWo5Xt3t43rn
Based on the way FBA items are packed I would go FBM if you really care about your products and customers! The other FBA issues are the poor inspection of returns which can result in unsaleable items being put back into your inventory, so always have all returns returned to you by Amazon, lastly are the problems associated with having to ship everything to various Amazon warehouses and then hope they receive the items correctly and promptly and that their counts match yours!
Seller_kMIs3HImlz6nK
For larger size items or those being classified as dangerous goods by Amazon, FBM cost should be much cheaper for using 3rd party warehouse, and the final result should be better. For smaller size fast moving items, FBA should be better. But prime is important, it is one of the main reasons for using FBA. Seller fulfill can also get a Prime badge if you can make a good delivery performance. Without prime, you may lost half of the opportunity.
Seller_byAaZARGFtylG
I have always been FBM. I have a last quality control that happens before I ship. I need to be sure my item is perfect or I remake it before shipping. It’s important to me personally.
Seller_AfZYqMZQJkEL2
More sales and less profits for FBA, but less sales and more profits for FBM.
Seller_oO12enilQKTRg
10% of our products are FBA, but they account for half of our sales. We chose these products based on sales volume and price (the cheapest is $23, up to $200); we have some sku’s with good volume under $20 but won’t send them to FBA because of the higher fees (so lower margins).
Once an sku with good sales volume was converted to FBA, the sales doubled or more. We are the only seller on our listings. We made a good choice with the items we chose to send to FBA, the increased sales more than compensate for the slightly higher fees and returns.
Some of these items are heavy/oversize, so if shipping individually across the country, our shipping cost for FBM is much higher than what Amazon charges in FBA fees (because the shipping rates Amazon pays are minimal).
We self-fulfill our sku’s with lower sales volume to avoid FBA storage fees. We put much thought into what we choose to send to FBA, and what we choose to keep FBM. Furthermore, all of our FBA sku’s we also list as FBM, so that if the FBA sku temporarily runs out of stock, we can still get the sale by self-fulfilling.
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