Make a New listing or turn a good selling FBM to FBA?
I have a good selling product and I want to make it to FBA.
I have a few reviews and starts and buy box . I am worried about the period from making it into a FBA and shipping the product I will lose sale and my trending sale.
Is it better to make a new item or change the listing to FBA?
22 replies
Seller_XBO7paXDRHxnG
FBA has been terrible for me. My #1 has LOST me money on FBA. #1 because I sell low-priced products, and the fees kill me. #2 customers lie.
I have over 2000 orders off of Amazon and only one exchange request, ever. On FBA, I had 3 for "defective" products. It's freaking soap. Because of that, my best-seller is rated as "fair" and has been suppressed.
Rose_Amazon
Hi @Seller_h9aBKs3UtzRDe
Thanks for the post. Unfortunately, you can't not transfer you FBM reviews to FBA. You will need to create a totally new listing to sell a product both FBA and FBM.
Best regards and have a good weekend.
Rose_Amazon
Seller_IZ5lvEic6oGAx
Avoiding FBA is almost always the right choice...
Seller_SJRMV3s4mNrFA
How much inventory can you afford to "lose" when FBA checks them in? Amazon claims sellers send them ALOT of 20-30 pound EMPTY boxes...
Seller_b9WizAGoDfKQH
We do both, using the same ASIN, so the customer has the option of buying from us for us to ship or FBA. FBA has it's issues, but relatively small - normally the cost of FBA is significantly less than FBM - they do have extremely good shipping rates. We have several thousand orders a year through Amazon both FBA and FBM and are overall. happy with both systems. And yes, it may depend on what you are selling - just logistically some makes more sense FBA and some more sense FBM
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
Rose,
Respectfully, this is not true. They are two different conditions. One is FBA one is FBM. Since day one over 12 years ago we have always set up two SKU's for each catalog page.
For the first listing we set it up for FBM.
The SKU is named ABC-123
We then make a second SKU that is ABC-123-FBA that is the FBA SKU.
In the past we also made ABC-123-SnL (Small and light) and ABC-123-SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime. All of this is allowed, as is a "Used Item" as a different condition.
Please reach out to @SEAmod I am sure she can clarify this for you.
Seller_kCitR6q1FPdVg
You wont lose sales while the fba product is getting shipped in just put the fba listing priced way higher so it doesnt win the bb
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
Product reviews are connected to ASIN, not SKU.
To sell an item (ASIN) through both merchant fulfilled and Amazon fulfilled, just have two SKUs for that item. The product review belongs to the page, which both listings share.
Seller_QxGdFbMQybcMX
On the Manage Inventory Page, on the right side click the little down arrow next to the word "Edit." Choose Copy Listing. Set up the new copied listing you just created to be the FBA listing.
Now you have 2 listings of the same product (1 FBM, 1 FBA).
Keep selling the FBM listing as you have been all along, while also prepping some units for FBA. Send in the FBA units. It will take somewhere between 1 and infinity weeks for your items to arrive at the warehouse, be received, and be checked in. While you wait, your FBA stock available will sit at zero. Keep selling on the FBM listing while you wait for the FBA inventory to go live.
Once you see the available units for the FBA items become a non-zero number, people will be able to start buying your FBA items.
At that point you can either,
1) delete the FBM listing from your inventory page and leave the FBA listing live (I do not recommend this option)
2) Leave both listings live at the same price (I also don't recommend this because the algorithm seems to get confused and kind of pings the buy box back and forth between them. And the goal of FBA is to remove the FBM labor from your plate, not still have to do FBM on random days)
3) Leave both listings live at the same price, but set your FBM inventory to 0 (Then there is only one active listing for people to buy from. But if the FBA listing sells out before you have more FBA units arriving, you'll either miss out on those sales, or you'll have to manually update the FBM inventory count and sell FBM until the FBA units go live again. This is a fine approach for a few months while you see how fast the FBA items move and whether you want to shift to just FBA for the item.)
4) Leave both listings live but at different prices (Recommended. This way if the FBA sells out, the sales will just shift to the FBM listing. Price the FBM like $.10 higher than the FBA. That should make the algorithm put the FBA listing as the buy box. And if the FBA units sell out, the sales will roll right to the FBM item without you having to do anything. You will have FBM orders to handle but only when the FBA stock goes to 0. This works well while you work out how many units will sell FBA per month and figure out your shipping schedule to be sure FBA stays in stock, and determine how many lost items you'll have to eat the cost for per month, and determine how many returns of used items you can't resell you'll have to eat the cost for per month. Once you have your FBA listing selling consistently and your FBA stock replenishing at the appropriate times consistently, and you have accounted for the cost of lost and used FBA items appropriately, you can delete the FBM listing.)
