So, let’s get to it. What did we learn and what are we going to do with our next FBA shipment? 5 Tips for the 1st Timer:
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Yep, you’re restricted.
You can’t sell Lego, most Disney, Shopkins, Nike, lots of clothing, health & beauty, grocery and food items, and so many other popular brands – too many to list. But DON’T STRESS!!! You may have missed the boat on getting grandfathered into gated categories, but not to worry, we found plenty of stuff to sell and you will too. We can work on getting ungated later and focus on what we can control for now.
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Get a Barcode Scanner
We spent too much extra time typing in those blasted ISBN and UPC digits. A cheap, less than $15 barcode scanner will make it so much easier.
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Shipping Labels
We have all kinds of labels for our eBay business, but surprise surprise, no address labels. Amazon uses the 1″ x 2 5/8″ size to print off their special unique bar code (FNSKU). You need address labels to print these out.
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Plan your workflow
We’ve got a pretty good workflow down for eBay but this was our first time doing FBA. We didn’t know what to expect other than what we saw from the YouTube videos we watched, which made things look so easy. Don’t get me wrong they were great videos and inspired us to do this, but there were just some things we didn’t plan out that would’ve made things easier. For example: When you select sell yours, go beyond the competing Marketplace Offers and get a better sense of what you can sell your item for. Remember, shipping your product in will qualify for “Prime” and if there is no competition for Prime, you can definitely price higher than the competition. This part of the process might be best done before hand and ready to insert when you are uploading your products. We haven’t figured out what’s best yet but you need to plan that research time (separate from the acquisition decision time – unless you have a slick way of keeping the price to sell saved at the time you buy something). Let us know if you have a solution! 🙂
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Expect to make mistakes
Not all products have a UPC, ASIN, EAN, ISBN, or code on the product. We made of few mistakes assuming we found the exact product but after a more thorough effort realized we had the wrong one. We don’t want to start on the wrong foot and send a customer a different item than what they expected, so be diligent but not hard on yourself for making mistakes. In fact, laughing about it now, but was rather frustrated when we left out one of our items in our shipment. We had the box taped up real good and lots of Kraft paper filler and had to reopen and take stuff out to make room for the one item we forgot. Lot’s of fun, don’t beat yourself up. Mistakes are part of the learning process, it’s okay!
Comment below if you feel these 5 tips were helpful and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog or any other of our social media. Thank you for reading and happy selling!
For convenience we have listed all the supplies we ordered the next day to make our next FBA a better experience:
Avery Easy Peel Address Labels for Inkjet Printers 1″ x 2-5/8″, Pack of 750 (8160)
Barcode Scanner,Symcode USB Laser Wired Handheld Barcode Reader Black
Scotty Peelers Label & Sticker Remover – 3 Plastic Red, White, Blue and 1 Metal Blade with Cover