Saturday, July 19, 2014

FBA Tip Sheet

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
~Aristotle

Ten Little Tips for FBA

TEN
Scotty Peelers are the tool of the trade. Apply a little heat (heat gun or blow dryer) and use your Scotty Peeler to remove those pesky store price stickers. Clean up sticky residue with lighter fluid.

NINE
Keep a stash of boxes around in a variety of sizes. I use the small Home Depot boxes, two different sizes from Walmart: 14 x 14 x 14 and 12 x 12 x 10.5. If Amazon wants you to send items to 3 different fulfillment centers, it helps to have different sized boxes to accommodate your shipments.

EIGHT
Save your 30 up labels from disuse by shipping in multiples of 30. The other day I had listed 86 items. Four more items would use up 3 sheets of labels. My local Kroger was moving things to clearance the day before while I was grocery shopping. I ran down there and picked up four $4 items with $35 Amazon price point. The effort to use my poor stickers paid off in a great find.

SEVEN
So you're shopping for the family, and really, you don't have time to stop and source, but you see a section that intrigues you. You know that you want to come back and source. Use Evernote to snap a picture of the section and make a note about the location. Go home and research the section in your underwear, then go back and buy your potential winners.

SIX
When you are listing multiple boxes, use a marker to write the weight and fulfillment center onto the box before you print your shipping labels. Now you can easily match up your box with your label!

FIVE
If in doubt, ask seller central. The other day I picked up a travel alarm clock for less than $2. I listed it, put it in the box, and approved the shipment. After an interesting discussion in a Facebook group, I realized that I might be selling a restricted item, after all, luggage is gated, and the category is called: Luggage and Travel Accessories. Oops! I checked and realized my travel alarm clock was listed in Home & Kitchen, but I know that some sellers will try to get around restrictions by listing items in other categories (major no-no), so I opened a case and asked if I could list the item. I was given the green light to list, and I have documentation showing that I was told yes by Seller Central.

FOUR
Start your SKU with a category code. For example: Toys could be TY, or Home & Kitchen could be HK. I wish, oh how I wish, I would have thought of this a long time ago. You can't sort your inventory by category, but you can sort it by SKU. Are you catching my drift here? You can sort by TY and bring up all of the toys in your listing! 

THREE
Polybags look professional. Ziploc bags do not. Just saying'...

TWO
FYI - Office Depot shrinkwraps for 0.75 cents per item.

ONE
If you put an FBA label over shrinkwrap or on top of a polybag, cover it with clear packing tape to ensure that it doesn't fall off. The removable labels easily peel off of plastic. Yes, Amazon can scan the label through clear packing tape. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hey there! I'd love to hear what you have to share about FBA, but please keep your spam out of it. Thanks for reading and commenting!