5 Signs You’re NOT Cut Out to Be Selling on Amazon FBA

I’ve realized over the years that certain people just aren’t cut out to be selling on Amazon FBA.

I’ve met eBay sellers who are awesome eBay sellers. But once they move over to Amazon, it just doesn’t seem to work. I’ve seen Amazon sellers who are kick- butt sellers, and they move over to eBay and it just doesn’t work. Here are some signs that Amazon FBA just isn’t for you.

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#1: You Hate to Let Go of Your Business
FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. When you’re selling via Amazon FBA, you’re going to have to let go of your business to an extent. Essentially what you’re doing is taking your products and shipping them off to the Amazon FBA warehouses, where they are stored. When the product sells, Amazon sells it, ships it, and deals with customer service issues.

In a sense, you’ve kind of got to let your baby go. For some people, doing that is difficult. It’s tough for them to rely on another person to perform certain tasks in their business.

So if you’re a nervous wreck about UPS getting your products to the warehouse safely and trusting Amazon to ship things out correctly, that might be a sign that you might want to stick with eBay or craigslist.

#2: You Want Your Money Now
Say you have a road bicycle for sale on craigslist. In that situation you would meet up with somebody and do a cash deal. You’d get your money right away. When you sell on eBay, the money is going to go to your PayPal account, and you can get your money within a couple days. You just have to get the money transferred to your bank account.

Well, with Amazon FBA, if you sign up nowadays, it could take up to two weeks for you to be able to get your money for them to wire that money to your bank account.

If you need the money now and are dealing with cash flow issues, Amazon FBA might not be for you.

#3: You Miss Interacting with Your Customers
Some people out there love interacting with their customers. They like getting feedback. They like writing a little handwritten note and shipping it off and getting that good, personal feedback.

If you miss that and you find yourself feeling as if something is missing, Amazon FBA might not be for you.

#4: You’re Getting Too Many Negatives
One thing that you need to realize with Amazon FBA is you’ve got to be able to describe your items properly and inspect them 100 percent because it’s super easy to get negative feedback. Amazon buyers are very particular. And if there’s anything wrong, a lot of times they’re going to give you negative feedback. It’s been said that most people don’t leave feedback, but the people who do tend to leave negative feedback.

On eBay you can sell items for parts. You can sell items that are broken. You can sell items with issues. With Amazon FBA, you’re piggybacking on listings, and many times it’s challenging to be 100 percent accurate. You got to do the best you can to inspect the item to describe it properly. But if you’re one of those people who hate the details and just want to put it on eBay as is, Amazon FBA might not be for you.

#5: You’re Losing Your Mind over Price Wars
The thing about Amazon FBA is there are repricers. I guess you could call them robots. It’s software that will automatically reprice your item based on rules that you set forth for it.

So, for example, you can be selling a box of Legos for $29.99, and the seller before you can be selling it for $30.00. Their repricer might have a rule set that if somebody comes in a penny under, they’re going to come under you for a penny. And it just sets this price war in motion. It drives some people absolutely crazy. Some people just can’t handle the price wars.

When selling on Amazon, you’re piggybacking on people’s listings. There’s not a lot for you to do to differentiate yourself from the next guy. It’s mostly based on price. If you’re selling on eBay, you can differentiate your listing based on keywords, on pictures, on your description, including all the item specifics to rank better, and on your feedback. Whereas with Amazon, it’s typically mostly just price.

So if you’re finding yourself going nuts over the price, you might want to stick with eBay or Amazon. You just might not be cut out for selling on Amazon FBA.

Know Yourself
It’s good to know yourself and your business personality. If the different aspects of dealing with Amazon FBA make you perpetually uncomfortable, then there’s no shame in sticking with other platforms.