How to Start Selling on Amazon FBA

If you’re ready to grow your business, reach an audience across Europe and receive the full backing of a global corporation (and why wouldn’t you?), you need to start selling on Amazon FBA.

But before we delve deeper, let’s answer the question that’s on the tip of your tongue.

In fact, you can get started more quickly than you might imagine.

What is Amazon FBA?

FBA means ‘Fulfilment by Amazon’ and it’s a service where Amazon:

– Stores

– Packs

– Ships your products

Not only that, but they handle customer support and returns too.

All you need to do to start selling on Amazon FBA is set up an account, list your products on the site and when it’s time to ship the item, Amazon does all the work for you. 

Tips to help you start selling on Amazon FBA.

Step 1. Choose an Amazon Selling Plan

Your first step to start selling on Amazon FBA is choosing between the two plans on offer:

Basic/ Individual

With this option, you can sell and ship up to 35 items per month. Each of those sold items requires a completion and referral fee as well. That is £0.75 plus additional Amazon fees.

Professional

The professional plan is for larger companies and offers unlimited selling and shipping for a single monthly payment. The downside is that you have to pay £25 every month, even if you sell and ship nothing.

We’d suggest choosing the Basic/Individual plan unless you’ve got a bottomless pit of cash.

Step 2. Arrange for International Payments

One of the biggest perks of signing up with Amazon UK is the international network the website has in place across Europe. All the European marketplaces have been centralised and when you sign up with Amazon UK, you can sell across all Amazon networks.

But to do this, you need to be able to handle some form of international payment. If you’re using a domestic account, you’ll pay a currency conversion fee when you withdraw money from your Amazon account, which is a pain in the ass.

To avoid this, set up a borderless account that allows you to make and take funds in different forms. One of the most popular ways to do this is through Wise, but other options are available.

Step 3. Set Up Amazon FBA Account

If you’ve decided to let Amazon handle the delivery of your orders, FBA allows you to sell the items in your online shop but have Amazon handle the distribution and shipment. Your products are stored in Amazon’s fulfilment centres, and when an order is placed, the Amazon team simply collects your item from the warehouse, packages and sends it on its way.

The shipment fee will vary by the size and weight of the item as well as how the item is shipped. You’ll also be responsible for an inventory storage fee that, for most of the year, is £0.30 per cubic foot. As the holiday seasons approach, the price goes up to £0.40 per foot between October and December.

Step 4. Decide on shipping options

When you start selling on Amazon FBA, you’ll find it comes with different shipping options, including:

– Basic UK: ship within the United Kingdom.

– PAN-EU: ship to a different European marketplace without paying more than a local fulfilment cost.

– EFN (European Fulfilment Network): store your items in a single, centralised fulfilment centre if selling on all of Amazon’s European markets. With this option, you’ll need to localise your listings for different countries.

Step 5. Determine Pricing

With your shipping options provided by Amazon, you’ll need to consider how to price your products on various marketplaces. 

Pricing products requires benchmarking against other items in the field as well as your actual cost of doing business. Also, factor in your costs, the demand for your product, and the quality and perceived value. 

Be aware that inflated prices or pricing below what is sustainable can kill your business before you even start.

Yikes!

Step 6. Optimise Your Listing

You want customers to find your products, and optimising your listings is the perfect way to do that:

– Add relevant keywords and product tags.

– Include descriptions and adequate instructions with your items.

– Use images, clear language and diagrams to help customers understand what you’re selling, especially if it’s for sale across multiple languages and countries.

– Provide descriptive content with clear images to help customers make informed choices.

Optimise it perfectly and your stuff will be dead easy to find.

Step 7. Consider Languages

While diagrams and images help with language barriers, it’s wise to include some description and product information in other languages when possible. Be sure to have a native speaker create the marketing materials for your products, so you’re using the right terminology for your items.

Customers native to the country will be more confident buying items with the “right” names when shopping. 

After all, one man’s jumper is another man’s sweater.

Step 8. Double-Check on Legal

The legal requirements of working through Amazon in the UK and other European countries may be more complex than in the country you live in. 

This is definitely true if you’re selling from India or the United States.

Rather than hoping you’ve got everything right, before you start selling on Amazon FBA, get a qualified legal team or representative to review your plans and documents before you commit. You don’t want the faff of warranty issues or failing to meet compliance or tax guidelines.

It just ain’t worth the hassle.

How to save money on item storage.

Storing a large inventory of goods with Amazon FBA can be expensive because you’re paying for storage within their warehouse, and the more you keep in storage, the more you pay. 

But there is a cheaper way: myUKmailbox.

When customers order goods shipped by Amazon, you simply replenish your Amazon FBA inventory using the items in your myUKmailbox storage. And since your goods are stored locally, keeping your inventory stocked, but not so overstocked you’re paying more than you need to, is easy.

But the best part of all, you’ll pay a lot less for storing items with us than you will with Amazon (woohoo!) So, if you’re ready to start selling with Amazon FBA, sign up for myUKmailbox for free today and take advantage of our super-affordable storage options.