The Rising Tide - Amazon Sales - JASONTAYONLINE.COM

Chapter 7: The Rising Tide

20/9/2014

If you've been following my sales summaries, you'll notice that there has been a pretty steady increase in sales since Feb 2014 (see Chapter 3 or the post dated July 22, 2014). Last month I sold 566 units for $12,475.05 in 30 days up to Aug 20, 2014. The last 30 days has seen a nice jump in sales despite my being away at ces2dallas for over a week. That's a 30 day sales increase of $4058.06 and 50 units.

Sep 22, 2014

So what are some key points that resulted in the growth?

Outsource - NOT touching boxes and tape! Ironically, the week of CES2 was when I packed the most boxes at one time ever for FBA! A grand total of...wait for it...3 small boxes, weighing about 7 lb each. It was all stuff that I brought along with me from Singapore to Dallas. I'm so inexperienced at boxing that I even managed to cut my hand taping one of the boxes while in the hotel room at CES! But seriously, the lesson here is my sales continued and increased, and it did not matter that I was away because I outsource all my prep. In fact while I was at CES2, My Inventory Team packed and shipped 11 large boxes of my inventory to Amazon. Woohoo! Many people are not willing to pay to outsource various aspects of their business, however that mindset is one of the biggest roadblocks to growth. I talk to a couple over lunch in Dallas who spend over 35 hours a week on boxing and was struggling to grow. Therein lies the problem and key to change. If they outsourced the prep work, they would be able to free up over 30 hours a week to source! Imagine what that could do for their business! Now imagine you paid a VA $300/month to source online or wholesale...that could lead to an increase in sales of thousands or tens of thousands a month! The point? "Let it go!"
Bundles and Multi-Packs - I have been creating more bundles and multi-packs to increase the average selling price of my units as well as beat the competition. In the 1st quater, my average sale price/order was $18. Yesterday it was just over $40. The advantage of higher selling prices is that Amazon fixed fees take up a smaller percentage.

I hope you take action from this chapter and look into outsourcing parts of your business as well as bundling/multipacking.

12 Comments

Aaron

23/9/2014 07:05:55 am

Any tips on multipacking and bundling?

Jason Tay

23/9/2014 08:10:22 am

Hi Aaron. One of the first things you'll need is your own UPC codes. I buy mine from leadingedgecodes on eBay. I suggest buying 100 or 1000 as it only costs a few dollars.

Most products can be multipacked for example 2 bottles of sauce. For bundles look for complementary products such as a bottle of shampoo and conditioner.

Maybe I should do a post or video on more advanced bundling...

23/9/2014 08:46:30 am

Tips on pricing and packaging bundles?

Do you price it more or the same as they would be alone?

Do you wrap them up together?

23/9/2014 02:32:48 pm

I sometime price less and sometimes more than multiples of the singles. It also depends demand, competition and number in stock. You can always adjust your price. For example I have a multipack that I vary in price from $37.99 to $48.99 depending on the above 3 factors. When other sellers are all out of stock I can raise the price and still sell well.

I mostly pack together. There is a way to do bundles without pre packing them together but that's more advanced;and best explained in a video or more detailed eguide.

23/9/2014 06:00:47 pm

I would be interested in a more detailed guide.

Do you use a specific tool to monitor competitor stock and pricing so you can adjust yours or do you do it manually?

4/10/2014 04:08:15 pm

Hi Aaron, I do that manually at the moment. The only tools i use to monitor competitor stocks are the Amazon cart and FBAtoolkit.

James

4/10/2014 03:52:11 pm

How much of your sales actually translate to actual profit?

4/10/2014 04:04:42 pm

Hi James the last time I tabulated costs was August when my average net profit per item averaged just under $7, so just multiply that by the number of sales. Profit should be higher in September as I have a few new products with a net profit of $10 to $40+.

james

5/10/2014 03:27:15 pm

Thanks for the reply. How much will you suggest a fellow Singaporean to save up in order to get started on FBA? Would the easiest way to start be to order from US stores to send to MIT for packaging?

Jason Tay link

6/10/2014 01:21:03 am

Hi James, yes, in my opinion, the easiest way to start is to order online from stores in the US and send to an FBA prep service such as My Inventory Team. If you do not yet have an account with them, they have closed new account registrations till Jan 2015 due to the peak Q4 period. An alternative prep service is prepandship.com which I am trying out for the first time this week.

6/10/2014 01:51:41 pm

So realistically how much do you think I should save up before I even start thinking about doing FBA? Including cost of PAC. Thanks!

21/1/2015 05:01:05 am

I would say a minimum of a few hundred dollars is enough to start. Also start with Fulfillment Butler's prep service if you are only starting with very few items as their minimum quantity is 1! My Inventory Team has a minimum price of $35.

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Chapter 7: The Rising Tide

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