Turnover Tuesdays - Walmart and eBay Are Not Going As Smoothly as I Would LIke

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Walmart Was Going Great

If you've been playing along at home, I was hoping to use eBay and Walmart (mostly Walmart) to increase my sales and at a minimum mitigate the increased rent that I've begun to pay to allow for more merchant fulfillment and decreased Amazon storage fees.  Walmart does not allow for multi channel fulfillment from Amazon so you must fulfill outside of your Amazon inventory.  That requires space and a team to fulfill orders (or more time from you).

For a while, I was very excited about Walmart.  For the first couple of months I was getting a lot of orders on Walmart's platform.  Not all were very profitable, in fact some were actually losses but at least I was selling old inventory that was much less profitable on Amazon at that point (I wish I had been willing to lower some of them more as the price on some have continued to tank).

I was also selling some items that had great profits.

I was sure that the future was bright.

eBay Never Really Did Great

Turnover Tuesdays - Why I Sell on Amazon

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Let's Reflect Together

Every once in a while you need to take a step back and reflect on why you started the path you chose and whether it is still meeting your needs.  I find it both interesting to write about, important to keep you motivated or pivot and hopefully others will share their stories in the comments too.

Turnover Tuesdays - Manage Inventory vs. Manage FBA Inventory

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Deciding Which Inventory Management Page to Use

There are two pages to choose from within Seller Central on how to manage your inventory.  One is Manage Inventory and the other is Manage FBA Inventory.  They both have pros and cons. Amazon is also rolling out a new beta Manage FBA Inventory with some "enhancements".   I'll also throw in one tip at the end to improve your Manage Inventory screen.  I've used Manage FBA Inventory since I've started but I'm now questioning that.

There are some things you can only see in one or the other so it's a bit of a mixed bag but it's good to know what each has so you can decide which one to use primarily and whether you need to go back and forth.

Turnover Tuesdays - Business Expenses

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Disclaimers

Now that it is 2017, it's time to talk about taxes a bit.  I'm not a tax expert and I'm certainly not an accountant.  My goal is not to create a comprehensive list of business expenses you may have.  Hopefully I can mention some things that others hadn't thought of, maybe others can come up with ones I didn't think of.

Please talk to your accountant before you decide to take any deductions.  I have an accountant and I've asked about all of these but not every accountant is as aggressive about deductions as other accountants.  

Hopefully this is the beginning of a conversation that is beneficial to everyone.

Turnover Tuesdays - All My Returns Will Now Going to be Inspected By Me, Not Amazon

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.



Update: It seems that this option allows Amazon to repackage any item that has damaged packaging and sell as new.  However, if an associate deems something sellable as is, there is no way to stop them from automatically putting it back into your inventory other than a removal order.  

It is Your Choice to Have Amazon Inspect Items or Do it Yourself

Amazon gives you the option of inspecting returns for you.  This is a service that they provide for free which is nice.  If they deem the returned unit to be sellable as new, they will put the item back into your inventory and sell it for you without you touching it again.

The other option is that Amazon will not inspect it for you.  You have to create a removal order, inspect it yourself and send it back in.

Having Amazon inspect it is nice.  It saves you time and money.  You don't have to pay $.50 to have the unit removed to you and the shipping back to an Amazon warehouse.  Until yesterday, this was the option I chose.

Turnover Tuesdays - January is Part of Q4

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.




I am currently outside the US on vacation so this will be an abbreviated Turnover Tuesdays.

January is Not Fun

I don't like January.  Last year, January was by far my worst month of the year for profits.  In terms of gross sales, it was actually right in the middle.  I had 6 months with higher sales and 5 months with lower sales so it wasn't the lack of sales that caused it.  

Last year it was the returns.  I had almost 2x more returns last year in January than any other month.  The only month that has ever come close to January of 2016 was December of 2015.

My profit for January was 2.77% of my profit for the whole year.  That's not good.  If every month was like that I would probably quit.  Compare that to 30.9% for the month of December.  Obviously, December is more fun than January.  

Turnover Tuesdays - When You Are that Shady Seller

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.






The last couple of weeks was a very, very tough week with ups and downs.

The Ups

One of the distributors that I work with through a friend (BN) found a great deal on a certain item.  The rank was amazing and competition was scarce.  We had a decent track record with them so It was about 50% ROI.  Everything was great.  The one catch was that item in China.  The distributor took care of the logistics of bringing it over but it was a 2-3 month lag time.  Anything can happen in 2-3 months including plenty of competition and price erosion but I was excited.


After a couple months, they finally arrived. I sent them in and magic started happening.  There were 2 other sellers including BN at $25 with me but I still selling 20-30 every day.  I've never sold anything like it when it wasn't Q4.  I was making about $6 on each one so that is amazing.  After about a week, we were already ruing the fact that we were almost out.

Turnover Tuesdays - 2017 Goals

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

2017 Goals

All the cool bloggers were putting in their 2017 predictions.  I have no clue how other companies are going to react in 2017 other than Amazon likely increasing storage fees again, doing something more to combat counterfeits (it's a big problem - just look at all the one star reviews on Speak Out game of Chinese fakes).  I do, however, have some idea on what I would like to do in 2017 so here it goes.

More Distributors/Wholesalers/Manufacturers

Turnover Tuesdays - How it is Going Outside of Amazon

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Selling on eBay with JoeLister - Meh

As I mentioned in week 77, I am trying to move beyond Amazon into eBay and Walmart.  eBay has had very blah results with JoeLister.  Since September 23rd  I have sold about 30 units total through JoeLister.   That's not very good.  Really not very good.  During that same time I sold more than 6,700 units with Amazon.  Granted I have far more listings with Amazon (I only paid for 100 listings with Joe Lister) but even on those 100 listings I had far, far more with Amazon.  I don't know yet if I will drop JoeLister but it is not an integral part of my Get Rick Quick Schemes.  Right now I'm using them to try and sell items that have Long Term Storage Fees associated with them in February.  Each sale provided outsized returns.

Selling on Walmart - Bumps and Bruises

Turnover Tuesdays - Using Q4 for An Accelerated Shake Up

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Inventory Shakeup

I've mentioned a few times recently that I'm in the process of trying to change over my inventory.  Instead of being mostly electronics, I'm moving over into Groceries, Beauty, Health and personal care, some toys after Q4 (plenty during Q4), some kitchen stuff, office supplies and the like.

I'm interested in high profit and few returns instead of a high volume of sales.

Turnover Tuesdays - Reimbursements

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Reimbursements, Yay!

I love reimbursement emails.  Makes my day when they are large.

It's not unreasonable to say that being on top of reimbursements and your inventory is the most important aspect of selling on Amazon after actually selling.


There are lots of reasons that you get reimbursements when you sell with Amazon, some more obvious than others.  They include Amazon not checking your inventory in (you sent in 6 and they received 5), lost and damaged inventory, returns initiated but never make it back to Amazon, returns after the return window has closed, returns that have been badly damaged.  All these can be reasons for a full or partial reimbursement.


I cannot underestimate the importance of reimbursements.  In 2016 alone, I have almost $500k in sales and over $42,000 in reimbursements.  I have almost as much in reimbursements as with refunds. I would have difficulty having any profit without reimbursements.

The actual numbers come out to 8.6% of my gross sales sales!  That's just straight crazy.  My rate of lost items seems to be greater than average but it is considered industry average to have shrinkage of about 1%-5% of inventory.  That same 1% of shrinkage can have a difference of about 5-10% on your margins.

Thankfully, as Amazon loses or damages your items they record everything in reports.  You can run your inventory adjustment and inventory reconciliation reports.  You can and should read them.  There is a wealth of information about what's happening to your inventory after it gets sent to Amazon.


Sometimes, about 40% of the time according to one person I spoke to who runs a company specializing in Amazon reimbursements, Amazon auto reimburses you.  Amazon acknowledges that they lost or damaged your item.  This should be auto reimbursed 100% of the time.  I'm pretty sure Amazon has software capable of doing that.  The reality is that if you aren't asking for reimbursements you won't be getting about 60% of the reimbursements owed to you.  That's your money, not Amazon's!  You can't let Amazon take that away.  Can anyone say class action lawsuit?

Inventory Shrinkage - Silent but Deadly

Turnover Tuesdays - Returns, Returns, Returns!

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Returns, Uch!

Just the word returns gets me upset.  Oh, and those emails!  They can ruin your day.  I hate returns, it's just money out of my pocket.  Returns had a major impact on me in 2015, especially during the holiday season and immediately thereafter.  Last year I had over $8,000 in returns in December and then again in January.  Salt was just getting poured further and further into the wounds.

I was mostly ok with that since I was still making money despite the returns.  I had over $100k in sales last December so my business could survive those returns.  Still, that's a ton of returns and it would be nice to cut that down for this year.  I also want customers to be able to return item - just not mine ;) - so that they are more confident making purchases.

Turnover Tuesdays - Pricing for the 4th Quarter Madness

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Pricing During Q4 Busy Season

I'm going to officially declare that we have reached the Q4 busy season.  While things will probably still heat up a bit more in December, from talking to others and my own sales figures, overall sales are way up from even the beginning of last week.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I'm even selling items that haven't come close to hitting my price in almost a year.

Turnover Tuesdays - Update on My Miles vs. Cashback Opportunity Costs

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Miles vs. Cashback

Back in Week 47 I discussed the opportunity costs of earning miles rather than cashback.  I highly recommend reading that post as I don't want to rehash my arguments back and forth in favor of against miles or cashback.


In that post I showed that I estimated a possible increase in my account by $17,500 for 2016 based on what I had already earned and possible projections.  This is a picture of one of my accounts in Fidelity at that time.

Turnover Tuesdays - Some Quick Holiday Tips

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Holiday Season

The holidays are a magical time full of beautifully expensive Unicorns where everything at Target and Walmart seems like a great deal (until everyone else finds it - which they will).  Shopping portals often increase their payouts and have spending bonuses (currently being offered by quite a few of the mileage portals).  

If you ever were thinking about signing up for a credit card with a large spending minimum for the bonus, now is the time.  

I've only been through one holiday season but I learned a lot from that experience, hopefully I can give over some of the useful information.

Turnover Tuesdays - Automation Beyond Amazon - JoeLister and GeekSeller

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

The Elections

I sat down to write this post late tonight when the news was starting to come in that Donald Trump would likely become the next president of the US.  This isn't a political blog but I knew that I had little to no chance that anyone is reading so I figured it was time to give away some secrets!

Did I have you even for a second?  No?  Oh well.

Here comes a nice post that you won't read anyways.  I hope everyone had a fun election party.  I decided to pack boxes to keep my mind off the circus that is our election process (no party affiliation coming out there - I think both parties would agree to that).

Turnover Tuesdays - Past Performance is not a Guarantee of Future Results

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Using Data from Keepa to Your Advantage

The Keepa extension is probably the most important (and free!) extension available to Amazon sellers.  I use it to evaluate every single deal.  Rank is almost meaningless to me at this point.  Rank is a snapshot currently but sales significantly affect the rank.  If you used rank to evaluate purchases on Prime Day and Amazon put it on sale, every item would have been #1 rank in its category so rank can be very misleading.  You need to evaluate rank over time.  You need to see the number of sellers over time.


There is a ton to be gleaned from Keepa, some of it obvious and some of it not so obvious but it is absolutely essential.

One thing you can use Keepa for is to check out prices last year during busy seasons previously.  This can be a guide for you of what items have huge demand.  As I will show, this does not necessarily correlate to a big payout.

Turnover Tuesdays - Prices Always Come Back, Except When They Don't

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Race to the Bottom

A Race to the Bottom is when one seller undercuts the price followed by more and more sellers undercutting.  Prices plummet in a hurry as sellers are racing to lower the price.

When an item goes on sale from one of the big retailers, there is almost invariably a race to the bottom.

My favorite saying is that you either need to be first or last to sell anything.  First because the prices are still high or last when prices finally recover.  Obviously, first is far preferable but not always possible if you can't get your inventory in fast enough or you bought too many to sell before the race to the bottom begins.  So I often find myself waiting for the price recovery to sell (unless I get impatient).  That is usually a good strategy.

Turnover Tuesdays - A Long Tail Sale and Calculating Storage Fees

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Long Tail Sales

Long tail sales are when you are selling an item that doesn't have much demand and you don't expect sales to happen quickly.  Your turnover is much slower but that doesn't mean your profit has to be any worse.


We would all like to sell fast selling items but those can attract a lot of competition so profits often eventually erode.  So instead of (or in addition to) selling 20 a month of one item you can sell 20 a month between 200 SKUs with the same sales numbers and possibly higher profit numbers


The downside, especially on Amazon where they are storing the item for you, is that you are going to pay storage fees.  That's definitely true but that isn't always a significant factor.

Turnover Tuesdays - Start Your Own Listings

For those who are not familiar, I started a series a while back called Turnover Tuesdays. Every Tuesday I like to highlight one item that I have resold. This will include profitable and non profitable sales. I hope that there is always something to learn.

The previous posts in the series can be found at the bottom of this post.

Keepa Charts

I know for myself that I sometimes get hyperfocused looking at Keepa charts to check out sales history and prices.  How many have sold in a week?  In a month?  At what price?

These are very important questions and it often influences how many of any particular item I will buy for my first purchase.

You can really learn a ton just by studying charts and your knowledge on what to look for on the charts will change over time as well as you read more charts