It has been a busy few weeks for me. I have spent all of my extra time reading and researching more on Amazon FBA. You can read about what I am doing in my first post here. In that time, I have started to sell a few more things that I have shipped in and have gone out and found even more deals that I just sent in on Monday. My new plan is to really ramp up and get serious about it. I think this is what you need to do to make this thing work. You need to be consistent with shopping, shipping, and selling.
Based on rough math, I believe you need to sell at least $270 a month to break even after accounting for monthly fees for Profit Bandit, Inventory Lab, and Amazon Pro Merchant Fees. I am assuming you will take in 1/3 of the $270 as profit so $90 and the total cost of the monthly fees are ~$90. My June results are below and I will let you know what I learned.
July
Sales – $625.39
COGS – ($282.38)
Amazon Fees – ($170.18)
Shipping – ($58.22)
Mileage – ($129.81)
Subscription Fees – ($89.31)
Long Term Storage – ($0.04)
Net Profit/(Loss) – ($104.55)
Analysis
As you can see, I operated at a loss for the month of July but not really. I am able to deduct the mileage I drive as a business expense if I am doing FBA shopping, but I have generally been shopping in conjunction with something else. This has allowed me to go visit my parents for free and get credit in my business which is great. Excluding mileage, I made $25 this month!
Other than shipping, I believe I have been pretty close to other FBA sellers out there in terms of margin. I just need more volume to make up for it! I do need to get better at shipping to lower those expenses. I only shipped a few items in and most were only 4-5 items per box. IF anyone has any suggestions for how to ship more efficiently, I am all ears. I hope to have a lot higher volume next month and show a profit above and beyond mileage.
Is anyone else having success with Amazon FBA? What have you done that has made you successful?
Comments on this entry are closed.
“This has allowed me to go visit my parents for free”, Not until the IRS knows that you’re deducting your “free” visit to your parents.
Thanks for your concern, but I am well within my right to deduct business mileage expense. My parents just happen to live 2-3 miles away from a bunch of places I can source. I just deduct the mileage from my house to the stores and the mileage from store to store and the mileage back to my house. The 2-3 mile detour to my parents isn’t included so I don’t think the IRS will have an issue.
Do you feel you’re getting a really good lift on those additional subscriptions? I haven’t tried Profit Bandit for example. Do you feel that you get more lift or you get more saved time?
I like Inventory Lab. It makes navigating the listing process easier and profit bandit makes sourcing that much quicker. If you look at it for a whole year, it is only $600 for those items you listed. I want to do more than that and right now my biggest constraint is my time so these are key for me.
Your quote about Volume reminded me of this:
https://screen.yahoo.com/first-citywide-change-bank-2-000000534.html
That is pretty good. Hadn’t seen that one before. Cowbell is my favorite SNL skit.