Guest post by FBA seller Jeff Roth
With Q4 steadily approaching along with other busy periods including Halloween, it was about time to update our repricing rules on RepricerExpress (as you know, our favourite FBA repricing software). Previously we had three rules that we placed our inventory in, depending on how competitively we wanted to price each item. Now, we have five.
As you get more involved in FBA and start to grow your inventory at the Amazon warehouses, your need to further categorize your items for pricing purposes grows. I thought we could get away with just the three rules for a while, but I was wrong. So, what was the big thing that changed this mindset? Online Arbitrage, with a strong emphasis on Amazon to Amazon Flips. Specifically, not being afraid to compete with head to head with Amazon on any item.
FBA Amazon to Amazon Flips
Got your attention? Yes, when you begin to get good at buying low then selling the same item high on Amazon as I have (see Chris Green’s Online Arbitrage), you will become much more willing to compete against Amazon on just about any item. However, to do this efficiently you will need your repricer to stay below Amazon and sometimes by a wide margin.
How often and how wide you ask? In basic terms, your desire to resell that flipped item quickly will determine what settings you should use to compete against Amazon and how far below their price and how low you are willing to drop to.
When you are buying items FROM Amazon to resell ON Amazon, naturally your number one competitor will be Amazon itself and you’ll need to factor that in strongly in your price set-up. If you try to simply match their price or price just below on moderate to fair ranking items, your chances of selling that item are slim to none. You must be willing to price significantly below Amazon to get the Buy Box and have the margins to do so. This is the reason the book, Online Arbitrage, is such a gem because there are many ways to locate reduced priced items on Amazon successfully, without much effort.
Sending in Halloween and Christmas Items Now
If you’re like us, you may already be sending in items that you’ve had sitting around since January that you are planning to sell come Halloween or Christmas time. We are trying to stay ahead of the game since we know come October and November new items will be sourced and need to be shipped out.
Being that I know you are a keen FBAer and realize the current prices for those items are not nearly what they will be come that time of year, how would you go about dealing with pricing now? Well, there are two ways to approach it.
Firstly, is to not reprice at all and set the item prices at your target for that time of year then revisit them once we get closer. If it happens to sell from now until then, great! But, you’re not expecting that to happen.
Another option is to set a repricing rule that deals with this issue. Why not put min prices in slightly below your target price and max the same so that once that time of year comes, you’re already good to go. It’s really up to you and your comfort level in selling at a slightly lower price than your target.
The issue to remember with these types of items is this: when you add a bunch of new inventory to Amazon, RepricerExpress forces you to assign a min and max sale price for each item in order for it to begin repricing.
If you have a lot of new items, the quickest way to do this is via bulk method instead of individually. The problem with this method is that not all of your items you sent in are going to be under the same repricing rule nor have the same min/max range. You don’t want to put the same min/max for a Christmas item as a thrift store find that you’re willing to take a lesser profit on (% wise). You would not want to bulk edit them in the same range and this would take time so instead what you can do is just choose to not reprice those items and pick/choose the items to reprice separately. If you’ve been doing this long enough you understand what I’m talking about.
Bottom Line
There’s a reason we now have five RepricerExpress repricing rules. Each item needs its own pricing consideration, maybe more so than you originally thought. When you’re ready to grow your FBA business, it’s time to start repricing like the pros with a solid platform you can trust like RepricerExpress. Sign up for your free 15-day trial today to save time whilst increasing your Amazon sales and profits.
Read more from this author. Check out the links below…
Set It and Forget It with FBA Repricing Rules? Not So Fast
RepricerExpress Screenshot Tour
FBA Sellers Should Use Repricing Software
Which to Choose—RepricerExpress vs Appeagle
RepricerExpress Independent Review
