Guest post by Amazon FBA Seller, Jeff Roth
I don’t want to go overboard on their platform but it’s hard not to with the positive experience we’ve had thus far. I just completed a 30-minute phone conversation with their technical support team who gladly attended to detailed questions I had on the settings and technical aspects of their platform.
Other sales related questions over the past weeks have been quickly answered via email which I can say without pause does NOT happen with other FBA related businesses, a real problem in our industry. Those are user experiences that make the difference between yes and no for me and whether or not I will maintain usage of such product and RepricerExpress is on top of their game in this regard.
Why FBA Sellers Should Use Amazon Repricing Software
There’s no doubt in my mind that 90% of part-time (and 100% of full time) FBA sellers should be using repricing software in their business model. 90% might sound high for those with potentially limited funds doing FBA part-time but what you need to realize is that the cost of using such service easily pays for itself many times over within that month to get the churn of sales and money back into the business.
The ability to adjust settings based on the individual items allows you — the seller — complete control over your inventory and how you want to compete against others and importantly the Buy Box. The 10% who I feel should not be using an FBA repricer are those who are purchasing very low (poorly) ranked but high priced items with no competition that they simply don’t want to reprice and they are willing to wait it out for those potential sales.
The main stopping points we’ve heard from those who have yet to dive in and start a repricing trial is that they either:
- Don’t have enough inventory (in their minds) FBA Repricer.
- Are convinced they won’t set up the rules properly and this will affect them in a negative manner once the repricing begins.
- Don’t want to lose $$ on sales and would rather hold onto the items in hopes of gaining larger margins down the road.
- It costs too much.
Let’s break each down individually and why none of the above hold water in holding you back on getting started with an Amazon repricing trial.
1. Don’t Have Enough Inventory to Justify Amazon Repricing
50 is the Magic Number
If you have more than 50 items in your inventory you’re ready for an Amazon FBA repricer. Why 50? Because 50 is a number that you will find difficult to manage manually without pulling your hair out. Brand new sellers with 20 items inventoried might be a bit too soon.
What you’ll notice as a newer Amazon seller is by the time the items you purchased with sheer exuberance in store are prepped, shipped, checked in and inventoried by Amazon that your competition has increased. When you scanned it in the store and it had 3 other FBA sellers with a $15 net profit, alas now there are 10 FBA sellers who have undercut the price down to an $11 net profit and more sellers will be jumping on soon. Uh oh. If the rank of that item isn’t super strong and you don’t reprice, you’ll now need to wait for an undetermined amount of time to sell your items.
Now you have three ways to go:
- Keep your price the same, stay the course to get that $15 profit which may not happen for many months if not longer.
- Manually reprice your item to compete with other sellers (wasted time).
- Use the RepricerExpress free 15-day trial to take care of the tedious nature of repricing your entire inventory.
Bottom line: Once your inventory begins to grow above 50 items your life will be made much easier by adding a repricer into your business. It eliminates the time crunch that will be required to compete and frees up valuable hours for you to find more inventory to sell.
2. Setting Up the Repricing Rules Properly
This is a notable area of worry for many sellers as they simply don’t know what settings would work best for them once they do get started. However, this is not a reason to avoid using this type of service because there is a learning curve for any software service large or small.
Anyone who desires to succeed using RepricerExpress or another repricer needs to spend some time with it to understand the settings. It’s not a hands-off solution from the start nor should it be since it will be controlling YOUR inventory that you bought with your own money. That said, there is a Safe Mode available which won’t upload new prices your live listings and template rules which are preset and will get you going without worrying that any settings are wrong.
But once you do get the repricing settings and rules set up it properly it will become an extremely user-friendly experience.
3. Losing Potential $ in Margins By Lowering the Amazon Price to Sell
The thought of losing potential money by lowering prices to get more sales is undoubtedly the #1 reason FBA sellers don’t use a repricer in their business. On a small scale, it makes sense. You put a lot of time and effort into sourcing and when you do find those winners you want to reap the full rewards of those potential high margins. The great thing about a platform like RepricerExpress is that you can pick and choose which items you want to hold out on and which ones you’re ready to sell off.
This concern is exactly why I recommend our business model of including thrift store finds in your strategy. When I can consistently buy well-ranked items for $20 and sell for $150 in less than a week, my willingness to accept $5 instead of $10 net profit on other products goes way up knowing that I just made $100 on that thrifting find.
If your inventory is of a substantial amount then you will understand when I say that consistent sales are the key to sustaining and growing an FBA business. We all would love to make fast sales with huge margins and no competition but that’s not realistic in any model. Take that $5 profit (maybe you have 20 of these items = $100) and reinvest it into something else you found online. This is what trying a trial period on RepricerExpress will give you for now and into the future.
4. No other FBA product gives you the value that RepricerExpress does
If you have under 2,500 SKUs which a majority of my readers do, RepricerExpress only costs £39/$55/month. That’s around £1.00/$1.5 per-day to reprice your entire inventory. I pay for a number of FBA programs and software that help in our business but without hesitation, there’s no other FBA product that gives you the value that RepricerExpress does for that price, guaranteed. If you’re a power seller the prices go up to £49/$79 per-month for 5,000 SKUs.
Don’t forget: You’re spending money in the business of FBA to make money. Adding this small expenditure to your business will help you grow instantly and is the main reason why FBA Sellers should use Amazon repricing software.
Now that all of your concerns have been addressed, its time to get started using an FBA repricer. Of course, our platform of choice is RepricerExpress and with a free 15-day trial available, what are you waiting for?
5. It’s Free to Get Started
With RepricerExpress, your first 15 days of repricing are free so it’s risk-free. No credit card required.
Related: RepricerExpress Screenshot Tour
