We are often asked if sellers need to spend a lot of time doing business on Amazon. How much time do you need to devote to Amazon FBA business? Today we will try to analyze this issue in detail.
Compared to most traditional businesses, Amazon FBA business takes less time
Amazon takes care of many routine processes, for example, delivery and storage of goods, accepting payments, etc. So you save some of the time on this, but if you want to start a business on Amazon yourself, you still have to work a lot.
To get started, let’s outline a key thought: you need a 100% team to run a successful business on Amazon.
Business automation on Amazon depends on the kind of team you have, and the time you spend on business will also depend on your team.
If you think that you can cope with everything on your own, then it will take you at least 24 hours a day to develop your business on Amazon. And it is not a fact that you will be in time.
Will you be able to efficiently organize your work if you do not have experience in all processes?
For example, you need to find a supplier in China and find the most profitable and safest shipping option.
It is clear that a logistics specialist will cope with this task much faster, so you will definitely need such a specialist.
Or, for example, you need to promote a product using PPC ads on Amazon. How long will this process take you if you have no idea what PPC advertising is now, and your competitors are Amazon sellers who have been cooking in this advertisement for 5-10 years, or even more?
Therefore, if you want to do everything yourself, then you will have to spend 24 hours a day on constant development and immersion in business. At least in order to keep up with competitors in professional skills.
The largest amount of time in an Amazon FBA business you spend at the start, when you need to get everything ready to launch sales:
Register a seller account and properly prepare documents for verification. Preparation of documents usually takes a couple of days. But then you will have to spend at least a couple of weeks communicating with Amazon technical support in order to open an account for you. Sometimes Amazon may refuse to register an account. You will need to buy a ready-made account;
Find a product.
Finding a quality product and calculating everything can easily take several weeks, or even months, it will take deep analytics and a lot of calculations. It all depends on your initial experience with Amazon
Find a supplier.
If we work with China, then you should know that the Chinese are not the fastest guys in terms of sales and communication with clients, and they can answer for a long time, prepare an invoice for payment for a long time, and it will take time;
To order a batch of goods and deliver it to the Amazon warehouse, it’s no secret that the production and delivery of goods takes a long time. On average, 3 weeks for the manufacture of goods and 3 weeks for delivery by sea, if there are no force majeure.
Launch sales, set up services for work, set up advertising, etc.
All these steps take a long time, even for an experienced salesperson.
After you have launched and brought sales to the level you need, you need to deal exclusively with the control of the store
Control of the availability of goods in the warehouse. If you see that the goods will soon run out, then contact your supplier and reorder the goods.
Control of negative reviews from
customers.
If suddenly something is wrong with your product or competitors are trying to worsen your sales.
And of course, control of the level of sales.
To always be aware that everything is going well, you need to control advertising.
For this control, 15-30 minutes at the computer a day is enough. But sometimes you need to order goods, optimize advertising, buy reviews, when such days come. It may take several hours, or even the whole day, to work. But it still depends on your ambitions.
If you want to launch 1 product and stop there, then you can devote a couple of hours a week to your business. But if you want to constantly develop, constantly launch new products, optimize your costs, improve sales, then a business on Amazon will have to devote all of your time.
Which strategy takes less time with Amazon FBA business – Online Arbitrage or Private Label?
When working on the Online Arbitrage strategy, everything depends on your budget and on the number of goods. If you have dozens of products, you will have to order goods in small batches many times a month. And preparing an order always takes time.
Also, if you want to develop, then you need to constantly look for new products for sale. This work requires constant attention. When working on the Private Label strategy, the main work takes place at the start of the business, and the longer you work, the less time you will need to spend on maintaining product sales.
As a rule, 3-4 months after the launch of sales, you will be able to optimize the work of the store and manage the store according to the Private Label strategy in 5-10 hours a week. But if you want to develop in business on Amazon, and not stand at the same level, then you will have to constantly develop; look for new products, optimize work, and this will take up all your free time, and you will definitely need a team.
A business on Amazon is a business like any other, and it takes a lot of time to stay ahead of your competitors and make money.
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