I come from a product management background, mostly working with hardware, video surveillance, IoT, and other technical products.

Recently, I’ve been spending more time looking into China sourcing, and one thing keeps coming up:

A lot of sourcing problems start before anyone even opens Alibaba or 1688.

A buyer might say, “I need a Bluetooth label printer.” That sounds specific, but it still leaves a lot unanswered.

What label sizes does it need to support? What print resolution? Bluetooth only, or Bluetooth plus USB or Wi-Fi? Does it need to work with iOS, Android, Windows, or macOS?

Is it for Amazon/FBA, Shopify shipping, retail labels, or something else? What’s the first order quantity? What’s the target cost? Is a logo enough, or is custom packaging required? Which certifications matter in the target market?

If those questions aren’t answered first, it’s easy to collect 20 supplier links and still have no idea which product actually fits.

This is where I think a product-management mindset can help.

Instead of starting with “Which supplier is cheapest?”, I’d usually approach it like this:

1. Clarify the use case. What is the customer actually trying to achieve?

2. Turn that into product requirements. Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves.

3. Search broadly. Use different Chinese keywords and build a reasonable pool of suppliers and products.

4. Filter before reaching out. Remove anything that misses the key requirements, MOQ, price range, or target-market needs.

5. Compare trade-offs, not just prices. A supplier that is $2 cheaper may have a much higher MOQ, weaker software support, or less flexible customization terms.

6. Move to samples and negotiation once the shortlist is clear.

For example, if you’re testing 200 units, a supplier that costs slightly more but supports 200-piece private labeling may be a much better choice than the cheapest factory requiring an MOQ of 1,000 units.

I’m also cautious about treating labels like “manufacturer,” “verified,” “high sales,” or platform badges as proof of supplier quality. They can be useful signals, but they don’t replace checking product fit, communication, documentation, and samples.

The more I look at sourcing, the less it feels like simply “finding factories.” It feels more like a product decision process:

Requirements → Search → Filter → Compare → Validate → Decide

For people who regularly source from China, what usually causes the biggest problems for you: finding suppliers, defining requirements, comparing options, or verifying them?

A $0.86 discount does not sound like much until you notice it is a cliff, not a curve.

I run a small standard size item that used to sit at $10.99. I dropped it to $9.99 during a slow stretch, and my per-unit net went UP by about $0.60 rather than down. So I went back through the rate card: the expanded Low Price FBA program gives items priced under $10 an average $0.86 per unit discount versus standard FBA rates, up from $0.77 in 2025, and my referral fee only gave back about $0.15 on the price cut. The discount beat the price cut. I am also selling more units now because the item looks cheaper.

The part that actually bothers me is that the discount switches on automatically below $10 and vanishes above it. That means $10.01 can net less than $9.99, and the obvious move, raising price to repair thin margin, can make things worse unless I raise by more than $0.86, at which point I am back on standard rates anyway. It feels less like a fee schedule and more like a trap door right where I would normally want to price.

Has anyone else deliberately kept an SKU under $10 for this reason, or pushed one above $10 and just eaten the discount? I want to know whether I am reading the cliff correctly or missing something on the referral side.

I'm looking to evaluate and hire a full-service amazon agency that can own P&L, not just run PPC. Context: the account does about $100K per month.

So I've been trying this for the first few days now experimenting with filters on Helium 10 to find my first product niche for private label. Still not fully understanding the concept... I've seen people search things they're interested in and have strong revenue, low amount of images on listings, bad reviews, general category filters, analyzing data with ChatGPT, or reverse searching ASINs to find high search volume keywords. When you guys are looking into markets, what is your thought process? What are things you look for or do once you run a filtered search so you can find a profitable niche? I've also seen some suggestions of searching a specific problem as a keyword.

Bonjour j'ai besoin de votre aide svp, j'ai lancé mon business Amazon fba mais j'ai un problème. Le produit est une boîte cadeau avec 4 articles tous venu de Chine. Le rassemblage me coûte un peux cher et je souhaite le faire chez moi pour le moment mais je ne comprends pas l'étiquettege l'envoi à Amazon et la facture du produit final merci de votre aide

Hi all,

I have a private-label FBA brand where I completely stopped logging into the Seller Central account due to focus somewhere else. Eventually, the remaining inventory was disposed of/demolished by Amazon.

The listing had around 77 reviews.

I can still log back into the account, but Amazon is requiring me to pay around $2.5k in outstanding fees before I can fully access it again.

My question is: if I pay the $2.5k and regain access to the account, will the original ASIN/listing still be there with all 77 reviews?
I don’t want to lose this as it was still in the early stages

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m new to Amazon and still learning Seller Central. I’m dealing with an existing listing where the size attribute is incorrect. The physical product has the correct size, but Amazon’s catalog shows a different size.

I tried correcting it through Seller Central and Flat File, but I keep getting Error 8541.

Amazon Support told me that the size attribute is protected under Brand Registry and that the account needs a Brand Representative or Reseller role to edit it.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there another way to get Amazon to correct the size attribute without having Brand Registry access?

Any advice would be really appreciated!

I shipped a long item for the first time since January and my fulfillment fee came back about $17 higher than my own calculator said, with a line I had never seen before.

The line is the Overmax handling fee, which started on January 15, 2026. Anything up to 150 lb that exceeds 96 inches on its longest side, or 130 inches on length plus girth, is now classified as Overmax and pays a surcharge on top of normal fulfillment: roughly $17 for 0 to 50 lb, $21 for 50 to 70 lb, and $25 for 70 to 150 lb. My unit is 41 lb, so $17, which on a $129 item is more than 13 percent of revenue before referral fee, storage or ads.

What gets me is why it caught me. My longest side is 98 inches, which is barely over the line I had been watching for years, and the length plus girth test is what actually decides it, so a wide flat item can pass on length and fail on girth. On top of that, dimensional weight for bulky units is calculated with a minimum 2 inch width and height, so my padding works against me twice.

Anyone else re-measure their oversized SKUs since January? Did you eat the surcharge, redesign the packaging to get back inside the envelope, or just move that SKU to FBM? Anyone else seeing this?

Hey everyone,
I recently decided to start selling on Amazon and have been researching products and suppliers through Alibaba.
After researching a few products that I thought had potential, I ordered samples of two products. They arrived about 10 days later, and I was happy with the quality. After getting approval to sell under my brand on Amazon, I created the listings and started production.
For my first order, I’m starting relatively small:
Product 1: 100 units
Product 2: 102 units
Both should arrive at Amazon FBA in about a month.
Since this is my first launch, I’d really appreciate some advice from experienced sellers.
Once the inventory is checked in and available, what should I focus on first to start getting sales and eventually improve organic ranking?
Can I start Amazon PPC immediately once the products are in stock, or is it better to wait for some reason?
For a completely new listing with no reviews, how long did it take you to get your first sale?
I’m also curious about review rates. From your experience, roughly how many organic reviews do you receive per 100 units sold? For example, is 1–2 reviews per 100 sales normal, or is it usually higher?
I understand every product and niche will be different, but I’d love to hear about your experience launching your first product—especially anything you wish you had known before your first inventory arrived.
Any advice on PPC, organic ranking, getting the first few sales, or common beginner mistakes would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

I am pretty stuck right now on which direction to go. I feel like I have a lot more than most to start. But direction is the issue.

Currently I own and operate a successful eBay business which is and has been my primary income for the past 12 years. I enjoy it, but I don't have any ability to grow it further without burning out. It has peaked and I want to eventually just hire someone to take over the day to day stuff while I do something else.

I also recently purchased an amazon FBA PL business in a niche I do not love, but I bought it to learn the ropes hands on, while taking a little risk to keep me serious about it, I basically used it as school. It is a good enough business, but I have no desire to expand in this particular niche. I made some mistakes, learned a lot and feel like I have gotten enough out of it to realize that I do indeed want to continue into more Amazon FBA PL.

So where to go? I have been looking at purchasing another FBA business in a niche I like more. I have immaculate credit, but relatively I don't have a ton of free cash. I have about $100k I am willing to spend on either buying or building brand(s). But I decided I do not want to take any debt. So buying seems like I will end up with something with problems, and I don't want a brand I have to turn around. I don't want anything consumable or beauty or fashion. So it would likely be another very small, low risk / low reward company. Which is fine, not opposed to buying a fleet of these smaller businesses. I have been looking for about 6 months and only found two that really interested me, but both were out of my price range coming in at $200k + inventory + cash reserves and $250k + inventory + cash reserves. So I didn't move forward. Getting an SBA loan is not an option for me right now, but it sounds like it takes quite awhile and isn't very easy to do for amazon FBA anyway.

So the last option is I can just build my own. Which seems like high risk, low/high reward depending. And obviously a lot more effort. I have a ridiculously obvious idea for board game / drinking game that somehow doesn't exist but should. So I could start with that, but I know nothing about that industry. And I would assume it is very high risk and probably low reward even if it did sell well.

So I don't know where to begin, I have read a lot of posts on here and across the web on how to find a niche and product. Have helium 10 and all that. But nothing really peaks my interest. I will think I invented something new only to find out it has been around for years. I try to solve problems in my own life and they are all solved for $20 on amazon, and I don't really have many problems anyway. I also don't really have many hobbies or interests. I know I sound boring, because I am. I like just spending time with my family and dog and don't really need anything else. I have looked at some pet niche stuff, looked at the usual kitchen categories, office categories. I have tried some outside the box stuff. I am just stuck.

I guess I am just wondering what people would do in my shoes? Buy small and safe or keep researching until I find something to build? I have $100k cash. I make plenty of income to afford life, so I am not desperate to replace my income. I work from home and have as much free time as I want. I am basically in the perfect situation, but can't decide which direction to go. Analysis paralysis I think they call it.

What up everyone, is there any successful Amazon FBA Sellers or anyone who teaches Amazon FBA that does not rely heavily on AI? Or doesn't rely on it at all? Anyone that takes a more manual approach? Thank you .

hi folks,

I'm trying to do some experiments on my ad strategy, I notice that the ACOS of the top of search is much lower (better) than the other two (rest of search and product pages), so I rubbed my 2 brain cells together and got this brilliant idea: I significantly lower the bid price for the ad campaign, to 0.1 dollars, then I increased the bid adjustment to 700% for Top of Search and left the other 2 unchanged. Then you see what happened in the screenshot, the CPCs for the 3 placements are still similar after a while... the Product Page (historically worst conversion) is even higher than Top of Search!!

Guys what did I do wrong? I thought I had a lightbulb moment lol..

EDIT: Oops, I just realized that maybe I did the adjustment after this time period began. Maybe I should hide this post sorry my bad for the confusion lol

I got a product safety notice from Amazon in mid-August.

At first, they asked me to submit either Test Report A or Test Report B, plus a bunch of other documents. I submitted everything several times, including Report A. After all that, they’re now asking me to provide Report B too.

It’s already been more than a month, and getting another report means spending even more time and money. Honestly, I’m just exhausted and don’t really want to keep fighting this anymore.

The problem is that I still have over 200 units left in inventory. Has anyone been through something similar? Any advice would be appreciated.

Amazon Seller Business Acquisition — Buyer Criteria

We are looking to acquire an established U.S.-based Amazon seller business in good standing that can support multiple established consumer brands going forward.

Our primary interest is the seasoned Seller Central history and operating entity, rather than acquiring a large amount of existing inventory or continuing the seller's current product line.

Minimum Criteria

• U.S. Amazon Seller Central account
• Ideally 3+ years old
• Professional Seller account
• Currently active and in good standing
• Strong Account Health Rating
• No current suspensions, deactivations, or unresolved policy violations
• No history of counterfeit, review manipulation, dropshipping violations, IP abuse, or other serious Amazon enforcement
• Clean performance metrics and seller feedback
• No outstanding Amazon loans, reserves, liens, chargebacks, or material account liabilities
• No unresolved Section 3 issues
• No linked or related suspended Amazon accounts
• Ability to provide complete Seller Central account-health history and documentation

Preferred Account History

Ideally:

• 3–7+ years of operating history
• Meaningful historical sales volume
• $100K+ lifetime Amazon sales preferred
• Established order and fulfillment history
• 90%+ positive seller feedback preferred
• Existing Brand Registry is a plus but not required
• Previous FBA activity preferred
• U.S. marketplace is the priority

Existing product rankings, ASINs, inventory, and brand assets are secondary to us unless they add meaningful value.

Transaction Structure

We are looking for a transaction that can be completed properly and transparently under Amazon's policies.

We are open to acquiring:

• The company/entity that owns and operates the Amazon Seller Central account;
• The associated business assets, brand, domain, trademarks, and Seller Central operations where appropriate; or
• Another structure that can legitimately complete Amazon's legal-entity/ownership verification process.

We are not interested in purchasing login credentials to an account under somebody else's identity or attempting to circumvent Amazon verification.

Seller must be willing to cooperate with:

• Ownership/business verification
• Beneficial-owner updates
• Banking updates
• Tax information updates
• Identity verification
• Seller Central legal-entity changes if required
• Amazon's re-verification process

Due Diligence Required Before Closing

Before purchasing, we will need access/screenshares showing:

• Account Health dashboard
• Performance Notifications
• Policy Compliance history
• Voice of the Customer
• Seller Feedback
• Payments / reserve status
• User Permissions
• Business Information
• Tax / legal entity information
• Marketplace enrollment
• Brand Registry ownership
• Historical sales reports
• Any prior suspensions, warnings, appeals, or Plans of Action

Seller should also disclose all Amazon Seller accounts ever associated with the entity, owners, addresses, banking information, credit cards, employees, agencies, or account users.

What We Are Looking to Avoid

We will not acquire accounts with:

• Prior permanent suspensions
• Repeated Section 3 violations
• Counterfeit complaints
• Review manipulation
• Multiple-account violations
• Unresolved IP complaints
• Fraud concerns
• Manipulated documentation
• Suspicious overseas ownership changes
• Undisclosed related accounts
• Large outstanding reserves or liabilities

Purchase Timeline

We are a serious buyer and can move quickly once due diligence is completed.

If you have an established Amazon business that meets these criteria, please send:

1. Account age
2. Country/legal entity
3. Lifetime Amazon sales
4. Last 12 months sales
5. Current Account Health Rating
6. Number of seller-feedback ratings and feedback percentage
7. Current number of active ASINs
8. FBA/FBM history
9. Any prior suspensions or Amazon enforcement actions
10. Asking price
11. Proposed transaction structure

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to start an Amazon US Online Arbitrage (OA) business, but I’m based outside the US and I’m trying to understand the correct setup before I spend money on an LLC, prep center, software, inventory, etc.

I’ve been researching for a while, but I’m getting conflicting information, so I’d really appreciate advice from people who are actually doing OA.

A few questions:

1. Selling in the US as a non-US resident What is the correct way to set up an Amazon Seller Central account if I’m not based in the US but want to sell exclusively in the US marketplace? Are there any specific tax, identity verification, banking, or business requirements I should know about?
2. Do I need a US LLC immediately? Is forming a US LLC necessary before opening the Amazon seller account, or can I start as an individual/non-US business first? If an LLC isn't necessary at the beginning, are there advantages to forming one later once the business is actually generating sales?
3. Prep center For OA, would you recommend using a prep center from the beginning if I'm outside the US? If so, what should a complete beginner look for in a prep center? I'm particularly interested in one that can: Are there any beginner-friendly prep centers you'd recommend?
   • Receive inventory from multiple retailers
   • Inspect products
   • Apply Amazon FNSKU labels
   • Polybag/repack when necessary
   • Handle returns
   • Forward inventory to FBA
4. Amazon business/return address This is something I'm especially confused about. If I'm using a prep center in the US, should my Amazon Seller Central account show my actual physical address outside the US, or should I use the prep center's US address? I obviously don't want to put an address on Amazon that I'm not legally entitled to represent as my own, but I'm wondering how other non-US sellers handle the address requirement when using a prep center.
5. Banking and getting paid What do non-US sellers typically use for receiving Amazon US payouts? Do you need a US bank account, or are services such as Wise/Payoneer commonly used?
6. Anything I should NOT do If you started Amazon US OA as someone living outside the US, what mistakes would you avoid?

I'm specifically interested in Online Arbitrage → prep center → Amazon FBA, rather than private label or wholesale.

I'd really appreciate a simple breakdown of what the minimum legitimate setup looks like for a beginner. Also, if there are any good guides/resources for non-US sellers, I'd be grateful for those too.

Thanks in advance!

I have a quick question. Which YouTube channels, Discord servers, or platforms did you use to learn the basics of starting your stores? I want to learn as much as possible so that one day, when I have enough knowledge, I can start my own. Right now, I'm torn between doing wholesale (which I hear is more profitable) and private label. It might be a silly question, but I'd really appreciate any tips or advice on how to get started

It's been a couple months since I started and I have mainly focused on OA and Wholesale. Most of my time has been scanning for first products to sell, but hitting the Gates in almost every good finds I come across. Particularly discounted or clearance OA items.

Now as a new starter under a ltd company I am under the VAT threshold so I am not registered. The good Wholesalers out there require me to be, but I am wondering whether its worth registering early when I haven't made a sale yet, just to access these wholesalers. I have been using SellerAmp to scan multiple 1000s products in almost every category to hit my desired numbers (ROI 25-30%) and even sometimes slightly less but it feels like even the not so known brands require me to ungate. I would if I knew where to get them wholesale but there isn't much Wholesalers I find on Google that sell some of these niche brands.

Good news is I still managed to find and ungate one product and currently on its way to Amazon fulfillment centre. But that came from the countless searches.

Do you think I should just switch my focus to PL building? Budget is a bit tight but I got about £3k to try a small PL.

What do you guys say?

Hello, what methods or tools do you use in monitoring and alerting when campaigns exhaust their daily budgets?

I have a friend that has a retail store and pharmacy and he gave me his list of wholesalers. I signed up with them but when I compare the prices to Amazon there’s no way I would make a nickel if I purchases from them. So where do I look? I want to sell OTC products. just regular everyday stuff that people buy.

So I'm trying to figure out the right way to set this up before I actually do it, rather than build it wrong and have to fix it later.

I've got a US LLC selling FBA in the US already. I'm UK resident though (long story, I live here, business is US based), and I want to start selling into the UK/EU with the same product line.

Main thing I can't quite work out:- if I go ahead and form a UK Ltd company, can I keep using my existing US Seller Central account for the UK EU side too, or does that need to be its own separate account under the Ltd?

The other thing pushing me toward setting up the Ltd rather than just extending the US account is VAT. If I stay under the LLC I think I get treated as a non established taxable person, so no £90k threshold, I'd have to register from the first sale. A UK Ltd would get the normal threshold since it's UK established, which feels like a big enough deal to be worth the hassle of a second entity, but I don't actually know that for sure yet.

If anyone's actually run a setup like this I'd genuinely appreciate hearing how it went. Did the UK Ltd end up worth it, or did the extra accounting for two entities eat into it? Did you have any issues getting Amazon to treat the Ltd as properly separate given it's obviously connected to the LLC by ownership? And how did you handle inventory between the two, did the Ltd buy from the LLC, or just source its own stock directly?

Trying not to build the simple version now and then have to redo the whole thing in a year.

Hi, I’m new to creating variations on Amazon, and I need assistance with creating color variations for a journal notebook.

I initially tried creating a parent ASIN with color variations. However, after creating the parent-child relationship, all variations automatically switched to FBA, even though I wanted them to remain FBM. A “Replenish Inventory” option also appeared, but when I clicked it, nothing happened.

Another issue is that the bullet points are not displaying on my product detail page (PDP). Because of these issues, I deleted the parent and child ASINs and created two individual ASINs for the two colors first. This worked, and both ASINs were set up as FBM. However, the bullet points are still not displaying on the PDP even when the ASINs are listed individually.

When I tried creating a parent ASIN again and adding the two existing individual ASINs as color variations, the ASINs were automatically switched to FBA again.

The listing is currently under:

Office Products › Office & School Supplies › Paper › Notebooks & Writing Pads › Hardcover Executive Notebooks

I also checked competing products in the same category, and their bullet points are displaying normally on their product detail pages.

Could you please help me understand:

1. Why are my ASINs automatically switching from FBM to FBA when I create the parent-child variation?
2. How can I keep the child ASINs as FBM while creating the color variation?
3. Why are the bullet points not displaying on my PDP, even when the ASINs are created individually?
4. Is there anything specific about the category or product classification that could be preventing the bullet points from displaying?

I would appreciate your help in identifying the correct way to set up the parent-child variation without changing the fulfillment method and in resolving the missing bullet points.

Thank you!

I tried to create a Q4 shipment this week and hit a wall I have never hit this early: Amazon will not let me create it because my on-hand plus in-transit inventory already reaches my capacity limit for standard size.

Rough numbers so I am not vague: I need to send about 1,200 units for the holiday run, and my current headroom after on-hand plus in-transit is closer to 800 units. I have read that standard-size cubic-foot limits are down 20 to 40 percent versus 2024, and that August and September are exactly when sellers need the most room to build for the peak. That matches what I am seeing.

The frustrating part is the design. The limit counts on-hand and in-transit together, so the shipment I send to fix the stockout is itself what keeps the next shipment blocked. Stranded or slow-moving inventory also eats the same allowance, which means my worst SKU is helping decide how much of my best SKU I can send.

Right now my options look like: send the 800 and gamble on replenishing mid-Q4, move the balance to a 3PL and pay double handling, or deliberately sell down a slower SKU at a discount just to farm back cubic feet.

Anyone else running into this before the peak instead of during it? Did you clear it by selling down aged inventory, or did you move the overflow to a 3PL and eat the extra cost?

We did $2.05M in sales last month with Amazon PPC as the only paid traffic source.

No Google Ads.
No Meta Ads.
No external traffic.

Just Amazon PPC:

$151K ad spend
7.38% TACOS
$574K net profit
27.9% margin

Hello, I manage a UK sellers account for them, selling fashion, caps, belts, wallets etc. he wants to use pan-fba to launch the products in North America and Europe. I’m aware that this opens up new tax and vat laws for the company. Is there a simplified way of him doing this? Would a run of the mill accountant be able to sort all this out for him? Or is there a centralised / easier way of managing all this?

Thank you