PSA: Fulfillment by Amazon vs. shipping it myself - 6 months later I'm still torn

I started my little ecommerce thing last year selling kitchen gadgets. I went back and forth for weeks on whether to use FBA or just pack boxes in my living room and ship them myself. I ended up going with FBA for the first 3 months and paid around $400 in storage fees just for slow movers. Then I switched to shipping myself and saved money but my shipping times went from 2 days to almost 5 days and I got 3 bad reviews. Now I'm wondering if I should go back to FBA for the Prime badge even though it cost me more. What did you guys pick and did you stick with it or switch later?

2 comments

2 Comments

aaron_ellis4218d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain so much it hurts. I literally turned my dining room into a packing station and my wife almost divorced me over the cardboard mountain situation. My slow movers were these weird avocado slicers that took up half a shelf at Amazon and I paid like $60 in storage for three months just staring at them. Then when I shipped myself I forgot to put the right tape on a box and it arrived looking like a sad accordion. I'm honestly not sure what's worse, the fees or the anxiety.

terry_bailey3517d ago

Did you ever try using FBA just for the products that sell fast and keeping the slow movers at home? That worked for me because I was paying storage on things nobody wanted for months. I kept a handful of bestsellers in Amazon's warehouse for the Prime badge and shipped everything else myself, which cut my fees in half while still getting those quick deliveries on my most popular items.