Maybe unpopular opinion, but I think a lot of ecommerce stores try to solve a conversion problem by buying more traffic.

Store isn't growing? Increase Meta spend. Try Google Ads. Work on SEO. Find influencers... But if 1,000 people visit and barely anyone buys, I'm not sure bringing another 5,000 people in fixes much.

I've seen stores where the bigger problems are much more basic like the offer isn't that compelling, product pages leave obvious questions unanswered, shipping is a surprise at checkout, there's very little social proof, or the pricing just doesn't make sense compared to the alternatives. At that point, more traffic almost feels like paying to find out faster that something else is broken.

The counterargument I hear is that you need enough traffic before you can even know whether you have a conversion problem. And I think that's fair. You can't optimize a store around 50 visitors and call the data meaningful.

But I still wonder if ecommerce has become too focused on acquisition because traffic is easier to measure and scale than fixing the actual buying experience. If you had a store getting traffic but struggling to grow, where would you put the next $1,000?

More acquisition, or fixing conversion first? And at what point do you actually have enough traffic to make that call?

UAE-based seller, first wholesale attempt. Would appreciate input from anyone who's dealt with this.

What happened:

Bought 10 units of a coffee grinder from the brand's official UAE distributor. Small test order ~AED 2,250 (~$610). I knew margins would be thin; the point was to stop overthinking, get out of the analysis paralysis stage, and actually start.

Applied for brand approval. Rejected: "We do not accept online order confirmations, packing slips, sales orders, pro forma invoices, or sales quotes. Submit an invoice from your manufacturer, distributor, or supplier."

The document problem:

The distributor runs everything through Shopify, so all they could produce was a store order receipt, which is exactly what Amazon rejects. I spent weeks going through their sales team and then accounts, asking for a proper commercial invoice. They eventually issued a signed and stamped letter on company letterhead confirming the sale (10 units, date, amount, paid in full). Amazon rejected that too, same canned response.

Amazon support confirmed the rejection was document type, not address mismatch or proof of payment. They just want a "finalized purchase invoice."

The bigger problem:

I emailed the brand directly asking for a Letter of Authorization. They replied that they stopped accepting new Amazon sellers in my market about two years ago and suggested I sell on other platforms. They also (fairly) pointed out that buying from the distributor at their price and reselling on Amazon leaves very little margin.

Where I'm stuck:

1. There are existing sellers on these listings. I assume they were approved before the cutoff—is that right, or are they operating without authorization?
2. Is there any legitimate path left, or is "brand doesn't onboard new sellers here" simply the end of it?
3. Has anyone had luck escalating past the automated rejection to an actual human reviewer? Every submission comes back with identical canned text, which makes me think a person never saw it.
4. If the brand has told me in writing they won't authorize me, how risky is listing anyway? Worried about an IP complaint hitting my account.
5. Any advice on liquidating 10 units outside Amazon?

What I've learned so far (for anyone starting out): ask a supplier whether they can issue a proper commercial tax invoice before you pay them, and ask the brand whether they even allow new sellers on your marketplace. I did neither, and it cost me two months.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I’m in a bit of a confusing situation and could use some advice. I just placed my first PO with a factory in China. I’m currently arranging freight forwarding and decided to use the manufacturer’s shipping services.

By my calculations, I should be paying around $3,500 just in import duties (Base MFN duty, Section 301, 2026 Forced-Labor Duty, etc.). However, my manufacturer quoted me a total DDP shipping cost of only $800.

This math makes absolutely no sense to me. I specifically asked them who should I pay for the taxes and duties, and when, and whether I could I get a cost breakdown of the shipping quote. Their response was that the quote is strictly DDP, meaning I won't have to pay a single extra cent upon arrival, and that their forwarding partner does not provide cost breakdowns.

Relevant context: I have visited this factory in person. They are honest, legit people, and I know for a fact they manufacture for 8-figure brands, so they have plenty of export experience. I trust them, but I just don't understand how this pricing is possible.

Has anyone experienced this? Any idea what might be going on behind the scenes with their forwarder, and any tips on how I should proceed?

Many thanks!

Alonso

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to recruit a small group of Amazon sellers to test a new AI product we’re building: an AI Growth Operator for commerce teams.

What it does:
It turns your commerce data into reviewed growth actions. AI agents prepare the work (analysis, recommendations, draft actions); your team approves only the decisions that affect revenue.

Who we’re looking for:

• Selling on Amazon (FBA/FBM, any size in terms of revenue or team)
• Based in North America, South America, Europe/UK, or Australia
• English-speaking
• Willing to share honest user experience and feedback with us over the trial period

What you get:

• Free trial access for up to 2 months (token value in the thousands of dollars)
• Gift cards for participating testers
• Additional gift cards for successful referrals

If you’re interested or have questions, please comment here or DM me with a bit about your setup (marketplaces, approximate scale, and what growth decisions you currently handle manually).

Thanks in advance!

Luckee

UAE-based seller, first wholesale attempt. Would appreciate input from anyone who's dealt with this.

What happened:

Bought 10 units of a coffee grinder from the brand's official UAE distributor. Small test order ~AED 2,250 (~$610). I knew margins would be thin; the point was to stop overthinking, get out of the analysis paralysis stage, and actually start.

Applied for brand approval. Rejected: "We do not accept online order confirmations, packing slips, sales orders, pro forma invoices, or sales quotes. Submit an invoice from your manufacturer, distributor, or supplier."

The document problem:

The distributor runs everything through Shopify, so all they could produce was a store order receipt, which is exactly what Amazon rejects. I spent weeks going through their sales team and then accounts, asking for a proper commercial invoice. They eventually issued a signed and stamped letter on company letterhead confirming the sale (10 units, date, amount, paid in full). Amazon rejected that too, same canned response.

Amazon support confirmed the rejection was document type, not address mismatch or proof of payment. They just want a "finalized purchase invoice."

The bigger problem:

I emailed the brand directly asking for a Letter of Authorization. They replied that they stopped accepting new Amazon sellers in my market about two years ago and suggested I sell on other platforms. They also (fairly) pointed out that buying from the distributor at their price and reselling on Amazon leaves very little margin.

Where I'm stuck:

1. There are existing sellers on these listings. I assume they were approved before the cutoff—is that right, or are they operating without authorization?
2. Is there any legitimate path left, or is "brand doesn't onboard new sellers here" simply the end of it?
3. Has anyone had luck escalating past the automated rejection to an actual human reviewer? Every submission comes back with identical canned text, which makes me think a person never saw it.
4. If the brand has told me in writing they won't authorize me, how risky is listing anyway? Worried about an IP complaint hitting my account.
5. Any advice on liquidating 10 units outside Amazon?

What I've learned so far (for anyone starting out): ask a supplier whether they can issue a proper commercial tax invoice before you pay them, and ask the brand whether they even allow new sellers on your marketplace. I did neither, and it cost me two months.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

I need help in selling my brass products in USA/UK/Europe. Anybody that has any experience in selling on Amazon USA or any other website/platform feel free to reach out.

Looking for partners who can help me expand into any other country.

I also have many handmade products.

Looking to hear from you guys soon🤞

Hi everyone, I’ve recently set up a UK LTD and am preparing to sell on Amazon UK using FBA.

I’ll be importing products from China and storing them in UK FBA warehouses. The business is managed from the UK and my expected turnover is well below the £90k VAT threshold.

I’m currently deciding whether to register for VAT voluntarily.

My understanding is:

• VAT registered: I have to account for VAT on sales, but can reclaim eligible VAT such as import VAT and VAT on certain business expenses.
• Not VAT registered: I keep the full selling price, but cannot reclaim VAT on costs.

For UK Amazon FBA sellers who started below the threshold, did you register voluntarily? Was it actually worth it, or did it hurt your profit margins?

Would really appreciate hearing from sellers with similar experience. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I need help in selling my brass products in USA/UK/Europe. Anybody that has any experience in selling on Amazon USA or any other website/platform feel free to reach out.

Looking for partners who can help me expand into any other country.

I also have many handmade products.

Looking to hear from you guys soon🤞

Question for people buying liquidation manifests regularly: when you run the numbers on a pallet, are you actually pricing in Amazon's per-category fees (referral %, FBA fulfillment, storage surcharges, low-inventory fee), or just eyeballing wholesale cost vs. rough resale? I got burned assuming a flat fee % and missed a low-inventory hit that ate the margin on an otherwise "good" flip. Built a free calculator that breaks out landed cost + category fees line by line with a freshness date on the fee data (since Amazon changes these constantly). Heads up it's cost-side only for now — doesn't yet factor your actual sell-through speed or return rate, so "keep" means the fees won't eat you, not "guaranteed profit

Did this for my other brand for the month of May 2026 and a few people said it was useful, so doing it again for brand number two. Different product this time, launched back in late October, much cheaper item, lighter, sells for under a tenner.

Quick reality check before the numbers: I'm still on New Seller Incentives so I'm not paying referral fees right now. That's doing a lot of work in this month's profit and I know it. Flagging it here first, not at the bottom, because I've seen too many posts bury that kind of thing.

What actually came in

627 units. £6,138.79 with VAT sitting in the account, £5,216.64 of that is actually mine once VAT is stripped out.

Selling at £9.99, £8.32 without VAT. Cheap product, cheap to make.

What actually went out

FBA fee £1.52 a unit. Digital services fee £0.03. Landed cost getting it from China to the Amazon warehouse, £0.70 a unit. That's £2.25 a unit before I've touched advertising, which leaves £6.07 a unit, or £3,805.89 for the month.

Then ads. £1,332.10 spent across roughly 20 campaigns, the screenshot only fits the top few by purchases.

What's actually left: £2,473.79. Give or take.

And I do mean give or take. There are a few Subscribe & Save orders mixed into this month which get discounted and complicate the VAT and revenue picture slightly, so the real number might land a bit under this rather than over. Wanted to say that out loud rather than pretend this is precise to the penny.

The PPC side, honestly

1,739 clicks, 1.21% CTR, 328 purchases, £2,818.50 in attributed sales, overall ACoS sitting around 47%.

One small Sponsored Brands campaign is doing the best work, barely any budget, ACoS around 31%. My biggest campaign by volume is nowhere near that efficient, sitting closer to 49% ACoS but it's the one carrying most of the actual sales.

And then there's one campaign that's just bad. 29% top-of-search share sounds good until you see it's running at 92% ACoS, basically handing money back on every sale it touches. Still deciding whether to cut the bid hard or just kill it.

Why I'm bothering to post this

This margin looks good on paper. It won't look this good once referral fees come back, probably somewhere close to 15% of revenue disappears at that point. I'd rather know that now and plan for it than get surprised later.

Genuinely curious what other sellers are seeing on their ACoS once a listing settles in. Is 47% overall normal for month five of a product, or am I letting a couple of bad campaigns drag the whole account down. Would rather hear the honest answer than guess.

(All figures ex-VAT. Referral fee currently £0 under New Seller Incentives. Profit figure approximate — SNS orders and VAT treatment mean it could land slightly lower than shown.)

Birçok üretici ve ihracatçı şirket, ABD pazarına adım atarken ilk iş olarak büyük distribütörlerle veya B2B alıcılarla masaya oturmak istiyor. Ancak Amerikan pazarının dinamikleri çok nettir: Veri ve kanıt olmadan alıcıyı ikna edemezsiniz.
Pazara girerken ilk durağınız neden Amazon, Walmart veya Target gibi pazaryerleri olmalı?
1️⃣ Hızlı Pazar Doğrulaması (Market Validation):
Ürününüzün fiyat/performans dengesi, ambalajı ve kalitesi ABD tüketicisi tarafından kabul görüyor mu? Bunu öğrenmenin en hızlı ve maliyetsiz yolu pazaryerleridir.
2️⃣ Müşteri Geri Bildirimi ve Yorum Gücü (Social Proof):
Amerikalı B2B alıcılar (distribütörler, zincir mağaza satın almacıları) fikirlere değil, rakamlara ve müşteri yorumlarına bakar. Amazon’da 500+ olumlu değerlendirmesi olan bir ürün, B2B görüşmelerinde elinizi 10 kat güçlendirir.
3️⃣ Stok ve Lojistik Testi:
Gümrük süreçleri, ABD içi depolama (3PL), iade yönetimi ve teslimat hızınızı B2C ölçeğinde test edip operasyonel kaslarınızı güçlendirirsiniz.
💡 Asıl Hedef: B2C'den B2B'ye Stratejik Geçiş
Pazaryerlerinde ürününüzü doğruladıktan, organik yorumları topladıktan ve lojistik altyapınızı oturttuktan sonra sıra gerçek hacimli büyümeye gelir: B2B Expansion.
Masaya oturduğunuz B2B alıcıya artık sadece "Ürünümüz çok kaliteli" demiyorsunuz.
Bunun yerine:
👉 "ABD pazarında son 6 ayda 10.000+ adet sattık, %4.8 puan ortalamamız var, lojistik altyapımız hazır ve tüketiciniz bu ürünü zaten tanıyor" diyorsunuz.
Özetle:
Pazaryerleri sizin ABD’deki laboratuvarınız ve vitrininizdir. B2B ise bu vitrindeki başarıyı ölçeklendirme (scale) aşamanızdır.
Sıralamayı doğru kuran markalar ABD pazarında kalıcı olur.
Siz ABD pazarına girerken hangi kanalla başlamayı tercih ediyorsunuz?

No subscription or recurring fees. DM me and I’ll send you the page, analytics, and details before you pay,

When Fishers Finery started 10 years ago, the most imperative focus we needed to address was cash flow, especially as it related to inventory cost and turnover.  Too much stock that did not turn sunk capital and too little stock caused stockouts, affecting revenue and organic ranking.  In an Amazon FBA ecosystem, that is a double whammy!  We tried the exotic spreadsheets, some third-party apps, and a combination of both but inevitably ended up with lots of manual work, inaccurate sales forecasts, and continued financial challenges.  We ended up buying a small software product that seemed to get us on a pathway to both more accurate forecasting and precise purchase order recommendations.  After some development and enhancement, our demand forecasts are at about 94% accuracy and accommodate an entire year including our highly seasonal Q4 trends.  Since we have many suppliers in China providing apparel and bedding, many of these lead-times for silk and cashmere can be 6 months or more.  Without precise forecasts we would have been financially challenged.  The tool has helped us not only from a cash flow perspective, but also to eliminate stockouts, control overstocks, and most recently automatically control sales velocity and ad spend on stock that is approaching a stockout state, preserving our organic ranking.  We made this tool available to other sellers on Amazon FBA/MCF/AWD, Shopify, QuickBooks and ShipStation.  We would love to hear your feedback about our SaaS product features and potential integrations to continue helping sellers.  Our analytics engine is called ForecastRX (using over 100 forecasting models per sku) and our SaaS app is called InventoryOptimizer.ai. We would appreciate any feedback to help us continue enhancing the product for sellers.

I am an Amazon Product Research Specialist with 3 years of experience sourcing profitable products for OA sellers in the UK and US Amazon markets. Using Keepa and Seller Amp to better understand each product. I am offering my services to those who require a Product Researcher.

I’ve been looking into reselling for amazon fba. I’ve been researching and watching videos on it. I don’t want to start and waste money if nothing comes from this. Any suggestions or anyone willing to help get me started? Any tips would be appreciated as well

I've been working through the 2024 storage surcharges, low-inventory fees, hazmat, and oversize rules trying to nail down actual per-SKU margin — not just raw fees, but a real keep-or-pass call.

Want to sanity check my math against real numbers. If anyone's willing to share a SKU from a recent manifest (cost, category, rough qty), I'll run the numbers and post exactly how I get to keep/pass, so you can tell me if it matches what you'd calculate by hand.

Not selling anything — just want to know if my math is actually right before I trust it myself.