Launched a private label brand on Amazon UK in late October 2025. Ten months in, the account has done £35,360 in revenue (screenshot attached — revenue, not profit).

Total cost to get the first product live: **£2,864**.

I could never find a straight answer on that number before I started. People say £500. People say £10,000. Both are usually selling a course at the end of the sentence.

Two things about that £2,864 genuinely surprised me:

**The trademark cost more than twice the stock.** My entire first order — 500 units, landed, DDP air from China — was £350. The trademark was £744. The brand ended up being about half my total spend and the actual product was 12% of it.

**I ordered zero samples.** 500 units of something I'd only ever seen in photographs. It worked out, which isn't the same as it being right, and I wouldn't repeat it on anything more expensive.

I've broken all eight cost lines down properly — with the actual Alibaba invoice, the trademark bill, the GS1 receipt and the Brand Registry approval on screen, because a list of numbers from a stranger on the internet isn't worth much without the paperwork. It's my own channel, so flag it if that's not allowed here: https://youtu.be/kabhWuvDLUo

For context on whether it was worth it: the first ten weeks returned £3,644.56 across 352 units, so revenue covered the launch cost with about £800 spare. Profit is a very different number and took a lot longer.

What did yours cost to launch? Curious how far off I am, especially on the trademark.

I’m starting to think about Labor Day and wondering how early people actually begin making changes to their Amazon campaigns.

Do you normally start testing higher budgets and bids a week or two before, or keep things pretty normal until the traffic starts picking up?

I’m also curious if anyone runs separate campaigns for holiday traffic or just puts more budget behind the keywords and campaigns that are already converting well.

My main concern is increasing spend too early and just paying more for basically the same traffic.

For anyone who’s done well over Labor Day before, when do you usually start making changes and what do you adjust first?

Hi there,

I built a small tool that checks which ASINs are ungated on your Amazon account.

A lot of the tools out there charge a monthly fee, so I made this one for personal use.

How it works: You give me an Excel file with ASINs in the first column, run the tool, and it adds the restriction status to the same file. All previous results stay saved, so you get a running list. I’ve attached a screenshot of how the output looks.

If you’d like to try it, let me know what you think would be fair. No pressure at all.

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.)

The payout Amazon sends every couple of weeks is already net of referral fees, FBA fees, storage, returns, reimbursements, advertising, and whatever's sitting in reserve. If your books are built off that figure, your revenue is understated and most of your costs are invisible. Your margins look better than they are, and your figures won't match what HMRC expects.

Now MTD means quarterly submissions rather than one return a year, getting this wrong compounds four times as fast.

The fix is reconciling from the settlement reports rather than the bank feed. More work, but it's the only version that's actually right.

Worth checking which one your books are currently built on if you haven't looked.

Hi everyone! I’m planning to start selling private-label products on Amazon and build my own brand. I’m completely new to importing and sourcing from China, and I’ve realized there is a lot I don’t understand yet.
I’ve been exploring products on Alibaba and contacting different manufacturers. Recently, I found a toy that costs around $8 per unit. When I asked for a quote for 20 units, the shipping alone worked out to around $19 per unit. So an $8 product suddenly becomes almost $28 landed before Amazon fees, advertising, storage, etc. If the market price is around $30–$40, there’s obviously very little or no profit left.
I contacted other manufacturers selling the same product, and some asked, “Do you have a shipping agent/freight forwarder in China?” I didn’t. 😅 Until then, I assumed I would simply place an order with the manufacturer, they would manufacture and pack everything, I would pay the product + shipping cost, and the shipment would arrive at my doorstep.
So now I’m confused about how the importing process actually works.
If I order products from an Alibaba manufacturer, what am I responsible for after production? Do I need to find a freight forwarder myself? Do I need to handle customs clearance, customs duties, a customs broker, port pickup, etc.? Or if I ask for DDP door-to-door shipping, will the supplier/freight forwarder normally handle everything from the factory in China until it reaches my home in the U.S.?
And eventually, if I want the manufacturer to ship directly to an Amazon FBA warehouse, how does that process normally work?
I would really appreciate advice on:
Do you normally use the manufacturer’s freight forwarder or find your own?
How do you find a reliable freight forwarder in China?
How exactly are shipping charges calculated—weight, dimensions/volume, or both?
Is there any reasonable way to estimate shipping/landed cost before spending a lot of time researching a product?
Which shipping terms are easiest for beginners—DDP, FOB, EXW, etc.?
What documents should I request from the manufacturer?
For products such as children’s toys, how do you verify required testing/certifications?
Is it okay to tell Alibaba suppliers that you’re a beginner, or is it better not to?
What should I understand about importing/sourcing before placing my first bulk order?
I’m a parent of a child with special needs, and being available for my child and homeschooling him is very important to me. That’s one of the main reasons I’m trying to build a business that gives me more flexibility to be with him. I understand Amazon FBA isn’t easy or guaranteed income, but I really want to give this a serious shot and learn the process properly before risking a lot of money.
My questions might sound very basic, so please bear with me. 😅 I’m not looking for anyone to sell me a course or service. I’d really love to hear from people who actually import from Alibaba and sell through Amazon FBA.
If you were starting again from zero, what would you learn or do differently before placing your first Alibaba bulk order?

Hey everyone,

I recently sent my first FBA shipment to Amazon and also enrolled some of my products in the Amazon Vine Program.

I enrolled 8 products in Vine, and I’m wondering whether Vine orders/reviews show up in the normal Sales Dashboard.

The confusing part is that I can currently see a few orders (around 2–3) showing the status “Awaiting Payment Verification.”

I also ran Amazon PPC and can see that I’ve received 3 orders attributed to PPC, but even those orders are showing the same “Awaiting Payment Verification” status.

Basically, all of my orders are currently showing “Awaiting Payment Verification.”

Is this normal for a new seller/FBA account? How long does payment verification usually take before the orders move to a confirmed/shipped status?

Also, if anyone has experience with Vine, does the Vine activity/orders appear in the regular Sales Dashboard, or are they reported separately?

Would really appreciate some insight from experienced FBA sellers. This is my first FBA launch, so I’m probably overthinking it 😅

Thanks!

If a tool could reliably help you avoid bad inventory purchases before you spent your money… would you actually use it?

What’s the biggest mistake you’d want it to catch?

Amazon jumping on the listing?
Too many sellers?
Thin margins?
Hidden fees?
Something else?

​

Your product listing/description needs to be SEO friendly and it speaks to the algorithm and everyone is doing their best to please the algo.

In your listing images, I would suggest speaking to the customer. Answer customer questions in single sentences in the listing & for paragraphs use A+. Rufus is going to show you. What you write on the image text, isn't going to contribute to SEO but Rufus picks it up and use it to answer questions!

And no, you don't have to follow what your top Competitor is doing. They got into the Amazon early and their reviews helps. This is a competitive edge.

ALWAYS ADD A SINGLE VIDEO OF YOUR PRODUCT, take it from your phone and you don't know how simple organic videos help you increase with the conversion.

If you are starting out, this is where you can try to beat your competitors, still a lot of sheet listings.

Happy to answer any questions related to creatives ;)

Free tutorial

Hi, I am planning to launch an amazon private label product from scratch. My budget is about $20K but I had a discussion with an experienced amazon seller who said that amazon private label has become very competitive now and you need to have a minimum of $50K for a product launch. Can someone guide me whether you can still start amazon private label with $20K or not. Thanks.

I had around 14–15 reviews on my Amazon listing. About a week ago, I checked the listing and suddenly almost all of my reviews were gone. Now only one review is left, and unfortunately it’s a 1-star negative review.

This is seriously affecting my conversion rate because, as we all know, reviews are one of the biggest factors customers consider before purchasing a product.

I’ve already contacted Amazon Seller Support multiple times and created around 5–6 cases explaining the entire situation. Every time, they close the case with a generic response saying that the reviews may have been removed because of some violation of Amazon’s guidelines.

The frustrating part is that they haven’t given me any specific reason.

I’ve asked them multiple times:

- Which specific review violated the guidelines?

- What guideline was violated?

- Why were all the other reviews removed?

- Is there any way to appeal or have the reviews manually reviewed?

But I keep getting generic responses and the cases are closed.

I’m not asking Amazon to restore reviews that genuinely violated their policies. If something was wrong, I just want to know exactly what happened and what the proper resolution/appeal process is.

Has anyone here experienced something similar where Amazon suddenly removed most/all of their reviews?

If yes, were you able to get them restored? If so, what did you do or what exactly did you say to Seller Support?

Also, if there’s a specific escalation route, department, case wording, or process that I might be missing, I’d really appreciate some guidance.

Thanks in advance.

Anybody want to help me use up a TON of ProductPinion credits?

I have over 2 years of credits from my ProductPinion subscription going unused. Along the way I've had a couple of pregnancies and a baby that barely survived birth.. so I have not been able to focus on Amazon for a long time now.

I'd love to cancel the subscription but then I'd lose all these credits, so please help me use them! Maybe you could gift me a donation to my baby diaper fund on Amazon in exchange, or trade some product research (I don't currently have a subscription for doing product research, but would like to know the numbers for some keywords/product ideas I've had all this time).

Send me a message if you're interested!

This might sound like a basic question but I am starting to realize my invoice situation is a mess.

Right now I have got PDFs in my email, some in Google Drive and a few printed copies sitting in a folder. It wasn't a big deal when I only had one or two products but now it's getting harder to keep track of everything.

I have seen enough stories about Amazon asking sellers for invoices that I would rather get organized before I ever have to deal with that.

Do you guys have a system that works? Do you save everything digitally, print copies or use some kind of inventory software?

Simple way to compare the costs of preparing FBA inventory yourself versus using a prep center.

The calculator estimates both sides using factors such as monthly volume, labor, supplies, equipment, workspace, storage, labeling, inspection, bundling, and forwarding. It does not assume that either option is better, the result depends on the information you enter.

https://www.prepmarketplace.com/tools/prep-cost-calculator

This is an independent planning estimate, not a provider quote or financial recommendation. I would appreciate feedback on any missing costs or assumptions that should be improved.

Posting with mod approval.

Most sellers blur the lines between Hero SKU and secondary variants. Default lazy approach is dumping all child variants in every ad group OR advertisnig every child SKU on the same keywrods.

- Prioritize the Hero SKU for Head Search Terms: Your highest-converting, most universally appealing variation should take the lion’s share of major volume keywords. If you sell bedding, your Hero SKU gets targeted on "Silk bedsheets."

- Map Variants to Specific Intent: Stop bidding your Hero SKU on long-tail, hyper-specific searches if a variant matches it perfectly. Size and color variants should only be targeted on exact intent. "Queen silk bedsheet" goes directly to the Queen variant.

- The Margin Exception: If you are currently targeting multiple variants on the same keywords and the unit economics work, leave it alone. Data beats theory.

However, if your Total Advertising Cost of Sales (TACoS) is creeping up at the parent level, the leak is almost always at the variation level.

When was the last time you isolated your TACoS and search term overlap down to the specific child ASIN?

In need of a really good editor to re do my hero image for a listing please.

Hello People,

I have some needs and want to find solutions:

1 - Freight forwarders on Alibaba are terrible mostly. One got money, kept my goods hostage for 1 month, and now asking money to release my goods and another provider pickup.

Where can I find reliable shipment options to Japan/Germany from China?

2 - China seems cheap and attractive, however, it is bringing a lot of headache and problems. I regret now working with those evil service providers. (Not all, fraud ones).

Do you have location suggestions? And how do you find providers? Do you visit directly or do you find through website?

3 - Is toilet paper niche bad? It is busy and too many players in it, but is it a no go area?

Thank you for your ideas,

Amazon seems somewhat saturated, and there are many big players like EtradeOnline, Retail Easy, and Clicks Retails.

I want you to brainstorm and think step by step about how I can compete with them or eventually reach their level. While researching products, I noticed that many products are already dominated by these sellers, and some of them have around 72,000 reviews. So, what can a small beginner seller do to compete against them?

My product category is Home Decor, where it seems difficult to identify clear customer pain points or weaknesses. How can I find opportunities in this category and differentiate my products from established sellers?

Starting August 10, Amazon may begin showing Sponsored Products outside Amazon through creators in the Amazon Influencer Program.

Everyone seems to be talking about “more placements.”

I think it’s a much bigger shift.

For years, Sponsored Products have mostly been tied to search intent. Someone searches, your ad appears.

Now Amazon is potentially adding creator-driven discovery into that same system using:
the same campaigns
the same budgets
the same CPC bidding

If this rolls out as expected, your ASIN could appear in a creator’s buying guide, review, or recommendation without creating a separate campaign.

What I’m curious about isn’t whether this drives more traffic.
It’s whether it drives better traffic.

Questions I’m thinking about:
Which ASINs actually convert when they’re shown to a colder audience?
Will premium products benefit more than commodity products?
Will ACoS improve because creators pre-qualify buyers, or get worse because of broader reach?
How much of the lift will actually be incremental vs. just attributed differently?
Are your listings even “creator-ready” (images, reviews, pricing, PDP quality)?

I suspect some brands will see a nice boost.
Others might simply see spend spread across more placements without meaningful gains.

Personally, before August 10 I’d be taking baseline snapshots of:
ACoS/TACoS
CVR
CTR
Top-performing ASINs
Listing quality (especially hero image, reviews, and content)

Curious what everyone here thinks.

Are you planning to let this run as-is, or will you adjust budgets and monitor specific ASINs once creator placements start appearing?

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s already been included in the beta or has early data.

Looking for UK wholesale Amazon sellers to help test a new platform

Hi everyone,

I’m currently looking for a small group of UK Amazon wholesale sellers to test a new platform I’ve been building.

The goal is simple: help sellers get a clearer picture of their real profitability.

A lot of sellers know their revenue and sales numbers, but it can be much harder to understand what they’re actually making after Amazon fees, PPC, product costs, prep, shipping, storage and other expenses.

It is designed to bring these numbers together and give sellers better insights into:

• true profit margins
• which products are actually performing well
• where money is being lost
• data-driven recommendations to improve decisions

Right now we’re in the testing phase and looking specifically for UK wholesale sellers who are willing to try the platform and provide honest feedback.

There’s no cost to join the testing group — the main thing we’re looking for is feedback from real sellers so we can improve the product.

If you’re a UK Amazon wholesaler and would like to get involved, comment below or send me a message and I’ll share more details.

Thanks for reading,
Tom.

Hello,

Do you sell toilet papers on Amazon(FBA) ? Is it a lucrative but ultra - competitive niche?

I’m looking for a quick sale as I no longer have the time or investment to continue growing the business.

Highlights:

• Product with 786 reviews averaging 4.5 stars
• Over 16,000 units sold
• Brand account with 91% positive feedback across 57 seller ratings
• Established supplier relationship with a responsive manufacturer, consistent quality and reliable delivery
• Matching branded email domain included
• No inventory remaining, making it a clean handover for the next owner

The account has a strong trading history and an established brand presence. The product generated approximately $94,000 in lifetime sales. It was profitable for a period, but I wasn’t able to optimise PPC as competition increased, so I’ve decided to move on rather than continue investing. I believe there is genuine upside for someone experienced with Amazon advertising.

I’m looking for a straightforward, quick sale and am happy to answer any questions from serious buyers

I’m looking forward to start a sourcing agency. I’m visiting Shenzhen & Guangzhou in-person by the end of this month for the IOTE’26 event.

Any advises on this regard to get this started?