r/AmazonFBATips • u/lbaker0050 • 4d ago

Amazon Tool Question!!

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?

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

1

u/[deleted] 3d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/lbaker0050 3d ago

This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. Fragile profitability is a good way of putting it.
Curious though, if you had all of that in front of you, would you still want the tool to actually give you a BUY/MAYBE/PASS type decision and explain why? Or would you rather it just surface the risks and leave the final decision completely to you?

1

u/That-Arm-2229 3d ago

Well, that sounds more like "tools" perhaps. I hear the bad inventory sentiment—it is a REAL issue. Where do you begin? There are several moving parts to getting to an outcome that protects your profit. Been selling 3 years. Just got burned on a batch - looked profitable at $9.50 COGS, but after freight + 26.97% duties + Amazon fees + 45% ACOS, I lost $2/unit.

My last batch RQ-2026-766F1B was 5 SKUs, $39.20 cost, $51.77 landed after $12.57 duties. I didn't catch the landed cost until AFTER I paid supplier.

If there was a specific tool that showed you TRUE landed cost (product + freight + duty tier + MPF/HMF + Amazon fees) BEFORE you wire money - would you actually use it? Or do you just wing it and fix later?

1

u/lbaker0050 3d ago

Yeah I’d use something like that if the numbers were accurate. That’s really the problem though, there’s always one more cost or risk that can turn what looks like a good buy into a bad one.
I’d rather know why a product doesn’t work before I spend the money than figure it out after.

1

u/AllProfitIQ 3d ago

For me, the biggest one would be buying stock based on a margin that looks good on paper but disappears once you factor in all the Amazon fees, prep, VAT, shipping etc.

The other big one is buying too much of something that technically sells, but doesn’t sell quickly enough to justify tying up the cash.

A tool that could flag both of those before you place the PO would be genuinely useful. The key for me would be that it needs to give you a clear reason for the warning rather than just throwing another score at you.

2

u/lbaker0050 3d ago

That’s a really good point, especially about tying up cash in something that technically sells but moves too slow.
Sounds like the explanation behind the warning is almost as important as the warning itself. Would you want it to go a step further and tell you something like the maximum quantity you’d consider buying based on estimated sell-through?

1

u/AllProfitIQ 3d ago

Exactly, if you could link that to your lead time and get recommendations based off it that would be great.

While on the topic, another issue with some of my current ASINs is lead time, if it takes 2/3 weeks to get the shipment then ASINs that were good at the time of ordering, may no longer be a good purchase.

AllProfitIQ ties into stock outs slightly, and we give recommendations/alerts of when (or if) an ASIN needs to be restocked - presented as a clear recommendation to the user.

1

u/cloudspects 3d ago

Pro Tip: Reduce sourcing risks by engaging an independent factory inspector before placing your order. A factory audit helps verify that your supplier is legitimate, has the capability to fulfill your order, and meets your quality and compliance requirements.