Home – New › Forums › Tell me straight… › Selling my brand of clothing on Amazon
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November 1, 2021 at 2:54 pm #1231875Up::0
Dear All,
I have been trying to start my own brand of clothings for a while now. But I still have a few questions regarding what I should do to start my online clothing business. I am hoping to seek advice and thanks in advance all the responses you may give.
Basically, it is about clothing storage. I was drawn to Amazon for selling my clothes because they give impression that you are able to store your inventories within their warehouse and they distribute when someone buy my clothes from The Amazon website. May I know if I am correct? Or Am I completely wrong?
My thinking is like this. Let’s say I put an order to my manufacturer and then request them to deliver to Amazon warehouse. In this way, all my inventories are effectively stored by Amazon. Otherwise, I may have to buy from the manufacturer then store at my home or an warehouse somewhere I have to organise. After that, I will have to post the inventory out myself when people buy my clothes. Hence, it will be great if I can put my inventories within managed warehouses like Amazon has. May I know if my thinking is wrong or there is a better way of doing this?
Also it will also be great if there are any suggestions for cloth manufacturers and where to find them?
November 1, 2021 at 4:09 pm #1231877Up::0Hello Pmok,
Amazon is not just a third party warehouse & distribution provider, so if the products you have manufactured are not already part of their integrated supply chain then you will not be able to hold them in their warehouse.
Remember that Amazon wants you to source products through its own ecosystem, rather than yours. In this case you will simply become an affiliate that helps them expand their distribution network.
In regard to your question about clothing manufacturers, this is something that you need to source (as you must in some way add value to your business). If you don’t want to source your own manufacturers, then companies like Amazon will be pleased to find them for you (and stock and distribute them), but of course this comes at a price.
regards
JasonNovember 1, 2021 at 4:17 pm #1231878Up::2Hello Pmok,
I hope this helps your understanding of how Amazon FBA works (Fulfilled By Amazon). We have extensive experience of this, so this will be a longish answer. What you do with the information is of course up to you! I will use numbered points to keep my own mind clear as I write.1. Our experience of getting goods into Amazon in the US from China: Excellent. The logistics system is world class. We also used a specialist agent in the USA to receive goods from China. You do need to stay on top of the full process with the required product labels and customs classification etc and a good agent will help you.
2. Amazon grants refunds to customers with the greatest of ease, so in clothing, you are very susceptible to cheats who order clothes, wear them and send them back. With Amazon the customer comes first every time. How much fraud can you absorb? What does Amazon do with returned clothes that are not damaged? You need to find out.
3. You can only leave your inventory in stock for a specified period without charges applying. So you need stock turnover. Warehouse space is valuable!
4. Amazon FBA sellers use software to detect the prices their competitors charge and undercut them. the downward price pressure is relentless.
5. You need to factor in the costs of advertising on Amazon if your products are to be seen and sold. Amazon is a huge search engine and you will not be visible without paid ads to get into the ‘buy box’.
6. The FBA fees are not inconsiderable – if I recall, ours were around 30% (not for clothes).
7. Amazon does all the shipping, pays you reliably and disposes of returns if you don’t ask them to send the products back.Summarizing, Selling on Amazon is complicated, and can be profitable, but with pressures on your margins and intense competition. Amazon has special categories for products and some require special permission to ship – you do not want your consignment of product turned away and lost. Just guessing, but I would check carefully before shipping anything for children including clothes. Be prepared for a learning curve on logistics management but as I said, the Amazon FBA system is superb. You will need a sellers’ account.
Hope that that helps a little bit.
KeithNovember 1, 2021 at 7:06 pm #1231885Up::0Hi And Welcome to Flying Solo Pmok. It is great to have you!
Thank you for joining our community and posting.
Cheers
Paul -
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