Top 5 Reasons People Fail at Amazon FBA (The Hard Truth)

And they later proceeded to blame everyone else, except themselves. Let’s discuss this topic and how we can all learn to not be one of them.

Amazon FBA is a good program, especially for sellers who don’t want the hassle of shipping their own products to their customers.

Basically, Amazon will handle all the shipment arrangements as long as you have stocks with them. However, Amazon FBA don’t end up working for everyone.

There are sellers who fail at this program despite the amount of capital they invested in inventories and packaging. For those who wonder why, here are the top 5 reasons that I had observed people fail at Amazon FBA.

1. No Proper Training

As with all other businesses, you CANNOT go in blind!

Amazon FBA is great for new and experienced sellers. But, aspiring Amazon sellers should still be able to learn the basics of this program.

There are so many sellers who jump onto this platform without even knowing the basics of Amazon being a search engine and to succeed, you got to play the game of keywords. (If you don’t know this yet, 90% of all buys starts with a search)

Taking proper training helps but not all of them are willing to pay for an Amazon FBA course; and I understand that. However, it is still no excuse as there are literally loads of YouTube videos on Amazon FBA. Not to mention, the free podcasts by Jim Cockrim, Silent Sales Machine and Helium10‘s podcast, AM/PM by Manny Coats.

For those who see the value of being mentored by successful sellers and being coached to shorten the learning curve (Which I strongly advocate), there are many good and reputable Amazon FBA courses you can explore. My personal recommendation would be Just One Dime Amazon FBA Mastery Course which you can check out here.

One of the top reasons why people fail is because they lack proper training. They don’t know how to handle situations when a process doesn’t work. They have no contingency plans, which are usually taught by FBA mentors. Sellers start Amazon FBA without enough knowledge on how to manage it eventually end up failing.

2. Underestimated the Capital Required

“All you need is just $500 to start Amazon FBA!”

Does this statement sounds familiar to you? That’s because that’s the marketing pitch for a very bad Amazon FBA course. The goal is to draw you in with the low capital requirements which is so far from the truth!

One of the essentials you should have when you start Amazon FBA is enough capital for inventory, Pay-per-click (PPC) and the Amazon Fees.

Without enough for further inventories, your online business will not be able to address the demands of your customers. Without stocks, your Amazon shop will not take any orders and whatever organic rank you have gained will be lost.

By the time you have enough money to buy inventories, the lead time may be too long. Again, you will lose sales because of this; not to mention the effort to regain that rank with PPC again! That’s how people fail with a lack of funds to buy enough inventories.

A lot also underestimate the need for PPC and the Amazon Fees to succeed in Amazon FBA. Make sure you have all these saved up before you even attempt this model.

My personal recommendation is to have $5,000 when you start and be prepared to have another $5,000 on stand-by over the next 3 months for those extra cost. I’m talking about trademarking, PPC, product photography etc.

3. Wrong Product/s and Not Differentiating

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I have seen a lot of cases like this where people just choose the product that they seen everyone else sold. I’m looking at you, people who sold “Hooded Baby Towels/Blanket, Metal Straws, BBQ Meat Claws, Phone Cases and Letterbox Board; this list is non-exhaustive.”

Or even worse, a product where a bad FBA “coach” just tells everyone of his students to sell. I have seen a coach which recommended his students publicly to sell “Thomas the Train” accessories. That is Amazon FBA suicide as that’s a trademark infringement waiting to happen. Needless to say, most of the students including the “coach” got banned on Amazon.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think Amazon FBA has a lot of opportunities where literally MILLIONS of products are waiting to be sold.

Do your due diligence and research your potential products based on numbers as I had gone through here. If you’re checklist of a good product is still “fits in a shoe box”, “weighs less than the shoes” and “easily found on Alibaba”, then I would suggest you change your strategy ASAP!

And remember, always differentiate. That’s the name of the game right now for Amazon FBA. Too many me too products on Amazon have raised the competition to a new level. The only way to stand out from the crowd is through differentiation. I shared 13 creative ways you can differentiate your products which you can check out.

4. Poor Product Images

No customer wants to buy from a seller who uses low-quality photos and imitations. If you want to succeed in Amazon FBA, you will invest your time in posting high-quality actual photos of your products.

Else, you are pushing your customers away from you and to your competitors. Poor product photos are usually the main culprit why sellers fail at Amazon FBA when it comes to a poor listing.

Because they don’t believe that photos have something to do with sales, they pick the images that don’t have enough appeal to customers. They cheap out on the images and eventually, they cheap themselves out.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, invest in good quality product images. Especially your main image, where the first impression counts the most.

5. Lack of Determination

No one told you Amazon FBA is going to be tough. Well, let me be the first to tell you that as I do not shy away from the truth.

In fact, let me take this up a notch and say that getting a successful Amazon FBA business will be one of the most challenging season of your life. This is pure entrepreneurship in action where you have to get up everyday despite facing defeat; just barely clinging onto hope for a better future.

When you are selling online, you have to be as determined as possible. With a lack of determination, your business will not last for a long time. Your low confidence will bring you and your business down.

And I can say this is a major reason why sellers are failing. They don’t have the mindset of being an entrepreneur. They are just on Amazon to sell to make some quick bucks.

Little did they know that before you become successful in this program, you have to fix your mindset and commit to what you are doing.

Conclusion

I understand this article may not be as rosy a picture as what a lot of the course sellers would like you to believe, but that’s the real hard truth about getting into Amazon FBA.

In fact, that’s the real hard truth about success really! You have to really want it, and pay the price to get there.

For those who are still willing to grunt it out, I salute you because you are fighting for yourself, your family and for your future. You have not given up just because it gets a little tough.

I respect you and I am in the trenches with you.

To your great success!