Walmart Adds Fulfillment Services for Third-Party Vendors

March 4, 2020

What is Walmart Fulfillment Services?

If you’ve ever used FBA, then you’ll be familiar with what Walmart is rolling out to its third-party vendors with its Walmart Fulfillment Services, or WFS.

WFS handles order fulfillment, customer service, and provides sellers with a dashboard to track inventory and other account-related metrics.

Like Amazon’s FBA, Walmart Fulfillment Services, or WFS, will enable third-party sellers to not only gain more visibility on the ecommerce site, but sellers will also be able to streamline their operations for Walmart further.

Those sellers who are expanding out of Amazon and onto other marketplaces will be able to reduce their own warehousing and logistical needs.

Learn more about Walmart Fulfillment Services from their website.

Here are some other benefits of Walmart Fulfillment Services:

  • Improved customer service with faster delivery, easy returns, and good customer service
  • Save money with simple pricing and no hidden fees
  • Track inventory, orders, and shipments with Walmart’s Dashboard
  • Get higher search placement and visibility with Buy Box and Two Day tags, along with more control over item page
  • Streamline returns and omnichannel free and easy returns (return online or at the store)
  • Personalized support from a WFS expert
  • Nationwide coverage with 2-day delivery

Why use WFS?

Sellers who use FBA know why a fulfillment service can be powerful: it reduces the need for employees to spend time handling support and order fulfillment.

Many sellers look to diversifying their marketplaces so that an incident, like a suspension, on one marketplace won’t drastically affect their business. But one obstacle to Walmart was the need to handle order fulfillment and customer service, aspects of a business that can be extremely labor-intensive and costly.

WFS provides roughly similar benefits to FBA, and just as importantly, WFS will allow sellers with limited warehouse space and technology to expand to a big marketplace like Walmart.

WFS and FBA are very similar in that both programs offer sellers the ability to offload their customer support, allowing Walmart and Amazon to handle customer service (questions, refunds, and returns).

Here are some possible advantages to WFS over FBA:

  • Customers can return their purchases to a Walmart store
    • As of March 2020, there are roughly 4 times more Walmart stores (4,769) than Kohl’s stores (1,158), making returns more convenient for customers
  • Fixed monthly storage fee and fulfillment price based on shipping weight alone (with exceptions for apparel and hazmat items)
  • Customer support for sellers from WFS associates

WFS Restrictions

Like FBA, there are some restrictions for WFS that will turn away some sellers. Those are:

  • Products must ship from within the US
  • No perishable or regulated products
  • Maximum product weight is 30 pounds
  • Maximum product dimensions of 25″ x 20″ x 14″

The biggest of these restrictions is the first one: sellers won’t be able to ship from their factory out of the country straight into Walmart as they can with Amazon. This may help curb some of the rampant listings of Chinese products on Walmart.

Conclusion

Ultimately, sellers on Amazon will find it easier to migrate to an additional platform like Walmart. Previously, the need to handle warehousing, customer support, and other fulfillment logistics made selling on Walmart an obstacle, especially for the millions of smaller Amazon sellers.

Businesses will have to manage two different fulfillment services, so there’s likely room for mistakes and confusion, but once the confusion from adoption is resolved, sellers are likely to increase their sales with less work thanks to WFS.

Sellers who are already using FBA can easily expand to Walmart’s marketplace, and considering how ubiquitous Walmart is in the United States, the appeal to sell on Walmart through WFS will be very strong for all sellers if Walmart can make it work.

What is Just In Time (JIT) Fulfillment?

August 8, 2019

Most sellers on eBay and Amazon are familiar with retail arbitrage and drop shipping models of fulfillment. But just in time fulfillment is a fulfillment and inventory management model that may be more attractive to some sellers.

Like drop shipping, just in time fulfillment allows sellers to quickly expand their product catalog without large investments in inventory or warehouse space. Unlike drop shipping, just in time fulfillment gives sellers more control over the product that customers receive.

We’ll go over the advantages and disadvantages of JIT fulfillment in this article.

What is just in time fulfillment?

With JIT fulfillment, merchants place the order with their suppliers only when a customer places an order with the merchant.

For instance, you’d list an item for sale on your own website or another marketplace like eBay or Amazon. When a customer purchases that item, you turn around and place an order from the supplier. But you have that item shipped to you for repackaging before you ship it to the customer.

This fulfillment strategy is different from drop shipping because items are delivered to the merchant, not directly to the customer. JIT fulfillment allows for several advantages, as we’ll see below.

Pros

  • No need to store and process large amounts of inventory
    • Fewer issues related to stockouts, expirations, or deadstock
  • Lower capital investment needed because there’s no need for bulk inventory purchases and storage
  • Flexible cash flow because of reduced inventory and storage requirements
  • Can easily expand product offerings since inventory storage isn’t needed
  • Some marketplaces have strict requirements about drop shipping, so JIT fulfillment allows merchants to abide by marketplace dropshipping rules
  • Since you’re repackaging the product, you can remove all documents with the supplier’s information and include your own
    • This can mean marketing material, packing slip, invoices, or any other document that identifies the supplier
  • Ensure that the customer receives the product he ordered in the condition that he ordered it

Cons

  • Need strong relationships with vendors in order to fulfill orders on time
    • Poor relationships can lead to canceled orders, long shipping times, or other mistakes
  • Usually lower profit margins than drop shipping since there’s an extra shipping step involved (from supplier to you and then from you to customer)
  • No control over the fulfillment process from the supplier to you
    • Potentially longer shipping window
  • You’ll need to monitor your prices carefully and adjust for the fluctuating prices from your suppliers and for increasing shipping costs

There are many reasons why the JIT fulfillment model is better than drop shipping. Perhaps the biggest reason is that JIT fulfillment meets one of Amazon’s requirements about drop shipping: that you identify yourself as the seller on the packaging and inserts.

When you drop ship an item, you don’t have control over what the supplier does, but with JIT fulfilment, you’ll be able to remove all supplier information and put your own materials in there.

For instance, if you drop ship from a distributor to Amazon and the distributor sends the customer the product in its own branded box and inserts, your account would be put at risk for violating Amazon’s drop shipping policy.

Drop shipping isn’t as lucrative today as it was a few years ago. Many consumers today know about Alibaba, Aliexpress, or any number of Chinese websites selling consumer goods for super low prices.

In fact, many of those same Chinese suppliers now sell on eBay and Amazon, so you may be competing directly with them. This can really hurt you if they suddenly increase prices to force out their competition and harm your metrics.

In addition to competing with the suppliers themselves, perhaps hundreds of courses, workshops, and self-proclaimed Youtube gurus have pitched drop shipping as the next “get rich quick” business idea.

Just in time fulfillment allows you to better control the product and process for your customer, but it’ll cost you extra in shipping and time. Consider JIT fulfillment if you’re also considering drop shipping to see what works best for your business model and goals.

Sell on these online marketplaces that are eBay alternatives

July 11, 2019

Looking for eBay alternatives to sell your products or household goods?

Check out these marketplaces and see if they’re a better fit for your business, or list on these marketplaces to expand your audience and sell your stuff faster.

If you list an item on multiple marketplaces, remember to remove them once they sell or you’ll get a performance hit on your seller metrics.

One benefit of some of these marketplaces is they’ll allow you to connect to Amazon or eBay and import your items. This will save you time and allow you to expand your customer base without putting in that much more effort.

Check out the seller guides for more information.

Bonanza

SimilarWeb estimates the number of visitors to Bonanza at 5.54 million visitors in the previous 6 months, or a little under 1 million visitors per month.

The modern, clean layout, combined with marketing and media coverage means that Bonanza is becoming a recognized marketplace.

The site is growing, and as more sellers sign on and marketing increases, Bonanza looks to be a promising platform and competitor.

Bonanza’s fees start at 3.5% and go up to 30% depending on the type of service you want. Higher rates mean that your products will be advertised through Google.

One benefit of Bonanza is that direct referral links from your blog or social media will have 0 referral fees.

eBid

eBid’s visitors are split between the UK and the US. SimilarWeb estimates the number of visitors at 415,000 in the previous 6 months.

eBid boasts a gross listing value of over 8.7 billion dollars with over 4.2 million listings worldwide.

There’s a 3% fee to sell on eBid. A current lifetime SELLER+ subscription with additional benefits is on sale at $49.99, down from $99.98.

eCrater

SimilarWeb estimates 2.26 million visitors in the previous 6 months. That comes out to over 350,000 visitors per month.

Unlike other marketplaces, eCrater gives you your own free online store. While you’ll get a subdomain, it’s great for small sellers or sellers of handmade goods. As you grow, you may want to consider your own website.

Listings are free on eCrater, and there are no fees unless a purchase was made through eCrater’s marketplace. In cases of referrals, there’s a 2.9% fee.

That means direct links to products in your store will cost you nothing.

Facebook Marketplace

It’s free to list on Facebook Marketplace, but you may have to pay for third-party integrations for services you want, like setting up inventory.

Relatively new, Facebook Marketplace is becoming popular quickly because of the number of users who are on Facebook and the ease with which customers can communicate with sellers.

Facebook Marketplace also allows buyers to check out with shipping. So it’s not necessarily a local marketplace.

Many people use Facebook Messenger, and the ability to communicate with customers in real-time through social media can be a boon for businesses.

But that also means you may need to devote more people to customer service, as customers are more likely to chat with you through Messenger than through email.

Mercari

Most people may know Mercari as an app, but anyone can browse product offerings on any browser.

No traffic data is available on SimilarWeb since many customers interact with Mercari through the app.

Listings are free, and there’s a 10% fee if the item sells.

One unique aspect of Mercari is that buyers and sellers rate each other for the transaction. This helps keep the marketplace more honest, though that doesn’t mean there will be fewer scammers.

Other Marketplaces

These other marketplaces didn’t quite make the list since they specialize in specific categories of goods, but if you so happen to sell these products, then these marketplaces may be a better fit for you.

The more marketplaces you sell on, the broader the audience you’ll reach. But remember too that managing listings from various marketplaces can become tedious since you’ll have to add and remove them individually as products sell.

You’ll also risk running into the issue of selling more than what you have if you’re not careful. This can affect your seller performance metrics if you also sell the same products on Amazon or eBay.

That’s no problem for sellers who stock and sell manufactured goods, but for casual sellers or people selling household items they no longer want, the effort of managing multiple listings may not be worthwhile.

Every seller knows that diversification can help ease account suspensions. Amazon sellers are especially prone to suspensions, as one prolong suspension can easily take down the business.

So take the opportunity to explore other marketplaces and see if they’ll fit your business.

Like this article and want to read more? See the following related articles:

Understanding Amazon Current Reserve or Unavailable Balance

July 2, 2019

Are you wondering what the current reserve or unavailable balance is on your settlement report?

Learn more about how the previous and current reserve balance and how they work in this article.

You may see these on your settlement reports as previous unavailable balance and unavailable balance. We’ll use previous reserve and current reserve instead.

The reserve balance is withheld from your account to cover potential issues like

  • A-to-z claims
  • Chargebacks
  • Low seller performance metrics
  • Account review
  • Pending order delivery

Previous Reserve Balance is the amount that was withheld from your previous settlement and released on your current one.

For instance, if your current reserve balance is $100 on January 1, then your Previous Reserve Balance (and your beginning balance) will be $100 on January 15 so long as there were no problems with orders.

Current Reserve Balance is the amount withheld from orders until 7 days after the latest estimated delivery date.

Using our example earlier, if your disbursement is on January 15 and you have an order that nets $100 on January 14 with a delivery window of January 16-20, then that $100 won’t be available to you until January 27.

For many sellers, this $100 will carry over to the next settlement period. Sellers who request transfers daily won’t be able to request the $100 until January 27.

In addition to recent orders, you’ll also see funds held in reserve for chargebacks and A-to-z claims.

This running reserve balance ensures that your account has enough to cover any claims from customers.

Amazon may also keep funds in reserve for other reasons.

New sellers have a longer reserve period, so they may not receive their first disbursement until a month after their first sale. This reserve balance may be withheld for a longer period from sellers who have a long delivery window.

Sellers with low seller performance metrics may also see a longer reserve period. That’s because low seller performance metrics can mean higher instances of returns and A-to-z claims.

A combination of chargebacks, A-to-z claims, and low seller performance metrics may mean that funds are held in reserve for longer than expected.

Even sellers who have a sudden increase in sales may be put under account review because of the sudden spike in account activity.

Why have any reserve balance?

One reason for a rolling reserve is fraud. In the past, fraudulent sellers took advantage of the absence of a rolling reserve to scam customers and Amazon.

This worked because they were able to upload a large amount of inventory at low prices, set long delivery windows, collect money from sales, and then disappear. Amazon would be left with angry customers and the cost of the refunds.

How can I change my reserve period?

There’s no really no way to change how Amazon handles your reserve balance. If you have low seller performance metrics, then work on improving those metrics.

See if you can reduce your shipping window by using FBA or improving fulfillment processes. Getting your orders to customers quickly means you’ll get your money sooner.

Not interested in FBA? Look through our list of third-party Amazon service providers to find another solution.

If you’re getting a large number of returns and A-to-z claims, then look into what’s causing the issues.

  • Do your products have a flaw or defect that can be fixed? Is this defect across all products or just some? Consider inspecting your products at the factory or upon arrival.
  • Are your products getting damaged during shipping? If so, then improve the packaging.
  • Getting a lot of return fraud? Consider implementing some security measures like tamper-evident seals on packaging

You’ll want to improve your performance metrics regardless of the reserve period since low metrics can lead to account suspensions. Taking some proactive steps to improve your metrics can save you from the stressful process of writing appeals and waiting.

Minimize any risk to your account by fulfilling orders on time, entering tracking information, and providing excellent customer support.

Learn more about these other Amazon topics below.

Use Shopify Fulfillment Network to Fulfill Orders!

June 21, 2019

Shopify store owners will now have more fulfillment options when it comes to fulfilling their customer orders!

Shopify is allowing select merchants access to the Shopify Fulfillment Network, which is powered by machine learning to identify the nearest fulfillment centers and ideal inventory levels to get orders to customers faster.

To apply for Shopify Fulfillment Network, simply click on the Shopify link to log into Shopify and apply. You’ll receive an email about your application within 48 hours.

Is Shopify Fulfillment Network better than other fulfillment options?

No doubt you’re wondering if Shopify’s network of fulfillment centers is better than alternatives like Amazon FBA or third-party fulfillment centers.

It’s likely that Shopify’s fulfillment centers will get orders to customers faster than other networks because of Shopify’s native integration and technology.

And with the network of fulfillment centers powered by machine learning, customers will receive their orders faster than any private third-party fulfillment service can provide. That’s because Shopify has access to critical metrics and data that may not be available to other parties.

Sellers who use Amazon FBA to fulfill Shopify orders know that Amazon sometimes takes days before shipping out multichannel fulfillment (MCF) orders.

Not only does Amazon take a bit longer to fulfill MCF orders than its own marketplace or Prime orders, but they also charge more for MCF.

Delays in order fulfillment can drive customers away from marketplaces, including your Shopify store if customers are waiting too long for their products.

With Amazon’s move to 1-day shipping, customers will now, more than ever, expect to have their orders within a few days, if not sooner.

Here are some of the benefits of using Shopify Fulfillment Network instead of another service:

  • Faster delivery times because of technology maintaining inventory levels and identifying nearby fulfillment centers
  • Improved customer satisfaction due to faster delivery
  • Possibly lower fees compared to other service providers like Amazon FBA

If you’ve stayed away from third-party fulfillment services or Amazon FBA for your Shopify store because of inconsistent service, then consider Shopify’s fulfillment services.

You may be able to reduce your own labor and storage expenses while increasing your customer satisfaction and loyalty metrics. The result? Lower operating costs and increased sales.

Even if you’re not going to use Shopify’s fulfillment centers and technology, having increased competition will keep prices low and increase customer satisfaction. As a seller on Shopify and potentially other marketplaces, you’ll only benefit from a new competitor to the field.

Learn more about the announcement from Shopify.

Like this article and want to read other related articles?

Hire employees with these free job posting websites

June 18, 2019

See where you can hire new employees for your ecommerce or Amazon business for free.

Consider that posting a job on major sites like Indeed will likely flood you with resumes. This will take even more time to sort through. This is why having clear expectations can streamline the entire hiring process.

Also keep in mind your time to train, so paying a little more to hire and keep good employees will save you money in the long run.

Here are some tips for new businesses looking to hire their first employee so that you don’t waste time. Skip below to see where you can post your job opening.

  • State the job requirements as clearly as possible so that you don’t waste time vetting employees during the interview process
  • Write out job duties and expectations as clearly as possible
  • Have an interview process with predetermined questions
  • Be clear about salary, pay, and benefits

Glassdoor

Glassdoor is a popular website job seekers use to see salaries and reviews for companies.

It also provides job seekers with data about compensation for the job. This includes average pay, range of pay, and pay for related positions.

Indeed.com

Indeed is a very popular platform for many job seekers because of it’s minimalistic and effective interface and layout. In fact, it ranks as one of the top websites used by job seekers.

It’s free to post a job, but you can sponsor your job for a low price (currently $5 per day) or design a hiring campaign if you’re looking for more exposure.

Jobvertise

Jobvertise allows you to browse resumes for keywords and post jobs for free.

The free plan has a limited number of resume viewings per day, and you can increase that with their paid plan.

Oodle Jobs

This site is similar to Craigslist, and its job board allows you to limit your job posting to a specific region.

Oodle is a good option if it’s popular in your area and you want to keep hiring local to your business.

SimplyHired

SimplyHired works by posting your job across a network of different job boards like Indeed.

Word of Mouth

Having a recommendation from someone you trust is one of the best ways small businesses can hire. This is made simpler through social media networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you know and trust a person, then his recommendation will go a long way toward helping you decide on your next employee.

Let current and former employees, family members, friends, and relatives know that you’re looking to hire for a specific position. They may know just the perfect person for you!

Your Own Website

If you have your own Shopify store or ecommerce website, you should list any job openings on there. This method works well because you’ll get people who know about your website and want to work for you.

You’ll usually find websites list job openings on the footer along with other contact or company information.

Check out these other websites where you can hire employees. They do charge, but they may be more commonly used in your region:

Hiring people for your business can be a tough task. A bad hire can cost you time and money, especially since you’ll have to rehire and retrain new employees.

But having a hiring process with clear expectations will help you vet candidates and get a better feel for how he or she will fit into your work culture.

If you’re looking for some part-time remote employee, check out our article on hiring remote workers or virtual assistants for your Amazon or ecommerce business.

Like this article? Check out our articles on SellerZen below.

5 ways Amazon sellers can get more from Amazon

June 6, 2019

There are several ways Amazon sellers can get more of their money back from Amazon.

Many sellers don’t look into the details of their Amazon business. So long as they get a large payment every settlement, they trust that their accounts are in order.

But that’s not always the case. In fact, many sellers are likely owed hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in reimbursements for damages or mistakes.

These mistakes can include lost or damaged items at an FBA warehouse or some mistaken charge on a refund.

We’ll go over other areas sellers can look into to reclaim or get the money they are owed back from Amazon.

Business Orders

If you sell B2B on Amazon Business, then chances are you haven’t changed the default payment option.

While not a reimbursement, business order payments can help with cash flow.

It’s common for businesses to have Net 30 terms on Amazon, and some may even have Net 90 terms. While you can get more money through sales to businesses, you won’t receive the proceeds from some sales for at least 30 days. This can seriously restrict cash flow for many sellers.

The default payment option for business orders is that the latest you can be paid is 7 days after the invoice due date. That can mean up to 97 days before sellers are finally paid by businesses with Net 90 terms.

Instead, you can change your business payment setting so that you’re paid immediately after the order is shipped. It’ll cost you an additional 1.5% transaction fee.

View the linked article above for step-by-step instructions on changing your payment options for business orders.

If you need the cash flow, then an additional 1.5% fee isn’t much considering 90 days is enough time for one inventory turnover.

Fraudulent Returns

If you’re not filing SAFE-T claims for reimbursements on fraudulent returns, then you’re losing money on refund fees, your cost of the product, and possibly shipping expenses, not to mention the labor involved.

Many sellers avoid filing reimbursement claims because they feel like they won’t receive the reimbursement, or they don’t know that they can request a reimbursement.

But filing claims to receive reimbursement for fraudulent returns has another benefit: it alerts Amazon to customers who abuse return policies. Amazon has been known to ban customers for just this reason.

Read our article here for how to associate order IDs with Amazon FBA returns.

By filing legitimate and well-researched reimbursement claims, you can help yourself, other sellers on the marketplace, and all other Amazon customers. Additional expenses like shrinkage are usually passed onto customers in the form of higher prices.

Check your refunds and returns reports to see if there are any discrepancies like refunds with no returns, and inspect your returns to see if there is any fraud.

Scammers have gone as far as swapping out the insides of electronics in order to bypass inspection.

Fulfillment Fees

Amazon sometimes gets the dimensions of products wrong. When this happens, you’ll pay more for FBA fulfillment fees.

Requirements for small standard-sized products are:

Any packaged item with its longest side 15 inches or less, its shortest side 0.75 inch or less, and its median side 12 inches or less.

It’s $2.41 for products 10 ounces or less and $2.48 for products between 10 – 16 ounces.

The next tier is large at $3.19 for products that are 10 ounces or less.

If your product exceeds those requirements by a little bit, then look into ways you can redesign your product or packaging so that they can take advantage of the lower rates.

Alternatively, confirm that you’re being charged the correct FBA fees and request reimbursements and scans for products that should belong to a lower size tier. Even a 7¢ difference adds up quickly if you’re selling thousands of items a month.

Be sure to check the product dimensions on the listings to make sure they’re correct as well.

New sellers sometimes enter the wrong dimensions when creating listings, and these dimensions can result in very high FBA fulfillment fees.

Reimbursements

There are numerous instances where you can and should request reimbursements from Amazon.

You’ll want to do the research and be prepared with all the information necessary so that you can expedite the reimbursement process.

This includes having invoices from your suppliers, pictures showing damage, shipping weights, and transaction IDs.

Look into your fulfillment reports and see if any of the cases below apply to you. If so, you can request a reimbursement from Amazon.

These are only the more common reimbursement cases and by no means is this a complete list.

  • Missing or damaged products during inbound receiving
    • If you constantly have damaged products, consider how you’re packaging your inbound shipments or product packaging
  • Customer refunded but failed to return products
    • This does not apply if you have returnless refunds enabled
  • Missing or damaged inventory at fulfillment centers
    • View your inventory reports for more detailed information
  • You were charged for the entire refund even though the customer refunded your one item on the order
    • For example, a customer ordered your product at $20 and a few other products totaling $100 and you had $100 deducted from your account instead of $20

Check out our article on Amazon reimbursement services or tools that can help. Be wary about having automatic submissions, as some sellers have been suspended for submitting too many unsupported reimbursement claims.

Be sure to research any potential reimbursement claims before you submit them.

Keep in mind that Amazon sometimes reimburses you with cash only to take back the cash when they later find the product. In these cases, you’ll see a reimbursement reversal on your settlement.

Storage Fees

In 2019, Amazon changed the way it handles its long-term storage fees (LTSF). Now you’re only charged LTSF if your product has been at fulfillment centers for more than 365 days.

Products in the small and light program still have LTSF for 181-365 days and a higher rate after 365 days.

If those products aren’t selling, then you’ll want to create removal orders to avoid higher fees.

Amazon usually has free inventory removal days every year, so you won’t have to pay the 50¢ per-item return fee.

If you’re not careful, storage fees can accumulate to a point where they far exceed the cost of the item. Sellers who sell used books may be more vulnerable to this since some books can take longer to sell.

If you take advantage of free inventory removals, there’s usually a waiting period before you can send those products back to the fulfillment centers.

The waiting period can be as long as 3 months (if you remove your inventory during the promotional period before Q4).

Whether you sell a few products a month or a few thousand products a month, reviewing your Amazon account for unusual fees and reimbursements is worthwhile.

For bigger sellers, someone who handles reverse logistics and monitors accounts for potential reimbursement cases can easily recover enough funds to make the position worthwhile.

If you like this article, read others on our articles page, or check out the links below.

Hire Freelancers from Sites like Fiverr for your Amazon Business

June 4, 2019

Check out where you can hire freelancers from sites like Fiverr for your Amazon or ecommerce business.

Many ecommerce businesses need help with managing various aspects of the business, but they’re not quite ready to hire a part-time or full-time employee.

Many ecommerce businesses today are moving toward remote workers or virtual assistants.

Remote workers from around the world can be hired for any period of time so that your business is monitored 24 hours a day.

Use remote workers or virtual assistants to handle customer service, manage your listings, or even revise, edit, or provide copywriting.

Check out these freelance websites below to see if someone can help you with your Amazon or ecommerce business.

Fiverr

Fiverr

You may already be familiar with this freelance website. While is very popular, there’s no system in place to test or vet freelancers.

Anyone can sign up and provide a service. There’s a 5-star rating system in place to help you make a decision

Prices on Fiverr tend to be on the lower side compared to other freelance websites. But you’ll get what you pay for. Don’t expect an amazing 1000-word optimized article for $10 (roughly 1¢ per word).

That’s not to say that you won’t find quality work on Fiverr. You may have to work with a few people before you find someone whose work you like.

Freelancer

Freelancer home

This website works a bit differently. Instead of searching for freelancers, you’ll post the job or task you need, and freelancers will contact you.

You can vet freelancers and pay when the work is completed.

Visit the website to check on the work progress if you have a complex job that has milestones or daily goals. You can also chat and coordinate with the freelancer who won the job.

Guru

Guru home

Guru seems to have a lot more freelancers from around the world. This is great if you’re looking to sell on global marketplaces since you’ll have help from native speakers.

Guru pricing seems similar to Fiverr, and earnings are displayed instead of 5-star ratings. However, you can view comments or reviews left by clients when you click into the profile.

People Per Hour

People Per Hour home

People Per Hour works on a hybrid model of allowing people to post jobs like freelancer and to search for freelancers like Fiverr and Upwork.

Prices are quoted in BGP or £, so it’s a fantastic website if you’re looking for someone to help you expand or provide marketing/writing or Amazon UK or EU. Their offices are in the UK, Greece, and India.

Having a native language speaker can give you an advantage in the marketplace.

Upwork

Upwork home

Upwork is one of the most popular websites for freelancers. Prices may be higher than other freelance websites, but the quality is likely to be better too.

One reason is that Upwork freelancers tend to specialize, so you can find a copywriter for your products instead of someone who did well in a college writing course.

You can also see what tests Upwork freelancers have passed, giving some freelancers more credibility for specific skills like bookkeeping or accounting.

You’ll want to hire people who specialize in the tasks you’re looking to complete to get the best results. If you’re looking for someone to help with your Amazon listing, then look for a copywriter instead of someone who writes articles for blogs.

Search for a broad term like “Amazon,” “FBA,” or something specific like “Amazon PPC” to get more targeted results. Read through client reviews and ratings for any warning signs.

There are several other websites like Toptal where you can hire freelancers, but they’re specialized for certain fields like software developers.

Hiring a freelancer for certain tasks can be a lot more efficient than doing them on your own. Hiring a virtual assistant to provide customer service will free up your own valuable time to grow your business.

Like this article and want to read similar articles that can help your business?

10 Flippa Alternatives to sell your Amazon or Ecommerce Business

May 30, 2019

If you’re thinking about selling your Amazon FBA or ecommerce business, then take a look at these platforms or services to help market or facilitate the sale of your business.

Selling an ecommerce business that sells through Amazon FBA or other marketplaces can be tricky, and it’s likely to cause buyers more anxiety because they’re not buying a tangible business like with a brick and mortar store.

Check out these websites and brokers to see if one will help you sell your ecommerce business, including Amazon, eBay, and Shopify store.

Some questions you’ll want to consider:

  • What other assets are included with the sale (inventory and social media)?
  • How long do you want to be available to answer questions or provide training for buyers?
  • Are suppliers, employees, or contractors willing to remain after the sale?

SellerZen is not affiliated with any of these services, nor does SellerZen endorse any of these services. We’ve created this list only for informational purposes, so do your own due diligence before you sign up with any services listed in this article.

BizBuySell

BizBuySell Home

BizBuySell is part of the CoStar group, which includes Apartments.com.

The website boasts over 45,000 businesses for sale across a vast range of categories. This includes physical locations as well as ecommerce businesses.

Buyers can sort by several factors including location and business type.

BizBuySell is not a broker. Sellers pay for an ad and are contacted by interested buyers. Ads start from $49.95 per month.

BuySellEmpire

BuySellEmpire home

This brokerage firm states it has helped broker sales of over 300 websites with a combined total of 25 million dollars.

The selling point is that they have a 95% success rate with their team of brokers.

No pricing is readily available on the website, so you’ll have to contact them for the fee schedule.

Digital Exits

Digital Exits home

Digital Exits acts as a broker to sell your ecommerce or Amazon business. You can get a valuation and browse through the businesses they’re currently selling to get an idea of how much your business is worth.

Fees aren’t posted, but most brokers will charge you a percentage of sale price once your business sells.

eBay Business & Industrial

Landing page eBay business and industrial

You can sell almost anything on eBay. This includes businesses, though gaining visibility may be difficult due to all the spam.

Browse the categories or of businesses sold to get an idea of the interest, sales velocity, or price of the most recent sales.

Make a note of those businesses that have sold and what they did well. You’ll want to copy successful features of the listing, like good pictures, clear descriptions, or other characteristics.

Fees for some categories, like food trucks, are only 2% up to a maximum of $300 instead of 10% with a maximum of $750.

Empire Flippers

Empire Flippers home

You may have seen this business featured on Forbes and Business Insider.

Empire Flippers vets sellers to provide buyers with authenticated information. This prevents sellers from making up numbers, and it allows buyers to make informed decisions.

Potential buyers can browse the marketplace and see details such as gross monthly revenue and net profit, both factors that may be confirmed by Empire Flippers.

For this service and the marketplace, Empire Flippers takes a listing fee of $297 for first-time sellers and an additional 10-15% of the sale.

Exchange (Shopify)

Exchange home

Exchange is a marketplace where you can buy and sell Shopify stores. Potential buyers can sort by major cities if they want a local business.

Potential customers may prefer this marketplace if they’re looking specifically for a Shopify store with established social media accounts.

This may be easier than starting a Shopify store from scratch if customers are looking to enter a specific niche.

Like Empire Flippers, the listings have a good amount of detail for potential buyers, and some of the financials are verified by Shopify.

It’s free to list your business, but there’s a service fee based on the sale amount.  You’ll see this fee once you decide to accept an offer from a buyer.

FE International

FE International Home

FE International is a broker that helps businesses sell. They have a high success rate for sales because of their advisors and the support provided.

A quick glance reveals ecommerce businesses are selling for $175,000 to $10,000,000.

There’s a fee charged only when the business is sold.

Flippa

Flippa Search Result

We’ve added Flippa in case some of our readers want to visit the site to compare selling prices of Amazon or ecommerce businesses.

Flippa claims to be the #1 platform to buy and sell businesses.

In addition to businesses, you can buy domains on this website. There are other websites that sell domains, so if you’re looking for domains only, you may want to shop around.

It’s $15 per month for a subscription and a success fee if you sell your business. The success fee is anywhere from 5% to 15% depending on the final sale price.

Quiet Light

QuietLight Brokerage home

This brokerage firm is similar to FE International with over 600 businesses sold at the time of writing and more than an 87% closing rate.

You’ll have to contact the business for pricing.

ValleyBiggs

ValleyBiggs home

This business specializes in purchases and sales of mid-sized websites and tech companies with gross sales between 1 and 250 million dollars.

WebsiteClosers

Website Closers

WebsiteClosers claims to have over $750,000,000 in ecommerce and website sales.

A quick glance at websites or ecommerce businesses for sale on their website shows some Amazon FBA businesses selling in the tens of millions of dollars.

Conclusion

Whether you’re looking to raise capital for another business venture or you want to exit the business, using a marketplace to list or a broker to help sell your business can minimize your stress and save you a lot of time.

Having a broker doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get less for your business. On the contrary, they may be able to get more for you even after their fees because of their connections and reputation.

Even if you’re not currently interested in selling your business, check out the websites to get an idea of how much you can expect to get for your business.

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