ecom - Greenstone Goodies

Navigating the intricate waters of e-commerce demands a keen eye for detail and a strategic mindset. Among the myriad decisions that impact the success of an online business, shipping supplies often play a pivotal yet overlooked role. This comprehensive guide aims to shed light on strategies for reducing shipping expenses and, in some cases, obtaining supplies for free.

UPS: Unveiling the World of Free Plain Boxes and Labels
Shipping with UPS not only ensures reliability but also presents a cost-saving opportunity with free plain and unmarked box samples. These versatile boxes, available in two sizes (12 in x 10 in x 3 in and 9 in x 6 in x 3 in), can be used with any carrier, providing a flexible solution for various shipping needs. The only requirement is to set up a free business account with UPS.

Step-by-Step Guide to Acquiring Free UPS Supplies:

Account Setup: Initiate the process by visiting the UPS website and opening a free business account.

Profile Completion: Complete your business profile, ensuring accuracy and consistency with your Amazon seller account.

Payment Account: Navigate to account settings to add a business payment account, enabling you to access free materials.

Ordering Supplies: With an active account, go to the shipping tab, click Packaging and shipping supplies > Packaging, scroll to the bottom. The last to choices on the page will be the Small and Medium Security boxes. Check the boxes on the right for each and then click “Add Selected to Your Order.”

From there, it will bring you back to the top of the page and you need to use the drop-down menu that currently says “Packaging”. Select “Labels and Stickers”

Find the “Direct Thermal Label – Roll” and select it as you did with the boxes and add it to your order.

Submit Order: Click “View Your Supplies Order” and scroll to the bottom and select “Submit Order”. Your supplies will be delivered in a couple days.

USPS: Leveraging Free Priority Mail Supplies
USPS introduces another dimension to the world of free shipping supplies, albeit branded and exclusive to USPS services, particularly, Priority Mail. To order these supplies, explore the “Shop shipping supplies” section on the USPS website, utilizing the filter for “free shipping supplies.”

Find the supplies that will be best suited for your needs, keeping in mind that anything that is labeled as “Flat Rate” MUST be used with that specific rate. For example, to use the Padded Flat Rate envelope, you must purchase shipping specifically for the Padded Flat Rate. You can’t use that rate for anything else, nor can you use another rate on that envelope.

Box Shopping Wisdom for Oversized Items
Oversized items demand strategic sourcing, and retail giants like Walmart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot become pivotal partners. Walmart, in particular, stands out for providing reasonably priced regular boxes, with a crucial caveat: avoid the more expensive Extra Strength boxes unless explicitly required.

Consider the size, weight, and sturdiness requirements of your products before committing to specific box types. This thoughtful approach ensures not only cost-effectiveness but also the right level of protection for your items.

Bubble Wrap and Packing Tape: The Guardian Duo
Beyond the realm of boxes, the protective duo of bubble wrap and packing tape deserves careful consideration. Bubble wrap serves as the delicate guardian of your products, balancing protection and cost-effectiveness. A reliable source for bulk purchases is American Bubble Boy, offering a 700 sq ft pack for approximately $45 with a subscription.

When it comes to packing tape, choose a quality option to ensure secure packaging and avoid the pitfalls of thinner tapes. The last thing you want is for packages to arrive with compromised seals due to subpar tape quality.

The Grocery Store Sustainability Hack
While sustainability is a growing concern, repurposing single-use plastic bags from grocery stores becomes a practical and environmentally conscious solution. Collect these bags and repurpose them as filler materials for FBA shipments, providing a second life to these bags before Amazon recycles them.

Rather than just throwing them away or in the recycle bin, I like to stuff them in my FBA shipment boxes as I would packing paper. Careful though. You don’t want to do this on customer orders. It looks very unprofessional, but for and FBA box, Amazon doesn’t care.

Consider it a dual-purpose strategy – not only are you reducing costs by utilizing free materials, but you’re also contributing to environmental sustainability.

Poly Bags and Packing Paper Symphony
Poly bags with a suffocation warning become unsung heroes for FBA shipments, offering versatility through various sizes. Pair these with packing paper, readily available at reasonable prices from retailers like Walmart, to complete the symphony of packaging materials.

Consider investing in different sizes of poly bags to accommodate a variety of products. I like using this multi-pack with 4 different sizes.

Having a diverse range of sizes ensures you’re prepared for different product dimensions. And, keep in mind, the suffocation warning is not just a requirement; it’s a crucial safety measure for customers.

Conclusion: Crafting a Strategy for E-commerce Brilliance
In the intricate dance of e-commerce, managing shipping expenses becomes an art form. By harmonizing free supplies from carriers like UPS and USPS with strategic shopping for larger boxes and astute sourcing of additional materials, businesses can not only optimize their shipping processes but also keep costs in check.

Quality packaging materials transcend being a mere cost; they are investments in ensuring products reach customers securely. Whether you’re a seasoned e-commerce entrepreneur or a newcomer setting sail, these tips act as guiding stars to navigate the world of shipping supplies efficiently.

Stay abreast of cost-effective options, be mindful of the environmental impact, and witness your e-commerce ship sailing smoothly, thriving while keeping shipping expenses under control.

If you would like to see more options for saving money when sourcing, check out this cash back guide next!

Building A Successful Amazon Business With Replens

What Is A Replen?

One of the best moments as a seller on Amazon is when you find a product that will sell very profitably and is easily sourced. Most RA (retail arbitrage) sellers love focusing on clearance deals. This can be a very good place to look, but it can also be very unreliable. It is virtually impossible to know what you may or may not find when you walk into the store since clearance items are very unpredictable. You could come away with some great profit makers, or you could go away empty-handed.

This is the beauty of Replens (replenishables). These are items that you can sell profitably while still buying them at full price and can be found at any time from your source. When you are focused on these kinds of items instead of the clearance items, you will rarely, if ever, come away from a store without buying any product to resell.

The downside of replens is that they are generally much smaller and lower-priced items than the big scores you find in the clearance aisle. As a result, you need to constantly be sourcing and adding new ones to your list. You also may have other people jumping on listings over time and see the prices of your good ASINs crash. Again, you need to keep adding new ones to your list and keep growing.

As you keep adding to your inventory of profitable replens, you will find you are growing a scalable, systematizable business creating a more predictable level of income.

So the question arises, how can you continuously keep finding those replens?

Where to Start

There are nearly as many techniques to go about finding replens for your business. While very time-consuming and, at times, frustrating, it is good to make some effort to be in the store physically looking for products on the shelf. You may spend a lot of time in there only finding a few products to sell, but the experience you gain can be priceless. Eventually, you will begin recognizing what good replens will look like. You will be able to find them rather quickly, and with this experience, you will be able to make better decisions when you start using other methods.

When you are in the store, don’t simply scan barcodes. Think of how many other sellers focus on barcodes and are finding the exact same listings you would be. Also, in your experience shopping on Amazon, when was the last time you searched for a product you wanted to buy using the barcode? Unless you are a rare one, you have never done that. Very few people search for things to buy using the barcode, so you shouldn’t rely on those as a seller either.

The more organic method shoppers use when searching Amazon is keywords. For example, if you are shopping for peanut butter, you might search for the Brand and the term “peanut butter”, so that is what you should search for as a seller as well. When you are in the store looking at the shelf, use those kinds of search terms and the results that come back will give you a lot more options that barcodes would leave out.

For example, scanning a barcode for an 8 oz jar of Jif creamy peanut butter would show you the listing for that specific jar, and in some cases, it may show you a listing for 2 or 3 jars. Whereas, if you typed a search for “Jif peanut butter 8 oz” you will see a greater variety of listings, giving you more options that the other guy who is depending on his barcode scanner wouldn’t see.

Online Searching

Once you have spent some time searching in the store, you might get tired of being there and want to bring your searching back home to a more comfortable setting. There are a variety of methods for doing this as well.

You could start in the store and take pictures of the shelves and do the same kind of searching from a comfortable chair at home rather than a busy store aisle.

You could also make use of some programs that do more of the heavy lifting for you. Some of these programs can be very valuable for Amazon sellers. But, to be clear, I do not recommend signing up for any of those expensive softwares as a beginner. There is only one that I recommend and that is because I feel that EVERY Amazon seller needs this software.

This one is called Keepa. It is an invaluable program that tracks most ASINs on Amazon. You can find it by going to their website or you can install the browser extension that puts the graph on the Amazon listing page. There is both a free and paid version. But the free version will not give you the data you really need to make informed decisions about the products you are looking up.

The paid version is around $200 USD if you pay annually which comes out to less than $17 per month. Compared to most other software for Amazon sellers, this one is very cheap and is the most useful.

I also like to use Keepa for a technique called reverse sourcing. This method has been the most fruitful for me, and the only software you need to replicate it is Keepa.

Reverse Sourcing

What is reverse sourcing? Basically, I am finding other sellers on Amazon and looking at their inventory, and using this list as though it is the shelf in the store I am looking at. I look at their products and then do a quick internet search to see where I can source each product. If I can source it easily for a low enough price for it to be profitable, I will add it to my list of products to test. After I have a long enough list, I will go and buy those items and send them into Amazon.

I made a video here where you can see the process in action and notice just how simple it can be to start finding profitable products to sell on Amazon over and over again.

Building with a Proven Model

When it comes to building a successful business selling on Amazon, whether as a beginner or if you are a seasoned vet, you will benefit greatly by adding easily replenishable products to your catalog. It will save you much time and effort in this way.

Don’t sleep on this highly advantageous model that can bring great success to your business.

Tag: ecom

Save Money on Shipping Supplies For Amazon FBA and E-commerce

Replens