ckib16
Also for context - just remember that actually negotiating already puts you in a good subset of people. Many people - including myself initially - are reluctant to negotiate. It's a learned skill.
The thing is - sellers should be using this opportunity to build up a brand by borrowing Amazon's audience while they can. AND simultaneously building their own storefront. But I don't see many talking about that.
I do also agree with @sfifs below that many manufacturers don't want to be bothered with marketing and selling, no matter how easy Amazon makes it. They seem to want to stay in their core competency, which is understandable but probably short-sighted on their part.
As for some being "scammy" - yeah sure, there's definitely a bit of people looking to make a quick buck on whatever they can at FBA. Every market has that. But the people I've seen have the most success on FBA do just what you mentioned
- listen to the customer via reviews - improve value via product fixes, bundling, packaging, etc. - provide good feedback & service
That said - I don't know how anyone selling commodity, off-brand stuff does it. I could see that being a huge race to the bottom as stated. The only people I know doing FBA stuff are going the private label route to avoid competing solely on price.
My brother actually makes a full-time living off of FBA now via private label goods. He really enjoys being his own boss and providing a BETTER product than what was available before.
I sold my first FBA product, not a huge success, but validated the business model is real if you work at it. FYI - I've started compiling info for small-scale eCommerce sellers at http://www.privatelabelweekly.com for any sellers interested.
The thing that most people don't realize is that Amazon is moving away from selling everything itself. As stated by Ben Thompson in his excellent "Stratechery" blog (paywall):
> "...I wrote about the ongoing transformation in Amazon’s e-commerce business: while Amazon was originally a traditional retailer that bought products from manufacturers and wholesalers and then sold them on to customers, the company has been shifting to a marketplace model, wherein 3rd-party retailers sell to users on Amazon’s site through a program called Fulfillment by Amazon."
For some direct proof, check out the highlights from the 2016 Q4 earnings report:
- Sellers on Amazon’s marketplace accounted for 49% (!!!) of units sold during the fourth quarter
- Fulfillment by Amazon delivered more than 2 billion items on behalf of sellers in 2016 and the number of active FBA sellers increased by 70 percent.
In short, Amazon is in a good spot by creating the marketplace. They own the audience. Sellers on FBA "borrow" that audience & Amazon logistics in return for storage and sales fees. No need for Amazon to sell everything. FBA sellers do that for them.
FYI for any online sellers out there: if interested, I curate an eCommerce newsletter for the small-scale seller covering Shopify, FBA etc. at http://www.privatelabelweekly.com
Sources
1. https://stratechery.com/2017/planet-of-the-apps-deleteuber-a...
Pilots are repeatedly taught to never "silence" the annoying warning horns that come on for different reasons (slow speed, wrong landing gear configuration). The idea being that mindlessly dismissing alarms will build a bad habit pattern. Especially when you're actually in trouble.
He has had great success with them, if you need those services.
However, my brother is also big into FBA and just expanded into 3PL - I'll get his info and re-post here when I have it.
FYI - I started a newsletter to cover this stuff. Fast-paced niche, so I figured why not curate the best info and share.
I was looking for a "smart" business that was "worthy" of me. How could these people spend so much time on such an indefensible & unscalable process?!
Well, the joke was on me. My brother stopped consuming info and started Amazon FBA. And he does really well (full-time job replacement). Instead of waiting for the perfect idea - he executed.
Now I'm happily off my high horse and trying to follow in his footsteps.
Lesson learned - there is no perfect business. Get started with something simple and build from there.
Great article on this incremental approach for anyone interested: http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2015/03/26/the-stairstep-approa...
Great job.
Nice work on getting a remote job. That must make things much easier.
The short version is – technical details like adjustable cockpits certainly played a part. But the bigger driver was the ever-increasing culture of safety, mishap prevention and leadership accountability.
Safety: things that were common place “back in the day” have been banned for many decades in today’s Air Force. These include traveling without appropriate weather checks, acrobatics maneuvers at low altitudes and unauthorized airspaces, and flying without enough sleep.
Mishap Prevention: incredible resources are poured into scientific investigations on what exactly happened in each incident so that A) we can learn from it and B) all pilots can be briefed on the mistakes made so that they can save their own lives.
Leadership Accountability: if you are a senior leader at an Air Force base with a fatality, you have a large issue on your hands that needs to be handled with extreme attention to detail. Lapses in safety are not looked favorably upon at any level. I wasn’t in the USAF back in the day. But it’s fairly obvious that there was less punishment meted out when mishaps occurred compared to when they happen now. Different times – yes. But overall fatalities were just accepted as “something that happens.”
The safety culture is all-pervasive and common in today’s military. But there were different attitudes back in the ‘40s. So while many of today’s pilots gripe about the excesses of safety culture - and I was one of them – most pilots know deep down that it’s a good thing. I wouldn’t want to return to the old school days where crashes were just the cost of doing business.
In any case, nice work!
A number of people think Stealth increases the chance for WVR engagements (WVR = Within Visual Range, or dog fighting). I'm one of them. The U.S. has a bad history of predicting the end of WVR engagements (see Vietnam and the F-4 produced without internal guns). Air superiority is definitely not a thing that can be taken for granted. But many people do because the West has dominated the skies for many decades now.
Pilots do complain about technology (which always amuses me), but in the end we want the technology that helps us win.
Believe me, you can handle it. IFR is all about cross-check, preparation and staying ahead of the jet. Not the number of switches available to you.