Dealing With Logistics As An Amazon Seller – Podcast with Ephraim Ausch

 

 

As an Amazon Seller, you will ship something and work out your logistics, whether from China or inside the United States. While doing business as an Amazon Seller can be fun, the shipping part can be really boring. To know more about how this part of the business can be made interesting, Ephraim Ausch is one of the best people to talk to.

His story is more interesting because he started as an Amazon seller. He later became a service provider and launched his Tactical Logistical Solutions company. There are a few main things to consider when thinking about shipping your inventory to Amazon and all other places, including rates, containers, and the different types of shipments.

Amazon Seller Journey

Ephraim’s business journey started when he joined a local candy and chocolate company in 2011. They sold bulk candy, bulk chocolate, and bulk nuts. Most of their revenue came during Purim, the Jewish holiday when the people gifted each other food baskets. These gift baskets consist of a combination of two different foods. That company had already tried selling on Amazon and closed its account after not being successful. That’s when Ephraim tried to sell online. There was no Amazon PPC at that time, and his initial years went into listing the products. In 2012, he decided to dive into FBA and Amazon fulfillment.

That’s when he realized the potential of the platform and decided to launch his own gift basket business. He mainly targeted religious holidays and worked hard on building his business. He suffered a setback when the nut prices went up. He even wrote to Jeff Bezos’ team and told him about how his business would suffer if Amazon didn’t do something about the logistics issue. At that time, he had his own warehouse and his own staff. To save money and avoid warehouse overhead, he started using the services of a co-packer.

Logistics Can Be A Headache

Anyone can learn how to do listings, how to manage brands, and how to do PPC. Logistics, on the other hand, isn’t everyone’s piece of the pie. The reasoning is that a number of aspects are involved, including custom brokers, trucking companies, freight forwarders, warehousing, co-packing, and finally, making the deliveries to Amazon. Since he was good at it, he decided to become an end-to-end service provider for Amazon Sellers. He decided to handle the imports, the customs clearance, drainage, pickup from the port, warehousing, and finally, the delivery. Unlike other companies, he keeps track of changes in Amazon policies and helps the people accordingly.

Impact of Amazon Restrictions

Amazon came with unit restrictions and inventory restrictions. This caused a sudden increase in inquiries by customers. As per Ephraim, people need to realize that when they have a product on Amazon, they are always paying. This ends up in a constant increase in the cost. Therefore, inventory management is of critical value when deciding your approach.

“Try not to have more than probably six to eight weeks of inventory on Amazon and know your costs, know what it costs you per unit to have an Amazon and to have it versus a 3PL or in your own basement, depending on how big you are.”

Track Your Costs

If you’re not sure if you will sell your stock in the next two months or a month and a half, you are gambling your money and business based on that. This is because you feel like you’re saving a lot of money by sending it to Amazon, avoiding the three 3PLs. But if you calculate all of that, those numbers really pile up. Ephraim’s company charges by pallet. Amazon charges by cubic feet. If you make a comparison of these two costs, you’ll see that there is a significant difference.

Another important thing to consider is to track the prices. There was a time when product prices went up. That is when the logistics prices went up as well. Interestingly, there was also a time when the prices came down, but the 3PL companies started with their higher rates. This is where things got inflated. The right thing to do here is to negotiate with the logistics partners.

You should ​​ensure that you’re paying the right amount for each of these services, including trucking and freight forwarding. The only time when Ephraim’s company really suffered was during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in property leasing. That’s when his company had to increase the salaries of all the staff.

Simplify Your Logistics

Amazon is the one who decides where your shipment is going. Most of the time, Amazon does not let you utilize the best cost. For that, there is a lot of software that can be used. Basically, you create the FBA shipment within their software, and it takes care of the logistics and shipment stuff. It’s basically helpful when you start the shipment and confirm the FBA shipment.

Their algorithm basically sees where Amazon is routing it now, and they could grab one location instead of multiple locations and get it to go to that location. The software basically lets the Amazon Seller test out the product before it leaves for another country. The sellers can prepare a shipment, see where it’s supposed to go, and then route it there.

Connect to Ephraim

Tactical Logistics, Ephraim’s company, is about helping and educating people about logistics and selling on Amazon. The best way is to visit the website https://tacticallogistic.com and fill out the form under the Contact Us section. Your queries will be directly sent to Ephraim’s inbox. If you’re serious about doing business and want to enquire about rates, Ephraim will arrange a meeting with you.

Considering that not every single forwarder is ready to share this information with you, this is an amazing opportunity for all Amazon Sellers. You will definitely be able to lower your cost using the services of Tactical Logistics.

Happy Amazoning!