When you are selling online, there are a lot things to think through. There are so many policies put forth by Amazon and then, most important, the charges that Amazon takes for providing it’s services.

Now, almost all these charges are, without doubt, mandatory but the charges for the fulfillment method depends on the method you choose for the order fulfillment.

You have two methods to choose from, if you aren’t in the absolute minority who self ships, merchant fulfillment and fulfillment by Amazon.

Now, choosing one between the two is a tough choice to make. With so many parameters to look at and the various charges and costs, it gets very confusing.

To make it easier for you we, at SellerGyan, made this Calculator that can help you get through this herculean task and save yourself a lot of time and energy.

Because its always wise to know where you are stepping

All you need to do is fill all the cells in the first part of this page.

The Calculator will fill all other details, the charges fixed by Amazon, and provide you with the profits that you can make in both MFN and FBA alike.

Once you know which fulfillment method will get you more profit the decision becomes easy to take, isn’t it?

Here is the calculator. Go ahead and give it a try and choose wisely.

Originally published at www.sellergyan.com.

SellerGyan’s MFN vs FBA calculator for Amazon was originally published in SellerGyan | Boost your e-commerce sales on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I was surprised by this email Amazon sent me today.

Dear Seller,

Kindly note that in order to streamline the seller listing experience, Amazon has introduced Custom Templates. Amazon has migrated from Flat Files to Custom Template and therefore request you to use only Custom Templates for any new item updates or creation.

I was really excited to see what this new feature held in store for me. I went to the link in the email and what I found seems to be promising.

This feature to list products in mass can save a lot of time. I no longer have to list different products one by one even if I have products in various categories.

An inventory file template empowers you to include or alter product listing in mass. It is basically a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains different information segments for portraying your items utilizing different qualities or data fields.

You can make a format to suit your particular requirements and rundown various products over different categories using just one layout. The templates incorporate the right Browse Node, expelling the need to discover them from the Browse Tree Guide.

This is how you can use this new feature:

1. Go to Add Products via Upload > Download an Inventory File tab.

2. Select the type of product you want to offer by utilizing either of these techniques:

Search tool:

Sort the name or key item descriptor words in the search box and click on Search.

Select the type of item you need to list. Click Clear Search to move to the next search.

Product Classifier:

Select the category in which your item belongs.

Keep on narrowing down the grouping choices until the point the Select button shows up.

Click Select to add the arrangement to your rundown.

Repeat the above steps to arrange all of your items.

3. Review your chosen items. You can alter your item list by expelling particular items that you don’t need to incorporate into your layout.

4. Select the kind of layout that you need to create:

Lite: This contains just the required traits related to the chosen items which are important to create your item in the Amazon inventory.

Advanced: It contains all the traits related to the chosen items.

Custom: You can pick the characteristic gatherings related to the chosen items that you want to add to your format.

Since, this feature has been added to minimize on of the many pain points of the sellers, let us see if Amazon is really trying to win the sellers over.

Meanwhile, if you have questions about selling on Amazon or need assistance, you can always contact SellerGyan because help is only a step away.

Amazon’s new Inventory file template was originally published in SellerGyan | Boost your e-commerce sales on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the rapidly growing eCommerce giant, aptly named Amazon, there’s enough for everyone. Anyone with something to sell can do business on Amazon and earn their share of the billion dollar industry.

Well, at least that’s what we all are lead to believe.

What is truth, though? Is it what we see or is it shrouded in a mystery we do not care to understand or is it hidden in plain sight, where we all are looking at it but we just cannot see?

In this heavily booming world, it could be anything. Almost anything is possible these, at least it seems to be. Nothing surprises me anymore and I bet it’s the same with you.

Whatever it might be, we all want to be a part of it. We want to have a big slice of pizza that Amazon is making. The question is, it it wise? Is it wise to enter these unknown tides just with the hope of making it big? Even if there is light at the end of the tunnel, is it the light we are looking for?

To understand all the chaos, I wanted answers to the questions that can help me take the decision and boy was I right? There is certainly a chance to make it big ( however small ) on Amazon but there are things that I need to concern my already confused mind with. Things that I am going to share with you if you want a slice too.

What to sell?

Certainly the most obvious question that hit my mind when I first decided to sell online. I had heard that the billions of people visiting Amazon would all be my prospective customers but my logic, for once, didn’t leave me.

I mean not all the people visiting Amazon would buy what I offered. Why would a man buy a polka dot skirt? or why would a woman buy a Beard oil, for example. I am telling you the hard facts here. If you keep looking deeper, your list of prospective buyers comes down to probably a few thousand or even a few hundreds depending on what you sell.

And not every prospective buyer will actually buy. Some might buy from a different seller ( because there are so many, huge competition: another issue ) or they might not buy at all.

In spite of all this, I still have a shot at it as long as I choose my items based on popular demand and availability of such products on Amazon. Basically I need to choose something that has huge demand but is not available on Amazon, abundantly.

Which brings me to my next concern.

How will I ship everything I sell?

Well, with Amazon, I did not have to worry a lot with this one. Since amazon has various fulfillment models that allows me to choose the best that suits me.

There is Fulfilled by Merchant, meaning I will have to handle everything from the inventory and shipping to the refunds and returns. This would take a lot of my time which it is out of the question.

Next is Easy ship, where Amazon picks up the products from an inventory that I hold once an order is placed and takes care of the shipping from there on. Although I still have to worry about the returns and refunds.

Supposing I can manage inventory and the post purchase choirs, I can do with this one but it will be huge pain if the sales increase, if they ever increase that is.

The only option that remains is the fulfillment by Amazon, in which Amazon takes care of everything before and after the purchase. All I need to do is let them handle my products in their inventory and they will process my orders as they come. This is probably the best option because registering in FBA has other perks too, but that is a story for another post.

Of course none of these services will be free of cost, which brings me to my next concern.

How much will I pay Amazon?

Because amazon never gets tired of providing options, there are two different types of seller accounts based on which the fees will be decided: an Individual plan and a Professional plan.

The Individual plan is for people like me, who expect to sell fewer than 40 items per month. For them, there is no monthly subscription fee. However, they will have to pay $0.99 per item plus a referral fee and a variable closing fee to Amazon, when and if you make a sale.

The Professional plan, for others, who expect to sell more than 40 items per month have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $39.99 to Amazon, but the $0.99 per item fee is waived.

What’s a referral fee? Well you can go through this fee chart here to know the charges.

The percentage is based on the category your product belongs to. The minimum referral fee is $1, which means you’ll pay that to Amazon for every item you sell.

The variable closing fee is applicable only to media (books, music, videos, DVDs, video games, consoles and software).

The closing fee is $1.80 per media item sold.

All things said, I still believe it’s a long shot but maybe it’s worth a try. What is that good old saying?

“It’s better to have tried and failed than to have not tried at all”

In case you make it big, message me, I might charge you for telling you this as well. In other times do follow my blog and SellerGyan for more info regarding selling online.

Until next time!

Wait! Read this before you sell on Amazon! was originally published in SellerGyan | Boost your e-commerce sales on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.