r/AmazonFBA

Not writing this to scare anyone. Writing it because nobody told me these things before I lost the money.

1. I didn't understand that Amazon is a documentation business first. Great product, solid margins, real demand. Didn't matter. One authenticity complaint and Amazon asked me to prove my supply chain. I couldn't. Account suspended, inventory seized, money gone. The product wasn't the problem. The paperwork was.

2. I trusted what Amazon told me. Amazon's own policy pages are incomplete and sometimes contradictory. What they publish and what they actually enforce are two different things. I made sourcing decisions based on what I read in Seller Central. That was a mistake.

3. I kept too much capital inside the account. When the suspension hit, I had significant funds sitting in Amazon's hands. Getting that money back after a suspension is a separate battle. Pull your earnings regularly. Don't let Amazon hold more than you're comfortable losing access to.

4. I thought suspensions happened to careless sellers. I was careful. I read the rules. I still got suspended. The real lesson: your documents need to be strong enough to take Amazon to court if necessary. Not because you will -- but because that level of documentation is what actually protects you. Documents that hold up under legal scrutiny hold up in Amazon appeals too. That's the standard worth aiming for.

The $9,500 is gone. What I got in return was an understanding of how Amazon actually operates vs. how it presents itself. That knowledge has been worth more than the loss.

After all of this, I've made strong progress over the last two years. FBA has become second nature at this point -- like driving a car. I try to keep as much as possible manual, and even then I'm able to move inventory at a solid pace.

Happy to answer questions. Additional insights and experiences from everyone here are valuable for the whole community.

Hello everyone, I need a spot to take customer returns and then ship it back to me here in Canada. It sucks that we need to pay for the shipping too since we don’t have a USA address for returns. Can someone advise how to get by this?

A few months ago, I was trying to set up a US LLC from outside the US for my online work, and honestly it was way more confusing than I expected.

Registering the company sounded easy at first, but then I got stuck on everything else…

Getting an EIN without an SSN, figuring out the right state, opening a US bank account remotely, and understanding what actually matters vs what’s just noise online.

I spent days going through Reddit threads, YouTube videos, random blogs… and still felt unsure if I was doing things correctly.

What finally worked for me was breaking it into 3 steps:

1.	Form the LLC (Wyoming was simplest in my case)

2.	Apply for EIN (fax method if no SSN)

3.	Open a business bank account (I used Wise/Mercury options)

Once I followed a proper structure, everything became much smoother.

Just sharing this in case anyone else here is stuck like I was.

Happy to answer questions based on what I learned.

I have 15,000 product catalog I need to go through, the problem is to go through all the products it takes weeks and can be expensive to pay my team. Is there any tool out there can I can upload a pdf and it gives me all the matches.

Just saw the news that Amazon is adding a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge on FBA starting mid-April.

On paper, it sounds small, but it feels like one of those changes that quietly stacks on top of everything else sellers are already dealing with.

What stood out to me is that this isn’t the first time. Back in 2022, they introduced a similar “temporary” fuel surcharge, and over time, it basically got absorbed into the overall fee structure.

So now I’m wondering if this is just another version of that.

For sellers running tight margins, even something like this can push certain products from profitable to barely worth it. Especially heavier or lower-priced items.

At the same time, I get that fuel and logistics costs are real, and everyone in shipping is adjusting, not just Amazon.

Curious how others are looking at this.

Are you planning to raise prices, absorb it, or rethink certain SKUs?

https://preview.redd.it/b2q8sf0hmntg1.png?width=1412&format=png&auto=webp&s=477b8249991bade6aeac3e613a6730c137d7f062

https://preview.redd.it/cn5bk1zhmntg1.png?width=1413&format=png&auto=webp&s=13245d651a38f739db99284b18a68475e8fc346b

Hi there I'm having a problem when it comes to reverse searching using keepa. I've tried multiple products and pasted in Seller ID's but each one shows 0 products. I was wondering if anyone knows how to solve this?

https://reddit.com/link/1se1t9w/video/vswdc7be7ltg1/player

Hi good day everyone I have a quick question. The supplier I am buying from is an authorized distributor of the brand, however they use Shopify and provide Shopify invoices. Does Amazon accept those type of invoices?

Thank you

I see a lot of advice online about negotiation tactics for Alibaba suppliers that would get you laughed out of any serious factory. Here's what actually worked for me after 12+ years in SEA and China:

1. Don't start with price. Start with relationship. First conversation should be about their capabilities, minimums, lead times. Let them talk.
2. Never negotiate unit price alone. Negotiate the total package: unit price + tooling + payment terms + shipping terms + quality guarantee. Net 30 payment terms is worth more than $0.10/unit cheaper with 100% upfront.
3. Get 3 quotes minimum. Not to play them against each other. But to understand real market price. If 3 quote $3.00-3.50 and one quotes $1.80, that supplier is cutting corners.
4. Volume commitments beat haggling. "500 now, planning 2000/quarter next year" beats arguing $0.20 on one order.
5. Pay on time. Every time. #1 way to get preferential treatment.
6. Suppliers talk to each other.
7. Visit the factory if you can. One visit builds more trust than 50 emails.
8. The suppliers who've been my best partners are the ones I never squeezed on price. Paid fair, got quality.

Anything else I should add to my list?

Hey All,

I have recently spoken to an Amazon Ads Expert Agency, they were quite helpful in providing some advice to someone who is not experienced with Amazon Selling or Advertising.

They suggested I set up Automatic Campaigns for discovery, alongside my 2 manual campaigns which target proven exact winners.

So I set up an Automatic Campaign for each of my 2 ASINS, which are child variations for flavour, they have a daily budget of $15 each.

I started both with 70 cents for all 4 targeting groups and 10% TOS, 15% ROS, 10%PP.

I thought the bid of 70 cents was too conservative, especially for a supplement product, so I have made these changes to both auto campaigns:

- Close match $1.05 / Complements $0.80 / Loose Match $0.65 / Substitutes $0.90

MY ISSUE:
- They have been running 4th, 5th, 6th of April.
- Combined impressions: 25 close match, 5 loose match, 9 substitutes

They have spent $0 each, with almost no impressions and both have a $15 daily budget.

It seems as if they are not running, getting impressions or spending.

What could be the result of this, do I need to wait longer than the 48-72 hours I have waited, or do I simply need to increase the x4 targeting group bids quite significantly to get them going ?

Hi there. What tools do you guys use to compare pricing among products, stores, vendors, or competitors?

Hi everyone, I heard that it was possible to open a Bank of America account if you have a company incorporated in Canada, but I can't find this information anywhere and I don't want to travel for nothing.

I have an EIN, ITIN, my certificate of incorporation, a bonded warehouse in the United States with an invoice of my business name and the physical address of the warehouse

Thanks you very much for your help!

High search volume looks impressive in a keyword tool. It is also the fastest way to destroy your conversion rate.

When you target a broad keyword with 200,000 monthly searches you are putting your listing in front of buyers at every stage of intent — people researching, comparing, browsing, and occasionally buying. Amazon's algorithm watches how many of those visitors actually purchase. When most of them leave without buying, Amazon reads that as a relevance signal and ranks you lower over time.

Specific high-intent keywords with 5,000 monthly searches from buyers ready to purchase will consistently outperform broad terms with ten times the volume. The listing that converts at 20% on a specific keyword beats the listing converting at 2% on a broad one , in ranking and in revenue.

The sellers consistently on page one are almost never the ones targeting the most searched terms. They are targeting the most converting ones.