245: A Student’s Candid Journey Selling On Amazon And How To Email Jeff Bezos

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:28 — 68.2MB)

The cheapest way to validate an Amazon product is to buy 10 units of something that already exists, list them as-is, and see what happens. Maria did exactly that, then designed her own improved version, ordered 20, and sold out in eight days while raising the price $12 along the way.

Maria is a student in my Create A Profitable Online Store course who went from zero to a six figure seller in about 18 months on three products. This was recorded during a live office hours session, and she agreed to speak openly about what worked and what did not.

Her product category is bleeped from the audio at her request, so it stays unnamed here. Below is her validation sequence, her manufacturing process, and how she has repeatedly escalated Amazon problems to Jeff Bezos’s office.

Key takeaways

• Her first test was 10 units of an existing product bought as-is from Alibaba, air shipped to list quickly.
• Her second test was 20 units of her own modified design, which sold out in eight days while she raised the price $12.
• Total cost of the decision to commit: a couple hundred dollars.
• She emailed five manufacturers with her requirements and worked with whoever gave the best answers.
• Her first real order was 3,000 units, which she now considers overly ambitious. She would start at 1,000.
• She stores inventory at a third-party warehouse near the Ontario, California fulfillment center and feeds Amazon piecemeal to avoid storage fees.
• Escalating to Jeff Bezos’s office recovered a year of overcharged FBA fees and compensation for a Prime Day badge removal.
• She has met weekly with another student for almost three years.

How to test an Amazon product for a couple hundred dollars

Maria’s validation ran in two stages, and neither required meaningful capital.

First she found an existing product on Alibaba, ordered 10 units as-is, and had them air shipped so she could list quickly. She ran no ads and did nothing to promote them. They sold.

While those were selling, she worked out how she wanted to modify the product based on her own experience using it, went back to the manufacturer with her design, and had 20 produced.

Those 20 sold out in eight days. She raised the price by a dollar or more every day, ending $12 above where she started, with no PPC and only a couple of reviews.

That second test is what convinced her. The 20 units plus air shipping cost a couple hundred dollars, which she describes as a couple-hundred-dollar decision about whether to go deeper.

Why the price increase mattered more than the sales

I asked whether four sales out of 20 would have been enough to continue. Her answer was no.

What mattered was selling out quickly and being able to raise the price significantly while doing it. Weak results would have sent her back to reconsider the niche.

She also had a second source of conviction. The product connected to her own life experience overseas, and she had researched how it fit into broader global conditions, which gave her confidence a market existed independent of the test.

How to get a manufacturer to produce 20 units

Maria told manufacturers directly that she was running a test to market, needed a small number, and would order substantially more if it went well. They believed her.

The entire negotiation happened over email with no calls. In my experience that usually requires getting on the phone or Skype, so this varies by manufacturer.

Her sourcing filter on Alibaba was gold level suppliers with trade assurance. She emailed roughly five with her requirements, and worked with whoever gave the best answers.

She bought the original as-is samples from that supplier, then began the design conversation with them, and has worked with them ever since.

Communicating design changes

Her modifications were simple enough to convey in words and drawings. She was careful about how she phrased things, and the manufacturer asked detailed clarifying questions, which she appreciated.

Her first product took exactly one sample round to get right. Later products required more back and forth.

Her manufacturers also handle packaging, outsourcing the components. She notes this affects lead times, since an insert, a plastic bag, and a cloth bag may each come from a different supplier, so your manufacturer needs to know how to manage that.

How to handle inspections and quality control

Maria has everything inspected in China before shipping, using Asia Inspection at roughly $360 per inspection at level two.

Her experience is that Asia Inspection fails almost everything, and reading the detail usually reveals the failures are not things she would reject for. Only once did a genuine defect surface.

That time she emailed the manufacturer saying it was not acceptable, and they corrected all of it at their own expense, sending photographs and video of the rework.

She credits the relationship. She invests heavily in her manufacturer relationships, and she also sets expectations before every order by listing exactly what will be inspected so they know what to watch during production.

In that case the manufacturer’s response was that she had told them clearly and they had missed it, so fixing it was on them.

Why to inspect at the front of the line

Maria inspects only at the end, and the defect she caught had already been produced across 4,650 units.

We had a comparable problem with handkerchiefs where the fabric came in slightly blue and unsellable. The manufacturer made it right and it still cost four or five months without product.

So we now front-load inspection, pulling the first few pieces off the line to catch problems before the run completes. It costs about the same, and less if you only need a few pieces pulled.

Maria’s manufacturer sends detailed photographs of the first units produced, which covers some of this. In our case photographs would not have exposed the problem, since it was a slight shade difference requiring the product in hand.

Her broader advice is to start with small orders and build up. Paying more per unit is worth the security of a manageable quantity to inspect.

The first big order and the momentum mistake

After the 20 units sold, Maria ordered 3,000, roughly a container. She now considers that overly ambitious.

The reason is that the model turned out to sell less than the two models she designed later. Starting at 1,000 would have let her modify the design or move on faster.

She has no regrets about learning it that way, and her rule now is to start smaller purely from a design perspective, confirm there is nothing else you want to change, then scale the order.

Timing matters separately. Her test market ran during peak season, production took time, and the 3,000 units arrived in the fall as her seasonal window was closing.

My own advice to students ordering near the holidays is the opposite: get more than you think you need. Maria agrees on that specific case, and her caution applies to design uncertainty rather than seasonality.

Losing sales momentum

The 20 test units sold fast, then she had a dead zone with nothing to sell. When she restocked, she expected sales to resume immediately and they did not.

Rebuilding took PPC, friends buying units, and time.

She kept one unit listed at a heavily inflated price to avoid going to zero. That was three years before this conversation, and the better approach is letting it sell out rather than jacking up the price on your last units.

How Maria manages inventory and storage costs

Maria ships case-packed cartons from her manufacturer to a third-party warehouse, which applies FBA labels and forwards them to Amazon.

Her freight forwarder is Bestocean Worldwide Logistics in California, which she moved to after a serious miscommunication with her first forwarder left her holding product she would not ship with them. They also handle her warehousing, with a computerized system letting her see inventory status online.

Their warehouse sits near the Ontario, California Amazon fulfillment center, so shipments typically arrive in a day.

The reason this matters is cost. Her product is seasonal, and Amazon storage runs considerably more expensive than third-party warehousing, roughly up to six times, with holiday storage fees around triple.

So she watches Amazon inventory levels and has the warehouse send more as stock runs low, keeping as little as possible sitting in Amazon’s system.

Her products carry an insert with the FNSKU, so no individual labeling is required. The only label applied is the carton label for the Amazon shipment.

How to escalate a problem to Jeff Bezos’s office

Maria has emailed Jeff Bezos directly multiple times and reached his executive response team, recovering money on several occasions.

Her technique is deliberate. She keeps the emails strictly factual, provides data that can be acted on, and includes no opinions and no emotion, so a reader can look at it and see plainly that something does not add up.

Responses typically take about two weeks.

She reserves it for problems she believes are Amazon-level issues rather than individual account disputes.

The overcharged FBA fee

Amazon overcharged Maria an FBA fulfillment fee on one product for about a year. Seller Central support went nowhere, with one rep reimbursing a couple of cents without engaging with the substance.

She asked for the item to be re-measured, received a measurement, and found the numbers did not match what Amazon’s own website stated. She kept sending the link showing the discrepancy.

The executive rep initially argued and then reimbursed all of it.

The Prime Day badge removal

On Prime Day 2017, with sales running hard, Amazon removed the Prime badge from her listings. This happened to many sellers.

The response she got was that Amazon can do whatever they want with Prime badges. Her counter was that Amazon had sent out a media guide telling sellers how to promote Prime Day on social media, and she had followed it.

Her argument was that Amazon had induced her to spend money driving traffic to Amazon without letting her benefit as a seller. Because she had made a business decision based on information Amazon provided, they compensated her.

She has also been told plainly that they understand her position and will do nothing.

Living with Amazon problems

Maria’s pattern with each Amazon problem is a phase of genuine anger, thinking she is crazy to be on the platform and should shift to her own store, then forcing herself past it.

Her conclusion is that this is the price of doing business on Amazon, and larger sellers she knows report the same.

That matches our experience. Amazon issues put my wife in a bad mood for weeks, which is a major reason we have deliberately focused more on our own shop.

Her advice is to watch Amazon like a hawk, which means learning their reports well enough to find the ones that give you data you actually need.

Her 2019 goal was getting as much business off Amazon as on it, focused specifically on business-to-business sales rather than individual orders, since she does not want the customer service load.

How Maria got her first reviews

This section describes what Maria did in 2016 through 2018. Amazon has since prohibited these practices explicitly, and doing them now risks suspension, so treat this as history rather than instruction.

She had friends buy and review her products, without offering discounts. She also paid people, sending a check covering the product cost in exchange for a review, and traded reviews with other sellers, each buying and reviewing the other’s product.

Her framing was to do this with two reviews to get on the board, then start PPC. Her metaphor is getting the boulder in motion so physics takes over.

Amazon’s current policy prohibits compensated reviews, incentivized reviews, and review exchanges, and Amazon actively detects connections between accounts. The mechanics she describes are no longer viable.

What Maria would tell someone starting out

Look for a product where good numbers overlap with something that connects to you personally. Her product had both, and she believes that connection mattered.

That personal connection is also what would have kept her iterating. If the first 20 units had failed, she might have tried a different design rather than abandoning the niche, because her research on broader conditions convinced her the demand was real.

She sells three products, all within the same niche, and those three made her a six figure seller.

For her second and third products she put them up, had a couple of friends review, and started PPC immediately. She has not changed her launch approach since.

She is candid that timing helped. Entering her category today would be much harder because competition has increased, which is an argument for moving on an opportunity before it becomes crowded.

The support structure

Maria has met with another student weekly for almost three years, and describes that relationship as essential. They troubleshoot together and make suggestions to each other.

Asked whether she has staff, her answer was her dog. She counts her team as the students she talks to regularly, her manufacturers, and her warehouse people.

She works 40 to 60 hours a week, deliberately without fixed work and relax hours, since a lifestyle business was the point. Much of that time goes to research beyond products, including tracking conditions relevant to her category, because she posts to a Facebook page daily and sees the business as educational as well as commercial.

Her closing message to other students was that going from zero to six figures in 18 months is genuinely doable, and that the dream has to be grounded in reality rather than a pipe dream.

Frequently asked questions

How do you test a product on Amazon before ordering inventory?

Buy a small quantity of an existing product, list it as-is, and see whether it sells. Maria started with 10 units air shipped from Alibaba, then ordered 20 of her own modified design, spending a couple hundred dollars total before committing.

How many units should your first real Amazon order be?

Maria ordered 3,000 and now recommends starting around 1,000, because a smaller first run lets you modify the design or abandon a weak model faster. The exception is a product launching into the holidays, where ordering more than you expect to need is usually right.

Will manufacturers produce small test quantities?

Often yes, if you explain you are running a test to market and will order substantially more if it succeeds. Maria arranged a 20-unit run entirely over email.

Should you inspect products before or after production finishes?

Front-loading inspection catches defects before the full run is complete. Maria inspects only at the end and had a defect surface across 4,650 already-produced units, while pulling the first few pieces off the line costs about the same or less.

Is Amazon storage more expensive than a third-party warehouse?

Considerably, up to roughly six times, with holiday storage fees around triple normal rates. Maria warehouses with her freight forwarder near the Ontario, California fulfillment center and sends inventory to Amazon piecemeal as stock runs low.

Can you email Jeff Bezos about an Amazon seller problem?

Maria has done so multiple times and reached the executive response team, recovering a year of overcharged FBA fees and compensation after Prime badges were removed on Prime Day. Her approach is strictly factual, data-driven, with no opinion or emotion, and responses take about two weeks.

What happens if you run out of stock on Amazon?

You lose sales momentum, and restocking does not restore it automatically. Maria’s restocked inventory sold far slower than her sellout had, requiring PPC and time to rebuild.

Can you pay people to review your Amazon products?

No. Amazon prohibits compensated reviews, incentivized reviews, and review exchanges, and actively detects account connections. Maria used these methods in 2016 through 2018 before enforcement tightened, and they now risk account suspension.