Discount for SMF Members! 10% Off

**Holistic** · 06-19-2014, 08:00 PM

After a hard day of work, shouldn't you treat yourself to some relaxation?

Brookstone Active Sport Massager Full Body Muscle Therapy Node Vibrate New | eBay

10% off for SMF Members through the month of June!

Just tell me you saw this ad before you pay and I will send you an adjusted invoice!

**JohnC4X4** · 06-20-2014, 12:08 AM

Looks like you are drop shipping

Amazon looks to have the same item for $54.98 Total price
Amazon.com: Active Sport Handheld Massager: Health & Personal Care

**Holistic** · 06-20-2014, 05:41 PM

Multi-channel Fulfillment, not drop shipping.

**JohnC4X4** · 06-20-2014, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by Holistic

Multi-channel Fulfillment,

Please explain how that works

Do you have the item at your location OR is it shipped to the Buyer for you from a different location?
Thanks

GOOGLE describes it as being a drop ship operation using several suppliers
http://www.selleractive.com/?utm_sou...FfHm7AodB1kADw

**BRASSCATCHER** · 06-20-2014, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by Holistic

Multi-channel Fulfillment,

Thats what its meant for

**Holistic** · 06-20-2014, 06:03 PM

It is my inventory. It is located in Amazon's warehouse and available for sale on Amazon. Look for my listing Holistic Logistics at the 84.99 price point. When I get an ebay order I contact Amazon and they ship it to my customer from my inventory.

**JohnC4X4** · 06-20-2014, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by Holistic

When I get an ebay order I contact Amazon and they ship it to my customer from my inventory.

That is called Drop Shipping

Drop shipping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Holistic** · 06-20-2014, 06:11 PM

Call it what you want. There is also an online selling tactic where one takes eBay orders and then places orders for that item from a 3rd party seller on another platform such as Amazon and just has it sent to their eBay buyer's address. This is a bit sketchy if you ask me and is just asking for trouble.

**Holistic** · 06-20-2014, 06:15 PM

That fits your Wikipedia definition.

Using Multi-channel Fulfillment, the inventory is in my stock. The Wikipedia definition you posted states that the seller does not stock the item, which is not true in my case.

I have also disclosed in the eBay description that the order would ship from a fulfillment center.

Originally Posted by Holistic

Call it what you want. There is also an online selling tactic where one takes eBay orders and then places orders for that item from a 3rd party seller on another platform such as Amazon and just has it sent to their eBay buyer's address. This is a bit sketchy if you ask me and is just asking for trouble.

**TheDude80** · 06-20-2014, 09:23 PM

It might be in your "virtual" inventory with Amazon. To me inventory is something that is tangible, and not to be rude but why would someone on here at buy one for $74.99 when they can buy one directly from Amazon for $52.99. I'm just throwing out my two cents and views, not trying to ruffle your feathers.

**ScrapStrong** · 06-20-2014, 09:44 PM

Fullfillment by Amazon is not drop shipping. Drop shipping is when you have an agreement with a SUPPLIER to act as a middle man to fulfill orders for buyers.

With drop-shipping the supplier makes product available to the seller at a certain price, seller makes a sale at more than that price, buyer then pays supplier the agreed amount and the supplier ships the buyer their goods. With drop shipping the seller never handles or owns or previously purchased the product being sold.

Fulfillment by Amazon is the same thing as having your own warehouse, to store your own product, and having employees use your sales information to get your product to the buyer. It is merely a convenience to ship YOUR OWN GOODS using THEIR shipping services, it is not "drop shipping".

For example, if you bought 1,000 surplus DVDs from a wholesaler for resale, you could send all 1,000 of those DVDs to Amazon to be placed in your "stock", which you can have shipped whenever you make a sale on an item.

**Holistic** · 06-20-2014, 09:47 PM

I procured this inventory, held it in my hands, preped and labeled it as per Amazon's requirements and mailed it to their fulfillment centers. To me, that's my inventory. Nothing virtual about it.

Regarding the pricing, I'm offering it for $67.49 with the discount and free 2-day air shipping. That is a fairly competitive offer for eBay. If someone has Amazon Prime and can buy it for $52.99 with free 2-day shipping on Amazon, then that's a great deal and I would encourage anyone in that situation to pursue that option if they were interested in this product.

I wasn't trying to ruffle feathers either. I'll remove this post tomorrow as it is not doing any of us any good to beat a dead horse and it's obvious that Amazon FBA and MCF is not a well undetstood here and that there are better deals available which I am not able to compete with.

**FLimits** · 06-20-2014, 10:29 PM

Drop-shipping and multi-channel fulfillment are definitely different things, although they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. Both are techniques to improve supply-chain management, and they're used by all sorts of retailers, from Walmart to mom-and-pop eBay merchants.

Drop-shipping is a form of "just-in-time" (JIT) inventory management: Instead of tying up cash in inventory and incurring the costs of storage, shipping, and waste/pilfering, the vendor may choose to purchase an item from his supplier when he has an order for it; the supplier then ships it directly to the vendor's customer. This makes a lot of sense for smaller retailers, who may want to offer their customers a broader range of merchandise than they are actually able to stock, and for vendors who don't maintain actual "bricks-and-mortar" stores, such as catalog and online merchants, since their business model doesn't require them to stock inventory for display and in-store sales. For these types of businesses, drop-shipping improves cash flow, reduces certain risks, and lowers costs -- all of which can lead to better profit margins for them and/or better prices for their customers.

Multi-channel fulfillment, on the other hand, is a technique for optimizing order fulfillment by vendors who have multiple sales channels (for example, retail stores and online sales, or multiple online storefronts). For example, if a customer makes an online purchase from a large chain retailer, he might be offered the choice of home delivery or in-store pickup for his order fulfillment. The multi-channel fulfillment offered by Amazon, which is what Holistic uses, enables the vendor to offer his products for sale at other online sites in addition to Amazon and route all of his orders to Amazon for fulfillment. Under this program, which is also called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), the seller owns his inventory, stores it at Amazon's fulfillment centers, and pays Amazon a fee for their fulfillment services.

**TheDude80** · 06-20-2014, 10:46 PM

If the admin hasn't removed it then by all means keep the post up. I hope that you sell the eight you have on Ebay, and any other inventory that you have thru Amazon. Obviously I was unaware that you had said items in hand and shipped them off to Amazon. To me that does meet the definition of inventory, they are just handling the shipping and warehousing of the items, along with taking their share of any sales made. I'm all about other peoples success, especially people who are part of the forum, so here's to yours.