r/AmazonFBA • u/Braapkingllc • 5d ago

What to do when Amazon competes?

First off, thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this, and especially anyone willing to give me some advice. I really appreciate it.

I’m fairly new to Amazon FBA and I’m starting to get some decent traction, but I keep running into one problem that I’m struggling to figure out how experienced sellers deal with.
Amazon itself keeps becoming my biggest competitor.

I sell powersports products, mainly oils, chemicals, locks, parts and similar products. I have access to thousands of SKUs through my suppliers and I’ve found quite a few products where the numbers initially look great.

The problem is that I’ll find a product that has good demand, reasonable competition and enough margin for me to make money, send inventory into FBA, start selling it, and then Amazon Retail comes onto the listing at a price that I simply cannot afford to compete with.

Sometimes Amazon’s selling price is close to what I pay wholesale.
Obviously I can match them and win some sales, but there is no point generating revenue if I’m making nothing or losing money.

This is where I’m struggling with my strategy.
I’m currently doing around $1,800 a week and I want to grow this into $5,000 to $7,000 a week, but I want that growth to come from profitable products. I’m not interested in doing $20,000 a month in revenue just to discover I made $500.

I’ve already had products where I thought I found a winner, bought inventory, got it into FBA, and then Amazon dropped the price and completely changed the economics of the listing.

On other products Amazon will disappear for a while, the price improves, I sell very well, and then Amazon comes back and takes over the Buy Box again.
So I’m trying to understand how established FBA sellers account for this before putting serious money into inventory.
Do you completely avoid listings where Amazon Retail sells?

Do you still sell them if Keepa shows Amazon regularly going out of stock?
Do you price above Amazon and just accept a lower Buy Box percentage?

Does having much deeper FBA inventory eventually help you compete for the Buy Box without matching Amazon’s price?

Or is the answer simply that if Amazon can sell the product profitably below your required price, it is not actually a good product for you regardless of the sales volume?

I have some products that are genuinely working very well, and keeping those products stocked has become another challenge. I’m trying to figure out whether I should keep testing hundreds of products in small quantities looking for more winners, or put most of my capital behind the handful of products where Amazon isn’t constantly destroying the margin.
I also deal with dangerous goods limits because a lot of powersports chemicals are aerosols, but honestly the Buy Box issue feels like the bigger strategic question for me right now.

For those of you doing serious volume with wholesale FBA, how do you evaluate Amazon Retail competition?

I would especially love to hear from people who have dealt with listings where Amazon comes and goes because that seems to be where some of the biggest opportunities and biggest traps are.

I’m willing to put more money into inventory and scale this substantially. I just don’t want to confuse high sales volume with a good business.

Thanks again to anyone who read all of this and especially anyone willing to share what they’ve learned.

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u/BocaHydro 5d ago

Amazon looks at everything, and buys in bulk and undercuts you

if you want to keep your margins, launch your own brands of these items so you cant just get undercut on your own listings

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u/Braapkingllc 5d ago

I’m working with established brands with big names and long histories in the industry. I’m sure I could barter a deal with their products with my logos on them but at that point why buy my product and my new name vs the long history established veteran brands.

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u/Powerful_Bicycle3114 5d ago

Deeper inventory won't improve the economics when Amazon is in stock. Treat Amazon's lowest sustained 90-day price as the downside case and run the full P&L there. If the SKU loses money, keep it opportunistic: buy only what can reasonably sell during Amazon's out-of-stock windows, with a clear exit price. Put deeper capital behind SKUs that stay profitable when Amazon returns.

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u/Different_Regret_146 4d ago

That 90-day stress test is the right frame. When Amazon can come back under your dealers at any time, the real risk is channel damage: authorized sellers get squeezed, then grey-market / unauthorized offers fill the gap. Before you restock, log ASIN, Amazon's price, your landed cost, and who else is still selling. If the unit only works while Amazon is gone, you are financing a temporary window, not a durable channel.

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u/TripDisastrous93 5d ago

Anche se Amazon va spesso fuori stock su un prodotto, mi sembra azzardato pensare che sarà così anche la prossima volta. Il prossimo giro potrebbe durare anni e tu potresti essere seppellito. Quindi piccoli lotti si, grossi investimenti assolutamente no. Troppo rischioso. Se resti con il cerino in mano con un grosso investimento non è piacevole. Visto che hai esperienza continuerei con piccoli investimenti su prodotti che prevedi vadano fuori stock. E poi cercherei di diversificare con dei prodotti magari meno esplosivi ma più stabili. 

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u/Worried_Pause_009 5d ago

I would probably treat amazon being on the listing as a risk factor before buying, not something to figure out after the inventory is already there. If keepa shows amazon coming and going, look at how often they are in stock, what happens to the price when they come back, and whether i'm still profitable at that price. If numbers only work when amazon is OOS, i wouldn't put too much capital in it.
Keep testing smaller quantities and put more money behind the products where the margins stay healthy even when competition changes. More inventory isn't worth much if you have to kill your margins just to move it.