Like everyone who starts learning Amazon FBA, I had a dream. A dream of financial freedom and passive income. But the problem with Amazon FBA is that there is a lot of misdirected/imaginative information on the internet about it.

Amazon Gurus claim that this business will make you rich in no time, and you can start selling on Amazon by watching their 1hr video on YouTube. Actually, that’s not all, there are some Gurus selling courses that have the same or more impractical claims.

The major problem with these courses is that most of the time, they only have theoretical knowledge, and most of the people who are selling you these courses have never even sold a single unit on Amazon because it’s too risky. In the end, it’s just course sellers making some coin at your expense without providing any actual value.

I learned this lesson the hard way by launching a product after doing a course from a fake guru.

I chose Amazon Germany, considering the low competition and enough space for a new brand to enter the market. I did product research and finalized a product that turned out to be difficult to source, and I had to switch products at the last minute.

Then the product I finalized was a pet product named “Hunde Bandana” translated as Dog Bandana or Pet Bandana. I hired two designers to create new and unique designs, and this is where I started making blunders. I got a total of 8 designs and chose 4 of them to be introduced under my brand.

During sourcing, I found out that manufacturing/introducing new designs is costly and will trim my profits, and at one point, I made the mistake that will eventually fail my launch. I thought of product instead of my brand, I thought of profits instead of creating a unique product.

And at the last moment, I decided to go with only one design. I chose the yellow-colored design as the only design. Things with this launch were already not going well; suddenly, my manufacturer’s account got blocked on Alibaba.

Luckily, I hadn’t started any contract with them yet; basically, they were scamming customers, and the course I did had not mentioned any scams happening on Alibaba. I had to choose a new manufacturer, till this I was already 2 months into that product launch, and at some level, I knew that the product was bad, but still kept going because of the time and effort that I had already put in.

I finalized sourcing without getting any samples after seeing good reviews from other customers, which was a huge mistake because the final product that they manufactured had low quality and bad printing, which I later found out in the form of bad reviews.

I knew not getting samples was a bad idea, but to avoid any more delays, I proceeded without them. I found a shipment company and shipped my products to the FBA warehouse. Now, at this moment, the product I researched for 4 months has become quite saturated with multiple variations and new products.

Knowing that the product’s quality is not good, I tried to focus on other areas like Photography and Optimized Product Listing.

Somehow, I got to the launch and started running PPC. I did my best research on keywords, thinking that if I run good enough PPC campaigns, this product will sell well and will eventually become successful.

But again, I learned a lesson the hard way that you cannot sell a product that’s bad by running good/expensive ad campaigns and making attractive product listings.

The biggest problem with the product was not the quality, saturated niche, or bad color. It was a decision that I took early on about choosing only one design instead of 4.

The product was getting enough visitors, but had low conversion because all the other sellers were selling multiple designs and colors. I even got a review from a customer that more designs and colors would have been better.

Eventually, the product became a clear failure when it didn’t even get 100 sales in the first two months. I tried giving discounts and spending more money on PPC, but it did not work. So, in the end, I put the whole inventory to be disposed of, after trying to sell, but no one wanted to buy this product.

I want to point out that not all courses are bad; my mistake was not doing enough and relying only on one guru. It’s always a good idea to learn from multiple sources.

Hear remarks from both ends of the spectrum, like those gurus who claim Amazon to be the best business, and there are those who claim it to be too risky. Neither of these is right or wrong, but these perspectives will help you shape yours properly.

The Lessons I Learned from this Launch:

1. Product Research and Development are the most important parts of a launch.
2. Brand Growth is way more important than early profits.
3. Don’t waste time looking for perfection; it’s a business, treat it like that.
4. Don’t get too attached to a product. You cannot sell a bad product.
5. Always have a Plan B for your inventory.
6. Learn from your competitors.

The things mentioned above are just a story of my first launch. I am still learning new things and making new mistakes to this day. I wanted to share this as an experience because most gurus and service providers boost their successful launches instead of talking about their failed ones.

There are always more lessons in failed launches because you get to see a different side of the picture. I have launched 10 more products after that launch and was able to not repeat the same mistakes.

At the end of the day, the most important step is always going to be Product Research and Development, which most people miss or consider not that important. Yes, you can do the whole launch yourself, but hire someone experienced to research products for you.

Tools will show you good stats, but they won’t show you anything that is based on experience. The product you choose will be the foundation of your Amazon business, and as we have always heard, a building is only as strong as its foundations. Good luck with your journey.