The Art of Pricing Used Books on Amazon FBA

When you are pricing your books for your Amazon business you have to consider several factors including sales history, current offers, and seasonality of an item. 

Pricing is not an exact science and you will probably develop your own personal strategy and style of pricing. If you tend to price higher you will have a longer average wait time and may have to reprice more when books don't sell but you may increase your average sales price. If you tend to price lower you will sell books faster and have cash in hand quicker to flip more books but you will be getting less for each book. Its a balance and there isn't one right answer that is perfect for every business.

Since most sales on Amazon happen in the buybox ideally you will price to win the buybox quickly but you don't necessarily have to undercut the buybox to do that. Undercutting the buybox can create a situation where several sellers compete for the lowest price which can cause you to get less for your book. Many sellers especially larger booksellers have automatic repricers that price every 15 minutes so if you undercut them by a few cents they will match or undercut you within 15 minutes. 

A good strategy is to match the "lowest competing offer" rather than the buybox. "Lowest competing offer" means the lowest FBA offer except for offers with poor feedback rating, (under 90%), acceptable condition books, and new sellers. This works well with faster selling books.

Of course, you need to consider Keepa data too. There will be times when you need to price under the buybox because, based on Keepa data, you realize that the current price is inflated and there will be times that you realize that you can make more than the current price if you are willing to wait.

Keepa is a browser extension that has detailed price and sales history for more than 1,000,000,000 Amazon products. 

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make in this business is to try to do it without Keepa. Remember, asking price is not the same as sales price and previous sales is the biggest predictor of future sales. Without Keepa you are flying blind.

See this article to learn more about how to read and use Keepa.

The articles within this blog contain all the information you'll need to start and run a successful book selling business. 

If you'd like a more user friendly way of accessing the directions to starting a book selling business then download the free ebook below.

If you'd like to join a community of students that have gone through the training, then join our Facebook group.