Sourcing products such as books, DVDs, and CDs at your local Goodwills can be an entire business in of itself. The thrill of the hunt is what draws in a lot of new sellers to sell on Amazon.  In order to ensure you can revisit your favorite locations often, let's discuss what will help.

How many times you can revisit your local Goodwills when sourcing products to sell on Amazon.

Relationships always count

Most of the time, you can quickly build a relationship with the Goodwill employees or manager.  Those relationships count.  They are the grease to your wheels when attempting to revisit the location(s) multiple times in a month.

It's best to start the relationship off on a positive note, so be sure always to be friendly to the Goodwill staff.  They are human beings just like you.  They have the same emotions you have, and they often will be going through challenges in their life just like you.

Look for the win-win

Most Goodwill locations are accustomed to online sellers now coming into the store.  Some regions have strict rules around "scanners" or "book dealers"; others do not.

To create a win-win scenario, you have to discover the pain points of that Goodwill or the people running it.

For example, they are re-stocking the store on a schedule each week, and doing so might be a tedious task for them.  How can you help in that situation?

Maybe try offering to them to come in on the day of re-stocking and help by thinning out the books for them, so they don't have to re-stock as many.

Maybe it's as simple as alerting them to when you are coming in each week so they can prepare and make their job a little easier.

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Went back to my Goodwill today to scan books again… The lady from yesterday recognized me and brought me out an entire crate of untouched books!! I scanned them all kept the ones I wanted and put the rest away. She came out when I was about halfway done putting books away and said “oh you have done enough thank you so much” I said no no I will finish putting all of these books away because the next time you see me I want you to bring me another bin of books. She laughed I laughed we’re all happy. Make relationships even if it’s just being nice to one another!!!

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Get to know their schedule

Knowing their schedule will help you plan your week better for visits.  If location A re-stocks on Mondays and location B re-stocks on Fridays, you should know that.

If you have a favorite employee who helps you source your products, then you should know their schedule.  If they close every night at 9 pm, then you should know that.

The last thing you want to do is arrive at the store at 8:15 pm, when they might be preparing to close up for the night.

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Listen to our latest podcast episode to hear how John left his full time job to sell on Amazon:

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What processes or routines do they have?

Most Goodwills move books from the top to the bottom of the shelves as they replenish books.  Knowing this will save you time as you scan, but it also helps them as you are less likely to pull books out in random spots to scan, which makes the situation more orderly.

Knowing what color codes they use for products and how they rotate those throughout the weeks will save you and them from silly questions each time you come in.

Knowing what they can and cant discount also helps too.  Bargaining or leveraging deals are OK, but if you're too aggressive, they will quickly shut you out.

Don't be messy

You want to leave the lightest footprint of your visit as humanly possible when planning your visits.  If you're pulling books and don't put them back or are overall just sloppy as you cascade through each aisle, they are going to notice and start to resent you.

You always want to leave the location cleaner and more organized than you found it.  If they know you are tidy each time, they will be more willing to let you scan books.

Always say hello and goodbye

Never walk in and NOT say hello and never leave without a cheerful goodbye either.  If you end up purchasing items, then use that short time at the checkout counter to build rapport and humanize the transaction.

Be genuine and ask them how they are doing.  Ask them how their family is and what they have planned for the weekend.  All of these go a long way to building a great relationship that will pay you profit.

Conclusion

Honey goes a lot farther than vinegar as the saying goes.  This holds true when you are thrifting at Goodwills too.  If you follow these tips and are organized, you may be able to visit as often as you want.

With AccelerList you can find products in Goodwill and list them for sale on both the Amazon and the eBay marketplace.  Start your 14 day free trial today!

What are split shipments and why do they happen?

Split shipments are when Amazon takes your batch of products you have listed and “splits their destinations” up and sends some to one destination and others to another different destination. If you’ve been selling on Amazon for any length of time you’ll know that split shipments have always been a problem and an annoyance to even the most savvy of sellers.

Why does Amazon split my shipments?

The short answer is that it reduces costs for Amazon and accelerates the delivery of the product to the customer. No surprise there, right? Amazon is relentlessly focused on the customer experience and also reducing costs for the business and splitting your shipments helps with that. For example, if you are doing retail arbitrage with clothing and you have a bunch of snow boots to send in along with other clothing that is more summer like clothing, you can surely expect Amazon to send those boots to the North East or Midwest and send your summer clothes somewhere warmer. Make sense? Split shipments are a little more nuanced than that, but this is a very rudimentary example of why Amazon would split a shipment in this case.

Other examples of Amazon split shipments

Amazon will also split shipments based on the size and product type.  If you are sending in a bunch of books and then sprinkle in a few hand tools or power saws then it is very likely that all your products won’t be going to the same warehouse. I recently visited the San Bernardino Amazon Warehouse and was surprised to know that they have two locations (warehouses) right next to each other (ONT5, ONT2) that process to very different types of products. Some warehouses service just very large items and others service products with hazmat warnings. Another example is purely built on the data.  Let’s use the book category for a quick example. If you have a big shipment of books and inside that shipment there are 30 copies of a textbook that is very popular with staff from colleges in the Southeast region than those textbooks are probably going to end up there. The textbook is in demand there by the students so it makes more sense for Amazon to force the seller to ship the books there as it will be less costly to fulfill that order.

Why do I get split shipments to the same warehouse within the same batch?

This often happens due to condition or labeling requirements.  Amazon may want you to send the items to the same warehouse, but they want to process them separately within the warehouse and that means requiring the seller to process the products on different shipments. If you have a few NEW condition items mixed in with a bunch of USED condition products then this may very well happen. If you have opted to label all the products yourself but for whatever reason, Amazon wants to label those products…then they might be split on a separate shipment but be going to the same warehouse. It’s all about efficiency and grouping for Amazon. It’s a lot easier to process those shipments if they all match each other in characteristics such as labeling requirements or condition grade.

How can I avoid split shipments with Amazon?

You can’t…. However, there are some best practices for minimizing split shipments as much as possible.

1. Send in as much product in one shipment as possible
2. Keep condition types, like products and label preferences grouped together as much as humanly possible
3. Think about seasonality and where your products might be selling more
4. Sign up for Amazon’s Inventory Placement Program