How to Sell Furniture on Amazon Egypt

What started as an online bookstore in 1995 is now the top furniture and home furnishings retailer in the United States. Walmart, in second place, is behind by more than 11%.

What does this mean for you? If you make furniture, source furniture to sell under your brand, or distribute furniture for other brands, it’s time to start selling on Amazon.

Amazon furniture shopping has moved past “something interesting” to something mainstream. Your customers are out there browsing furniture on Amazon. Why would you refuse to list your products there?

You wouldn’t. Right?

If you don’t know where to start, you’re in the right place. Read on below for the steps on how to sell furniture on Amazon.

1. Decide which furniture to sell.

The first step to selling anything is deciding on your product. What furniture are you going to sell?

Check the trends using Amazon search and look at the best sellers. These will tell you which products are popular among Amazon furniture buyers.

Determine what can be or is already popular on Amazon. Sell that.

You can also narrow your target market. Are you targeting single, young urbanites with high disposable income?

Find out where they live. They’re likely living in apartments. In this case, they must have limited space for furniture and furnishings.

They probably live alone. Maybe they have one bedroom. Do they have an office at home?

They are young and have high disposable income. They probably like aesthetic things and can afford them.

Based on the above information, maybe you should sell modern and contemporary, compact furniture built for condominium units. They must not only be functional. They must also look good and be worthy of posting online on social media.

For the bedroom, you can sell compact vanities, beds and dressers. How about stowable, foldable, and collapsible options?

Sell small settees and loveseats for the living room. Your dining room furniture can be a two-seater or a maximum four-seater dining table. Home office furniture can consist of standing desks and ergonomic office chairs.

Protect Your Brand

Do you make your own furniture? Register your brand in the Amazon Brand Registry. You should also trademark your designs.

2. Decide on a fulfillment strategy.

If somebody buys your product on Amazon, who will fulfill the order: you or Amazon? You have three fulfillment options to choose from.

Self-Ship

Under Self-Ship, you store your furniture in a warehouse you own (or rent). When an order comes in, you (or your employees) pack it, label it, and ship it out.

Easy Ship

Under Easy Ship, Amazon becomes your carrier. You store your furniture in the warehouse you own or rent. When an order comes in, you let Amazon know. You pack and label the product, and Amazon picks it up from your fulfillment center and delivers it to your customer.

You have the option to include returns and refunds in Amazon’s fulfillment functions under Easy Ship.

Fulfillment by Amazon

Under FBA, you pack your products, carefully following Amazon’s packaging instructions, and ship them to an Amazon warehouse. Amazon will store your products. When an order comes in, Amazon will pack, label, and ship out the item on your behalf.

Under FBA, Amazon handles everything, including customer inquiries, returns, and refunds.

Selling and Fulfillment Restrictions

In general, there are no restrictions on furniture on Amazon Egypt. In fact, you can sell upholstered furniture, bedding, and other quilted products without limitations in Egypt. These are restricted in the United States.

That being said, some furniture that Amazon may not be able to ship or fulfill for you.

Selling a magnificent rosewood cabinet inlaid with ivory? Amazon may not let you list it if it’s an antique more than 300 years old. Even if it’s not an artifact, it may not be eligible for Amazon Easy Ship if it is embellished with elephant ivory.

You cannot use Easy Ship on furniture that is exceptionally dense, i.e., weighs more than 20 kilograms, but:

the longest side is no more than 120 centimeters;
either side is 60 cm or less; and
the girth is no more than 165,000 cm.

Likewise, extraordinarily bulky and heavy products may not be eligible for FBA. Such products:

are longer than 150 cm;
weigh more than 30 kg; or
have a girth greater than three meters (girth measured as the sum of twice the height, twice the width, and length).

You may still sell such furniture on Amazon, but self-ship the orders yourself.

3. Compute costs and set your prices.

This should be easy if you’re already in furniture sales and distribution. You just need to adjust your prices when you sell online.

When you sell on Amazon, you must incorporate logistics costs and Amazon’s fees into your prices.

Example: A bookshelf typically sells for EGP 1,000. Adjust it to reflect these costs, if applicable:

Referral Fee: Amazon Egypt charges a 13% referral fee, with a minimum of EGP 5. All Amazon sellers pay a referral fee for every item sold.
Fulfillment Fee: The fulfillment fee is paid on FBA products only. The fee depends on the size of your product. Suppose your furniture is oversized; it’s greater than 45cm long, greater than 34 cm wide, and greater than 26 cm tall. If it weighs less than or equal to 10 kg, it will cost you EGP 38 in fulfillment fees.
Monthly Storage Fee: You’ll incur this on every FBA product you have, and it’s EGP 4 per cubic foot of storage your products occupy per month.
Long-Term Storage Fee: Long-term storage fees are for FBA products that have been in the fulfillment center for more than 365 days. It’s EGP 40 per cubic foot of storage.
Shipping Cost: This is the charge you will pay Amazon to deliver your product to your customer in Easy Ship or your chosen carrier in Self-Ship. Amazon charges EGP 49 per first kilogram of oversized parcels and EGP 2 for every additional kilogram.

4. List your products and start selling.

Once you have decided on your products and priced them competitively based on your fulfillment strategy, list your products on Amazon. Make sure you have an attractive storefront, too, and include as much information as you can in your product listings.

You should also optimize your listings by using relevant keywords and highlighting product features by using bullet points and images.

Next, drive traffic to your product listings and storefront with Amazon advertising, induce upsells and cross-sales through promotions, and start a mailing list and loyalty program.