Why your units never sell (and what to do about it)
I see this pattern constantly. You find a product. ROI looks good. Keepa shows sales. You order 5 units to "test it." It sits. Barely moves. You think the product sucks. You don't reorder. You move on. Here's the thing nobody tells you: the test order was the problem. Not the product. Every US guru will tell you reviews determine buy box rotation. The seller with 500 reviews dominates, so don't bother competing. That's not how it works. ---->Inventory distribution determines buy box rotation <---- Here's what's actually happening with high-review sellers: They're not scared to send 200 units. Amazon distributes those units across multiple warehouses. When a customer orders, the seller with inventory closest to them wins the buy box because Amazon prioritizes fast delivery. That seller with 500 reviews? He's winning because he has units in 8 warehouses. You have 5 units sitting in one. Amazon literally can't give you the buy box. There's no inventory to distribute. The test order catch-22 - You send 5 units to "test" - Amazon can't distribute 5 units across warehouses - You never win buy box rotation - Product doesn't sell - You think it was a bad product - You don't reorder - The product WAS good... you just never gave it a chance So what do you actually do? Stop looking at reviews as competition. Start looking at how many other FBA sellers are on the listing and how much inventory they likely have. If there's 1 FBA seller with 1,500 reviews, yeah ... skip it. But if there's 3-4 FBA sellers with moderate reviews? Your 20 units can compete because you're not fighting warehouse distribution against a giant. The analysis happens BEFORE you buy. Not after. Pick battles where your inventory size can actually win rotation. That's how you turn "tests" into actual sales data. Anyone else been stuck in the test-order trap?