After investing ¥200,000 into an Amazon FBA venture, a Chinese seller shares a detailed profit-and-loss breakdown for year one: gross sales ¥380,000, net loss ¥42,000.
The culprits: FBA storage and fulfilment fees (¥68,000), PPC advertising (¥91,000), returns and refunds (¥24,000), product sourcing errors requiring liquidation (¥18,000), and currency conversion spreads. None of these were fully modelled before launch.
Key takeaways: start with 1-3 SKUs maximum, model advertising spend at 25-30% of revenue for year one, and treat the first year as tuition rather than profit generation.