Amazon FBA is a simple concept. Along with selling its products Amazon also allows third-party sellers to use its site to sell their products as well. They call it fulfillment by Amazon, and many people are making many dollars doing it. The concept is quite simple. If you have a product to sell, Amazon will store your product at one or more of its facilities and pack and ship it for you as orders come to its site. To start, go to Amazon’s website and find the heading “Make Money with Us.” Find the “Sell on Amazon” link and click on it. “Individual” accounts have no monthly fee. “Professional” accounts are charged $39.99 monthly with one month free. This is we called Amazon FBA.
Now it gets interesting. Even if you don’t have a product to sell there’s still room for you. Countless websites offer free or not so free information or ebooks to help you decide what to sell. Even Amazon offers books on Amazon selling. Amazon wants you to sell on Amazon. But you will need to do some work or a lot of it. You have to figure out what to sell. Only you can do that. Start with product research.
SEO for Amazon FBA
Find a popular product and check reviews and see if you can improve the product and or price. Can you sell it for less? Can you do marketing to attract customers? Do you know what search engine optimization means and its tips? There’s a whole industry devoted to it and Amazon sells books about it as well. There’s also retail arbitrage, which means buying a brand name and flipping it for a profit. If you’re really ambitious, you could raise money, buy products and sell them under your company name by Amazon FBA. If you do this, however, you’ll need a relationship with a supplier so you don’t run out of the product. That can add up cost-wise, so make sure you have the money on hand or account before you go that route.
Amazon FBA wants you to succeed, but after the business is up and running, you’ll have to keep at it. Don’t pick a product on a whim. Make sure it’s something you are interested in so you don’t get bored. Be prepared to add more products over time so you’re not overly relying on just one product. That means you have to have a product line that you are familiar with so you at ease with the inventory. Increase your Best Sellers Rank to show your customers you have popular products with Amazon FBA. You’ll want to add a website at some point to make your business look more professional and attractive. With a website, you can become an affiliate and refer customers and make more money.
How much can you make? The easy answer is it depends on you and what your selling. Some sellers have reported earnings in the tens of thousands of dollars in only a month. In the end, it comes back to you. Don’t put in too much that you can’t afford to lose and move on to something else. Did you know Thomas Edison, the light bulb guy sold cement furniture, really, no really?
But what about the competition, you might ask? Third-party sellers have as many sales as Amazon does. That’s a lot. Amazon is an enormous seller and there’s plenty of room. Amazon FBA doesn’t have any hang-ups on selling other people’s stuff as they do it every day, and it gets a commission. Some analysts have even suggested that third-party sellers’ sales exceed Amazon sales, that’s a lot. Amazon is a maturing retailer. Allowing third-party sellers can only help in the long run.
