I'm a successful businessman looking to expand into some "passive income" business. I've read numerous books about selling on Amazon, all claiming that it's easy to do. Just buy products from a firm and "rebrand" it. The question is - is it that easy to find the right product to sell? What else is there to know beside writing the right product description, giving great customer service, and Amazon SEO?
Compared to other business ideas, yes it is easy but it's not 'push-button' as many experts would have you believe (as they pitch you their $5,000+ training/services to help you). Selling products on Amazon is a business and the more you treat it like 'your baby', the much higher chance you will have with success.
Also buying products in bulk and rebranding them (this is called 'private label' or 'white label') is just one of 25+ ways to get products to resell on Amazon.
For more free information than you'll ever need to get started, check out my resources page at: http://jordanmalik.com/blog/resources (especially near the top under 'Amazon - Free Beginner Help'. Also (if you're interested in a high-quality, low price course to help you along), check out my free review guides/comparison charts of the world's best Amazon seller training at: http://jordanmalik.com/blog/asm and http://CourseComparo.com .... Good luck!
Business is never really passive, however you can create a very systemized and predictable income from Amazon.
You could put your mark on an unbranded item, there are plenty of people teaching that "me too" strategy. Its less work in the long run if you (A) create a market based business, then (B) meet the customer's missed expectations, and (C) start with domestic suppliers.
You've already been successful in other business ventures, so you have a better than fair shot at this model. Just like the other gurus here, we have some free resources: www.azdoneforyou.com
Our weekly newsletter features tips, news, and stories about what is currently working in our Amazon business. We'll also provide you with tools, courses, resources, and events to compress time and get you "there" faster.
First I want to say I have no product to push, no training course to sell you just direct experience with selling on Amazon. I dealt only with arbitrage which is finding products cheap enough to make a profit on Amazon. No re branding experience so I can't tell you good or bad on that. Because I have no dog in the fight I can give you my honest opinion on how Amazon works, the good the bad and the ugly which your not likely to get who's business is selling you programs and tapes etc. I have had mornings where I had over 500 orders and more recently my experience has been a fraction of that because of the new approach to Amazon. If you want the real story before you invest to much in this business call me and get the truth, thanks....Ken Queen
Successfully selling on Amazon is just like running any other retail business...there are parts that are easy and parts that are hard. It's not "passive income" in the way most people define that term. You CAN build a profitable, successful business on Amazon if you are willing to put in the time and energy.
First off, you should definitely check out Jordan Malik's material. Lots of free resources to get you started on your Amazon path. There's a popular podcast called "The Amazing Seller" with very good information.
If you want to start selling on Amazon, treat it like a business. It takes a lot of time up front, particularly in finding a product and learning the ropes. There is no magic formula. If you want to be successful, you should expect to continue to work at it. It's not a matter of "post your product on Amazon and let them fulfill your orders while you book your world cruise." You will manage suppliers, do marketing, work with customers, take care of accounting, develop new products, etc.--all the things that a traditional business needs to do in order to be successful.
Is it a good busy model? Yes. A lot of people are finding success on it. It's fairly straightforward and requires less time and money than many other ways to sell products, like starting a brick and mortar store. It takes work though.
Hi, I've driven an Amazon / eBay business to $4.5 million in annual sales. The short answer is - "No, it's not easy", if it was, everybody would be doing 6 digits revenues on Amazon.
Here is an example for one of the obstacles:
It's important to understand that there is a glass ceiling to what you can do on Amazon (selling someone else's brands), if your'e doing well, Amazon will quickly notice you and start stocking and selling the product line themselves. They control all the verticals: Logistics, payments, SEO and have a tremendous buying power.
One of the possible ways to overcome the above is to create and market your own brand (OEM manufacturing being one of the possibilities), in this scenario - if your'e doing well enough, Amazon will actually approach you to purchase your products in bulk.
I would not say that selling on Amazon is "easy" but I would argue that it is simple, meaning there is a short learning curve to be able to get started.
Other pieces to know when starting to sell on Amazon include:
Product listing pictures
Having high quality images within Amazon’s guidelines is crucial to selling products. Using a high resolution DSLR camera and software to create a white background, which is part of the imaging guidelines. Amazon has laid out the following image style guidelines:
-Product Only – Products must fill at least 85% of the image. Images must show only the product that is for sale, with few or no props and with no logos, watermarks, or inset images. Images may only contain text that is a part of the product.
-White Background – Main images must have a pure white background, must be a photo (not a drawing), and must not contain excluded accessories.
-High Resolution Images – Images must be at least 1000 pixels on the longest side and at least 500 pixels on the shortest side to be zoom-able.
-Correct Formatting – JPEG is the preferred image format, but you also may use TIFF and GIF files.
-Several Images – While this is not a requirement, we have found that the more images posted, the more sales occur due to customers having a greater understanding of what they are purchasing.
Product Packaging
Preparing your products to be FBA ready can be a complicated task.
-Process for Packaging – There is a certain way that Amazon prefers their products prepped, which we are experts at implementing
-Shipping Plan – Each order that gets sent to fulfillment centers creates a unique shipping plan with different amounts of each SKU going to different fulfillment centers
-Prep Guidance and Hazardous Materials – Certain products that contain hazardous materials, heavy, or sharp objects require certain unique packaging.
-Labeling Products – Each SKU has a unique UPC associated with it. When a product is listed on Amazon, they create an ASIN. An ASIN sticker needs to be placed on all of the products before they are shipped.
-Labeling Shipments – Each box that contains the products being sent to the fulfillment centers needs to be labeled correctly.
More information on packaging: http://www.amzconsultant.com/how-to-prepare-products-for-amazon-fba/
Amazon Ads
Advertisement on Amazon is a great way to increase your visibility to more customers. Advertisement is based on a cost-per-click model. You only pay for when you a customer clicks on your product. The way Amazon works is that the more products you sell, the better you rank, and then you sell even more products. When first starting our you may not receive much attention on your listings because of it’s low rank. With advertisement, you are able to get in front of potential customers when you don’t receive organic traffic. Parts of advertising include:
-Ad Groups – Groups are a way to segment different campaigns based on different products. For example, if you wanted to do summer products or all your products in a certain category such as wood products.
-Impressions – Impressions are the number of times customers see your product on their screen, but not necessarily click on the product.
-Clicks – This is the number of times a customer actually clicks on your product when it is advertised.
-Sales – This shows the amount of money you make based on customers clicking on your product and purchasing it.
-Spend – Spend is the total amount of money you spend for advertisement. It can be broken down by total spend, group spend, or individual SKU spend.
-Average Cost Per Sale – ACPS calculates the effectiveness of each advertisement. It is calculated by taking the spend on the advertisement divided by the amount of sales generated.
If you want to discuss more about Amazon FBA please reach out.
Thanks,
Reed Thompson
Hello,
I'll start by answering your question "is selling on Amazon that easy". Selling on Amazon can be easy, once you know what to sell and where to get the products from. It sounds as though you've been researching private labeling, taking someone else's product and putting your own label on it. If you are a beginner or a new seller, there are easier ways to get started with a passive income business on Amazon. Private labeling should be an advanced step, not something (in my opinion) that a new seller should get in on from the beginning. Without doing the proper product and shipping research, one could potentially lose a lot of money fast.
If you would like to discuss alternate routes to starting your Amazon business, feel free to schedule a call and I would be happy to talk with you.
Selling is easy on Amazon. However, the steps required to get up and running on Amazon remain the same, regardless of the type of business model and product you choose.
1. First, start by deciding which business model you want to use
I. Private Label: Private label is the process of a retailer rebranding/renaming a product that is already being manufactured on their own brand or label.
II. Wholesale: Wholesaling is the practice of purchasing low-cost or discounted goods in bulk to sell as individual units in a retail marketplace.
III. Online and/or Retail Arbitrage: Arbitrage is a method of finding low-cost or discount goods in brick-and-mortar retail stores (or on e-commerce sites) to resell them online.
IV. Drop shipping: Drop shipping is a business model where an Amazon seller does not keep their own product inventory, but instead, transfers their customers’ orders directly to the manufacturer or supplier.
V. Handmade: Amazon’s handmade sellers are people who create their own products to (“by hand”) to sell on the Amazon marketplace. Examples include jewellery, accessories, home decor, and more.
2. After you have landed on a business model, it is time to decide which fulfilment method you’ll use
a) Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA).
b) Fulfilment by Merchant (FBM).
There are pros and cons for both methods, so make sure you look closely at both to determine which one will work best for your business.
3. Next, consider the product(s) you are going to sell: If you have a product (say, you create your own handcrafted items), you may be ready to go, but you should still follow this step to validate that your product will have sufficient demand on Amazon. To help you find products to sell that are high in demand, but low in competition, make sure you use a tool like Jungle Scout.
4. Once you have found a product, apply to become an Amazon seller. More details on how to complete the Amazon seller registration process in the next section.
5. Then, when Amazon has verified your information and your application has been approved, start sourcing your product(s). If you’ve chosen to sell private label, you can find a manufacturer to create your product by using Jungle Scout’s Supplier Database or Alibaba.
6. Finally, create your product listing: And once you create your listing, you can grow your Amazon sales from there!
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
