How I Went From 0 to $4,399 in Sales with an Amazon FBA Business in Just 30 Days

Fulfillment By Amazon Overview

Amazon FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon.  In a nutshell, Amazon allows 3rd party sellers (you!) to sell your products on Amazon.com and Amazon will pack and ship the products to the customer instead of you. It starts by signing up for an Amazon Seller account. No worries, I explain what this is and how to sign up for it in a minute (so read on).

After signing up for an Amazon Seller account, you will tell Amazon what products you want to sell.  Then Amazon automatically assigns you which warehouse to send your shipment of goods to.  You then just print out the UPS packing slip that Amazon provides on the seller central platform, and you drop off your goods at UPS or FedEx.

Once your shipment of goods arrive at the Amazon fulfillment center, you can begin selling!

As soon as you make a sale, Amazon will pick out your product from their warehouse, pack it in one of their boxes, and ship it to the customer.  It’s totally hands free for you.  They also handle some of the customer service in regards to returned products, so the time investment for you is minimal.

You can sell new products that you manufacture, used products, or re-sell products that perhaps you purchased that are still in original packaging (often called retail arbitrage  or online arbitrage).

A couple of the big benefits of using the Amazon FBA program as opposed to shipping products yourself (fulfilled by merchant) is this:

1. Your product will be available for Amazon Prime shipping.  This is HUGE for many buyers to get free 2-day shipping.  Being able to ship via Prime and two-day shipping means you are likely to get more sales.
2. Amazon handles everything, so it’s REALLY easy for you.  They handle shipping and returns.  You just worry about your listing.

What Are the Amazon FBA Fees?

Now of course you have to pay Amazon fees to do all of that.  So, the Amazon fees are the downside that you need to weigh when deciding whether to use Amazon FBA or not.

If you are curious to see how much the fees are, Amazon has provided an FBA calculator that I use all the time.

For example, if you wanted to sell this backpack or one similar to it, you can see exactly what your Amazon selling fees will be using their calculator.   Just take the ASIN number (found in the URL or the listing as shown) and input it into the FBA calculator.

Here’s what the Amazon FBA calculator looks like.

So, if I were to sell this item (backpack from above) my total Amazon seller fees would be $8.63 ($3.90 + $4.73).  Here’s an exact breakdown of all the FBA fees for this particular item:

• Selling on Amazon fees = $3.90.  This $3.90 is the Amazon referral fee which is always 15% of the sale price of your items.  This is a 15% commission that Amazon gets for allowing you the privilege of using the Amazon platform.  You only pay this 15% when one of your items sells.
• Fulfillment by Amazon Fees = $4.73.  This actually includes 2 fees: the fulfillment fee (for picking and packing items) of $4.57; and a monthly storage fee of $0.16 for using one of their fulfillment centers as a warehouse.  These fees vary based on the size and weight of your products.

Overall, this quick overview gives you a good idea of what Amazon FBA is and the fees associated with selling your items.

What Are The The Best Products To Sell On Amazon FBA?

A few principles to keep in mine.

1. Find some competitors… but not too many

A little competition is a good thing because it helps you know that the product is viable. If there’s no one selling something that you’re looking to manufacture, it could be that you’re the 1st person out of 7 billion to think about making that widget… Or it could mean that others have tried and it’s just not worth it.

(The second option is more likely).

If there are a few competitors in the space, it means that the product is profitable and worth producing. A product with no competitors can be a signal that the margins aren’t high enough or that there are other unforeseen problems.

On the flip side, make sure there aren’t too many competitors. If you find a great product and all your competitors have 2000+ 4-5 star reviews, that could be a bad sign. You might be biting off more than you can chew without significant connections or resources.

A sweet spot is if you can find a few products similar to yours that have under 50 reviews on page 1 of Amazon. If many of the highest ranking products have a few negative reviews, even better. You can exploit those negative reviews, fix the problem, and be better than your competitors.

2. Choose A Product That Sells For Under $100

This is not a hard set rule.  However, if you are just getting started, the ideal price range of products to consider selling is under $100. Many sellers do well with higher priced products, and if you have the higher capital that is required, then by all means go for it. The problem that most first-time Amazon FBA businesses will run in to is that products over the $100 can require a huge up front investment.

This sounds great in theory, but the percentage margins for products over $100 are often no higher than they are for products under $25. For both choices, you can make somewhere between 15-45% profit for each unit sold. Going for a less expensive product doesn’t cost you in profit, but it does require a higher initial investment.

Also, you’re out of the “impulse buy” category once you creep over $100. Now you’re talking about things like laptops, Tvs, furniture, etc. where you’re probably going to talk to your spouse, read more reviews, look for videos on YouTube, etc. The further away you are from “impulse buy” range, the less total buyers you’re going to end up with.

For first time users of Amazon FBA, it’s better to go for a high quality, less expensive item. If you want to move to big ticket stuff after your small business is set, go for it. 

3. Choose A Product With A Good Best Seller Rank

A metric that you can refer to in choosing a product to sell on Amazon is its bestsellers rank (BSR).

If similar products are ranking on top of the list (a best seller rank of 1 is the best selling product in the category), it means that there’s demand for them.

Choosing products identical to the ones found in the list allows you to position your business on par with these bestsellers. As a result, you can attract the target market of bestselling products and get them to buy from you instead.

You want to see that several of the top listings have a BSR around 3,000 or better. 

I heard a great tip on the AMPM podcast which said you should look for the top 3 results with BSR under 3,000. This means not only is there demand for the product, but there also isn’t just one product selling well. At least 3 different products are hot sellers, which is an indicator that the market is receptive of different brands. 

Also, the BSR I am referring to here is the main category. In the image above, the main category (Pet Supplies) hosts the product (under Cats > Little & Housebreaking > Little category). While the subcategory BSR of the product is impressive, its performance on the main category is what matters more. Since it will be competing against other pet supplies products, a high BSR means that it is an in-demand product.

4. Avoid Name Brands Like They Carry The Bubonic Plague

If you can recognize one of your competitor’s names, it’s best to avoid that niche.

Don’t fight Nike, Kleenex, or Tommy Hilfiger. You’ll waste a lot of time and a lot of money.

 5. Find A Keyword With Lots of Search Volume and Optimize For It

This is the golden ticket of Amazon FBA and the one that most of your competitors will miss out on.

You need to find a product that gets a lot of search volume. If a product has lots of search volume but is missing dominant players in the field, it is ripe for a new entry ( that’s you). 

You will benefit even more if you can find places where your competitors aren’t optimized for that keyword. Maybe they’re ranking high for “best starter chicken food”, but they don’t have that in their product description. Maybe it’s not in their product title.

Finding missed optimization like this is key for growing your FBA business past anything your competition can match. But this type of optimization will only help you if there’s search volume to begin with.

You don’t have to fumble around on Amazon, looking at their bestseller list, and take an educated guess. Trying the educated guess route can end in you wasting a lot of money on bad products and a lot of time on failed businesses. Learning how to sell on Amazon FBA doesn’t have to be complex, difficult, or a waste of money.

When I found my product that made $4,399 in 30 days, I used Jungle Scout to show me the most searched keywords and the least optimized competitors. You can get Jungle Scout at a discount since you’re a reader of Niche Pursuits.

 

How to Sell On Amazon FBA

Before I dive in and show how I made $4,399 in my first 30 days of selling on Amazon, I want to share the different possible ways that you can sell.

In a nutshell here are your options for selling on Amazon FBA:

• Private Label Products
• Retail arbitrage
• Sell used or returned items
• Sell wholesale products

How to Sell Private Label Products With FBA

My personal favorite for selling with Amazon FBA is private label products.  This is how I generated $4,399 in my first 30 days and have much more ever since.

Private labeling products means that you find a manufacturer that already produces a product and then slap your label or brand on the box.  This is obviously a very simplified description, but that’s essentially it.

Let’s say you wanted to sell this Silicone wedding ring:

Well, it would be illegal to manufacture and sell an “HonorGear” branded silicone wedding ring.  However, “HonorGear” didn’t invent the silicone wedding ring and there is no patent on it.  In fact, dozens of other sellers are already selling other silicone wedding bands.

So, you can find a manufacturer that makes these types of wedding bands, and then just have your brand name stamped into the ring or be on the box.

That’s private labeling in a nutshell.  Find a manufacturer already producing something that sells, then ask them to produce it for you with your label.  As long as there is no patents, this is 100% legal and has been done for a really long time.

Most products bought and sold on Amazon don’t have any IP or patent protection.  Think about common everyday products: forks, bedding, curtains, brushes, backpacks, etc.  You name it and likely there is no patent on the general product.

I’ve written extensively about how to find the right product to sell on Amazon right here.

For all of my products, I’ve simply used Alibaba.com to find manufacturers producing the products I want to make.  Then I start communicating with them to get samples or modifications done.

Think About Being Unique

Just because you are private labeling a product doesn’t mean you can’t be unique!  For example, instead of a plain silicone wedding band, maybe you come up with a unique pattern that can be stamped into the ring to give it more style.  Or perhaps instead of black, you make it pink (this has of course been done with the rings, but this should get some ideas flowing for you).

For all of my products that have done really well on Amazon, I’ve always had some unique feature to help it stand out from the crowd.

One of these “unique features” can be something that your competitors are doing wrong. Read reviews on your competitors’ products. What are the bad reviews saying? If you can fix that problem, you’ll have more buyers than you know what to do with.

How to Sell with Retail Arbitrage

Retail arbitrage is simply finding something at a retail store (like Walmart or Target) for cheap and then selling it on Amazon.com for more money.  You can read more in-depth about how to get started selling with retail arbitrage right here.

Retail arbitrage is less risky than private labeling products…and less complicated.  All you have to do is find items that are at a steep discount or on the clearance rack, verify that it sells for more money on Amazon before you buy it, then ship it in to Amazon and wait for it to sell for more money!

The risk is low because you can verify that the product will sell before you ever buy it.

With retail arbitrage, you CAN sell other branded products.  So, if you happen to find a brand new pair of Nike Jordan’s on sale for $20, you can likely sell it for $100 or more on Amazon.

You have likely noticed that some products on Amazon have “Available from Other Sellers”.  For example, here a screenshot of some Energizer batteries showing other sellers below the buy box:

If I click the link to see all the sellers, there are a total of 13.  And some of them are indeed FBA sellers:

In general, this is business is all about hustle and lower risk.  If you are able to find name brand products that are selling well at a cheaper price than they are selling for on Amazon, then you should have no problem flipping that item.

How to Sell used or returned items on Amazon

Did you know that a huge volume of used or returned items are sold all the time on Amazon?  And these are not just being sold by Amazon themselves, but by 3rd party sellers just like you.

One of the best categories where you can sell used items is books.  In fact, you may even have books sitting in your own home that could be listed and sold right now on Amazon! This is even more true if you have college textbooks. Some books can be bought and flipped for a profit and textbooks can be a prime target for this type of flipping.

If you want to get an (almost) passive income stream of up to $1000 per month, you can check out Textrader to learn how to flip college textbooks. Their course mentors you so that you learn what textbooks are the right ones to buy, how to price them, and the best way to resell these textbooks.

Click here to get started with Textrader and develop passive income.

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With the exception of textbooks and reselling sneakers, “used” categories are harder to profit from on Amazon.  If you are just trying to sell stuff around your own house, then eBay.com may be a better option.

On the other hand, if you want to dip your toes into the returned items world, then Amazon can be a great fit.  So, how do you find returned items that are still new in their packaging?

The best source for buying pallets of returned items is Liquidation.com. In fact, you can find returned items (often brand new in original packaging) from Home Depot, other major retailers, and even Amazon itself.

The idea here is very similar to retail arbitrage.  You find a pallet of items you want on Liquidation.com and have it shipped to you.  Then you go through the pallet and only ship the items to Amazon (via their FBA program) that you know will sell.  Obviously exclude any broken items.

Another option for buying liquidations is through Walmart directly!  You can go here to see truckloads and pallets of returned items that Walmart is selling.  As you can see, you can buy these returned items for extremely cheap.  It just comes down to your own hustle as it’s more labor intensive.

How to Sell Wholesale on Amazon

I’ll admit that I’ve never bought wholesale from a manufacturer and sold retail on Amazon.  The main idea for becoming a wholesaler is to find a brand that is not yet selling on Amazon and convincing them to allow you to sell their products for them.

An example of this might be a small local manufacturer that makes a unique product.  Perhaps they are really good at making the product and perhaps even running a local retail store.  However, they might have no idea or desire to get involved with online selling.  

If you can make a deal with them, then you can access a great brand at a wholesale price and sell for a profit on Amazon.

Here’s some additional words of wisdom that was recently shared on the Amazon Seller central forums by a wholesaler:

We buy wholesale and direct from manufacturers to sell and make profit on sales. There is no easy, get-quick option. A viable business model requires being a business, having a wholesale license, and marking your buying and selling power to wholesalers/manufacturers.

I will not give my sources as I have enough competition to sell with. However, a good place to begin is to find a local manufacturer that may benefit from selling to you so you can sell on Amazon. You may be lucky to work with them to give you exclusive selling rights so you will minimize competition. This is how we started years ago. After that arrangement we were able to market to other suppliers the value we offer and get more contracts and business. It was a rough and hard few years; trying to make the right decisions and learning from those that weren’t.

How Much Money Can You Make on Amazon FBA?

As you can see, there are plenty of ways that you can make money on Amazon.  However, my favorite option is private labeling products (manufacturing my own products). This has larger profit margins and room for growth typically than the other options mentioned.

I know you guys want to see the screenshots of income, so here you go!

This is a screenshot from my first 30 days selling on Amazon.  This is also my very first 30 days of having a private label product listed:

I was NOT expecting to make $4,400 in my first month of listing the product!  This went from a little side project that I tried not to spend very much time on to a business with the potential to grow significantly.

I saw so much potential within 30 days of selling on Amazon, that I decided to ramp up quickly and start selling more and more products.   If we fast forward a couple of years after I took that first screenshot, I’ve now sold well over a million dollars of product on Amazon.

But What About Profits?

I want to be clear that the above numbers are REVENUE numbers, not PROFIT.  I don’t expect to make much money on the first 100 units sold, but I expect my profit margins to be 30% or more for all units sold in the future.

Here’s a quick breakdown of costs for my first batch of 105 units ordered:

• Manufacturing costs: About $1,000
• Logo/branding/photo editing: $150
• Shipping/Freight costs: $2500
• Amazon fees: About $15/unit
• Giveaways/Discounts: 20 units (about $1,000 in soft costs)

So, as you can see from the screenshot above, I’ve sold 83 units. The screenshot shows the full revenue, even on units I actually sold for $1.  So, after coupons (12) and giveaways to family/friends (8), the actual revenue is about $1,000 less.

My total Amazon FBA fees on that is approximately $1,245.

With some quick math, you can see my total costs are about $4,880.  So, I’m still slightly in the hole, but I should end up breaking even after the final 22 units sell from this batch.

However, my net profit will be MUCH greater for each new batch.  I was very happy to just break even with this first batch as it truly was just a test order of 105 units.

Shipping Costs

Also, my shipping costs were extremely high, and that was a conscious decision that I made.  I chose to ship them via air to get them to Amazon faster.

Not only is shipment via air faster than ocean freight, there were also some port strikes going on that would have delayed things another couple of weeks most likely.  So, I bought myself about a month by paying extra.

Maybe not the smartest decision from a dollar and cents perspective, but it DID allow me to test things quicker and I’m now about a month ahead of where I would have been in placing my next order.

I will be shipping via ocean freight from now on most likely.  I highly recommend that you almost always take the shipping method with the lowest fees when possible.

Ocean freight for my first 105 units would have cost about $350.  So, the extra shipping cost is really what eliminated my chance at a decent profit.

If I had gone ocean freight, my net profit would have been about $2,000…which is very close to a 40% profit margin.

So, even though I didn’t really make any money on my first batch of units.  I was able to start making about 30 to 40% profit margin and all future orders from China.  I’ve been able to get my product cheaper (because I’ll be placing larger orders), I won’t have logo and branding costs, and my shipment/freight costs will be significantly lower per unit.

So, I haven’t “really” made any money today…but all signs are VERY good that this business can be quite profitable for me.

A Quick Timeline of My FBA Products

As explained, I honestly first heard about this business only a few months before I got started.  After doing some quick research and my podcast interview with Chris Guthrie, I figured this business didn’t seem too complicated after all.

I thought it might be interesting to recreate the timeline from when I discovered this business through my first 30 days of selling.  The idea behind this is to show you what kind of timeline you can expect if you decide to get into this business.

• October 2014 – I learn about the Amazon FBA business
• December 2, 2014 – I interview Chris Guthrie on my podcast about his Amazon business
• December 27, 2014 – I eat 12 donuts during the day.  Don’t ask.
• Jan 1, 2015 (at midnight) – Light off massive fireworks…possibly from China. A sign of things to come?
• January 8th, 2015 – I have my “aha” moment and decide on a unique angle for a product I can sell on Amazon (I know the date because I found scribbled notes in my notebook)
• January 10th – I go to Alibaba.com and contact about 4 manufacturers in regards to my product.  Just a quick email to each with some basic questions.  We exchange emails the next several days.
• January 20th – I order a sample product from the manufacturer that was able to best produce my product.  (I only found one that was able to easily add the features I requested).
• February 3rd – I receive the sample product.  It’s exactly what I wanted!
• February 4th – I take pictures of the product
• February 5th – I hire someone on Upwork to create logo and product packaging/branding.
• February 6th – Contact logistics company to work out shipping details. We exchange several emails over the next month.
• February 12th – I have my logo/branding ready and place my first order of 105 units from my manufacturer!
• February 13th – Manufacturer informs me that the Spring Festival Holiday is starting in China and that the factory is shutting down until March 5th (almost 3 week shutdown!).  They expect my order to be completed 2 weeks AFTER March 5th.  I’m sad about that 🙁
• March (sometime) – I create my Amazon seller listing and write product description, upload images, and get everything ready for sale on Amazon.
• March 12th – Manufacturer completes the batch of 105 units (a week ahead of schedule!)
• March 16th – The product is loaded on a plane and flown to the US.
• March 24th – The product has gone through customs and the logistics warehouse.  The product is shipped to the Amazon FBA warehouse.
• March 28th – Amazon has processed the product in their fulfillment center and my listing goes live!
• March 29th – A stranger buys my product.  I’m super excited to make my first sale using Amazon FBA!
• March 30th – I go on a week long vacation with my family (Spring break) and totally ignore the FBA business other than checking stats.
• April 29th – In 30 days, I have sold $4,400 worth of the product!

I hope this breakdown of the timeline gives you an idea of what it takes to get a product up on Amazon.  This is not an overnight business.

So, from product idea (my aha moment) to having a listing up on Amazon was about 2 and a half months.

A Quick Update

I’ve continued to sell private label products on Amazon since my first 30 days.  Business has been good!  I have been manufacturing and selling private label products now for over 2 and a half years.

After seeing the success of my first product, I quickly ramped up to 8 products.   Here’s a screenshot showing my sales from 2016:

This business was going so well after 2 and a half years, that I decided to sell the brand.

Please note that I continue to sell on Amazon with other private label products that I’ve created.  I just sold off my first brand, and I now have others.

Read on to discover how to launch and grow quickly on Amazon.

Why Did this First Product Sell So Well With Amazon FBA?

Now comes the more meaty question.  “Why is your product selling so well on FBA?”

Create a Slightly Unique Product

First, I DO think a big part of the reason is because it’s a slightly unique product. I don’t want to give away my product, so it’s difficult to explain what that unique feature is…but it’s nothing revolutionary.

Remember, I am selling private label products on Amazon. Which means I’m taking a product (backpack for example), then finding a manufacturer to create my own brand of backpacks (just an example, not what I actually sell).

Now, because I’m pretty much the only listing that offers this exact product with the variation I added and I KNOW people want this feature, it’s selling.

Rank on Amazon with Long Tail Keywords

The second reason this item is selling well is that my product is ranking well on Amazon for several long tail keyword phrases.  Yes, this was intentional.  I treated my product description like a niche site and used my targeted keywords in the product title and the product description.

Because of these 2 factors: unique product and showing up for long tail phrases, I was making about 2 to 3 sales a day after about 2 weeks of being listed.  I did have a few “sales” from friends and family over the first 3 weeks…but that was 8 units total.

I was making 1 to 2 sales per day before I had a single review on Amazon.  I honestly didn’t do any marketing outside of getting a few friends and family members to buy the product (which I reimbursed them for doing).

I WOULD have done more marketing if I hadn’t been so busy (vacation with family, New Media Expo, and running a full-time business outside of Amazon).  However, the natural sales raised my eyebrows and I thought, “Okay, let’s see what happens if I do some basic marketing!”

Jungle Scout is a great tool to help you find products to sell on Amazon .Another great tool to help you do keyword research and find products to sell on Amazon is Helium 10.

Special Promotions and Giveaways on Amazon

This brings me to the 3rd reason I think the product sold so well: Promotion.  As you can see from the image below, I had a huge spike in sales on April 23rd.  I sold 14 units that day…but 11 of those sales were from $1 coupons.  I now use LandingCube for Amazon Promotions.

I issued $1 coupons to a group of Amazon product reviewers (not sure I’m ready to reveal the source), and they got redeemed.  I didn’t make any money from those coupons, but this sudden spike in sales also boosted my Amazon best seller rank.

As a result, my product was listed higher on Amazon in various categories AND for the keywords I was targeting.   As you can see after April 23rd, the sales continued to be much higher than before…but these were natural sales now!

I started selling so much product, that I’m now worried I would run out of inventory.  As a result, I’ve raised the price and people continued buying after a 50%+ price increase!

Here’s a screenshot from my highest revenue day so far.  And yes, all of these sales are from people I don’t know…all sold at full price (no coupons):

I have started to get a few reviews over the past week or so that I’m sure has helped with the sales as well.  At the time of this screenshot was taken, I still had less than 6 reviews though…so these sales really are coming in with minimal reviews and marketing.

Common Problems In Amazon FBA

Inventory Issues

Because my products were selling well after 30 days, I decided that this business was the real deal and that I needed to order some more inventory.  At the rate I was selling, I figured I still had a couple of months before inventory would run out.

However, after doing my coupon promotion, getting a few more reviews, and selling lots more product per day…I realized I would run out of inventory in less than a week!  I only had about 22 units left and I sold 11 units on my best day…so you do the math.

I share some of these inventory issues, because this is an ongoing battle for any Amazon FBA seller.  It’s important to stay on top of how fast your products are selling and figuring out the lead times to produce new batches.

As a result, I raised my price to slow down the sales each day to prevent my inventory running dry too quickly.  Unfortunately with the sudden spike in sales, I wasn’t able to get inventory fast enough and wasn’t able to sell any items for close to 3 weeks during May.

Understanding Manufacturing Lead Times

My manufacturer takes about 3 to 4 weeks to produce the product, and shipping via ocean freight will take at least 2 more weeks.  So, I won’t have any product ready for sale on Amazon for at least a month.

So, when you start manufacturing and selling your own items on Amazon, you need to know that your lead time could be 1 to 2 months before you can “stock the shelves”.

I wish I could wave a magic wand to make it all work out sometimes, but honestly, I’m not too worried about it.  The point of my first batch of product from China was to test the market to see if people were willing to buy.  The market has spoken loud and clear to me that people like my product!

So, even though I couldn’t bring in too many sales while I was out of stock…I was able to gear up for bigger things down the road.

After selling for 30 days, I thought it was very feasible that I could sell 10 units a day at close to $70 each.  This would be a monthly revenue of $21,000.  (The net profit on this would be about $11,000).  I’m obviously gone way beyond that at this point. 

In fact, I was able to add 7 more SKUs and have had a number of months where I sold over $60,000 worth of product.

Tax Setup

One thing you need to watch out for when selling with Amazon FBA is the tax implication of all your sales. This varies from state to state and you should contact a tax professional who knows about Amazon FBA for definite answers in your situation.

That said, here’s my experience.

You will need to collect sales tax from your customers, that much is a given. The problem that you can run in to is that each state has different laws regarding whether or not sales tax needs to be collected in that state. Most states agree that if your goods are stored there (like in an Amazon FBA warehouse), then you need to collect sales tax.

Here’s where it becomes a mess (and no worries, the good news is coming after this). 

Each state has different requirements on how much sales tax is collected and how often you have to file your taxes with the state. It depends on your volume of sales, but some states can even require that you file monthly.

Just shoot me now, why don’tcha.

Now for the good news. An automated service called TaxJar can take care of literally every bit of this for you. You don’t have to deal with individual states, don’t have to keep up with due dates, and don’t have to waste your life filing taxes. TaxJar saves you from exorbitant fees with your accountant and a ton of wasted time.

Click here to get TaxJar for your Amazon FBA business.

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Next Steps for Your Amazon FBA Business

Because I’ve now tested the waters and can clearly see the revenue coming in, I’m going to scale this business.  You should have a similar plan to what I did below in order to scale your e-commerce business.

• I’ve already contacted my current and other manufacturers to get samples of similar products to what I’m already selling.  I believe that I can easily get 5 or 6 products up in my chosen niche.  I have no idea how each product will sell, but it’s clear that there is a very healthy market here.
• I will also be doing a bit more marketing (once I have inventory) to get more reviews, increase the Amazon best sellers rank, and make more sales naturally as a result.
• Finally, I plan on going outside of Amazon as well in the future.  I want to build a niche site related to my product.  I’ll write informational articles to get natural traffic from Google and then people can buy the product directly from my site as well.

That’s right, I’ll be building an eCommerce site.   The best part is that when you get a Shopify site up selling your own products off of Amazon, you can still have Amazon store, pack, and ship products when you make sales on your e-commerce site!  This is called multi-channel fulfillment. 

So, FBA fulfillment does indeed extend to sales off of Amazon if you want it to.  That’s an entirely different discussion, but just know that if you make product sales on your own site, on eBay, Walmart.com, or other selling platforms, you can indeed use the multi-channel fulfillment option to have Amazon fulfill those orders.

I see this as a nice marriage between my experience with building a blog or brand, SEO, keyword research, site building with proper themes, and now Amazon FBA.

Yes, this is a new business venture still and this blog post is clearly dripping with optimism, but I plan to capitalize as much as possible on this opportunity.  Will everything work out as planned?  Probably not exactly.  But I see no reason why I shouldn’t pursue this and try to grow this into a healthy business.

Overall, I haven’t been this excited about a business in a very long time.  We’ll see where the ride takes me.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.  Are you currently selling a product on Amazon?  Do you have any comments or questions that you would like to add to the discussion?  Let’s hear it below.

1. Jungle Scout – Get new product ideas and evaluate competitors

2. JumpSend – Run promotions and deals

3. Helium 10 – Evaluate competitors & see where we rank for keywords

4. SalesBacker – Automated follow-up to get more reviews

5. Fetcher – Track actual profit numbers

6. SEMrush – For keyword research. 

Start Your Amazon FBA Business

So there you have it. Next time someone asks, “What is Amazon FBA?” you can have an answer. 

Now that you know how to sell on Amazon FBA, there’s nothing stopping you other than you. What I don’t recommend is picking a product at random and calling up a manufacturer to start production. Picking the wrong product can cost you a lot of money (and a lot of wasted time).

You need to know what people are searching for so that you can solve their need. When you’re producing what people want, they can’t help but buy from you.

By Spencer Haws