📝 How to Make Your First £10,000 with Amazon FBA
Are you interested in making money through Amazon FBA but don't know where to start? Look no further! As a seven-figure Amazon FBA seller, I have created a step-by-step guide to help you make your first £10,000. In this article, I will cover everything from setting up your Amazon seller account to finding profitable products and optimizing your listings. So, grab a notepad and pen, and let's get started!
💼 Setting Up Your Amazon Seller Account
Before you can start selling on Amazon, you need to set up your seller account. To do this, you will need to have your own business, either a limited company or a sole trader. Most people choose to become a limited company because it's more efficient when it comes to extracting cash and paying less tax. Once you have your business set up, you will need to set up a business bank account, which is required if you want to start selling on Amazon.
🏦 Choosing a Digital Bank
While there are plenty of options out there for you to choose from, in my experience, a lot of them are slow and often reject new businesses that haven't started trading yet. To avoid pulling out all of your hair in frustration, I recommend skipping the high street banks and going for a digital bank such as Tide or Wise instead. Both of these banks are accepted by Amazon as soon as your application is approved.
📝 Registering for a Seller Account
While you might think that the process of creating an Amazon seller's account is going to be a piece of cake, don't get too complacent. The process of registering for a seller account does actually trip a lot of people up, which results in them being blocked from selling before they've even started. Here are my two biggest tips to stop that from happening to you:
1. When asked what type of seller you are, select either sole proprietor (sole trader) or private entity (limited company). The other answers 99 times out of 100 are not going to be relevant to you and should not be selected.
2. Whenever you fill anything out in the application form, whether it be your name, your date of birth, or your address, make sure that you triple-check that there are no spelling mistakes and that all of your details match word for word. Failing to do that is going to mean that you won't pass verification and therefore you'll be unable to sell.
🕵️♀️ Finding a Profitable Product
Finding a product to sell on Amazon is more than likely going to take you at least two or three weeks because learning the different methods and thought processes behind product research takes time. There are plenty of techniques that you can follow in order to discover different product ideas, and one of my favorite methods is with Helium 10's Black Box tool. This tool is a bit like Google, except instead of being shown websites, you're shown products. To use it, simply create an account with Helium 10, which you can currently do for free using one of my links, log into your account, and then browse to the Black Box tool. Select the categories that you like the look of, input the target monthly revenue and the price point of the product that you want to sell, and then press search. You'll then be shown lots of different product ideas that have existing demand on Amazon, which acts as a great starting point for the next stage of the journey to making your first £10,000.
📊 Verifying Product Profitability
No matter what product it is that you want to sell on Amazon, if you want to achieve success, then you absolutely need to ensure that the product has existing demand and customers are already buying it on Amazon. It has a profit margin of at least 15% and an opportunity for you to improve upon the existing offering versus other sellers. If you're scratching your head wondering how you might go about verifying whether a product that you found meets all of these criteria, then don't worry because some of it's actually easier than you might think.
To assess the sales demand of any product on Amazon, all you need to do is download Helium 10's Chrome extension, search for your product, and then press the Helium 10 X-ray button. You'll then be presented with a pop-up that will tell you exactly how many units are being sold each month by every single seller, as well as how much money they're generating. Ideally, the minimum amount of sales that you should expect to see should be three times your monthly profit target. To verify profitability, you can simply search for your product on a supplier website such as Alibaba and then ask a supplier for the unit price. You can then use my free profit calculator to see how much money you're likely to make for every sale that you generate.
The hardest part of product research is the third piece of essential criteria, which is finding an opportunity to improve. There is no easy way to go about this other than to put in the time, look through your competition's listings, and then assess whether you think things like the quality of their product, their listing, branding, and so on can all be improved and beaten by you. If you manage to find a product that ticks all three essential criteria of demand, profitability, and improvement, then you've potentially found yourself a product that is going to be helping you to generate your first £10,000.
📦 Sourcing a Supplier
Once you've found something that you want to sell with Amazon FBA, you're going to need to source a supplier that not only makes a high-quality product but also has a good level of English and responds to you quickly. Most suppliers in the Eastern world will advertise their services on a website called Alibaba, so search for your product on there, message as many suppliers as you can find, ask for product samples, and then once you've received them, assess the quality. Rank each supplier by price, communication, and quality, and based on all of those, decide which supplier you want to move forward with for your main order.
In terms of your order size, that's going to come down to your budget and what you're comfortable spending. Ideally, for your first order, you should have at least two months' worth of stock. So, use Helium 10's X-ray tool to assess what that is likely to be and then determine whether you're comfortable ordering that amount.
📝 Creating a Product Listing
Every product that is sold on Amazon needs to have a product listing, which comprises of a title, summary, bullet points, description, and pictures. All of these items are what the customer is going to look through before deciding whether they want to make a purchase. When putting your product's listing together, don't be tempted to just jam in a load of keywords that don't make sense in an attempt to improve your product's SEO and visibility. Instead, think about the problems that your product solves, why the customer should choose you over your competition, and then write that down in a compelling and logical manner. Of course, including relevant keywords is an important task to do, but it must make sense. If you need help understanding the best keywords to include throughout your listing, use Helium 10's keyword and listing optimization tools.
For your images, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, when designing your product pictures, don't skimp and go for low quality. Instead, hire a local photographer in the area or use a 3D render designer or Fiverr to get some high-quality pictures of your product. Then, use the services of an image editor to put together a set of compelling images that will make the customer desperate to buy. You can usually find talented designers on sites such as Fiverr and Upwork, but just make sure that you check their reviews and their portfolio before you go ahead and make a hire.
💰 Placing an Order
Typically, when you place an order with your supplier, they're going to request a deposit from you upfront, which can range from 30% to 50% based on the product and the supplier that you're dealing with. Your final balancing payment is then going to be due once the goods are ready for dispatch, which could be anywhere from four to eight weeks later, depending on how many units you've ordered and the complexity of the product being manufactured.
If you found your supplier on Alibaba, then you can go and pay your deposit with your credit card for an extra layer of protection. Or, if you want to do it a slightly cheaper way, you can use a bank such as Wise to make an international bank transfer. Once your supplier has confirmed that the goods are ready for dispatch and you've made your final payment, you'll need to tell Amazon that your product is ready and it's on its way to their warehouse.
🚚 Shipping Your Product
To do this, log into Seller Central, browse to the shipments tab, and then click send to Amazon. You'll then need to input the number of units that you're sending and the weight and dimension of each box that's going to be holding all of your products. Once you've completed that, you'll be given Amazon's shipping labels, which you'll need to send over to your supplier to stick onto each box. If you're unsure of how many boxes are going to be sent or the dimensions and weight of each, ask your supplier for something known as the packing list, which is basically a sheet that contains all of the relevant shipping information that you're going to need.
Once you've created your shipping plan, you'll then need to arrange the transportation and shipment of your product, which you can do through a shipping agent or freight forwarder. Or, if you'd rather take the slightly more expensive but more convenient route, you can ask your supplier to arrange it for you instead. Depending on whether you choose to ship by air or sea, your product should arrive at Amazon's warehouse within two to six weeks. Once it does, you'll receive an email notification saying that your goods have been checked in, and that in a matter of days, you're becoming a seller on Amazon.
📈 Increasing Your Product's Visibility
After a couple of days of waiting for Amazon to receive your products, a number of units should become available to customers to purchase. Once that happens, you'll need to do a number of things to increase your product's visibility and your conversion in order to drive sales and profitability.
First of all, you'll need to try to get a few product reviews, and you can do that by enrolling into something called Amazon's Vine Program. Or, if you don't mind breaking a rule or two, subtly ask a few distant friends and family to buy your product and then leave you a review. Reviews play a huge part in how successful a product is, so if you can get a couple lined up and published in your first week of selling, then the number of customers browsing your listing and then deciding to buy should increase by a noticeable amount.
To get your product seen by as many people as possible, you'll then need to make use of Amazon's advertising platform, which is pay-per-click. That means you're only charged for an ad once a customer clicks onto your listing. If you're new to Amazon and you've never experienced pay-per-click advertising before, my advice is to create an automatic campaign, which is essentially something that lets Amazon determine when and where you appear in the search results. But if you're a bit more advanced and you have experience of advertising on other platforms, then I'd go ahead and start to look at manual campaign types instead. Regardless of which one you go with, start with a modest budget of £10 or $10 per day and review your campaign's performance every single day by looking at the keywords that are getting the most clicks. If they're irrelevant or costing you too much, then you can remove them from your campaigns so that you don't get charged for them anymore, saving a bit of cash.
Finally, to increase your product's conversion even further during your launch period, my advice is to start selling with a lower price point than your competition. If you can give customers an immediate reason to buy through a high-quality listing and an offer that is at an amazing price point, then they'll be left with no choice but to purchase from you, which will increase your sales, your conversion, and ultimately contribute to you appearing higher in the search results.
📊 Reviewing Your Sales and Profitability
Keeping on top of your business's sales and profitability is an essential step to take, so make sure that you review your sales and the profit that you're making every single day or at the very least every week. You can do this manually with the help of my free profit calculator, which I'll link below, or an easier and more accurate way is by using a tool such as Shopkeeper, which will basically calculate your profit after every single fee that there is. If you find that you're not making as many sales or as much profit as you expected, you'll need to find the root cause and then fix the problem as soon as possible.
Common issues that I come across for underperformance are a poor quality listing that doesn't communicate the benefits of the product very well, an offer that isn't compelling enough to give the customer a reason to buy from you versus your competition, and a price point that isn't attractive enough or an advertising campaign that isn't optimized and is overspending on irrelevant keywords. While that might sound like a lot of things that can go wrong, the good news is that all of those things can be fixed, but it does take some time and effort. So, if you do identify any problems, get to work on solving them so that you can turn your performance around and take your product to your first £10,000.
🎉 Conclusion
After following these 10 steps, there is no reason why you won't be able to hit that awesome milestone of £10,000 from selling products on Amazon, just like me and hundreds of students that I've coached. While it might seem like a lot to take in and something that's quite difficult to follow, believe me, once you've gone through the process, you will look back and realize just how simple it all actually is. I started selling with Amazon FBA in 2018 with no experience and no creativity, and I've since gone on to create a six-figure profit-generating business every single year. If I can do that, so can you!
📌 Highlights
- Setting up your Amazon seller account requires having your own business and a business bank account.
- Choosing a digital bank such as Tide or Wise is recommended for faster approval.
- Finding a profitable product requires verifying existing demand, profitability, and an opportunity for improvement.
- Sourcing a supplier requires assessing quality, communication, and price.
- Creating a product listing requires a compelling and logical description, relevant keywords, and high-quality images.
- Increasing your product's visibility requires getting product reviews, using Amazon's advertising platform, and starting with a lower price point.
- Reviewing your sales and profitability is essential to identify and fix any issues.
❓ FAQ
Q: Do I need to have a limited company to sell on Amazon?
A: No, you can also be a sole trader. However, most people choose to become a limited company because it's more efficient when it comes to extracting cash and paying less tax.
Q: How long does it take to find a profitable product?
A: It can take at least two or three weeks to find a profitable product because learning the different methods and thought processes behind product research takes time.
Q: How do I verify a product's profitability?
A: You can verify a product's profitability by assessing the sales demand on Amazon, verifying profitability by searching for your product on a supplier website such as Alibaba, and finding an opportunity to improve by assessing your competition's listings.
Q: How do I increase my product's visibility?
A: You can increase your product's visibility by getting product reviews, using Amazon's advertising platform, and starting with a lower price point.
Q: How do I review my sales and profitability?
A: You can review your sales and profitability manually with the help of a profit calculator or by using a tool such as Shopkeeper, which will calculate your profit after every single fee that there is.
🌐 Resources
- Helium 10's Black Box tool
- Helium 10's Chrome extension
- Alibaba
- My free profit calculator
- Shopkeeper
