🚀 How to Start Your Amazon FBA Journey from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide
Are you looking for a brand new way to create a sustainable passive income online from the comfort of your home without any fancy degree, prior experience, or any special talent? Or are you just looking for a way to make a crazy amount of money from your laptop while being at home? If that's the case, then you're in the right place. Amazon FBA has taken off in the last couple of years, and with so many different steps and methods, it's hard to know where to get started. In this article, I'm going to show you my exact method to start selling on Amazon from scratch. Using this exact method, I built multiple six-figure Amazon FBA stores in less than one year with no marketing or even making my own product. So, if I was starting all over again today as a beginner, this is the only Amazon FBA guide I would have needed.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Finding a Good Product
1. Types of Products on Amazon
2. Product Category
3. Good Profit Margins
3. Doing the Analysis
1. Best Sellers Rank
2. Lightweight Products
3. Seasonal Products
4. Finding a Good Supplier
1. Reliability
2. Large vs. Small Suppliers
3. Speaking to Your Supplier
5. Scaling Your Business
1. Delegating Tasks
2. Recycling Money
3. Finding a Mentor
Finding a Good Product
Without a good product, it's pretty much impossible to have success with Amazon FBA. But thankfully, there are thousands of good products out there which you can sell. Every week, new products are added, so the opportunities will always keep coming. When looking for a product, there are three types of products on Amazon:
Arbitrage Product
This is basically a product you can buy from your local supermarket or retailer and resell on Amazon. For example, you can buy a dressing stool from Robert Dies for £79.99 and resell it on Amazon for £164.99. This product would give you a profit of around £34. If you just sell six stools in one month, you will have made a profit of almost £200.
Wholesale Product
This is when you buy from a wholesaler and resell it on Amazon. The wholesaler sells these products for a wholesale price, and the same products can be resold on Amazon for a higher price.
Private Label Product
This is where you go on websites like Alibaba and create your own product. For example, these five resistance fitness bands are being sold for £8.99 with the seller's branding, but you can buy the same bands from Alibaba and put your branding on it for less than £2.
The type of products you are going to look for are arbitrage and wholesale products only. This is because these products are already selling on Amazon, so you don't need to do any sort of marketing or even making your own product. You can use existing listings with other sellers and simply start making money selling the exact same product. I only sold these two types of products since I started my FBA journey, and I found success over and over again.
The next thing is the product category. I do not look for products in a specific category because what I found is that on Amazon, anything and everything sells. You don't want to sell products from a specific niche and miss out on all the other product opportunities from other categories. The whole goal is to have more products, which will result in more money for you.
The last thing I look for in the product is good profit margins. What I consider to be good profit margins is being able to make at least 30% more than what you spend on buying and sending the product to Amazon. You can calculate this by using an ROI calculator. If I'm spending £10 on a product that I want in return at least 30% more on the £10 I spent on buying the product, which will be £10, which is my initial investment plus £3. 30% more will equal to £13 in return to me.
Doing the Analysis
As soon as I find a good product on Amazon, the first thing I look at is the best sellers rank. You can find this number on the product information for every product. The best products which actually sell are the ones with less than 100,000 best sellers rank. The lesser the BSR, the more the product is selling. So, the first thing to look for when analyzing a product is ensuring it has a good BSR.
The second thing you would look for is something lightweight because the heavier the product, the heavier the FBA fees. As the size and the weight of the product goes higher, your profit margins go lower. Plus, the shipping cost can be very high if the product weighs more than two pounds.
The last analysis is to make sure the product you are selling is not a seasonal product. You don't want to buy a product which has so many good reviews and has a really good profit margin but does not sell throughout the year. You can figure out if it's a seasonal product or not by just looking at the product. However, the best way to determine this is to go to Google Trends and type in the main keyword of your product. For example, if your product is a Christmas toy, then simply go on Google Trends and type in Christmas toys. Once there, you'll be able to see if your product is seasonal or not. If your product is seasonal, then you will see big dips in the line graph.
Finding a Good Supplier
Once you have a good product and a good supplier for the product, you can continue making sales every day. Finding a good product is easy, but finding a good supplier can take time, and you should always spend more time looking for a good supplier because there can be multiple suppliers for your product, but finding the cheapest will make you the most profit. Reliability should be another key consideration for choosing a supplier. Reliable suppliers have delivered the right goods or services on time as described. Large suppliers are generally reliable because they have enough resources and systems in place to make sure they can still deliver if anything goes wrong. However, you can often develop a closer relationship with smaller suppliers, especially if you're their main customer. In these cases, your supplier may also respond better to different requests, such as rush orders or holding on to stock.
The best way to find suppliers is simply to locate them online by Googling products, and you will have thousands of results come up. So, take your time to find the best supplier. A key tip I'll give you here is to always try and speak to your supplier while cool rather than always emailing them because it's better and faster than emailing.
Scaling Your Business
Most Amazon FBA sellers get on Amazon, and once they make a few thousand per month, they find it difficult to scale. This is mainly because if you're a one-man army, it may take you hours to pack your products so it can be sent to Amazon. However, this is when you can be smart and start delegating. The number one thing you need to remember when trying to delegate is first figure out what is taking most of your time and start off by delegating that. The time you get by delegating a task will enable you to look for more products and spend more time doing what helps you to expand your Amazon FBA business.
Another thing you can do to keep expanding is to keep recycling the money within your business rather than taking anything out. In this stock with Amazon, the more money you spend on buying products, the more money you will make.
The last thing when it comes to scaling is to look for a person/mentor who is already doing this. Why would you not want to learn from someone who has already done what you want to do and will help you to avoid all the failures from their experience?
Highlights
- Amazon FBA is a great way to create a sustainable passive income online.
- There are three types of products on Amazon: arbitrage, wholesale, and private label.
- The best products which actually sell are the ones with less than 100,000 best sellers rank.
- Reliable suppliers have delivered the right goods or services on time as described.
- Delegating tasks will enable you to look for more products and spend more time doing what helps you to expand your Amazon FBA business.
FAQ
Q: What is Amazon FBA?
A: Amazon FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon. It's a service provided by Amazon that allows sellers to store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers. Amazon then picks, packs, and ships the products to the customers on behalf of the seller.
Q: How much does it cost to start an Amazon FBA business?
A: The cost to start an Amazon FBA business can vary depending on the product you choose to sell. However, you can start with as little as £500.
Q: Do I need to have my own product to sell on Amazon FBA?
A: No, you don't need to have your own product to sell on Amazon FBA. You can sell arbitrage or wholesale products.
Q: How long does it take to start making money on Amazon FBA?
A: It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to start making money on Amazon FBA. It depends on how quickly you can find a good product and a good supplier.
Q: Can I sell on Amazon FBA from anywhere in the world?
A: Yes, you can sell on Amazon FBA from anywhere in the world as long as Amazon has a fulfillment center in your country.
