While it’s not uncommon to meet someone who has bought something on Amazon, as nearly everyone has used the platform at some point in their lives, it’s far less common to find an eCommerce entrepreneur who has attempted to sell on the platform.
Selling on Amazon is an opportunity that is often overlooked by online retailers, although it is far easier than it may seem to post listings on the retail giant.
What makes selling on Amazon such a profitable experience for eCommerce entrepreneurs?
- Unlike some other platforms such as eBay, there is a very high cap on what can be made on Amazon without nearly as much effort.
- When items are posted on Amazon, they will already receive the same exposure as any other listing on the platform. Amazon has millions of customers each day, therefore products sold on the platform will be subject to a very large audience.
- Just about anything can be sold on Amazon, making it a very diverse platform that can be used by nearly anyone, no matter their product or budget.
There are two ways entrepreneurs can sell on Amazon: as an FBA seller, or as an MF seller. These two types of sellers will appear differently in the Amazon search results, and the process will be different for each.
The more popular way of selling on Amazon, is as an FBA seller because there is less work involved with the process in general.
Essentially, after you have determined a product that you can sell on Amazon, you can list it on the site, send it to Amazon’s warehouses, and then let Amazon take care of the rest. There are some small fees involved with this process, however it allows you to sell as many items as you would like on the site, and you do not have to worry about individual shipping and handling for each order.
Being an FBA seller on Amazon can work for nearly anyone. It requires very little time and effort to do, at the price of just a small up front fee. By selling products with low upfront costs and high demand, this can be a very highly effective way of making profits as an Amazon seller, with very little risk.
The alternative way to being an FBA seller on Amazon is to list as a merchant fulfilled seller. As a merchant fulfilled seller, the shipment of each sale is being done by the merchants themselves, meaning that Amazon does very little work as a middleman, however the seller does get a higher commission from the sale. There are also no upfront fees, making it a low-risk listing in that sense. However, these listings do not sell as often as FBA listings, and therefore can be a risky investment in some ways.
When sellers list their products as FBA sellers, their products will be eligible for Amazon Prime. This is not an option for merchant fulfilled listings, giving FBA sellers a huge advantage with their listings. Many buyers will purchase an item over another simply because one is eligible for Amazon Prime, and the other is not, making it vital that any successful listing be eligible for Amazon Prime.
It’s understandable that any new Amazon merchant would want to be listed as an FBA seller, however there is a bit of groundwork that must be done beforehand:
- The first step of the process is to find a product that will sell easily on Amazon, with very little risk in purchasing. Essentially, this means that sellers need to find products that are heavily discounted, that can be sold at a higher markup, and still be affordable.
- Finding these products can be done by going to stores both online and in person, and searching for clearance sales on items that can be resold online.
- Products can also be found by searching wholesale sites on the web, that can be trusted to deliver high-quality items that people will want to purchase. The idea is to find quality products at a low wholesale price that will sell easily on Amazon, while making a profit that justifies the sale.
Selling on Amazon does result in some pretty good commission rates, and using Amazon FBA calculator, you can get an idea of how much you would make by selling a specific item for a specific price.
One way to use a calculator to your benefit, is to list items you could see yourself selling to get a theoretical idea of how much you could make by selling it. Look at things around your house, and use those as inspiration to get an idea of what your profit rates would be from your listings of specific items on Amazon.
Once you determine something that you would like to sell on Amazon, it’s time to sign up for a seller account. Creating a seller account can be done right from the Amazon menu, and you can get a free month of selling with a Pro account when you first sign up.
Now that you have the products you would like to sell, and your seller account is setup, it’s time to begin selling!
