Selling on Amazon is one of the best ways to make money in 2019!
According to Marketplace Pulse, every 2 minutes a new seller joins one of Amazon's marketplaces. That's 3,473 new Amazon sellers every single day across Amazon's 14 marketplaces. These sellers range from people simply looking for a way to make additional streams of income, to entrepreneurs looking to make a full-time living.
If you are reading this, my guess is, you too are interested in selling on Amazon Amazon at some level. But what does it take to become a successful Amazon Seller? More importantly, how can YOU become a successful Amazon Seller in 2019 and beyond?
Amazon FBA is not a get-rich-quick scheme despite what online marketers would have you believe. It's a REAL business opportunity and should be treated as such. Becoming a successful Amazon seller takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and most importantly - the RIGHT INFORMATION. Nonetheless, Amazon FBA businesses are one of the most lucrative opportunities in the world today!
I went from $0 to $6 million in only 6 months, selling physical products on Amazon FBA!
Whether you are a complete beginner or have some level of experience, I wrote this guide to show you exactly what it takes to become a successful Amazon seller.
Amazon is the world's largest online retailer and by far the most popular online store in the U.S. As an Amazon seller, not only can you start selling on Amazon in the U.S. market but you can leverage Amazon's global infrastructure to take advantage of 14 different marketplaces. Amazon's global ecosystem of marketplaces, fulfillment centers, and logistical advantages are simply unmatched.
The FBA business model makes it easier than ever to start and build a profitable business. Amazon essentially handles everything from customers, logistics, and back-end support. As a seller, your job is to simply find profitable product opportunities and ship them into Amazon's fulfillment centers. From there, Amazon will warehouse your product, fulfill orders, and provide customer service.
In the eyes of the Amazon customers, there is no difference between purchasing from 3rd-party sellers like you and me, or Amazon itself. Regardless of who the seller is, customers get the same delivery options, customer service, returns policy, and ultimately experience. Amazon prides itself on being a customer-centric company and it shows in their quality of service. As Amazon sellers, we get the benefit of Amazon's brand and reach without the overhead.
Amazon also has the world's largest 'ready to buy' customer base. Just in the U.S. alone, over 195 million people visit the site every month. More importantly, nearly 100 million of those people make a purchase every single month. Even more exciting for sellers, Amazon currently has an over 100 million global Prime members, with 95+ million of them being right here in the U.S.
On average Prime members spend around $1,300 per year compared to non-Prime members who spend just $700. Amazon's army of customers are only growing in number. Around 55% of all searches now start on the Amazon search bar. But unlike Google, people don't go to Amazon's search bar to ask questions - they go there to BUY!
Becoming a successful Amazon seller is going to depend on your ability to 'reverse engineer' the demand from these customers and provide them with a solution to their problem. You do this by doing product research. All successful Amazon sellers know that correctly doing product research is where the bulk of your success comes from on Amazon.
This means in order to become a successful Amazon seller, you must learn to listen to and identify what customers - and by extension, the market is searching for. Not what YOU might think customers are looking for, but what the DATA actually confirms. Your job as a seller is to capture this demand from customers, through proper product and keyword research, then supply them with a quality product.
As an Amazon seller, having the right mindset and attitude is going to be critical to your success. It is important for you to approach this Amazon FBA business opportunity knowing what you're getting yourself into. Although there are millions to be made and many lives that'll change as a result of selling on Amazon, it won't come easy - and will not happen overnight!
Success on Amazon is by no means a linear path, it comes with many twists and turns. Statistically speaking, 70% of sellers on Amazon never even purchase one product to sell. And of those who do, 90% stop selling after just one-year. This means only a few of you reading this will ever become active or even list a single product.
As you can see, becoming a successful Amazon seller is no walk in the park. But for every failure, there is also a success story. Last year, more than 140,000 third party sellers did over $100,00 each in sales. For every 1 of the over 500 million products being sold on Amazon, someone just like YOU is making money selling these products. So why not you?
I personally failed on my first 7 Amazon products, but my 8th product went on to do $6 million in sales in just 6-month. I am a walking testament to why you never give up! With the right mindset and information, you too can leverage Amazon FBA to achieve your financial goals and become a successful Amazon Seller.
If your goal is to learn how to become a successful Amazon seller, you've come to the right place! I'm going to show you step-by-step how YOU can become a successful seller and start selling on Amazon FBA today.
The first step in the process of becoming an Amazon seller, if you don't already have one, is to create an Amazon seller account. Before I show you how to properly register and set up your account, you should have the following information prepared for registration:
Once you are ready to begin the registration process, click here to register either as an individual seller or a professional account.
The two selling plans differ in a few ways. If you are undecided on which plan fits you best, you can always start out as an individual seller and upgrade to a professional account or vice-versa. What Amazon refers to as "other selling fees" are largely determined by the size and weight of your products. It's important to keep this in mind when doing product research - the bigger and heavier a product, the more expensive in fees for the seller.
After you chose the selling plan, proceed through the process and create your Amazon account. The process is relatively straightforward and you will be required to:
Once you verify your account, you are now ready to start selling and become an Amazon seller. For an in-depth step-by-step guide on how to register and get started on Seller Central check out How to Sell On Amazon.
Picking what to sell on Amazon is the absolute most important part of your Amazon FBA career. Although there are no specific set of criteria that will guarantee your success with every product if you use the right tools and strategies you can make money and compete in any market on Amazon.
Different markets on Amazon will require a different level of skill and capital in order to succeed. So finding profitable products and successfully selling them is going to depend on you being able to find the right market and product for your level of resources and skill.
This also applies to the different Amazon Business models. Anyone can sell in a market on Amazon but not everyone can profitably compete.
FBA business models such as retail arbitrage, are easier and require relatively less initial capital to start. Private labeling, while it requires more work and capital, is extremely more profitable.
Our focus in this guide is on private labeling. In my opinion, selling physical products on Amazon is the most lucrative opportunity in the world right now! Where else can you get a 340X ROI on your money in just 6 months?
By 2022, amazon's private label business is expected to reach $25 billion in annual revenue. You are only one successful product launch away from claiming your share of this future. Private labeling is the most popular and lucrative way to leverage Amazon FBA in my experience.
Nonetheless, there is no specific formula or step by step guide on finding the perfect product to sell on Amazon. In fact, as sellers, we don't directly determine what products sell on Amazon, Amazon's over 300 million customers do. If you want to succeed as an Amazon seller, your role is then to analyze this demand and follow it up by supplying the customers with a solution, in the form of a quality product.
Although there are not a specific criterion that will guarantee your success while doing product research, it's very important to keep in mind the following factors as a sort of best practice.
This is one of the most important criteria for determining if you will fail or succeed when sourcing private label products on Amazon. Why should a customer buy your product over the competition? How are you adding more VALUE to their lives?
Being able to differentiate and adding value to the customer, relative to your competitors is essential to success in any market on Amazon.
Here are some ways you can add value and differentiate your products:
When private labeling any product, I strongly suggest you have a premium product and brand. A big part of success on Amazon is built on having the BEST PRODUCT.
Here is why:
The next step in becoming a successful Amazon seller is to find the products you will be selling on Amazon or commonly known as the product research phase. All of the successful Amazon sellers know, that product research is one of the most important factors in determining if you will become a successful Amazon seller.
Simply put, correctly dong product research will make or break your career as an Amazon seller.
There are two overarching steps in product research; idea gathering and market validation.
Gathering ideas is the first step in the product research process. This is where you gather potential ideas using different methods.
For example, you can use the BSR (best seller rank) to get ideas of what products are selling well relative to others. The BSR ranks all products in each category by sales rank, the best selling product being number 1. You can also often gather ideas for products just from your daily life. What products are you using? Seeing?
The easiest and most recommended way to gather product ideas is to use tools with Amazon's data. There are tools like Viral Launch and Helium 10 which gives you data on Amazon sales for each product. You can search their database for potential products based on the set of criteria that fit your circumstances.
Market validation is the next step in the process. Once you find potential product ideas, you then dissect the market through analysis. It's very important to validate the market demand for a given product before launching it.
This is specifically the reason for my earlier product failures on Amazon. I was blindingly launching products before validating if there is actually demand for this product in the marketplace.
Although everyone can compete in the market, you can't compete in every market. For example, to be successful in a large market will require a lot of capital. If you are just beginning on Amazon, a good strategy would be to start in a small low-competition market then scale your way up. Ultimately it's up to you to find a market and product you can succeed in given your level of skills and resources.
Another important factor to consider when deciding which market and product to sell on Amazon FBA is barriers to entry.
Identifying the right keywords is fundamental to figuring out what to sell on Amazon FBA. On Amazon, your goal and mindset should be to capture the demand on the platform, not try and generate it. Therefore, finding the right keywords, with the highest search volume, is critical to your success.
Keyword search volume is one of the biggest mistakes I see sellers make when selling on Amazon. You can have the best product in the market but if nobody is searching for it, you will not make sales. The importance of finding the keywords with the highest search volume cannot be understated.
Tools like Helium 10 and Viral Launch are enormously helpful in choosing the right keywords. They provide you with exact data directly from Amazon, taking the guesswork out of keyword research.
Picking what to sell on Amazon FBA is a crucial first step in the process of becoming an Amazon seller. Next, you need to take into account the different factors that make for a successful Amazon product. In order to find profitable products, you must listen to what research is telling you about a given market and think logically.
To be successful as an Amazon seller, you have to learn to capture the demand already on the platform through doing product and market analysis. You do this by first gathering potential product ideas, then you must validate these ideas through market analysis. Tools such as Viral Launch and Helium 10 can immensely help you in this process.
The next step in becoming a successful Amazon seller is learning how to source your products. Once you've found the product you are going to sell, you have to get it manufactured and delivered to the Amazon warehouse.
The majority of sellers automatically think of China when it comes to sourcing products for Amazon, but Alibaba is not your only option. I'll also show you how to source products from right here in the U.S.
Although our focus in this guide is primarily on private labeling, here are some other sourcing options for the different business models.
The idea behind sourcing private label products is pretty simple. Find a product you would like to sell, add your own labels and specifications, and source it directly from the manufacturer to sell them under your brand on Amazon FBA. This, however, is easier said than done!
Finding the right private label manufacturer, getting the best price, and sourcing high-quality products can be logistically challenging in practice, but the payoff is well worth the work!
If you are just a beginner and are a little reluctant about sourcing from China, sourcing domestically from the U.S. is also another viable option. However, keep in mind that 95% of the time, you'll probably be sourcing from Alibaba, especially for beginners.
One method for finding suppliers in the U.S. is to use search directories. However, this method is not always the most effective because not all suppliers are listed and use these directories.
Here is a list of directories you can use to find suppliers in the United States:
Alibaba is an online marketplace that is similar to how Amazon works. While Amazon brings customers and products together on their platform, Alibaba connects suppliers and manufacturers to businesses.
For Amazon sellers, especially beginners, the majority of your products will come from Alibaba and by extension China.
The major reason sourcing products from Alibaba is so attractive to Amazon sellers, is because of the price point of products. Manufacturing cost are low in China and this means you can increase your profit margins and grow your business faster by sourcing from there.
However, sourcing from Alibaba also comes with advantages and disadvantages of its own.
Before you move on to finding suppliers on Alibaba, it is very important you understand the difference between manufacturers, distributors and trading companies.
Your sourcing experience is going to differ based on whether you're buying from the manufacturer, or the trading companies and distributors- who are essentially just middlemen.
Manufacturers are the ones actually making the products in their factories. They have the material, equipment, and staff to make your products exactly to your specifications. Working directly with the manufacturer is the best way to source products in most cases. This way you cut out all the middlemen and retain a higher profit margin.
Trading companies don't manufacture any of the products themselves, they source them from factories and resell them. They are just middlemen similar to drop shippers. A lot of the suppliers on Alibaba are actually trading companies, not direct manufacturers.
Although working with manufacturers directly is the best way to ensure you cut out the middle me, it does have one disadvantage relative to trading companies. Manufacturers in China don't often employ the resources to hire English speaking salespeople.
This barrier can potentially create confusion and problems between you and the manufacturer. Trading companies, on the other hand, are in the business of reselling products they source from factories. This means they are more likely to employ English speaking representatives.
Read more: Add video to your Amazon listing and increase your sales
If you are to become a successful Amazon seller, the importance of learning how to properly list and optimize your product listings can not be understated. Once you source a product from your manufacturer and ship it into Amazon, it is time to create your product listing. This is where customers will see your product, learn about it, and hopefully buy.
The title of your listing is what Amazon shoppers will see as they browse. The titles should include your brand name and as much relevant information as possible. This could be details like dimensions or quantity counts. The title of your products are also the most important place to include keywords as well.
The bullets on your listing are where you highlight the important aspects and benefits of your product. Make sure your bullet points are rich in keywords and very informative for buyers.
Your end-goal should be to create bullet points that persuade customers to purchase your product over the competition. This is also where you should incorporate any important keywords you couldn't fit in the title.
The backend keywords don't appear on your live listing but are just as important as other components. This is where you input any related keywords you were not able to fit in the main parts of your listings.
For each listing on Amazon, you can have up to 9 product photos. The first image referred to as the 'main' or 'hero' image is the most important one. This is the first image shoppers see when browsing among different sellers on Amazon.
This means that your images should be high-quality and professional. Also, make sure to include a lifestyle image showing the product in use because shopping on Amazon is a visual process.
This is where you can write a longer description of your product and expand on your bullet points. While bullet points and the title should focus on keyword placement and specificity, the product description section should be utilized to write in length about your product. You should write your descriptions effectively and accurately without grammar issues and misspellings.
Creating an effective product listing can make the difference between failure and success as an Amazon seller. As a seller on Amazon, your product listing is essentially your storefront. It's your job to entice and attract buyers through your listing title and 'hero' image.
Once they click on your product, buyers then get a full impression of your products by reading your descriptions, reviews, and looking at your images. Your listing should balance optimization for Amazon's ranking algorithm and still be enticing and captivating to buyers who are searching for your given product.
Keywords are another crucial factor in determining if you will succeed as an Amazon seller. You can have the best product and create an amazing listing, but if you don't use the right keywords, the ones that customers are actually using in their search, then your products won't sell because no one will find them. Amazon's search engine uses keywords to identify relevant products for their customers.
If you do keyword research properly and identify the top keywords, that your potential customers are using, you can then take those keywords and included them in your product listing.
This way your product listing is ranked higher on amazon for the keywords that matter to you. Your goal is to have Amazon's search engine to tie your product to the highest searched keywords for that given product.
Keyword search volume is one of the biggest mistakes I see Amazon sellers make. You can have the best product in the market but if you don't use the relevant keywords, with the highest search volume, you will not rank and consequently make sales.
Tools like Helium 10 and Viral Launch are enormously helpful in choosing the critical right keywords. These tools provide you with the exact search volume directly from Amazon, taking all the guesswork out of keyword research.
The final step in becoming a successful Amazon seller is to learn how you can scale and grow your FBA business.
Once you have successfully launched your product and started selling on Amazon, it is time to level up! Amazon is still a growing platform and you have the opportunities to grow and scale along with it. Let's take a look at some tips and tricks to help you grow your FBA business.
The first and best way to grow your sales and FBA business is through marketing on Amazon. Amazon marketing is often referred to as Amazon Sponsored Ads or PPC (Pay Per Click.) As a beginner, you have zero reviews and zero sales. This means your products are not ranking on the Amazon search algorithm and customers don't have a reason to trust your product.
Using PPC ads is a good way to get sales and views in a short span of time. There are only two ways to appear at the top of the rankings when a customer searches for your product. The first is the organic search result and the second being paid search results.
Creating ad campaigns on Amazon are relatively straightforward and not to complicated. The Amazon sponsored ads program has a simplistic platform that makes it easy for even beginners to understand. Your goal with these PPC campaigns is to find profitable keywords that convert to sales. After you get some data, you should remover non-converting keywords and increase the bids for keywords that are converting well for you.
You have two options when choosing Amazon PPC campaigns, automatic campaigns or manual campaigns.
Automatic campaigns allow the seller to select their budget and let Amazon work for you to automatically find keywords. Amazon will look for keywords that best match your product's category, related products, and keywords in your listing descriptions. Using automatic campaigns can be useful for beginners because of the easy setup. However, letting Amazon automatically choose your keywords means you have less control relative to manual campaigns.
Manual campaigns allow the seller to handpick keywords to bid themselves. This strategy allows you to upload a list of keywords that you find from your own research. Manual campaigns also allow you to define your keywords by different match types. This means you can control how broad or narrow the Amazon shoppers' actual search term can be in order to trigger your sponsored ad.
The key to successful marketing on Amazon is to measure your results, then fine-tuning and improving your campaigns for more profitability. If you just run ads without measuring and making logical decisions, you'll end up spending more on your ad budget than necessary. This means less profit margin for you and a slower growth rate.
Another option for growth is to optimize your Amazon product listings. Investing more time in optimizing your listings can have a big impact on your sales. After all, the goal of Amazon is to rank as high as possible. The higher your ranking the more sales and consequently more profit in your pockets. Before expanding into new products and markets, you should work on improving your Amazon SEO so you can maximize the potential of your product.
Check out Amazon's list of recommendations for an optimized listing.
Title - Your product title is one of the most important pieces of your listing.
Bullet Points - The product features section should highlight the most important features of the product.
Description - This is where you expand on your product features, benefits, and key characteristics.
Photos - Product photos have the ability to make or break your product on Amazon. The importance of using professional high-quality images can not be understated.
Whether you are an Amazon seller just beginning or have some experience under your belt, optimizing your product listing will no doubt lead to a boost in your sales and ranking.
Once you get the hang of things and are ranking well on Amazon, another option to grow and scale your FBA business is to expand into more Amazon Marketplaces. While the U.S. is the leader in Amazon's net sales, there many other profitable markets around the globe.
As you can see in the chart above, markets like Germany, UK, and Japan are great options for expanding into. Amazon because of their huge infrastructure and reach make it a lot easier than you might think to expand to new markets. With just a U.S. and UK seller central account you can easily sell in other countries with just a few clicks.
For example, with an Amazon UK seller account, you can cross-list your items on Amazon Germany. When a customer orders your product in Germany, it will be shipped from the UK FBA warehouse. This means you can use your existing SKUs to sell in a new marketplace. Amazon even provides you translation services so your listings will be correctly created for the given country and language.
As the Amazon market in the U.S. gets more saturated, the top Amazon sellers are looking to expand into new countries and there is no reason why you can't either. However, although expansion into new markets can offer a vast new opportunity for sellers, keep in mind this opportunity also comes with risk. It is up to you to carefully do your research and make a business decision.
I know first hand, how powerful this Amazon FBA business opportunity can be. At just 25 years of age, I was able to do over $6 million in sales.
As you can imagine this completely changed the trajectory of my life!
Whether you are interested in starting an FBA business as a side hustle or chasing your financial dreams, with the right INFORMATION and by taking ACTION! you too can leverage this opportunity and become a successful Amazon seller.
I want you to realize your dreams through this FBA opportunity, just like I did! I put everything that's helped me succeed on Amazon into The Last Amazon Course to help so I can share the INFORMATION you need to create a successful Amazon business for years to come.
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