Want to keep the work-from-home lifestyle AND unlock tons of $$$ opportunities? It’s your lucky day because we’re covering the top three ways to sell on Amazon and make money from home.
Want to make a ton of money on Amazon?
Do you also want to work from home?
Who doesn’t! That’s why we put together this ultimate guide to making money on Amazon from your living room, home office, or dining room table.
Check out the top three ways to get started, and the pros and cons of each — let’s go!
#3: Sell your own private label products
#1: Sell wholesale products
According to JungleScout, just over 25% of sellers on Amazon use the wholesale model. Wholesale is the practice of buying branded products (in bulk) from a supplier, and then reselling those products directly to consumers for a profit.
It’s an attractive model because it’s simple and, for a lot of Amazon sellers, it works. But! When you sell someone else’s product, you have to play by their rules. This means the seller isn’t in control over the brand, which can (and does) make competition tough.
Wholesale pros
Wholesale businesses are quick to get up and running. Sellers don’t have to develop a brand or put a ton of time into research and development.
It’s easier to find high-demand products (than develop a new brand from scratch). Sellers can use online tools to find which products are hot, and which brands sell the best.
Amazon makes it easy for wholesale sellers to “push go” (after they’ve been approved by the brand to sell their products).
Wholesale cons
The biggest downside to wholesale is TOUGH competition. You sell the same product at the same price point as other sellers. So it’s hard to stand out against other sellers who’ve been on Amazon longer, and who have more reviews, and so on.
Before you can sell wholesale products on Amazon, you have to get approved by the brand. This means cold calls and cold emails until you get the “yes” you’re looking for.
It’s tough to scale a wholesale business WITHOUT trading lots of time. Sure, you can sell other wholesale products. But that’s not the same thing as growing your own brand.
#2: Retail arbitrage
LOTS of sellers on Amazon run with the retail arbitrage model. It’s simple and effective, much like wholesale, because you sell products with established brands and name recognition.
The way retail arbitrage works is:
1. You source brand-name products online at a discount*
2. Then you sell those products at full price on Amazon and pocket the difference
It’s basically reselling and it’s an easy business to start up because you don’t need a ton of capital to get going. There’s low risk, but there’s also not a ton of reward. This is because retail arbitrage profit margins aren’t exactly stellar.
*You can do retail arbitrage in person at physical stores, too. But since we’re talking about ways to sell on Amazon from home, we only mentioned online arbitrage.
Retail arbitrage pros
- You don’t need a ton of money to start up an arbitrage business on Amazon. All you need is some cash up front, and a way to source products at a discount.
- Many retail arbitrage sellers turn a profit in just a few weeks on Amazon. The profits might not be huge, but that’s a relatively fast turn-around.
- You don’t have to jump through a lot of hoops like you do with wholesale or private label businesses. Sellers don’t have to get approval from brands like they do with wholesale, nor do they have to build their own brands like they do with private label models.
Retail arbitrage cons
- With low risk comes low reward. Retail arbitrage works for a lot of sellers, and plenty of sellers make a killing with this model. But for many others, the profit margins aren’t something to be excited about.
- You compete with other sellers for the same product at the same price. This is the same issue with selling wholesale products. It’s HARD selling the same thing as someone else especially if you don’t have a lot of control over the price point.
- Retail arbitrage doesn’t build you an asset you can sell later for a profit. Again, you can turn a profit with retail arbitrage. But think about ten years from now. Will you have built a business that you can then sell to someone else for a large lump sum? Nope! And this brings us to our third make-money-from-home model …
#3: Sell your own private label products
Last but not least, it’s our FAVORITE way to sell on Amazon AND make money online — sell your own private label products.
Selling private label means you develop your own unique brand around a product that already exists on the market. The key here is that you modify that product in some way so that it’s different from other, similar products.
For example, if you want to sell vitamin C tablets, make sure your brand offers a higher percentage of vitamin C per tablet, more tablets per bottle, so on and so on.
It’s your label, it’s your product, and it’s a business that you are in total control over. This keeps competition low, profit margins high, and long-term growth stable.
Private label pros
- Private label brands are easier to scale. Since you own the brand, you get to add in new products that complement each other. This can increase the average value of each order and therefore increase annual revenue.
- Private label brands cut down the competition. Because you have control over the brand, you get to control how much your products retail for. This means you’re a more agile opponent in the marketplace than retail arbitrage or wholesale sellers.
- When you build a private label brand, you build a business that you can sell for millions down the line. If wholesale is like renting, private label is like owning. You get to sell the business when you’re ready to move on, or if you get an offer you can’t refuse.
Private label cons
- It takes some elbow grease to get a brand up and running. You have to carefully research products, talk with suppliers, and get your products listed on Amazon. But if you do it right, you unlock unlimited earning potential.
- You have to invest some money if you want it to work. We’re not saying hundreds of thousands of dollars and a bank loan. But a few to several thousand dollars usually does the trick.
- In the beginning, you do trade your time for money (but it’s not forever). Starting up a bespoke brand from scratch takes time and you will put in the hours. But after that, it only takes some sellers a few hours a week to maintain.
Achieve your lifestyle goals by selling on Amazon and making money from home
Ready to break the time-for-money cycle and live the life you’ve always dreamed of? The answer is starting an Amazon business from your own living room. And guess what, we’ve got a step-by-step roadmap that shows you exactly how to get there. Check out these FREE resources to start now:
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