E-commerce is a great opportunity for small business owners. One way to use e-commerce with great success is through Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and using Amazon arbitrage, which we will explain in more detail here.
With the FBA business model, you don’t have to spend a lot of space or have your own website or store to start building your own e-commerce empire.
Here’s Kristin Ostrander, founder and CEO of Mommy Income. Sit down with Shawn Hessinger, the executive editor of Small Business Trends to talk about setting up an online business with Amazon FBA.
To learn more about Kristin Ostrander, visit Mommy Income at classes.mommyincome.com.
What is Amazon FBA?
Shawn: What exactly is FBA and how does it work?
Kristin: Amazon FBA is Amazon’s compliance. Let’s say you own a Shopify store and want to move it to Amazon. What happens is that Amazon gives you a specific label that you put on all your products and ship it all in one giant box or several giant boxes, pallets, trucks, whatever.
You send it to Amazon and they distribute it to their stores, so when your main Amazon customer wants a 2-day free shipping, place your order on Amazon as you normally would. Amazon then takes your product and sends it to your customer.
Therefore, they are fulfilling all orders from your customers instead of you.
For now, as we speak, I’m probably selling something on Amazon. And Amazon is doing the job: they pick it up, pack it up and ship it all, freeing up business owners, sellers, and everyone else to do important things, instead of fulfilling shipping orders and having warehouses and all that stuff. .
Shawn: How do you start doing this? what is the first step
Kristin: The first step is to decide how and what you want to sell. If you already have a product or brand, and you may even be in retail stores and want to bring your brand to Amazon, you’ll sign up for their compliance program, or even as a seller on Amazon.
He adds that you don’t need to use Amazon’s FBA, but most people choose to do so because it gives you access to all Prime customers.
If you choose to fill your items yourself, you will need to store them in your warehouse or on your own premises, and then distribute them to each customer who purchases them. So that’s a bit of a difference between what they call Merchant Fulfill and FBA.
But then, if you’re just bringing your brand to Amazon and want to do FBA, sign up and go on sale on Amazon, you can literally type it into Google “sell on Amazon.” You can then follow their step-by-step process.
She explains that it’s not complicated to start selling on Amazon, but it’s not as easy as taking a few photos on eBay, posting things, and then you’re on your way. To verify that it’s you, they do things like apply for your passport and go to a Zoom call where you have the license next to your face to show them it’s you.
She says they have been discouraged by this because there have been bad players who have opened several accounts.
So getting started is just registering as a seller, and if you have a product, you’re ahead of the game. If not here’s a new product just for you!
What is Amazon Arbitrage?
Shawn: Is there another way to sell with Amazon that sellers want to try first?
Kristin: Amazon has many different ways, methods, and business models. For example, one that most people start with at the beginning is retail arbitrage, which goes to regular stores like Target or Best Buy and buys things on their shelves and sells them on platforms like Amazon.
He adds that he is breaking the roof, but there are people who earn millions of dollars by arbitrating Amazon. So imagine: many people are earning a decent income by selling their items while sitting at home surfing the net to get offers to brand and sell to their jammies.
Kirstin says another model has its own private label brand. These sellers have created products that sell on Amazon. Then you have your usual wholesale business model. This is what traditional shops do; they buy in bulk and then brand it and sell it in their store. You will do the same with FBA, except that you will do it digitally.
Kristin goes on to say that she uses a unique hybrid model that combines the concept of private label and wholesale. In addition, he has created his own model which he calls a “gift set” or “accessory package”.
Kristin gives an example: let’s say you have a Dodge Ram that needs seat covers and stuff. He says he is preparing an accessory kit with about five common items for sale. He adds that he combines the products that people buy anyway.
How do you find out what these items are? Find out more when you watch the rest of the interview.
Learn more about selling on Amazon
Be sure to learn more about selling on Amazon and owning an Amazon FBA business by watching the second part of the video. Here are some helpful tips, such as:
- How much to invest, what equipment to buy, etc. to start your FBA.
- Where to learn how to be an FBA marketer without resorting to mining through lots of DIY YouTube tutorials.
- How To Choose A Niche Article That Will Make You Money On Amazon.
- How easy and cheap it is to market your items as an FBA seller.
- How long will it take before you can expect to return on your initial investment?
Let us know in the comments how the video looks like and if you’re thinking of becoming an Amazon FBA after watching it.
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