Did you know that anybody, yes ANYBODY can sell goods on Amazon? You don’t need to be some hotshot brand, you don’t need a huge warehouse, you don’t need to have wholesale contacts all over the globe, you don’t need a shop or staff or even a whole heap of cash to get started. Hell, you don’t even need experience! That is the beauty of the Amazon FBA. We are going to explore everything you need in the Complete Beginners Guide to Amazon FBA.
Amazon FBA lets anybody get started quickly, from their own home with very small quantities of stock that they can buy from the high street or online retailers then re-sell via Amazon. You don’t even have to send it to the customers yourself!
You package your goods up and send them over to the Amazon Fulfilment Center. Then when someone purchases your stock Amazon package it up and send it to the customer. I’m sure we’ve all seen it when that big Amazon package turns up and it has got lots of different purchases you’ve made from different sellers. That’s FBA at work.
What is the Amazon FBA sign-up process?
The Amazon FBA sign-up process is quite straight forward, which is really helpful for a complete beginners guide to Amazon FBA. Let’s walkthrough it together:
- Go to sell.amazon.com, then click on the “Sign-Up” button
- Choose your business country
- Choose your business type- Choose either “None – I am an individual” or “Privately Owned Business”
If you are just going to be selling a handful of things, almost like you would on ebay then the Individual trader is the best route for you, however if you are taking this seriously as a business the you will want to go with privately owned.
There are some notable differences Between an Individual Seller and a Professional seller that a beginner should know:
- The Monthly fee differs from $39.99 per monthly fee for a professional seller active to not having to pay that at all for Individual sellers
- The Listing fees for an Individual and a professional seller are the same for referral fees (usually 15%), but an individual seller will have a $0.99 fee per unit applied to them for each sale. Therefore, if you are intending to sell more than 40 units the professional package might be where you want to be.
- A professional seller can apply their own Shipping rates to their products, but you will need to keep an eye on the referral fees as they are made up of the unit sell price and its shipping cost.
- Individual sellers can only list items for sale in pre-existing Amazon listings, whilst professional sellers can create new listings for products. This may not be too big a deal as Amazon list almost everything, but if you are doing Private Label work then you will want this.
- Amazon has what is known as “Gated Categories”, which are categories of goods that you must request approval to sell in. Individuals cannot sell in these, but professionals can. Some of these categories include:
- Entertainment Collectibles
- Streaming Media Players
- Gift Cards
- Major Appliances
- Jewellery
- Cosmetics
- And others
Now to finish it all off enter your personal or business details and then finally your billing and deposit methods. You’re done. Simple as that. You will now get access to the Sellers Central Dashboard. That was pretty easy, so easy a complete beginner could do it.
What is the selling process on Amazon FBA?
We have noted it in different parts of the Complete Beginners Guide to Amazon FBA, but let’s make sure everyone is still with us and recap the basics of selling on Amazon:
- You buy your products, more on that shortly
- You send your products into one of the many Amazon Fulfilment Centers
- Amazon then sorts it and adds it to their inventory.
- A customer then searches for the goods. Once purchased Amazon take your goods, package them and ship them directly to the customer for you
How do I find products to sell?
Probably one of the most important topics on the
This is probably one of the most important areas of the Complete Beginners Guide to Amazon FBA. How do I find products to sell? Well, despite being so huge and have many sellers Amazon is not always the cheapest deal around. Everyday Joe and Mary, like ourselves, can pick up bargains on the high street, through online retailers or online marketplaces like eBay even. These can then be re-sold on Amazon at a profit.
This is known as arbitrage. I’ll talk a bit more further down about how we can automate this process. Other ways to sell are to buy at wholesale values, buy used books or to invest in your own Private Label offerings. A private label is where you take an existing product and manufacture it under your own brand. This can be a very profitable method but is for the more advanced professional. As an example, you may find a generic product on Ali Express and have the manufacturer produce it with your logo on it or change the styling for you.
What fees do Amazon charge?
To recap Amazon charge approximately 15% referral fee in most categories. If you decide to become a professional seller then you will pay $39.99 per month and if you remain an individual seller then you will pay $0.99 per unit sold.
Is there anything I can’t sell with Amazon FBA?
Well, it changes regularly. I could list the categories here, but I think it is always best to double check if you are unsure so I recommend reading the category guidelines. A simple rule is to just use common sense. Is it toy? Is it a kitchen utensil? Probably fine. Is it a big rusty machete…erm you might want to check that.
How do I find buyers with Amazon FBA?
That’s the beauty of selling goods through Amazon. It’s not the same as the affiliate program (which I still recommend) whereby you need to create a website or another promotion method and then drive traffic to it in order to convert. You are selling goods on Amazon. AMAZON! Every day Amazon gets 2 billion visitors. It’s crazy the traffic comes to you. That’s why I always come back to selling on FBA.
What’s the catch with Amazon FBA?
It takes effort. It is as simple as that. As we already know there are no get-rich-quick programs that, in reality, work. They all take effort, but this takes actual physical effort. You have to source the deals and then send them into Amazon, however, the rewards as significantly better than say Amazon affiliates.
If you decide to go down the manual route, then it is going to be challenging. Just some of the things you need to account for are:
- Sourcing your goods so that you make a profit
- Ensuring the shipping fees, referral fees, your monthly fee all don’t put you at a loss
- Monitoring your competition (to get the buy box – see below)
- Updating your prices
- Provide amazing customer service to ensure positive reviews
You see you aren’t the only person doing this. There is competition everywhere and the way Amazon decides who is going to get the sale is called the Buy Box. This is Amazon’s way of fairly distributing the sales to their sellers and the seller making the best offer.
This will usually mean it goes to the seller with the CHEAPEST priced product, even if that is only a penny/nickel/dime etc. This means you are always checking your listings to make sure they are competitive.
How can I automate the Amazon FBA processes?
The Complete Beginners Guide to Amazon FBA wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t discuss how you make this all the more easy for yourself, saving you hours and hours of manual work. You add all this up and it can take some time. Luckily there are some really amazing products out there that can automate all of this for you, ensure you don’t buy products that aren’t going to be profitable. They are a godsend if you ever hope to build your Amazon FBA business.
I’ve used a few in my time and I would have to say that hands down there is one that I rate very highly. That is Jungle Scout, which can be used globally. Currently, the Web App and its Browser Extension supports 9 Amazon stores: US Amazon store (amazon.com), UK Amazon store (amazon.co.uk), Amazon Germany store (amazon.de), Amazon Canada store (amazon.ca), Amazon France store (amazon.fr), Amazon Italy store (amazon.it), Amazon Spain store (amazon.es), Amazon Mexico store (amazon.com.mx), and Amazon India store (amazon.in).
Jungle Scout offers a massive amount of features that will sky-rocket your Amazon FBA success:
- Discover products – With a huge product database that you can quickly filter through and remove the junk to showcase amazing opportunities
- Find quality Suppliers in seconds by taking advantage of the massive Jungle Scout Supplier Database with established factories who have a proven track record backed up by sales and shipping data from all around the world
- Get Insights on Competitor and Consumer trends using the in-house Jungle Scout AccuSales™ algorithm to provide you with the most accurate data points to make decisions
- Track & Validate Ideas – Utilising the Jungle Scout Product Tracker you can add new ideas and track those products over time to understand demand including seasonal risk allowing you to launch a new product with the very best information.
- Identify keyword trends & optimise your product listings using the latest customer search trend data to drive Amazon traffic to your products and increase your sales.
- Provide outstanding customer service to help increase sales and customer satisfaction by personalising the customer experience with automated email communications and launch/product promotions.
- Manage Finances & Inventory to maximise profits and response times by monitoring key financial & inventory metrics in real-time to reduce Amazon fees.
Jungle Scout is offering an AMAZING 30% discount at the moment so I highly recommend checking it out. Click the link above or the picture below to check it out!
The Wrap-Up
That takes us to the end of the Complete Beginners Guide to Amazon FBA. I hope this has provided some insight into the world of Amazon FBA. It really is a great opportunity, however you do need to dedicate yourself to it sourcing and procuring the goods, although I find that that is the fun part, getting that bargain! Boxing things up is a necessary pain, but implementing systems to aid that can help.
Are you currently thinking about doing Amazon FBA or you already are? Leave me a comment with any questions or tips! If you’ve enjoyed the post please feel free to pin the image below!
