OP 30 September, 2025 - 08:26 PM
I've put a lot of time into writing this detailed and thorough guide on how to start up your own 6 figure amazon business, so take your time to take in all the information, as there is a lot. id also like to state that amazon is really a limitless platform for monetization, and there is a lot of other ways to skin the cat such as wholesale, online arbitrage, and creating your own listings/products. without further ado, lets begin.
Index
Chapter 1: understanding & definitions
Chapter 2: Requirements & Starting up
Chapter 3: Tools, Tips, & Advice.
Chapter 4: Sourcing products
Chapter 5: expansion & sales conversions
Chapter 6: Shipping (IMPORTANT)
Chapter 7: Buy box
Chapter 1: Understanding & Definitions.
The first part to this is understanding exactly what you're doing, so you can translate this understanding to other parts. there is a lot of other good businesses that fit with amazon selling like a puzzle. if you have connections, are able to get cheaper items/products, you will grow more then someone without any. so, what exactly are we doing? Retail Arbitrage. also abbreviated often as RA (which is what we will be calling it in this guide) can be defined best as: The act of purchasing goods from a retailer/wholesaler or any other largely available store to turn a profit by selling it to someone else, mainly through amazon. essentially, acting as a middle man. this could also be done through Walmart, eBay and other places but the main bread and butter is on amazon.
Now typically, although not all the time, these items have a somewhat " Look " to them. i don't mean physical, but generally the profitable items fit a very specific category. this doesn't mean all, you'll find some products that just happen to work, but over time what I've noticed about products is that they typically follow a 4 point checklist. (Number #2 is very common & a big one!) 1.is it a niche? a established brand, but not so much a large capital brand like coca cola? or Hershey's? 2.could you find yourself justifying a higher price then the retail store sells it for? for example, if it sells for 10, and on amazon sells for 30, would you bat a eye towards the price buying it from amazon, or not think about it, and just buy it? 3.Is it a reoccurring need? 4.is it a popular "social" item? for example: Prime, Fairlifes, Etc.
now i suggest you dont look at items ONLY in this manner, but when physically sourcing, this is a huge help. which leads me to another thing: What exactly is looking for products? pretty simple. you're going in stores to Search up a bunch of items, and see which one is gonna be your friend when you leave. now, you want to SEARCH for the item, and not scan it! why? because some times this items has variations, maybe there's a 2 pack that sells profitably online compared to a 1 pack and when u scan the item, it only shows the 1 pack. this would then have you skip over this winner simply because you didn't search!
Chapter 2: Requirements and start up
I'm going to keep it short and sweet on requirements.
things you'll need:
- Space for Inventory, boxes, a place to pack your orders, tape, ETC.
- 40$/m for your AMZ account
- retail stores such as Costco, Walmart, target, in your area. (For costco, you'll REALLY want to get the executive membership.)
- Amazon Seller app
- lots of tape
- lots of boxes
- printer, preferably a label printer. if you dont have one, heres the one i reccommend: label printer
Make sure you get the 300 DPI, as the 200 DPI one does not print labels the best and might cause issues with returns, proper deliveries, etc.
Now, lets get into the crème of the crop. startup!
-step one: go here https://sell.amazon.com/
Step two: click sign in, and go through the entire process. it'll ask you for a lot of information, so make sure you have your wallet on standby. once your done, you'll have to wait for them to "review" you as a amazon seller. sometimes its instant but it can take up to 14 days once this is done.
step three: once you have you're account, the MAIN thing your going to want to do, is start getting ungated for categories. this is gonna allow you to sell a wide variety of products, allow you to have multiple listings, for multiple products, which will allow you to grow your income. the name of the game for amazon is to sell so many products, that its nearly impossible to have a bad day. its not about a golden ticket product, of course they exist, but its mainly about having so many profitable products that your audience is very large.
one of the best categories to get approved in first is gourmet and foods. you can do this very easily by going here: ketchup and buy 10 of these. once you receive them, scan them, and try selling them on amazon you'll be prompted to login, and apply to get ungated. you'll then fill out all the requirements, and for the invoice part, webstaurant automatically sends it in your email, which is a link u click that sends u to there site and u can find it. you'll do this for all other categories you are interested in moving in on, but for now, having gourmet and foods is the best and will allow to get your operation going. you'll then fill out all the requirements, and for the invoice part, webstaurant automatically sends it in your email, which is a link u click that sends u to there site and u can find it. you'll do this for all other categories you are interested in moving in on, but for now, having gourmet and foods is the best and will allow you to get a 5 figure operation going.
Chapter 3: Tools, Tips, & Advice
-These are the tools i recommend when starting up:
-SellerAmp
-Sellerboard
These two alone make a deadly combo. so what does selleramp do and why is it important?
seller amp shows you how much demand the product is pulling (this is important because a item may look profitable, but if there's no demand no ones buying it, so it wont sell!) whether its private label or not (private label items are items that the manufacturer will attempt to strike your amazon account for selling) how many people are offering the item (good to know for measuring competition on the listing) how much stock each seller has & if there FBA or FBM (useful for generating effective prices, referr to pricing chapter) allows you to see what the other sellers on the listing are selling by clicking on the store. SUPER useful for sourcing (refer to sourcing chapter) show charts of the price over time (Good knowledge for seasonal items) seller ranking over time (also good for seasonal items) Buy box data & pie charts (extremely useful for making sales, refer to buybox chapter) Shows ROI, Profit, and breakeven. (ovbiously useful)
what does sellerboard do and why is it important?
Allows you to calculate pinpoint profitability to give you a idea on performance. this is important as often times you have the perception of making more then you really are. Allows you to automate asking for reviews from customers Show you performance of ads in a detailed format breaks down exactly what products are making what accounts for refunds.
Some advice ive learnt over time:
- don't sell items under a 20% ROI, there are plentiful of more profitable products and until you are extremely large on capital and running out of items to find and sell, this is a good rule.
- dont sell items with less then 25 total sales a month
- FBM before considering FBA
- If you find a listing marked as PL, investigate it first. if its only 1 seller on it, its most likely PL. regardless, if the item looks to profitable to not try, you can create a listing for it and sell on it. BUT BE WARNED! make sure you are selling EXACTLY whats described, as - - - sometimes people will private label a item you might find elsewhere, then add a chip bag, or a straw, with there brand on it. Secondly, if it IS private label, they will have to shoot you a message regarding removing your listing, which u will have to remove the listing and not sell the product. i say all this because sometimes listings are falsely flagged as private label.
- secure your packages well with plentiful amounts of tape.
- Dont have Bias towards any item. some of the weirdest items can make you rich.
- Dont get stagnant, continue diversifying into multiple products.
- a good priced product should only cost YOU 5 - 100$ to purchase.
- ALWAYS INITIATE YOUR PAYOUTS WHEN U CAN. do not let money build up, amazon very rarely freezes funds (like very rare) but it does happen.
- do NOT throw away receipts. if a product ends up being dry you'll need it to return it.
-I LEARNED THIS ONE THE HARD WAY: DO NOT STORE FOOD IN A UNSECURED ENVIRONMENT. RODENTS AND INSECTS WILL EVENTUALLY INFILTRATE. STORE YOUR FOOD SEPERATE FROM YOUR OTHER ITEMS
Chapter 4: Sourcing products
There is plenty of ways to source products. really, i mean plenty.
Manual Sourcing (MSing) Manual sourcing is very simple, but its very effective. it involves going into a retail store, going through each isle meticulously searching each individual item and checking its statistics to see if its a good candidate. sometimes i do this for hours, or just a few minutes. you can really find some solid products this way. this is a guaranteed way to find reliable and good selling products.
reverse sourcing / online sourcing (Osing/RSing) Reverse sourcing is where most of your work should be coming from after you have established a few profitable products. the reason you want a few winners first, specifically that you found, is if its a winner, you are not the only one on this listing - there are others, just like you! and we can take advantage of that. to reverse source effectively, you'll go to a listing your selling on, and look at the other sellers. the best stores to reverse source are typically the ones competing with you the most - because typically this means there sourcing from the same place as you, which is exactly what you want! why? because you can find products that you dont sell and could, that they do! another factor that plays a role is the rating of the store.
i do not reverse stores with a rating of over 700 due to the fact they are probably a large capital company and the stuff there sourcing is mainly either online, or extremely competitive. the optimal rating for a seller that makes it a candidate for reverse sourcing for me is typically 1 review to 300 reviews, give or take. now, when your on there store, you will see a price next to the image of the item, and a few boxes down a show of the buy box price. the price next to the image is THE STORE OWNERS PRICE FOR THIS ITEM, AND MOST OF THE TIME IF THERE PRICE ISNT EVEN CLOSE TO BUY BOX PRICE (I.E WITHIN A DOLLAR OR TWO) IT IS NOT WORTH EXAMINING THIS PRODUCT, AS THEY ARE NOT COMPETING FOR IT WHICH MEANS THERE NOT SELLING IT! you also want to ensure the following: good volume, prices with good room for profit, and a good BSR. You can then look this product up on the websites of the places you like to source! and remember, sometimes the listed price on the website is for online purchases, sometimes its cheaper in stores. Now, what's awesome about reverse sourcing, is you can go down rabbit holes with it. if you can find a product that you cant quite compete with him on, yet other people are, check those people out as well! they probably source similarly too.
Variation Sourcing
have a killer product that already sells very well? know that there is other products just like it? maybe different colors? flavors? sizes? you can use this knowledge to locate similar and often times profitable products. conclusion for this chapter: sourcing is the main name of the game. being able to find quality demanding products with high return of investments is what will convert you from 5 figures to six figures.
Chapter 5: expansion & sales conversions
and finally, its time to expand, and increase your sales conversion. Expansion is easy, but it takes time, and capital to do so. one of the easiest form of expansion is well, just simply getting more inventory, so you can offer better prices, but by far one of the best forms of expansion is getting SFP status. this is going to do so much for you, and i recommend watching videos on why and reading amazons articles about it. another can take the form of expanding into different countries, which you would have to figure out shipping for those, but nonetheless, your tapping into a whole new audience. it might mean running multiple seller accounts and having people manage them - long story short expansion is very broad, and unique to the individual. people expand differently. sales conversion however, is different. there are a lot of really useful ways to help with sales conversions. ill do it in a checklist fashion.
-running ad campaigns is a good one when you are larger. you can really play with and customize ad campaigns to your liking, which is quite useful.
-using quantity discounts. using quantity discounts is a great way to encourage your customers to not only purchase - but to purchase more. this not only helps you get a sale, but also MAKES you money buy being able to use only 1 label, compared to 2, or 3.
-Coupons. coupons are a great way to make your listing stand out, and pop. when u add a coupon to your listings, you get a nice bright green bar under the listing, saying" save x amount " which tends to pull in customers
Chapter 6: Shipping Luckily For you I know a great place to get cheap reliable shipping labels ill attach URL at the end what works best for amazon is USPS priority shipping, it lets you do the 2-3 day shipping on amazon and its cheaper compared to other labels. https://xtremelabels.org/ here is his telegram for anyone wanting to messege @asdfpoiuiop
When running a amazon business, shipping is huge. you are going to want to widdle down your price of shipping to as low as possible. this includes not just the price per label, but the price for tape, ink/toner for the printer, price for boxes, bubble wrap if needed, etc. theres alot that can go into this.
Shipping supplies
now im going to tell you how to fix alot of these issues, using a term we call "the 100% off coupon" now there is 2 ways to apply this coupon: you can either fit items that you need (such as tape, bubble mailers, etc) into a pocket on the inside of a nice large coat (because its cold outside) and FORGET to purchase it when your done purchasing your other items, OR lets say you plan on buying alot of these items, you could forget to scan lets say 20 out of the 40 boxes you are purchasing.
DISCLAIMER: NEVER STEAL. AND WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE STEALING, OR THEFT OF ANY KIND. IT IS A COMMON MISTAKE FOR INDIVIDUALS TO SCAN CERTAIN ITEMS AND MAKE SURE U SCAN EVERYTHING!
now you may be wondering, where can i possibly do this? WALMART! walmart is your best store for shipping supplies. staples and stores alike are also great.
Chapter 7 Buy box
The buy box is a complicated mechanism in amazon but is the most important thing when it comes to making sales. 90+% of sales happen at the buy box and this is where you want to be.
what is the buy box? the buy box is the simple box when looking at a amazon product that says "buy now" and "add to cart"
there are many different factors that contribute to getting the buybox which i will list below:
FBM, SFP, or FBA
SFP and FBA sellers have priority over the buy box when it comes to selling due to the fact amazons good word is involved in both customer support and shipping timeframes. with FBA, a FBM seller could sell the same product for 2 dollars sometimes even 3 cheaper, and the FBA seller will still win majority of the time. HOWEVER, this comes at a steep price of profitability. hosting FBA products is very costly, and if you source products for very cheap alot of times being a FBM seller is more profitable due to the fact u can just undercut price 3 to 4 dollars and win buy box that way. SFP however, is very difficult to compete with as it is a hybrid between FBM and FBA.
Price
price plays a huge factor in buy box, and is a complicated subject. you will often times see people lowering the price by one cent to be the lowest price. i do not recommend you personally do this, but when a individual does do this, feel free to match them. when it comes to price, you might be tempted to undercut price constantly. HOWEVER, you should NOT always do this! if you make profit at a good price, and multiple sellers are at this price, and your making sales, don't lower your price! you will just cause a price war and everyone will be fighting against each other when you all could've been friends. relax, take Ur time and let the products sell. if they don't sell, then undercut.
you also want to raise prices sometimes! for example, if you are at 19.99, and someone is at 18.99 below you, but the next person ABOVE 19.99 is 23.99, YOU CAN PUT PRESSURE ON THE 18.99 SELLER BY INCREASING UR PRICE TO 23.99 SO YES HE GETS BUY BOX, BUT AT WHAT COST? he will most of the time increase his price to 23.99 to get that extra profitability. this is very healthy for the listing as well and keeps it from dying!
Shipping time
AMZ initially got famous for its quick shipping, and so amazon will take into account how often your shipments are late. make sure you ship your orders as quickly as possible, as a higher shipping time frame = better sales!
ratings
AMZ wants there customers to have the best customer experience. you can use sellerboard to request reviews from orders. if you notice bad reviews, don't be upset. look at what there complaining about, and fix it. if they say product damaged in transit, pack your boxes safer. if they say the product sucks, don't sell that product.
in stock inventory
AMZ wants there customers to always be able to buy, and not having inventory affects your buy box.
in terms of what weighs the most in buy box percentage ( i have no real way of 100% knowing as amazon keeps the buy box functionality and source code a giant secret) but if i had to guess it would be from greatest influence to least: Price, FBA/SFP/FBM/Shipping Time OR rating/in stock
and thats all! hope you enjoyed. if you did please rep, thanks
Index
Chapter 1: understanding & definitions
Chapter 2: Requirements & Starting up
Chapter 3: Tools, Tips, & Advice.
Chapter 4: Sourcing products
Chapter 5: expansion & sales conversions
Chapter 6: Shipping (IMPORTANT)
Chapter 7: Buy box
Chapter 1: Understanding & Definitions.
The first part to this is understanding exactly what you're doing, so you can translate this understanding to other parts. there is a lot of other good businesses that fit with amazon selling like a puzzle. if you have connections, are able to get cheaper items/products, you will grow more then someone without any. so, what exactly are we doing? Retail Arbitrage. also abbreviated often as RA (which is what we will be calling it in this guide) can be defined best as: The act of purchasing goods from a retailer/wholesaler or any other largely available store to turn a profit by selling it to someone else, mainly through amazon. essentially, acting as a middle man. this could also be done through Walmart, eBay and other places but the main bread and butter is on amazon.
Now typically, although not all the time, these items have a somewhat " Look " to them. i don't mean physical, but generally the profitable items fit a very specific category. this doesn't mean all, you'll find some products that just happen to work, but over time what I've noticed about products is that they typically follow a 4 point checklist. (Number #2 is very common & a big one!) 1.is it a niche? a established brand, but not so much a large capital brand like coca cola? or Hershey's? 2.could you find yourself justifying a higher price then the retail store sells it for? for example, if it sells for 10, and on amazon sells for 30, would you bat a eye towards the price buying it from amazon, or not think about it, and just buy it? 3.Is it a reoccurring need? 4.is it a popular "social" item? for example: Prime, Fairlifes, Etc.
now i suggest you dont look at items ONLY in this manner, but when physically sourcing, this is a huge help. which leads me to another thing: What exactly is looking for products? pretty simple. you're going in stores to Search up a bunch of items, and see which one is gonna be your friend when you leave. now, you want to SEARCH for the item, and not scan it! why? because some times this items has variations, maybe there's a 2 pack that sells profitably online compared to a 1 pack and when u scan the item, it only shows the 1 pack. this would then have you skip over this winner simply because you didn't search!
Chapter 2: Requirements and start up
I'm going to keep it short and sweet on requirements.
things you'll need:
- Space for Inventory, boxes, a place to pack your orders, tape, ETC.
- 40$/m for your AMZ account
- retail stores such as Costco, Walmart, target, in your area. (For costco, you'll REALLY want to get the executive membership.)
- Amazon Seller app
- lots of tape
- lots of boxes
- printer, preferably a label printer. if you dont have one, heres the one i reccommend: label printer
Make sure you get the 300 DPI, as the 200 DPI one does not print labels the best and might cause issues with returns, proper deliveries, etc.
Now, lets get into the crème of the crop. startup!
-step one: go here https://sell.amazon.com/
Step two: click sign in, and go through the entire process. it'll ask you for a lot of information, so make sure you have your wallet on standby. once your done, you'll have to wait for them to "review" you as a amazon seller. sometimes its instant but it can take up to 14 days once this is done.
step three: once you have you're account, the MAIN thing your going to want to do, is start getting ungated for categories. this is gonna allow you to sell a wide variety of products, allow you to have multiple listings, for multiple products, which will allow you to grow your income. the name of the game for amazon is to sell so many products, that its nearly impossible to have a bad day. its not about a golden ticket product, of course they exist, but its mainly about having so many profitable products that your audience is very large.
one of the best categories to get approved in first is gourmet and foods. you can do this very easily by going here: ketchup and buy 10 of these. once you receive them, scan them, and try selling them on amazon you'll be prompted to login, and apply to get ungated. you'll then fill out all the requirements, and for the invoice part, webstaurant automatically sends it in your email, which is a link u click that sends u to there site and u can find it. you'll do this for all other categories you are interested in moving in on, but for now, having gourmet and foods is the best and will allow to get your operation going. you'll then fill out all the requirements, and for the invoice part, webstaurant automatically sends it in your email, which is a link u click that sends u to there site and u can find it. you'll do this for all other categories you are interested in moving in on, but for now, having gourmet and foods is the best and will allow you to get a 5 figure operation going.
Chapter 3: Tools, Tips, & Advice
-These are the tools i recommend when starting up:
-SellerAmp
-Sellerboard
These two alone make a deadly combo. so what does selleramp do and why is it important?
seller amp shows you how much demand the product is pulling (this is important because a item may look profitable, but if there's no demand no ones buying it, so it wont sell!) whether its private label or not (private label items are items that the manufacturer will attempt to strike your amazon account for selling) how many people are offering the item (good to know for measuring competition on the listing) how much stock each seller has & if there FBA or FBM (useful for generating effective prices, referr to pricing chapter) allows you to see what the other sellers on the listing are selling by clicking on the store. SUPER useful for sourcing (refer to sourcing chapter) show charts of the price over time (Good knowledge for seasonal items) seller ranking over time (also good for seasonal items) Buy box data & pie charts (extremely useful for making sales, refer to buybox chapter) Shows ROI, Profit, and breakeven. (ovbiously useful)
what does sellerboard do and why is it important?
Allows you to calculate pinpoint profitability to give you a idea on performance. this is important as often times you have the perception of making more then you really are. Allows you to automate asking for reviews from customers Show you performance of ads in a detailed format breaks down exactly what products are making what accounts for refunds.
Some advice ive learnt over time:
- don't sell items under a 20% ROI, there are plentiful of more profitable products and until you are extremely large on capital and running out of items to find and sell, this is a good rule.
- dont sell items with less then 25 total sales a month
- FBM before considering FBA
- If you find a listing marked as PL, investigate it first. if its only 1 seller on it, its most likely PL. regardless, if the item looks to profitable to not try, you can create a listing for it and sell on it. BUT BE WARNED! make sure you are selling EXACTLY whats described, as - - - sometimes people will private label a item you might find elsewhere, then add a chip bag, or a straw, with there brand on it. Secondly, if it IS private label, they will have to shoot you a message regarding removing your listing, which u will have to remove the listing and not sell the product. i say all this because sometimes listings are falsely flagged as private label.
- secure your packages well with plentiful amounts of tape.
- Dont have Bias towards any item. some of the weirdest items can make you rich.
- Dont get stagnant, continue diversifying into multiple products.
- a good priced product should only cost YOU 5 - 100$ to purchase.
- ALWAYS INITIATE YOUR PAYOUTS WHEN U CAN. do not let money build up, amazon very rarely freezes funds (like very rare) but it does happen.
- do NOT throw away receipts. if a product ends up being dry you'll need it to return it.
-I LEARNED THIS ONE THE HARD WAY: DO NOT STORE FOOD IN A UNSECURED ENVIRONMENT. RODENTS AND INSECTS WILL EVENTUALLY INFILTRATE. STORE YOUR FOOD SEPERATE FROM YOUR OTHER ITEMS
Chapter 4: Sourcing products
There is plenty of ways to source products. really, i mean plenty.
Manual Sourcing (MSing) Manual sourcing is very simple, but its very effective. it involves going into a retail store, going through each isle meticulously searching each individual item and checking its statistics to see if its a good candidate. sometimes i do this for hours, or just a few minutes. you can really find some solid products this way. this is a guaranteed way to find reliable and good selling products.
reverse sourcing / online sourcing (Osing/RSing) Reverse sourcing is where most of your work should be coming from after you have established a few profitable products. the reason you want a few winners first, specifically that you found, is if its a winner, you are not the only one on this listing - there are others, just like you! and we can take advantage of that. to reverse source effectively, you'll go to a listing your selling on, and look at the other sellers. the best stores to reverse source are typically the ones competing with you the most - because typically this means there sourcing from the same place as you, which is exactly what you want! why? because you can find products that you dont sell and could, that they do! another factor that plays a role is the rating of the store.
i do not reverse stores with a rating of over 700 due to the fact they are probably a large capital company and the stuff there sourcing is mainly either online, or extremely competitive. the optimal rating for a seller that makes it a candidate for reverse sourcing for me is typically 1 review to 300 reviews, give or take. now, when your on there store, you will see a price next to the image of the item, and a few boxes down a show of the buy box price. the price next to the image is THE STORE OWNERS PRICE FOR THIS ITEM, AND MOST OF THE TIME IF THERE PRICE ISNT EVEN CLOSE TO BUY BOX PRICE (I.E WITHIN A DOLLAR OR TWO) IT IS NOT WORTH EXAMINING THIS PRODUCT, AS THEY ARE NOT COMPETING FOR IT WHICH MEANS THERE NOT SELLING IT! you also want to ensure the following: good volume, prices with good room for profit, and a good BSR. You can then look this product up on the websites of the places you like to source! and remember, sometimes the listed price on the website is for online purchases, sometimes its cheaper in stores. Now, what's awesome about reverse sourcing, is you can go down rabbit holes with it. if you can find a product that you cant quite compete with him on, yet other people are, check those people out as well! they probably source similarly too.
Variation Sourcing
have a killer product that already sells very well? know that there is other products just like it? maybe different colors? flavors? sizes? you can use this knowledge to locate similar and often times profitable products. conclusion for this chapter: sourcing is the main name of the game. being able to find quality demanding products with high return of investments is what will convert you from 5 figures to six figures.
Chapter 5: expansion & sales conversions
and finally, its time to expand, and increase your sales conversion. Expansion is easy, but it takes time, and capital to do so. one of the easiest form of expansion is well, just simply getting more inventory, so you can offer better prices, but by far one of the best forms of expansion is getting SFP status. this is going to do so much for you, and i recommend watching videos on why and reading amazons articles about it. another can take the form of expanding into different countries, which you would have to figure out shipping for those, but nonetheless, your tapping into a whole new audience. it might mean running multiple seller accounts and having people manage them - long story short expansion is very broad, and unique to the individual. people expand differently. sales conversion however, is different. there are a lot of really useful ways to help with sales conversions. ill do it in a checklist fashion.
-running ad campaigns is a good one when you are larger. you can really play with and customize ad campaigns to your liking, which is quite useful.
-using quantity discounts. using quantity discounts is a great way to encourage your customers to not only purchase - but to purchase more. this not only helps you get a sale, but also MAKES you money buy being able to use only 1 label, compared to 2, or 3.
-Coupons. coupons are a great way to make your listing stand out, and pop. when u add a coupon to your listings, you get a nice bright green bar under the listing, saying" save x amount " which tends to pull in customers
Chapter 6: Shipping Luckily For you I know a great place to get cheap reliable shipping labels ill attach URL at the end what works best for amazon is USPS priority shipping, it lets you do the 2-3 day shipping on amazon and its cheaper compared to other labels. https://xtremelabels.org/ here is his telegram for anyone wanting to messege @asdfpoiuiop
When running a amazon business, shipping is huge. you are going to want to widdle down your price of shipping to as low as possible. this includes not just the price per label, but the price for tape, ink/toner for the printer, price for boxes, bubble wrap if needed, etc. theres alot that can go into this.
Shipping supplies
now im going to tell you how to fix alot of these issues, using a term we call "the 100% off coupon" now there is 2 ways to apply this coupon: you can either fit items that you need (such as tape, bubble mailers, etc) into a pocket on the inside of a nice large coat (because its cold outside) and FORGET to purchase it when your done purchasing your other items, OR lets say you plan on buying alot of these items, you could forget to scan lets say 20 out of the 40 boxes you are purchasing.
DISCLAIMER: NEVER STEAL. AND WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE STEALING, OR THEFT OF ANY KIND. IT IS A COMMON MISTAKE FOR INDIVIDUALS TO SCAN CERTAIN ITEMS AND MAKE SURE U SCAN EVERYTHING!
now you may be wondering, where can i possibly do this? WALMART! walmart is your best store for shipping supplies. staples and stores alike are also great.
Chapter 7 Buy box
The buy box is a complicated mechanism in amazon but is the most important thing when it comes to making sales. 90+% of sales happen at the buy box and this is where you want to be.
what is the buy box? the buy box is the simple box when looking at a amazon product that says "buy now" and "add to cart"
there are many different factors that contribute to getting the buybox which i will list below:
FBM, SFP, or FBA
SFP and FBA sellers have priority over the buy box when it comes to selling due to the fact amazons good word is involved in both customer support and shipping timeframes. with FBA, a FBM seller could sell the same product for 2 dollars sometimes even 3 cheaper, and the FBA seller will still win majority of the time. HOWEVER, this comes at a steep price of profitability. hosting FBA products is very costly, and if you source products for very cheap alot of times being a FBM seller is more profitable due to the fact u can just undercut price 3 to 4 dollars and win buy box that way. SFP however, is very difficult to compete with as it is a hybrid between FBM and FBA.
Price
price plays a huge factor in buy box, and is a complicated subject. you will often times see people lowering the price by one cent to be the lowest price. i do not recommend you personally do this, but when a individual does do this, feel free to match them. when it comes to price, you might be tempted to undercut price constantly. HOWEVER, you should NOT always do this! if you make profit at a good price, and multiple sellers are at this price, and your making sales, don't lower your price! you will just cause a price war and everyone will be fighting against each other when you all could've been friends. relax, take Ur time and let the products sell. if they don't sell, then undercut.
you also want to raise prices sometimes! for example, if you are at 19.99, and someone is at 18.99 below you, but the next person ABOVE 19.99 is 23.99, YOU CAN PUT PRESSURE ON THE 18.99 SELLER BY INCREASING UR PRICE TO 23.99 SO YES HE GETS BUY BOX, BUT AT WHAT COST? he will most of the time increase his price to 23.99 to get that extra profitability. this is very healthy for the listing as well and keeps it from dying!
Shipping time
AMZ initially got famous for its quick shipping, and so amazon will take into account how often your shipments are late. make sure you ship your orders as quickly as possible, as a higher shipping time frame = better sales!
ratings
AMZ wants there customers to have the best customer experience. you can use sellerboard to request reviews from orders. if you notice bad reviews, don't be upset. look at what there complaining about, and fix it. if they say product damaged in transit, pack your boxes safer. if they say the product sucks, don't sell that product.
in stock inventory
AMZ wants there customers to always be able to buy, and not having inventory affects your buy box.
in terms of what weighs the most in buy box percentage ( i have no real way of 100% knowing as amazon keeps the buy box functionality and source code a giant secret) but if i had to guess it would be from greatest influence to least: Price, FBA/SFP/FBM/Shipping Time OR rating/in stock
and thats all! hope you enjoyed. if you did please rep, thanks