Discover the power of Amazon FBA and take your business to new heights.
Amazon FBA — or Fulfilled by Amazon — is a program that lets you sell your goods on Amazon’s online store. Fulfillment of orders is possibly the biggest challenge facing many online entrepreneurs, but with FBA, it’s a breeze.
You can simply store your products on Amazon, who’ll be the one to take care of the logistical stuff such as warehousing, shipping to buyers, handling after-sales concerns and providing great customer service. This frees up a lot of your time to focus on what really matters — providing great, value-for-money products to customers.
It may be becoming clear by now that Amazon is among the front runners when it comes to ushering in new and highly accessible business opportunities for virtually anyone to benefit from, and then some. The Amazon FBA program is a glorious example of just how much technology, particularly the Internet, positively affects our ability to establish our own business.
Just consider how much you can improve and consolidate your business venture if you are unburdened of the most demanding tasks at hand, which as I’ve stated are usually the logistics.
The new vacancy in your schedule will provide ample time for procurement of products and expanding the variety of your assortment, setting up relationships with quality suppliers, etc. Needless to say, this is an obvious and enormous advantage from the very get-go when compared to other means of online sales.
It is incredible to realize that we live in a time where a small business, as small as a hobby even, can simply sign up and begin cooperating with a conglomerate that is Amazon. And not only cooperate, but directly reap the benefits of their powerful establishment to advance your income.
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that this system will serve you just as well if your goals are not all that high. What I mean by this is that FBA can also be used to simply liberate yourself, aiming to spend the spare time on things apart from your online business. Once you have established a satisfactory amount of consistent income from your sales, you may want to just lay back for the most part and let the money dribble in, turning your
income into truly passive income.
As mentioned before, most of the required management or intervention in your business can be automated or delegated to other people. While building your passive income system on FBA, you’ll see for yourself the ways in which your specific operation can become more and more autonomous.
AMAZON FBA VS. AN ONLINE STORE
Aside from who’s handling the logistical stuff, there are other reasons why Amazon FBA is superior to setting up and managing your own online store. First is faster delivery. With Amazon’s extensive market reach and logistical capabilities, it doesn’t take long for your stuff to get to your customers.
Contrast this with doing the shipping yourself. Not only will this help to better satisfy your customers, but fast shipping also expands the array of products you can sell. Time-sensitive goods which may expire, or otherwise suffer due to prolonged shipping processes, are one such example.
Quick shipments, with a guarantee of such an enormous enterprise, are an advantage hardly earned when you’re out there by yourself. Second, FBA gives your products significantly more exposure than if you’d promote it on your own. It’s because Amazon is the biggest online retailer in the world — even bigger than most other physical retailers!
By having your products on Amazon FBA, you enjoy much higher visibility and potentially, significantly more sales than if you’d do it in your own online store. Of course, complete independence may have an appeal, but setting up shop and making a name for yourself may take years upon years of hard work and commitment.
Apart from being exhausting, the risks and possibilities of failure if you’re going it alone are substantially higher. Seeing as you are reading a book on passive income, you probably aren’t very enthusiastic about the whole prospect of putting years of work into a venture that may not even pay itself off.
Third, making your products available on Amazon’s FBA allows your customers to avail of its free shipping within 2 days and other similar delivery options. Again, this is a logistical advantage you can leverage to sell more of your products efficiently. Furthermore, this and other advantages offered to customers on Amazon are one of the reasons that this platform enjoys such a wide consumer base throughout the globe. This is undoubtedly how this universally beneficial system operates, in a way that provides all parties their slice of the cake.
Lastly, FBA gives you — as an online seller — much needed credibility because, simply put, Amazon is one of the most trusted brands in the world. Can you imagine how beneficial it is to piggyback on the reputation of one such as Amazon? Lovely, isn’t it? This brings us back to the subject of making a name for yourself as an online retailer, as this step of the way is mostly not an issue on FBA. Naturally, you still want you get positive feedback and ensure a satisfied customer base, but the degree in which FBA facilitates this process for you is truly invaluable.
Should any issues arise after the shipment, Amazon’s highly professional staff will handle their end in customer services and any potential complaints or misgivings. As far as buyers are concerned, they are dealing primarily with Amazon, while you come into play as a third party that offers the products, and is vouched for by the renowned Amazon Company.
SETTING UP YOUR AMAZON FBA BUSINESS
It’s not rocket science to set up your own FBA business and start earning passive income. It’ll take some work, though. As is the case with most other passive income sources, it’s all about building a solid foundation for your FBA business.
Here are the steps towards enjoying passive income via Amazon FBA:
Account: Sign up for a professional account to maximize seller benefits.
Niche: Research what niche is best to get into and generate ideas on what products to sell on FBA. Some niches are definitely profitable while others are trash so research well. This means some quality market study and analysis until you get a good grasp of the supply-demand climate in a particular niche, as well as the nature of the competition therein.
Suppliers: After determining what particular niche and products to sell on FBA, you’ll need to find a good supplier. A good supplier is one that doesn’t just provide quality products but also delivers on time — ahead of schedule even. When looking for the right supplier,
consider asking for samples, determining a good lead-time and estimate your potential margins on the products.
Listing: Once you’ve found a great supplier, you should make a listing for your chosen product on FBA. Use good keywords and great content to make your product page the best that it can be. Popular keywords and Search Engine Optimized descriptive content
often play a big role in attracting potential customers. Again, if SEO writing and handling keywords successfully are tasks you find difficult, this is also something that can be delegated to a freelancer.
Traffic: Once everything’s been setup and running, the last frontier is to make more people aware of your product page on FBA and bring them to your product page. You can do this a myriad number of ways both free and paid. Your free options are social media and word-of-mouth while paid advertisements can be done on Facebook and other websites.
RIGHT PRODUCT IS KEY TO REACH MORE
Selling the right product is the single most critical factor for succeeding on FBA. These are usually cheaper, easily shipped products with minimal risks associated with transport. Your products should be known far and wide as goods which arrive fast and in the promised condition. This is harder to achieve with certain kinds of products, so be mindful of what you want to get into, especially in the beginning!
So what are the things to consider arriving at the “right” product? These include, among others:
Price: Ideally, the products should be within the $10 to $50 range. This type of product sells the most and is the easiest to sell. This range is pretty much always more or less a sure ticket to success, so naturally it marks the right place to start your business.
Weight: Your products must weigh as light as possible. Mostly in the interest of shipping, storing, etc., lighter products will cost you less in these areas. Cheaper logistics are not the only reason to go for light products, though. The less they weigh, the less likely they are to
be fragile, so the possibility of any potential problems with transport is greatly reduced.
Competition: Like anywhere else where selling takes place, FBA is a marketplace like any other when it comes to competition.
Determine if you have any actual and potential product competition within the top 5,000 best seller rank or BSR in your product’s primary category. Also, ensure that you don’t have competition from branded names in your chosen niche or category, as this is a very potent competition killer. It is always a good idea to stay away from the big fish, especially so if you’re the new kid on the block.
Overcrowded, monopolized or otherwise full markets or niches are another thing to avoid.
Another aspect of the competition you must check out is the reviews. The more reviews they have, especially positive ones, the greater is the competition and consequently, the challenge of breaking into the market. If the reviews on competing products are less than 50, it indicates a pretty good chance of cracking that niche or market.
Toughness: Whenever possible, sell products that don’t easily break. This will minimize your risks for refunds or replacements, both of which can significantly affect your margins. Consider the distances your goods might have to travel to get to the customer, as well as the means of transport required. Always calculate the risk involved in dealing with certain products, as some of them are a nightmare to ship. The smoother the shipping is, the more solid your base of income will become.
Margins: Ideally, your margin (percentage of profit over selling price) must be at least 75% to make it worth your while. Always keep an eye on the numbers, this is the lifeblood of your business.
HOW TO SUCCESS ON AMAZON FBA
The top sellers on Amazon are outliers, i.e., way different and separate from the rest of the pack. They tend to adopt the thinking that selling on Amazon is akin to stock market or currencies trading. More than that, the following factors have — to a great extent —accounted for their success:
Economies of Scale: Selling more quantity of a product is more cost efficient — and profitable — compared to selling few. Selling on Amazon makes economies of scale much easier as the logistics are handled by a leading logistics behemoth. This is why smaller price ranges are a highway to success on FBA, and I stress ‘highway’! Once your system is up and running, these products will sell fast and in large volumes. And in the process of getting up and running, well, obviously it’s easier to amass a customer base through
cheap and numerous products.
Objectivity: The ability and willingness to be accountable for errors in judgment and adjusting accordingly is key to being flexible and successful in the arena that’s called Amazon. The opposite just makes it impossible for sellers to do the right things at the right time for selling success on Amazon. Not everything goes according to plan all the time. This is completely normal.
The trick is to learn from your mistakes, be responsible and keep going. Perhaps most importantly, you must have the ability to self-criticize and see the errors of your ways clearly and on your own. These virtues will help you understand when and how to adapt and improve your business, and this is crucial to success.
Discipline: The most successful sellers are disciplined enough to control their inventories, cash flows and risk very well. If you are taking care of business personally, it is important to be meticulous and well organized. Think of it as managing a store, which is exactly what you’re doing essentially.
Focus: Maintaining a clear focus on your goal and having stone hard will and determination. This is how we get places in life, and it’s no different on FBA. The top Amazon sellers don’t care about being right or wrong — they just care about making money. Lots of it!
Time Frame: The most successful sellers view things from longer time frames such as quarters or years instead of days or weeks only. Even in other walks of life and business, this is the way that the vast majority of successful people think. It shows that you are thinking big, are ambitious and see the big picture. This kind of perception of time also helps you look forward with great foresight, which is a great organizational skill.
If you carefully and wisely consider these factors in starting your Amazon FBA business, you significantly increase your chances of making good money.
We hope you found our blog post on Amazon FBA informative and helpful. Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to sell their products on the largest online marketplace in the world.
From storing inventory to handling shipping and customer service, Amazon takes care of it all, allowing sellers to focus on growing their business. Whether you’re a new entrepreneur or an established seller looking to expand, Amazon FBA can be a game-changer for your business.
