Working from Home using Amazon is a much better way to faster and larger profits, because Amazon has more than 100 times the customer base than what eBay has. But Amazon is also far more restrictive in its Product Categories. Amazon expects you to be a professional expert in the categories of products that you sell on Amazon. Amazon is also far less tolerant of mistakes. Whereas eBay is far more tolerant of mistakes. This is why there are very few merchants that sell on Amazon, which means there will be less competition. And the competition is reduced even more if you apply for and get approved to sell one of the Gated Categories Like Automotive, Jewelry, Luggage, clothing, etc.,…
AMAZON Products:
First off, most all the products sold on Amazon are sold by other online Merchants, Amazon doesn’t own hardly any products at all. Amazon simply provides an online platform for merchants worldwide to advertise and sell their products using the Amazon’s WEB site, while pocketing between 7.5% to 15% Commissions.
There are 2 ways to Sell on Amazon:
1) Fulfillment by Merchant is where by you drop ship your products either from your store or from another WEB site fulfillment center, like: Walmart.com, eBay, etc.,… In this method you really never have to handle any products, only your supplier does. Using this method, you will get your money first, then purchase the product for your customer. A much more secure way of earning an income. However, Amazon only pays every 2 weeks. So, every 2 weeks you get your money back, plus profits. As compared to eBay you get your money for purchase of that product immediately, and when your order is completely fulfilled and delivered to your customer the rest of that money is yours to keep as pure profit.
2) FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) is where you seek out a Manufacture or Manufacturers’ outlet stores to acquire brand new products for penny’s on the dollar. In this method you get the largest profit margins possible, whereby you buy for $1 or less, then sell for $5 to $10 or more. Which ends up being 5 to 10 times what you purchased it for, then you ship it into Amazon’s warehouse and let Amazon advertise, sell and ship the products to your customers for you. You don’t have to do anything but keep the inventory in stock at Amazon. A lot less work on your part, especially if you can get your manufacturer to ship your products directly to Amazon’s warehouse for you and many do. Some will even put your branded label on that product for you for a small fee. In some instances, you might ship to your facilities (or Home) and then you package up that product, or a bundle of products to make one product. Then ship that product to Amazon’s warehouse. Bundling multiple products together as one product makes it more difficult for your competition to copy your product exactly. Thus, eliminating competition even more. For Example, you might sell a set of Pizza pans with a pizza cutter in a bundle.
Finding Manufacturers is relatively easy, simply find the product UPC bar code on that product packaging (not the Store’s Bar Code which is usually an additional taped UPC code sticker stuck to the product packaging by the store). Next to that bar code is the Manufacturers (or Manufacturers Distributor) Address and phone number. Simply call up that phone number and ask for Minimum order quantity and the cost per unit. If you order directly from the Manufacturer, you may be required to purchase in bulk, but remember you are going to be buying these products for pennies on the dollar, so even if you have to buy 500 of them at 20 cents each, it is only going to cost you $100 for example. And if You sell them for $10 you just made $5000 while only spending $100 for the products and $3 in Amazon commission fees + Handling fees, you are still pocketing $3400 in net sales profit.
Using the Manufacturers’ outlet stores like Dollar Tree, Dollar General, 99 Cent Max, Five and below, Topper Liquidator, etc.,… you can purchase a small number of these products first and see how well they sell on Amazon through FBA. And if they sell well, then order in bulk from the manufacturer. This way you are only spending a very few bucks to test out a products marketability on Amazon. A lot less than the $100 mentioned earlier. But the Manufacturers outlet stores will cost a little bit more per product than the Manufacturers cost. Normally around $1 or less each, sometimes more. Depending on which Manufacturers outlet store you shop at.
Useful Tools to acquire:
“ASINspector” is a valuable tool you can find online that will help you find products that are the top-selling in a given category name on Amazon. But this tool also works on eBay, Walmart and other online stores. The results are going to be compared to Amazon when it comes to sales volume, pricing, and profit margins. This tool will even advise you on the best sources for a given specific product as well. In addition to other market studies like selling trends over the past and current times. A great many market parameters are measured by this tool.
You can even sort and filter these Sales volumes and gross profits in order of highest to lowest, or Lowest to Highest. Using this tool, you may find that Amazon has the Lowest prices and on eBay they sell higher, so in which case you want to source from Amazon and sell on eBay. But if it sells lower on eBay and higher on Amazon, you want to source from eBay and sell on Amazon. But don’t always assume that eBay or Amazon will have the best prices, because sometimes Walmart or other online stores do.