How to Start Selling on Amazon

How to  start selling online? Amazon is a good place to start and here are the essential steps I used to begin my Amazon FBA selling journey. It's my virtual toolbox of tools and services. I only recommend things that I have actually tested myself and find worth recommending (can't stand spammy marketers who push rubbish just for commissions!). You might want to bookmark this page for your reference and convenience.
Step 1: Join these 2 Facebook groups. They are extremely helpful and free:
I would attribute much of my success over the past 4 years to 2 things:
  1. Getting and applying what I learnt in the Proven Amazon Course.
  2. Joining the MySilentTeam Facebook group, where I could ask questions and learn from the many experienced and helpful people in that community.

​More recently, I started the second group with a focus on helping people from outside the USA, UK, etc. who sell or want to sell internationally in those countries.
Get the Proven Amazon Course to learn how to sell on Amazon successfully
Step 2:  Training & Education. There's lots of free and paid info available with regards to selling on Amazon.  The problem is not all of it is reliable. If you are serious about selling on Amazon, and want to shorten your learning curve with proven strategies, here are 2 options to consider.

1) If you want to focus on private label with a down-to-earth, high probability of success, with low -risk approach,  I conduct small group training every 1 or 2 months. I started this in response to numerous requests from the local selling community who asked me to start something because they realised many "courses" are run by scammers or high-risk "gurus" who pitch get-rich-quick nonsense with crazy strategies that will blow a big hole in your pocket. You can find out more on my Amazon Seller Live Training page.

2) The Proven Amazon Course (PAC) was the MOST important and BEST investment I made when starting out. I tell everyone the couple hundred bucks it costs has been a much better investment than the thousands I paid for my Master's degree fees! The course content is huge and ever growing. From the basics of signing up and sending your first shipment to advanced courses like private labeling (creating your own power brand), PAC has it all covered. But incredibly, that is not all. The BEST part of PAC is the amazing culture and community cultivated by Jim Cockrum. The community here will truly help you get to the next level. I'm already working with several groups in PAC to produce our own brand of products as well as sell big wholesale lots with very high returns which are only possible because we work together! You have nothing to lose with the unlimited time 100% money back guarantee (unlike other programs that charge way more with a short 30 day money back policy).

If you are thinking about selling on Amazon, and especially if you live in the US and want to start simple with arbitrage (sourcing products from local shops and selling them online) I highly recommend you start with the Proven Amazon Course.
​
Update (30 Aug 2015): Just wrote my Proven Amazon Course Review including a screenshot of its contents. Have a look at the review to see the contents in PAC.
Update (26 Mar 2015): Proven Private Label has been added to PAC which makes this incredible course an unbelievable value. Proven Wholesale Sourcing will also be added in May 2015.
Step 3: (Only applicable if you are selling on Amazon from another country): Are you in Singapore or Australia and sell in the US, UK, etc.? Or in the US and sell in Europe or vice versa?

In order to efficiently receive and remit your sales proceeds from Amazon, eBay and other international sales channels,  do not use your bank's, Amazon's or PayPal's exchange services with high fees.  Instead use a specialised payment service provider to move your money with fees that are many times lower. For example, I transfer my Amazon USD payouts back to my homw currency at an FX rate that costs 10X less than Amazon Currency Converter rate.

Go to this page to read up on and select one of the payment service providers in my Payoneer vs WorldFirst vs TransferWise vs OFX review.
Step 4: Open an account with 3rd party logistics (3PL) service also known as Amazon Prep Services. This is a vital tool in my kit. Many of my private label, wholesale and retail arbitrage items ordered from both US and overseas suppliers are sent to prep services in the US. They do everything needed - receive, check, pack, multi-pack, bundle, poly-bag, label, box, store and ship out all my products to Amazon's fulfillment centers.

Here are some usage scenarios:
  1. You do online arbitrage, sourcing products from US retailers to sell on Amazon in the US. You'll need a service to receive the products, package and label them with Amazon's product labels and then ship to Amazon. A 3PL  that specialises in Amazon prep can handle all that, so your product can be sent to Amazon for FBA.
  2. You source from overseas and want to ship your product in bulk to the US. Since 2020, Amazon has limited shipments to their fulfillment centers of all product listings to a maximum of 200 units initially, but you want to ship more than 200 units for international shipping economies of scale. In this case, you would need to ship from our supplier to a 3PL to receive and store your inventory. The 3PL will then "drip-feed" small quantities to Amazon.
  3. You're shipping from an overseas supplier and Amazon has split your inventory and assigned 2 or more shipping addresses. Sending multiple international shipments is going to be very expensive. In this case, a solution is to ship to a single 3PL in the destination country and then split just the cheaper domestic leg. If shipping in country like the US, where Amazon has tied up with partnered-carriers, you can make use of Amazon's deeply discounted partner rates for the domestic leg. Just last week, I shipped 4 pallets weighing over 1,800  pounds from Georgia to Tennessee for only $204.35 using Amazon's partner rates. That worked out to less than $0.18 per unit!

​If you do not live in the US then you absolutely need this service. Even if you live in the US, you should free yourself to source, grow your business and go to a ball game! You should be focusing on growing your business rather than working as a labourer in the business. 

Update: I have just written about using FBA prep companies. To find out more about why I think these are so important and how you can get a free list of prep companies go to the FBA Prep Companies review page.

To get your FREE lists of US and UK prep companies, fill in your name and email address in the box at the top right of this page and you'll receive a list in your email.
Picture
Step 5: Register for a Seller Account. Use this link: http://amzn.to/mstsg. It's a special registration link created by Amazon's Global Selling Team. If you register a Professional Seller account using this link, your account will be specially tagged by Amazon to receive help from their team with your FBA launch*. Having a contact person to work with in Amazon is exceedingly rare and something you should make the most of!

*Please note that the special support from Amazon is at the discretion of Amazon account managers and only available to sellers from the following countries who want to start selling on the Amazon.com US marketplace:
  • Singapore
  • Indonesia
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Vietnam
  • Australia
  • New Zealand

Choosing between a professional or individual seller account. I personally just started with a professional account straightaway. The decision depends on 2 things:
  1. The quantity of items you will be selling monthly. There is a monthly fee of $39.99 for professional accounts. The individual account is free but is charged an additional fee of $1 per order. As long as you expect to sell 40 or more items a month, you should register as a professional seller. 
  2. The categories you want to sell in. Only professional sellers can apply for approval to sell in restricted categories such as grocery, beauty, health and personal care, etc. Individual accounts can only sell in unrestricted categories such as books, toys, home and kitchen. They cannot apply to sell in restricted categories.
Ebates Coupons and Cash Back
Step 6: Start sourcing!

Assuming you now know how to research and analyze what to sell, the next step is to source for those products from suppliers.

There are many ways to source for products. The main thing to look for is sufficient profit margin. simply put, buy low, sell high. Some common ways to source are:
  • Retail or Online Arbitrage (RA or OA) - this involves checking for prices on other retail sites and comparing them to prices on Amazon.
  • Buying wholesale - this refers to buying products in sufficient volume from suppliers so you get wholesale prices. Suppliers could be distributors, manufacturers, or brand owners. Personally, I've found that small, niche manufacturers/brand owners are the best to work with as they tend to be more open, the margins are better for specialty, niche brands/products, and there tends to be less competition compared to common, well-known brands that might have many sellers on Amazon driving the price down.
  • Private Label (PL) - this is where you create you own brand. This is what I focus on now . 99% of my sales are  my own brands of products. I love PL because it allows me to differentiate, create unique selling points, control pricing and quality, protect my brand and pricing, and most importantly create long term brand value.

For OA, I use 2 programs to shop online a.k.a. online retail arbitrage. The first advantage is these sites help me find new online stores - Ebates and MrRebates are linked to over a thousand online retail sites so using them helps you search by store as well as by product. At the same time it does not hurt to earn cash back (paid to your Paypal account or check if you live in the US) for all the purchases you make! Remember, you will be buying fairly large amounts, so the rebates can add up to quite a big sum! By my 2nd month I was spending over $1000 a week with 2%-5% rebates! (Tip: sign up for both so you can always compare which pays back more at the store you buy from). Sign up for Ebates and Mr Rebates.

Update: I now use mostly Topcashback and Befrugal (you can get a $10 sign-up bonus by signing up through this link) as they often offer the highest rebates for online stores - sometimes double or more than Ebates. I would still recommend Ebates, especially for those who tend to forget to click through the rebates sites, as you can install the Ebates plug-in/extension which reminds you to activate the rebate when you are on an eligible site.

​Update 2017: I don't do OA anymore. While it is still possible to start with OA, it is also possible (and I would recommend) to start with simple private label - See below.

Update 2018/2019: After numerous requests from people in Singapore, I've finally started conducting training sessions on how to start selling on Amazon, with a focus on private label. You can find out more about my training here:  Amazon Seller Live Training course.
Contact
© COPYRIGHT 2018. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.