How to Sell Stuff on Amazon FBA for Beginners- Money Making Idea #21 (2024)

Selling stuff on Amazon FBA is an amazing way to make extra money on the side. You can even earn a full time living as an Amazon seller if you want! Learning how to sell on Amazon using the Fulfilled By Amazon program is an easy, profitable way to start a business of your own without all the hassles associated with a brick and mortar business.

Best of all, you can be up and running in no time!

In this article, I'll show you the basics of how to get started with Amazon FBA. I'll also show you an incredibly helpful resource that teaches you step by step how to start your own Amazon FBA business.

Check out all my Money Making Ideas articles here

In this article I’ll show you all the details you need to start making money as an Amazon seller. You’ll learn:

• Why Amazon is an excellent platform for making money
• What the Fulfilled by Amazon program is and how it works
• Why it’s to your advantage to use Amazon FBA to sell stuff on Amazon.com
• The benefits of Amazon fulfillment over other Amazon selling options
• 4 different ways to sell products on Amazon
• How to know if your items will make a profit
• Things you’ll need to get started
• How much money you can make selling with Amazon FBA
• The top rated online course that has created thousands of successful Amazon sellers.

What is Selling on Amazon?

Selling merchandise on Amazon is a lot like starting your own online store, but easier.It’s easier because:

• You don’t have to build and maintain your own website.
• You don’t have to physically handle and ship products if you don’t want to.
• Amazon has millions of customers searching for products to buy every day!
• You can easily learn everything you need to know with this incredibly thorough online course and community. It's the same one I used to get started!

Basically, you set up your own online store on the Amazon platform and sell whatever you like.

Of course, you have to follow their rules since you’re using their platform. But all in all, the benefits far outweigh any hassles. They want you to succeed, because when you do well, so does Amazon!

Different Ways to Sell on Amazon

There are a couple of different ways you can sell products on Amazon. The main difference between the two is who actually fulfills the order for the customer.

Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)

Fulfilled by Amazon is the most convenient (and most popular) option.Amazon fulfillment services provides the manpower and storage for your inventory so you don’t have to. It's the method I've used to make money on Amazon, and I believe it's the easiest too.

You send your inventory to Amazon’s warehouses where they store it for you. When a customer places an order, Amazon ships the items for you. Using Amazon FBA has huge advantages:

• You don’t have to store any physical inventory yourself.
• You don’t have to do any shipping to the customer- Amazon does it for you!
• Your orders are fulfilled quicker, resulting in a happier customer!
• Amazon handles customer service, such as returns, complaints, and other problems that may arise.

Of course you’ll pay fees for this service, but generally it’s worth it.

Merchant Fulfilled

Merchant fulfilled means that you fill the orders yourself. You will need to store your own inventory, pack each order, and make sure the items get shipped on time. Of course, that’s more time consuming and not as scalable as using Amazon’s fulfillment services. You will pay less fees by fulfilling orders yourself, but with less fees comes more effort on your part.

Why would you want to take the time to fill and ship orders (or hire staff to do it for you) when you can use that time and effort more wisely to expand your business?

Related Content: How to Start a Work from Home Business with Amazon- 5 Profitable Ways to Do It

How Does Selling Stuff With Amazon FBA Work?

So how does the Fulfilled by Amazon program work? Well, in its simplest form, there are a couple of ways you can do it:

• Box and send your products in bulk to Amazon FBA. They will store your inventory, fulfill your orders, and ship them to the customer. Amazon provides shipping labels and everything you need (this is my preferred method). This is how I do it. It's actually pretty easy once you get a few shipments under your belt!
• Have your products sent to a packing service. They will prep your items and send them to Amazon for a fee. You never have to touch any physical inventory.
• Have your wholesaler ship the products you want to sell directly to Amazon. Then Amazon will fulfill and ship orders for you.

Below I’ll show you in more detail how to get started and cover some of the intricacies of setting things up. But before I do that, let’s talk about how and where to source your products.

4 Ways to Sell Products on Amazon

Retail Arbitrage- Buy Discounted Items From Retailers and Resell Them

Some Amazon shop owners buy closeouts and other heavily discounted items from retailers and resell them at regular retail price. Of course, you’ll need to spend a lot of time and effort to find and purchase these products.

You’ll typically need to get them at a 75% discount (or more) off of Amazon's prices to make a profit reselling them.This technique is called retail arbitrage.

This is the technique I use to make money on Amazon. I purchase certain items at a discount store at a very cheap price ($1.25), and resell them on Amazon where customers are willing to buy them for $8-$10 each. After fees I make 75-100% profit on each item!

Buy Products from Manufacturers and Distributors to Resell

One of the more popular ways to sell on Amazon is to buy products directly from manufacturers and resell them. Here’s how it works:

1. Set up a relationship with a manufacturer or their distributor. It’s easy to do on sites such as Alibaba.com, or you can do a Google search to find a distributor you like.
2. Pick the products you want.
3. Buy the products.
4. Pack and send your products to Amazon.
5. List your products for sale on Amazon.
6. The customer buys your product.
7. Amazon processes the order, then picks, packs, and ships it to the customer.
8. You make money!

Sell Used Stuff

Believe it or not, you can also sell used items on Amazon. Whether it’s used clothing, electronics, or antiques, used items usually sell very well! You can find several sources for used merchandise:

• Old stuff you have around the house
• Open box or overstock items you purchase at a low price to resell
• Garage sales
• Estate sales

It doesn’t really matter where you get your inventory, you can use the Fulfilled by Amazon service or Merchant Fulfill to move these items rather quickly.

Sell Handmade Arts and Crafts

If you’re an artist or crafter you can sell your creations on Handmade at Amazon. Think of it as an alternative to Etsy with a much bigger customer base. Your products will need to meet certain specs in order to sell on their platform, but it’s a good place to get your products into the marketplace.

You can find out more about Handmade at Amazon here.

Create an Amazon Seller Account

Of course, to get stared you have to set up an Amazon Seller account. You’ll need to provide your standard information along with your bank info for automatic deposits. Once you sign up, you can start selling fairly quickly

You can sign up to be an Amazon Seller Here

Start Selling on Amazon FBA

Once you get signed up here’s what the process of selling looks like:

1. Find a product (or products) you want to sell on Amazon
2. List the product on Amazon.com- your product will not go “live” at this point
3. Prep your items to be sent to Amazon’s warehouses
4. Ship your merchandise to Amazon’s warehouses using shipping labels you generate in your Amazon Seller account.
5. Your items arrive at Amazon. They unpack and store your inventory for you until it sells.
6. Then your product goes live on Amazon.com
7. Your product will be featured as being available for Prime shipping
8. The customer places an order for your merchandise
9. Amazon employees pick and ship your items to the customer
10. Your customer receives the product. If they are a Prime member they’ll receive it in two days!
11. If there are any issues (returns, wrong items, etc.), Amazon handles those for you.
12. You make money!

How to Calculate If Your Item Will Make a Profit

It’s pretty easy to find out if what you’re selling will be profitable before you start selling it. There are a couple of great apps called Scoutify and Keepa that can help you with that.

All you have to do is scan the barcode for each item you want to sell with your smartphone, then input your cost for that item.

These apps display the product page for that item so you can see what price it’s selling for on Amazon. You’ll also see how many other sellers are selling that item, and calculate how much profit you’ll be able to make, along with tons of other helpful info to help you make a decision.

If the profits are small or nonexistent, you’ll do better finding something else to sell.

Things You’ll Need to Get Started

You don’t need much to get started. Most of these are things you probably already have. Here’s a short list:

• smartphone
• computer
• printer
• shipping tape
• boxes
• labels
• a scale

As your business grows, you may need additional tools to help the process run more efficiently. But for now, this short list is all you need.

How Much Money Can You Make Selling With Amazon Fulfillment Services?

It's pretty easy to make a modest side income with Amazon FBA. But if you want to put in more time and effort, the sky’s the limit! This is an especially good way to make money as a single mom or stay at home parent, as you can set your own hours.

There are thousands upon thousands of people who make their living selling on Amazon. Over time, you can scale up to a seven figure business with the right amount of effort and a good mix of products!

I did a Google search for Amazon FBA success stories- you can check them out here

The Proven Amazon Course

If you're still a little unsure about how to get started with Amazon FBA, have no fear! There is an incredibly thorough, highly respected online course and community that can help. It's the one I used to get started and I recommend it wholeheartedly!

It's called the Proven Amazon Course– PAC for short. PAC has created thousands of successful Amazon sellers during the decade plus it's been available. It's incredibly thorough, extremely supportive, community based way to create an Amazon business. PAC is also extremely affordable. It's easily the most comprehensive course available, with everything you need for beginners all the way to advanced techniques all contained in one course.

Check out the Proven Amazon Course here.

Amazon FBA- a Great Way to Make Money!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- now is the best time in the history of the world to start your own business! It has never been easier or cheaper to sell to literally billions of people across the world!

So if you’re looking for a good way to make some extra money or even a full time living, selling on Amazon FBA is a great way to do it!

Question: Have you ever tried selling on Amazon? What was your experience? Leave a comment on our Facebook Page or below and tell us about it!