Guest post from Jessica of TheSellingFamily.com
Five years ago, I had a dream that I would be able to retire my husband from the job that he hated. Little did I know that in less than 2 years of setting that goal, it would actually come true.
You see, I was laid off from the same company he was working for… but instead of finding another job, I replaced my income by selling new and used goods on eBay.
It was a blast! I would go to yard sales and hunt for deals that could be resold for a profit.
There was a problem though, it wasn't scalable. I got to where I was making around $1,500 in profit each month… but, in order to bring my husband home, I needed to make more than that.
I went on a hunt for a different way to run my new business and made a couple changes…
This was a game-changer for my business. It meant that Amazon's employees would handle all of the customer support and order processing for the items I was selling.
This saved me a lot of time everyday because I no longer had to ship out 10+ orders on my own.
I was also storing my products at the Amazon fulfillment centers so I wasn't even limited by space in my office anymore!
I started buying products from regular drug stores on clearance and reselling them on Amazon.
I would go to places like CVS and Rite Aid weekly to see what new items had gone to 75% off.
I have an app on my phone called "Amazon Seller" that I can use to scan the barcode of a product and the app will tell me how much that item is selling for on Amazon, and even calculate out how much I would make on it after fees.
I could buy things like Norelco Electric Razors for $25 and resell them for $75 or more. When I found deals like this at one store, I would head to other locations of the same store and look for those same items.
I would also find lots of vitamins or lotions for $5 that I could resell for $15 or more. The key is just finding the items that sell for more than the clearance price, and have room for profit after my cost and expenses.
Less than a year after switching to the Amazon FBA system and buying my "inventory" from clearance aisles, my husband was finally able to join our son and I at home! We now have a thriving business selling products on Amazon and earning more than $3,000 a month in profit (we earned over $30,000 just in November/December!)
If you are a fan of bargain shopping, selling on Amazon could be a great way for you to add an extra income stream for your family.
Want to give it a try?
I often recommend that people interested in selling on Amazon get started with products that they have around their own homes. It's always surprising how many brand new products we have in our possession that don't get used for one reason or another.
Take a look in your board game closet, kitchen cupboards, and baby closets to see what things you never ended up using! Hey, even check out that coupon stockpile if you have one!
Bring any of those new items to your computer and look for them on Amazon.com. See how much they are selling for. If they are selling for more than $15, send them into the warehouse and test the waters.
Many people find that they have a few hundred dollars worth of things that could be sold on Amazon. I personally recommend just focusing on brand new items for all categories except for books. If you have gently used books you can send those in as used as well.
Here are 8 quick steps to help you get started:
1. Check your house for new items that could possibly be resold on Amazon. Unloved Christmas gifts, birthday presents, "gift closet items", board games that looked fun but never got played, etc.
2. Bring those items up on Amazon.com and see which ones are selling for $15 or more. Remember, this is all just seed money, so it isn't necessarily about how much more you can sell them for versus what you paid. You just want to get your feet wet and understand the process.
3. Sign up for a free Amazon Seller Account.
4. List those items for sale in your new seller account. Choose Fulfillment By Amazon as your fulfillment option. Use the current price on Amazon to decide how much to sell yours for.
5. Send those products to Amazon so they can handle the rest for you. (You will create a shipment inside of your seller account, and Amazon will tell you where to send those items. You will need a box, packing tape, address labels and a printer for this part.)
6. Once your items are checked in to the warehouses, you will get notified that your items are "live" and for sale.
7. After your items are sold and shipped to the customer, you will get an email letting you know that they have shipped.
8. Now it's time to CELEBRATE!!
Not so bad right?
For a more visual idea of what you will be doing in this process, you can check out this post about getting started as an Amazon FBA seller. You can also sign up here to get 3 free videos on how to get started started selling on Amazon.
This post was written by Jessica Larrew of TheSellingFamily.com. That is where she and her husband share about their journey of selling on Amazon to make a full time income, working part time hours. They also help Amazon entrepreneurs build successful and profitable businesses for themselves.
