Amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) is one of the hottest side hustles going. It allows you to tap into Amazon’s massive audience of buyers on the front end, AND their world class logistics network on the back end.
Amazon FBA business models generally fall into one of two categories:
This model relies on finding undervalued merchandise locally or online, and flipping it for a profit on Amazon. It could be books, toys, tools, electronics, anything really.
It’s super easy to get started; all you need is a free Amazon seller account and to download their free seller app to your phone. Then, when you’re out shopping, stop by the clearance aisle to scan a few barcodes and see what the items are going for online.
The app will tell you your estimated profit after fees and also the sales rank of the item in the category. My general rule is if I can double my money and the sales rank is less than 100,000, I’ll go ahead and buy it.
I’ve made a few hundred dollars doing this in my spare time.
The next stage that many people get into with Amazon FBA is importing and private labeling their own products. This is a little more research intensive and capital intensive; you’ve got to have an eye for figuring out which products will sell and then have the cash to manufacture them.
Some friends and Side Hustle Show guests have built pretty serious businesses following this model, and I invite you to explore some of their stories and tips in the archives here.
John Cavendish of FBA Frontiers started his FBA business three years ago and has become an advocate for the e-commerce and FBA scene in Europe.
If you already have experience with Amazon FBA in the US, expanding into Europe is easier than you’re probably thinking and opens up a much wider customer base.
Dan Meadors is one-half of TheWholesaleFormula.com. He and his partner Eric Lambert began selling on Amazon as a hobby with an original investment of only $600.
They would work nights and weekends buying products on clearance at local retail stores and selling them on Amazon for profit.
It took only a few months before they saw the potential to turn this hobby into a business and they both left their day jobs to sell on Amazon full-time.
As a private label seller on Amazon, Andy has seen his revenue grow from $400k in year one, to $900k in year two, and he is closing in on $1.8 million for year three!
I last spoke with Andy Slamans on episode 84 of The Side Hustle Show back in late 2014. At that time, he was wrapping up his first year as a full-time Amazon seller. Today he and his partner Liran (also a 7-figure Amazon seller) join me to discuss what’s working on Amazon NOW in terms of product research and marketing.
“Find a hot trend and piggyback on it,” Toni Anderson told me.
And that’s exactly what she did in launching her ecommerce business last year in the jewelry niche. It’s not just generic jewelry, but jewelry designed to specifically ride on the “essential oils” trend.
Toni said 90% of her business comes through Amazon vs. her own storefront, but that she and her partner did $190k in sales in their first 7 months!
A few people have been asking for an update on my Amazon FBA efforts, so here goes!
The bottom line is that this side hustle has been profitable, but not by a lifestyle-changing amount.
So far, I’ve only focused on local clearance arbitrage, with my best finds being from Walmart, Home Depot, Office Depot, and Babies ‘R Us.
I’m happy to introduce Greg Mercer, who is the go-to guy for Amazon product research.
His own ecommerce empire has grown to $400k per month in revenue — yes, per month — and he’s the founder of the popular Jungle Scout software tool that helps make the product research process faster and easier.
In this call we dive into his specific sales criteria and next steps in evaluating a product’s profit potential and how to bring it to market on Amazon.
Assad’s a Finance Director by day so he’s got some street cred when it came to offering consulting, and quickly built that business up to around $1000 a month.
In April, he mentioned he’d also started selling products on Amazon FBA using the clearance arbitrage model Travis Scott shared on the show. Nine months later, that little experiment had grown into a six-figure side hustle.
Check out our conversation to learn how it happened.
We’ve heard of niche sites seeing success with AdSense or Amazon Associates income, or even with selling private advertising, but Jon Haws took a completely different approach.
Since last November, Jon has masterfully experimented with 5 different avenues and built up a huge email list. All told, these different channels — that didn’t even exist a year and a half ago — are earning more than $20,000 a month!
If you’re looking at a niche or authority business and need some new ideas on how to serve your audience, this is a can’t miss episode.
We’ve covered Kindle publishing in a variety of ways on The Side Hustle Show in the past, and it’s one of my favorite side hustles.
But one area of frustration, at least for me, is that for all the effort put into writing, editing, publishing, and launching the book, it’s still tough to sustain sales for long periods of time.
My guest this week has a way to keep moving units month after month, and it works for both books AND physical products (for all you FBA sellers out there).
I was really excited to sit down with Travis Scott from StuffParentsLike.com to share his success with the Amazon FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) clearance arbitrage business, and also to get his insight since I just started playing around with this side hustle myself.
Travis has seen impressive results with Amazon, netting $25,000 so far this year through July, in addition to his full-time job and duties as a dad.
You may remember Travis from a guest post he contributed on his FBA adventures last year.
