Whether you want to earn some extra cash with a side hustle or start a full-time ecommerce business, you have many options when it comes to making money with Amazon. This post covers different methods for selling products in the Amazon store, as well as other strategies.
You can try some of these ideas without selling anything. Others might not require much upfront investment or inventory. With the right strategy, you can hit your profit goals.
- Specialize in one product or choose a niche
- Sell refurbished products
- Sell customizable products
- Sell handmade products
- Create and distribute merch
- Try reselling
- Source wholesale
- Team up with a dropshipper
- Earn passive income through affiliate marketing
- Be an influencer
- Try Amazon Live
We launched our business straight out of the gate with Amazon and went from about $20K to $30K a month all the way to $130K a month. Mind blown!
1. Specialize in one product or choose a niche
Some sellers prefer to start by driving sales for a single product, while others like to diversify and offer a variety of different product types. Starting with one product or a few offerings in a single niche can help you focus your efforts and give you insights you can apply when you want to scale. In terms of strategy, here are some considerations:
- Inventory management: How much volume do you expect to move?
- Demand: Is there an audience for what you want to sell? What’s the competition like?
- Price points and margins: Will you be able to turn a profit after covering all your expenses?
To find the right balance for how to make money on Amazon and get some inspiration, explore our guide to business ideas, which covers models that can require little investment and allow you to work from home.
2. Sell refurbished products
You can list new products for sale in the Amazon store, and in some cases you can also sell repaired, refurbished, or pre-owned products through Amazon Renewed. This program allows you to perform testing, get certifications, and ship products backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee, which can help you earn the trust of loyal customers. Phones, cameras, and power tools are examples of products that are often eligible.
3. Sell customizable products
Some customers are looking for products they can customize with their own text, images, or logos. The Amazon Custom program supports customization of logos, images, and other types of configurations. Examples include engraving, embroidering, printing, and painting.
4. Sell handcrafted products
If you’re a pro at sewing, woodworking, or another skill, you can turn your passion into an ecommerce business. Amazon Handmade is an online community for makers who want to sell unique goods. This program comes along with a fee waiver for a Professional selling plan, plus other perks for artists and creatives who want to share their work with the world.
My dream was always to expose Latin American artisans to markets they wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. When I decided to launch on Amazon, things skyrocketed. I’m very happy to be able to share my products with the world.
5. Create and distribute merch
Maybe you have a great idea for a funny T-shirt or another type of merchandise. Bring your ideas to life with Amazon’s Merch on Demand. This program allows you to design apparel and accessories and sell them on a print-on-demand basis, so you don’t have to manage inventory, printing, or shipping. Products print after each sale and can ship through Amazon Prime.
If you want to offer audiobooks, check out the Audiobook Creation Exchange, which you can use to produce your own audiobooks and sell them through Audible.
6. Try reselling
Reselling is an ecommerce method where you procure products from various sources, then sell them directly to customers for a profit. You might hear about two different kinds of reselling: retail arbitrage and online arbitrage. With retail arbitrage, you source from retailers. With online arbitrage, you get products from online sources.
Note that some forms of reselling aren’t permitted in the Amazon store, but reselling can be lucrative if you find high-quality products, maintain high customer satisfaction rates, and follow applicable policies for success. Learn more about reselling, including how to find your pricing sweet spot and get customer reviews.
7. Source wholesale
Wholesale supply gives you the ability to buy large quantities of a product at a discount and potentially turn a profit by selling the goods to customers at a markup. If you want to move lots of inventory, wholesale selling could be for you. You can work with a manufacturer or another type of wholesaler to get products into the hands of as many customers as possible.
8. Team up with a dropshipper
Dropshipping might be a good sales model for your business if you don’t want to store or handle inventory yourself. To outsource storage, packing, shipping, returns, or customer service, work with a reliable dropshipper who can take care of these tasks on your behalf. A dropshipper might be a manufacturer, another type of supplier, or a print-on-demand specialist who can send products in response to customer orders. Learn more about how dropshipping can work in the Amazon store.
9. Earn passive income through affiliate marketing
You don’t need to sell products to make money with Amazon. One alternative option is Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, Amazon Associates, which lets you monetize traffic through social media, blogs, and other channels. Recommend products for sale in the Amazon store and earn up to 10% in associate commissions from qualifying purchases.
10. Be an influencer
Do you have an online following or want to build one? Harness the power of online channels like social media to become an influential thought leader by focusing on a specialty and growing your networks. The Amazon Influencer program can help you monetize your skills and passions by creating content, recommending Amazon products, and earning commissions on qualifying purchases.
11. Try Amazon Live
Take customer engagement to a whole new level with Amazon Live—an online shopping destination where you can livestream events, announce product launches, and connect with your audience in real time. The livestream format can give customers a chance to ask questions, receive personalized product recommendations, and share authentic interactions with the businesses and brands they love.
9 Amazon strategies to help you scale
1. Register your brand
As you look to increase revenue, you might consider building your own brand. Trademarking products and developing a brand can be a big step, but it can help you stand out from the competition and earn customer loyalty.
If you’re interested in going this route, check out Amazon Brand Registry—a free program to help you build and protect your brand. Brand Registry also makes you eligible to access to a suite of tools to help optimize and scale your business.
2. Advertise digitally
Digital marketing techniques like cost-per-click (CPC) ads and coupons can help a wider audience discover products and learn about your offerings. Check out our guide to ecommerce marketing for strategies and tips to expand your reach and grow your business.
3. Run experiments
Wouldn’t it be great if you could find out what type of content resonates the most with your audience? With Amazon’s Manage Your Experiments tool, you can compare different versions of a product title, image, or other parts of a listing to see what drives the most sales. Then, based on the data for views, conversions, and other metrics, you can optimize your product listings by publishing the winning content.
4. Make optimizations
You can improve product descriptions, photos, keywords, and other types of content with search engine optimization (SEO) for enhanced visibility and higher conversion rates. Learn how to use SEO best practices to help products rank in search results.
5. Outsource fulfillment
Another way many sellers find success in ecommerce is by using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to ship orders to customers. FBA lets you outsource order fulfillment to Amazon and offer customers free, two-day shipping through Prime. Once you send your inventory to our fulfillment network, we’ll handle picking, packing, shipping, customer service, and returns for your orders. The program can help you streamline your operations and reach more customers both domestically and around the globe.
6. Bundle products
In the Amazon store, registered brands with products enrolled in FBA can group and sell multiple products on a single product detail page by creating virtual bundles. This can be a great way to increase conversions and average order volumes by helping customers discover more products in your catalog.
7. Expand internationally
If you want to reach customers in different countries and regions, check out our guide to global selling for an overview of tools and resources for making sales across international borders.
8. Create A+ Content
Bring your products to life with A+ Content by adding videos, enhanced images, shoppable product-comparison charts, and more to your product detail pages. You can use this tool to enhance your listings, drive brand awareness, encourage repeat purchases, and increase sales.
9. Use automation
You can make use of ecommerce automation for setting prices, managing inventory, and other essentials. Save time and simplify time-consuming tasks like analytics reporting to keep your business running smoothly.
We’re looking at two times revenue every year—the business doubling yearly . . . That’s pretty exciting growth!
Start making money with Amazon
Amazon offers a variety of ways to earn a profit, whether you want to start small or are ready to establish your own brand. We also offer several programs and tools to help you get started selling and scale your business when you’re ready.
So if you’re ready to take the leap into the world of ecommerce, start by taking your first step with Amazon.
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$39.99 a month + selling fees
