So as we know, black folks as a group are the least likely to enter legitimate forms of entrepreneurship...and that thread about blacks with degrees making less than HS dropout cacs kind of hurt me to read...so I decided to make a Q&A thread about a sweet side hustle I've been into, which is selling goods via Amazon's Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program.
What Is FBA?
FBA is basically the process of sending goods to Amazon's fulfillment centers across the country, and letting them store the goods and send them out to customers. Amazon keeps about one dollar for every three dollars you generate via these sold goods. It might sound like a lot, but goods sell faster via FBA than they do via Merchant-Fulfilled (you packing/shipping the orders yourself) and outsourcing storage/shipping is a huge advantage when you're generating multiple orders a day.
Why Sell on Amazon via FBA?
Amazon is either the #1 or #2 seller of retail goods in the country, with millions of unique users coming through their site daily. The huge amounts of traffic they generate are neigh-impossible to match as an independent seller which for the most part offsets the fees they take and your $40/mo subscription fee to sell as a Pro on Amazon. Oftentimes people will pay a premium to get something from Amazon because they'll get it quickly and they might not have the product available to them locally.
The fact that you can send products en masse off to Amazon and they'll take care of (almost all) the rest is a huge advantage, especially to people with limited space or if you just don't want a bunch of lightbulbs, lunchboxes, coffee filters etc stacked up in your house.
Where Do You Get The Goods And How Do You Know What Will Sell?
You can get the goods damn near anywhere. Target, Walmart, Ross, the grocery store, anywhere. The best places to source products in my humble opinion are liquidation stores but not everyone has access to those. You use a scanning app on your smartphone (my preferred one is Profit Bandit which costs $10/mo but there are several, including Amazon's 'free' Seller App for Pro Seller accounts) to check barcodes. If the item has a good sales rank and leaves margin for profit, you've got a good buy.
If you're really about that life you can buy whole lots of unsold consumer goods but that's only when you're ready to drop $1000s on merchandise.
Why Don't More People Do This?
A lot of people are simply terrified at the prospect of putting their own money up to make money back. You're going to have success if you keep at it, but you're also inevitably going to buy bad products that don't sell, Amazon might come in and Debo you out of being the only one selling your product by selling it themselves, and customers are going to return shyt every once in a while. There is risk involved with any business venture and if you're risk-averse and only comfortable getting money from a job, this ain't for you. I don't want anyone coming back in this thread after only putting up $20 on merch and bytching at me that they lost money.
For those of you who don't mind taking a leap of faith and you believe in your own hustle, Amazon FBA is a minimally risky way to get started.
I probably left out a bunch of shyt so if anyone has questions for the next couple hours I'll be around to answer them.
What Is FBA?
FBA is basically the process of sending goods to Amazon's fulfillment centers across the country, and letting them store the goods and send them out to customers. Amazon keeps about one dollar for every three dollars you generate via these sold goods. It might sound like a lot, but goods sell faster via FBA than they do via Merchant-Fulfilled (you packing/shipping the orders yourself) and outsourcing storage/shipping is a huge advantage when you're generating multiple orders a day.
Why Sell on Amazon via FBA?
Amazon is either the #1 or #2 seller of retail goods in the country, with millions of unique users coming through their site daily. The huge amounts of traffic they generate are neigh-impossible to match as an independent seller which for the most part offsets the fees they take and your $40/mo subscription fee to sell as a Pro on Amazon. Oftentimes people will pay a premium to get something from Amazon because they'll get it quickly and they might not have the product available to them locally.
The fact that you can send products en masse off to Amazon and they'll take care of (almost all) the rest is a huge advantage, especially to people with limited space or if you just don't want a bunch of lightbulbs, lunchboxes, coffee filters etc stacked up in your house.
Where Do You Get The Goods And How Do You Know What Will Sell?
You can get the goods damn near anywhere. Target, Walmart, Ross, the grocery store, anywhere. The best places to source products in my humble opinion are liquidation stores but not everyone has access to those. You use a scanning app on your smartphone (my preferred one is Profit Bandit which costs $10/mo but there are several, including Amazon's 'free' Seller App for Pro Seller accounts) to check barcodes. If the item has a good sales rank and leaves margin for profit, you've got a good buy.
If you're really about that life you can buy whole lots of unsold consumer goods but that's only when you're ready to drop $1000s on merchandise.
Why Don't More People Do This?
A lot of people are simply terrified at the prospect of putting their own money up to make money back. You're going to have success if you keep at it, but you're also inevitably going to buy bad products that don't sell, Amazon might come in and Debo you out of being the only one selling your product by selling it themselves, and customers are going to return shyt every once in a while. There is risk involved with any business venture and if you're risk-averse and only comfortable getting money from a job, this ain't for you. I don't want anyone coming back in this thread after only putting up $20 on merch and bytching at me that they lost money.
For those of you who don't mind taking a leap of faith and you believe in your own hustle, Amazon FBA is a minimally risky way to get started.
I probably left out a bunch of shyt so if anyone has questions for the next couple hours I'll be around to answer them.
op
