Amazon FBA For Beginners (Step by Step Tutorial)

Summary

In this comprehensive tutorial, Nate walks viewers through the process of selling with Amazon FBA in 2021. He emphasizes that no expensive courses are required and offers practical, step-by-step advice for beginners. The video covers essential topics such as product research, sourcing, and listing optimization. Nate highlights the importance of gradual growth, avoiding get-rich-quick schemes, and understanding the pros and cons of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) versus Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). He also shares strategies for finding high-demand, low-competition products, and offers tips for effective listing and competitive pricing.

Takeaways

• 📚 This tutorial is an introductory guide to selling products using Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), aiming to provide comprehensive information without selling any courses or pitches.
• 🚀 Amazon FBA is emphasized as a viable business opportunity in 2021, but it's not a get-rich-quick scheme; it requires time and gradual building of experience.
• 🔍 The importance of finding products with high demand and low supply is highlighted, suggesting the use of tools like Jungle Scout for product research and demand analysis.
• 🛍️ The difference between FBA and FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) is explained, with the former being more popular but more expensive due to Amazon's fees.
• 📈 The 'Rule of Thirds' is introduced as a strategy to estimate costs, Amazon fees, and profit margins when pricing a product for sale.
• 🔑 The process of sourcing products involves using platforms like Alibaba to connect with manufacturers or trading companies, with an emphasis on the benefits of dealing directly with manufacturers.
• 🔍 A detailed walkthrough of using Jungle Scout's 'Opportunity Finder' is provided to illustrate how to find potential products to sell on Amazon.
• 📦 The tutorial touches on the logistics of shipping products to Amazon, including the options of sea freight for lower costs or air freight for faster delivery.
• 🏷️ The necessity of having an FNSKU barcode for Amazon to fulfill orders is mentioned, which is important for product tracking and fulfillment.
• 📝 The video script underscores the significance of creating a compelling product listing with keyword-rich titles, detailed descriptions, and high-quality images to improve conversion rates.
• 💬 Engaging with customers through prompt response to questions and encouraging reviews is presented as crucial for building trust and improving the product's visibility on Amazon.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the tutorial presented by Nate?

The main purpose of the tutorial is to provide a step-by-step guide on how to sell with Amazon FBA without selling any courses or making any pitches.

Why does Nate emphasize that Amazon FBA is not a get-rich-quick scheme?

Nate emphasizes this because he wants to set realistic expectations, highlighting that success on Amazon FBA requires time, effort, and learning from experiences rather than expecting immediate wealth.

What does Nate suggest as an alternative to jumping into Amazon FBA full time right away?

Nate suggests starting with a side project, gradually building up over time, and learning from experiences as the best approach to begin with Amazon FBA.

What is the difference between Amazon FBA and FBM?

Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) means that Amazon handles the shipping and storage of products, while FBM (Fulfillment by Merchant) means the seller handles the shipping and storage themselves.

Why might a seller choose FBM over FBA?

A seller might choose FBM to save on fees associated with FBA, as they can handle the shipping and storage themselves, although this might require more effort and potentially result in fewer sales due to the lack of Prime shipping benefits.

What is the recommended minimum average monthly sales volume for a product to be considered for selling on Amazon?

Nate suggests considering products with at least 100 units sold per month to ensure there is enough demand to make selling the product worthwhile.

What is Jungle Scout and how does it help in the Amazon FBA process?

Jungle Scout is a software tool that helps Amazon sellers identify potential products to sell by providing data on average monthly sales, price, reviews, and an opportunity score, which can assist in finding products with good profit margins and less competition.

What is the 'rule of thirds' mentioned by Nate, and how is it used in the context of Amazon FBA?

The 'rule of thirds' is a guideline where one third of the product's price goes towards the cost of the product, another third towards Amazon fees, and the final third is the profit. It helps in estimating the potential profitability of a product on Amazon.

Why is it important to order samples from multiple manufacturers or trading companies on Alibaba?

Ordering samples from multiple sources allows a seller to compare product quality, prices, and service levels before deciding on a supplier for their Amazon FBA business, ensuring they choose the best option for their needs.

What are some strategies to get a new product to the top of Amazon search results and start selling?

Two strategies mentioned are using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to get the product noticed and potentially losing money initially to gain reviews and credibility, or undercutting the competition's prices temporarily to gain market share and reviews before raising the price.

What is the significance of having a good listing on Amazon, and what are some elements of a strong listing?

A good listing can increase visibility and sales. Key elements include a title with relevant keywords, a detailed description with bullet points, high-quality images (including a white background main photo), fast response to questions, and a focus on gathering positive reviews.

How can a seller leverage the 'Frequently Bought Together' feature on Amazon?

A seller can create a bundled product offering items that are often bought together, potentially at a discounted price, to attract customers looking for a complete set or package deal, which can also improve sales and reviews.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Amazon FBA and Tutorial Overview

Nate introduces himself and the tutorial, emphasizing that there are no hidden costs or courses to buy. He stresses that Amazon FBA is still viable in 2021 and offers a comprehensive beginner's guide. The importance of taking notes and the long-term nature of the business are highlighted, cautioning viewers against expecting quick riches. Nate encourages building the business gradually while managing other commitments.

05:00

🔍 Understanding Amazon FBA vs. FBM

Nate explains the differences between Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). FBA allows Amazon to handle shipping, potentially increasing sales due to Prime eligibility but comes with higher fees. FBM might save on fees but usually results in fewer sales due to the lack of Prime shipping. He advises opting for FBA if margins allow and outlines the process of finding products with high demand and low supply.

10:01

🛒 Finding and Researching Products

Nate discusses strategies for finding profitable products to sell on Amazon. He recommends using software like Jungle Scout to analyze product opportunities instead of guessing. By examining metrics like average price, monthly sales, and competition, sellers can identify viable products. He emphasizes not to rely on personal preferences but on market demand and profitability.

15:02

🏷️ Selecting Categories and Setting Criteria

Nate guides viewers on selecting product categories and setting criteria for product research. He suggests targeting categories like home and kitchen, setting filters for monthly units sold and price ranges. Products priced between $10 and $80 are ideal for balancing profitability and market demand. Competition and seasonality are also considered to avoid saturated markets and capitalize on timely opportunities.

20:02

📦 Sourcing Products from Alibaba

Nate demonstrates how to use Alibaba to source products, distinguishing between manufacturers and trading companies. He advises ordering samples from multiple suppliers to compare quality and price. By negotiating with manufacturers, sellers can find the best deals and avoid middlemen. The importance of the rule of thirds for pricing is also explained to ensure profitability after accounting for costs and Amazon fees.

25:05

🚢 Shipping Options and Considerations

Nate outlines the two primary shipping methods: by sea and by air. Shipping by sea is cheaper but slower, while air shipping is faster but more expensive. He highlights the need for FNSKU barcodes for Amazon fulfillment and suggests planning shipping timelines carefully. He also touches on the Amazon seller plans, recommending the professional plan for those selling more than a dozen products.

30:07

📝 Creating Effective Listings

Nate discusses best practices for creating Amazon listings, including keyword stuffing in titles and detailed descriptions with bullet points. He suggests using professional photos, including lifestyle images, to improve conversion rates. He also explains the importance of reviews and how to encourage them ethically. Additionally, he advises on bundling products frequently bought together to create attractive offers.

35:08

📈 Launching and Promoting Your Product

Nate introduces two strategies for promoting new products: pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and price undercutting. PPC can drive initial visibility but may not be profitable initially. Undercutting competitors' prices can quickly generate sales and reviews, but sellers should be cautious of triggering price wars. He recommends temporarily lowering prices to build a sales history and reviews before gradually increasing them.

Keywords

💡Amazon FBA

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service where Amazon stores, picks, packs, and ships products on behalf of sellers. This concept is central to the video as the tutorial focuses on teaching viewers how to sell products using Amazon FBA. It highlights the convenience and reach Amazon provides to sellers.

💡Product Sourcing

Product sourcing involves finding and acquiring products to sell on Amazon. In the video, this process includes identifying products with high demand and low supply, finding manufacturers or trading companies, and negotiating prices. Sourcing is crucial as it directly impacts profitability and marketability.

💡Jungle Scout

Jungle Scout is a software tool used for Amazon product research. It provides data on sales, competition, and profitability of products. The video emphasizes its importance in identifying viable products to sell, thereby reducing the guesswork in product selection.

💡Private Labeling

Private labeling refers to sourcing products from manufacturers and selling them under a unique brand name. The video discusses how private labeling can help build a recognizable brand and potentially increase profit margins by adding value to generic products.

💡FBA Fees

FBA fees are charges Amazon imposes for storing, picking, packing, and shipping products. The video explains that while FBA can save time and increase sales, it involves various fees that sellers must account for to maintain profitability.

💡Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing involves including multiple relevant keywords in product titles and descriptions to improve search visibility on Amazon. The video suggests this technique to enhance product listings, making them more likely to appear in search results and attract buyers.

💡Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is an advertising model where sellers pay each time their ad is clicked. The video discusses using PPC campaigns to boost product visibility and initial sales on Amazon, helping new listings gain traction and reviews.

💡Alibaba

Alibaba is an online marketplace for sourcing products directly from manufacturers, primarily in China. The video describes using Alibaba to find and negotiate with suppliers, highlighting it as a key platform for product sourcing in Amazon FBA.

💡Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a pricing strategy where one-third of the product's sale price covers the cost of goods, one-third covers Amazon's fees, and one-third is profit. The video mentions this rule to help viewers determine if a product is financially viable to sell on Amazon.

💡Product Bundling

Product bundling involves combining multiple related items into a single package for sale. The video suggests this strategy to increase the value proposition for customers and differentiate listings from competitors, potentially boosting sales.

Highlights

Nate's tutorial promises a step-by-step guide on selling with Amazon FBA without any sales pitches or expensive courses.

Amazon FBA is very much alive in 2021, offering a beginner's guide with valuable information for newcomers.

The tutorial emphasizes the importance of note-taking for beginners to learn effectively about Amazon FBA.

Amazon FBA is presented as a long-term process rather than a get-rich-quick scheme.

Nate suggests starting Amazon FBA as a side business while maintaining other commitments.

The tutorial will cover finding products with high demand and low supply, a fundamental principle in economics.

Sourcing products and manufacturers will be discussed, including the difference between trading companies and manufacturers.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) are explained, with their respective pros and cons.

Jungle Scout software is recommended for finding products with good profit margins on Amazon.

The tutorial advises against selling products priced under $10 on Amazon due to slim profit margins.

The 'Opportunity Finder' feature in Jungle Scout is introduced for discovering potential products to sell.

The importance of not just selling products you're passionate about, but ones with good profit margins, is highlighted.

The tutorial explains how to use Jungle Scout to find new product opportunities and analyze market demand.

Sourcing products from Alibaba is discussed, including the process of ordering samples from manufacturers.

The 'Rule of Thirds' is introduced as a method to estimate product costs, Amazon fees, and potential profits.

Private labeling is presented as a strategy to build a brand and increase product value on Amazon.

The tutorial covers shipping options for products from manufacturers to Amazon, including sea and air freight.

Creating effective Amazon listings with keyword-rich titles, quality descriptions, and professional photos is discussed.

The importance of responding to questions and garnering positive reviews to boost sales on Amazon is emphasized.

Strategies for getting new products to the top of Amazon search results, including PPC and undercutting competition, are presented.

The tutorial concludes by advising viewers to avoid expensive courses and seek free information online.

Transcripts

hey everyone welcome to the channel my

name is nate and in this tutorial

i'm going to be showing you step-by-step

how to sell with

amazon fba now quick note here we're not

selling you anything there's no courses

there's no pitches

you don't have to worry about us going

through here and just telling you to buy

our like

thousand dollar course look the truth is

you don't have to spend any money

in order to learn how to do amazon fba

it's still very much alive and well

in 2021 and we're going to show you

everything that you need to know this is

a

beginner's guide on amazon fba we're

going to give you as much information as

possible

in this video so i recommend taking out

a pen

taking out a piece of paper taking some

notes on this video we'll leave some of

the show notes down below but like i

said

we have nothing here to sell you so just

enjoy this uh take some notes and i

think it's gonna be

of quite a bit of value for you so let's

get started here

uh but it's important to note as well

that this is not a get-rich-quick

type of idea uh while this is still very

much alive and well we know people who

are selling

hundreds of thousands of dollars worth

of products on amazon and we've done

this quite a bit ourselves

uh but this is not a get rich quick

scheme okay this is not something

that tomorrow you're going to wake up

and you're going to have 10 million

dollars

from selling products on amazon this is

very much a long process

so hopefully if you're watching this

video it's with my hopes

that maybe you already have a job or

you're already in school you already

have something going on

and what i want you to do is hopefully

start to do something like this

on the side right start to build it up

over time you start to learn from your

experiences

and this is the best way to go about

this rather than just trying to jump

into it full time right off the bat

but rather build up over time learn from

your experiences over time

launch one product then launch another

one then launch another one over the

course of the next couple of months

that's what we would suggest doing

rather than just hitting it

running and just going out and trying to

uh make a ton of money

within the next couple of weeks it's

gonna be really difficult to do that and

we don't to see

you lose your shirt uh by getting in

over your head too quickly

okay so let's start here uh but first of

all let's let's just discuss a couple of

things that we're looking at here

in in the big segments first of all

we're going to look at how to find

products we're going to talk a little

bit more about amazon fba and

essentially what it is

but then we're going to talk about how

to find products right how do you find

products that have

a lot of demand and not very much supply

i don't know if you've taken

any type of economics courses or or

studied economics but you'll know that

you want to be in the position where

there's not very much supply

but there's a lot of demand we'll show

you how to find those

different types of products there's a

couple of great techniques that we have

for that

and then we'll talk about how to

actually source those products right

how do we find the products that we can

then go sell how do we find

manufacturers

should we deal with trading companies

should we go straight to the

manufacturer how do we get that over to

america or wherever you're based in

and so we'll go over as much as we can

in regards to sourcing products

buying those products it sounds pretty

scary by maybe

ordering pallets of products from some

type of

country on the other side of the world

but it can actually be a lot easier and

simpler once you get the process rolling

so

if at any point you feel intimidated

from this just know that uh

it's going to take some time okay but

you take one step at a time you start to

build this knowledge

uh and and you really can't win with

this so

let's start off by understanding

fulfillment by amazon amazon fba that's

what it stands for

it's fulfillment by amazon now this is

the most popular route

for people who are selling on amazon

especially in 2021

there's also another option though if

you don't want it fulfilled by amazon

meaning that amazon is actually shipping

out the packages for you

you're not the one putting those

packages in the mail this is what you'll

see

with when people do amazon fba you'll

see this

prime option as well so they're shipping

out from their warehouses

you're just the seller so you're getting

a cut there

this is a great move for most people but

there's also something called

amazon fbm which is fulfillment by

merchant which is

essentially you can list something on

amazon and then you can ship that

product out

yourself you can totally do that i

actually know a lot of people who might

prefer to do that when they first start

off selling on amazon

and there's pros and cons to each one of

these now we'll be primarily talking

about fba fulfillment by amazon where

they shipping announce but we will touch

on

fbm a little bit on if you want to ship

those products out yourself now the pros

and cons of each of these

it's important to understand this

because with something like fba

maybe you'll save some time and actually

you'll probably end up selling more from

our experience

selling more when you do fba because you

have that prime shipping that's

available in most cases

amazon's shipping it for you so it might

end up saving you time as well you don't

have to run to the post office to ship

those things out

the problem with amazon fba is that it

can actually be a little bit more

expensive

because amazon does take quite a few

fees and you'll notice that as a common

theme throughout this

that amazon they take a lot of fees in a

lot of different areas

this is not without good reason i mean

they are in a lot of cases promoting

your product

for you the amazon search engine is the

largest search engine

for shopping in the world so when people

want to buy something

they go to amazon and amazon can promote

this product for you

so it's great to have that on there now

fulfillment by

merchant just very quickly to run over

this it's probably going to save you

some money in fees

because you might be able to do this

yourself you don't have to pay all these

various amazon fees

but we find that you actually end up

don't selling as much

and people really do want to have that

prime two-day shipping

included there they don't wanna have to

pay an extra five dollars and

ninety-five cents

for shipping so we suggest going with

fba if you can especially if the margins

are still

there we'll talk about profit margins in

just a minute as well but let's get into

the section here where we talk about

finding products

how the hell do we find a product to

sell on amazon

now admittedly it used to be a lot

easier to find products with good profit

margins

five or ten years ago selling on amazon

but it's still very possible to find

products like this

so one strategy that we could use which

is probably the beginner strategy

is just going through and randomly

searching for things and kind of

guessing

we used to do this actually way back

when i used to sell a lot of products on

ebay

what we would do is i i would any time

that i would buy something

i would look at the product cost and

then i would go and try to source the

product and i would try to compare that

and just see if i could get it for

a lower price this isn't the best method

right like if i go on here

and maybe i'm i'm thinking about selling

uh some type of uh

you know winter gloves right and i'm

looking through here and i'm just trying

to find something right

this is gonna be really difficult to

just kind of go throughout this

and find products without any type of

software or any type of help

because who knows you know okay this is

selling for 16.95

but is it possible to tap into this it

has a lot of reviews

it's already at the top here these are

actually sponsored and so

what we recommend doing is not just

going through here and blindly guessing

on products

this is going to end up in just a really

big fiasco for you

what we suggest doing is getting this

piece of software called

jungle scout so jungle scout is a

software it's going to cost you a little

bit of money

i don't know if we have any discount

codes but we'll leave a link to it down

below

just you can check it out if you would

like to and i like i said i don't think

that there is a discount code but if

there is one

we will include it down below um but

basically what jungle scout does it's

this beautiful piece of software i

absolutely love it that really what it

does is it'll show you the average

monthly sales on

average they're obviously extrapolating

a lot of this data they don't have all

of this data on hand

but they're doing as much as they can to

give you this information

this is the number one tool for sellers

on amazon i mean it's an absolute beauty

of a tool here but we can see the

average price for winter gloves

19.16 we can see the average amount of

reviews

but then we can also see the opportunity

score here

uh which is not very good it's in high

demand but it has a lot of competition

on this as well

so seeing this you know we're probably

not going to want to go and

start to try to sell winter gloves

because it looks like this market here

it's already kind of flooded the profit

margins aren't that great as you can see

some people

are on average might be losing money

some people might only be making a

couple of dollars this is just

all of course just an estimate from

jungle scout but this piece of software

you know we can look through and see

their price we can see their average

monthly sales

they're obviously selling a ton you know

most of these are selling uh 10 20

30 or 40 000 gloves per month products

per month so they're absolutely crushing

with that

but it's gonna be really difficult for

us to tap into that so we're not going

to go with that one

but we want to actually instead of just

guessing here and using the software

which you could do

what we're actually going to do is we're

going to go over to jungle scout right

and so we're going to go over to jungle

scout i'm going to log in here

and we're going to actually look for the

new opportunities right the product

opportunities

there's a tab on this site that will

allow us to do this

if you don't want to go through and use

this software if you don't want to pay

for the software

you can still do this we'll talk more

about that later in this video

if you want to forego that but i think

it's probably going to be worth an

investment

to be totally honest with you at least

to do some initial product

research so once this paid page loads

here i'm going to be able to log

in and then we're going to be able to

look at new opportunities available to

us here

so we're logged into the jungle scout

dashboard here

and now what we're going to do is we're

going to go to product research i'm

going to click down here

and we're going to go to opportunity

finder and now once we have the

opportunity finder this is where we can

start to

discover different types of products

that we might want to consider selling

now i urge you to not just

try to sell products that you love or

that you use or that you're passionate

about

because those products might not have

good margins we need to find products uh

that it doesn't matter if i like it or

not

it doesn't matter if i myself am using

that product for example

you know if i'm selling women's razors i

don't use women's razors but that's okay

because as long as it makes me some

money and it's a good product uh because

at the end of the day

you know if it's a bad product you're

not gonna be selling on amazon for very

long that's that's true

so now what we're going to do is we can

select all categories but i actually

like to target a couple of different

categories

so home and kitchen for example maybe

office products is one that we found to

be

pretty profitable and you can go through

here and decide which ones you want to

go for or

we probably would suggest just selecting

all here for the time being to kind of

get your feet wet and try to discover

certain types of products now once we do

that

we can go and look at the average

monthly units sold

i would suggest going for a product

that's selling at least 100

units per month you know if there's five

per month because you're trying to sell

some type of weird obscure fly trap

thing that nobody's ever really heard of

it's probably not going to be worth your

time

or anybody else's time to spend energy

on a listing that's not selling anything

because nobody's searching for it so for

this let's just set up a minimum of

100 monthly units sold this is a pretty

low number

you know you could even set this closer

to 500 or closer to a thousand if you

would like to

but for our first product we'll start

with just 100

units now we can also look at the

average monthly price i would suggest

setting a filter for this uh the reason

for this is because

if you're selling a product on amazon

for 10 or

less what we find is that your profits

will be

almost non-existent meaning that amazon

they do take a lot of fees but there's

also shipping

there's the cost of actually making the

product getting it to amazon

them shipping it out they're taking fees

um and there's going to be product

returns there's going to be other

problems

i would not suggest selling anything

less than 10

with amazon fba you're just not going to

have good profit margins at all unless

you're getting

your actual product for like 10 cents

and you're able to sell it for 10

which is pretty rare um so we're going

to set a minimum price for 10

and a maximum price we're going to set

at about 80

here just so that we don't have too many

products showing up but also what we

find is that if you have a product on

amazon for five hundred dollars

you're gonna get far fewer sales on that

most people aren't gonna be able to just

convert on cold traffic so we're gonna

keep that from a 10 to an 80

range the other reason why we're keeping

this we're capping this

average monthly price at 80 is because

if you're just starting to sell products

on amazon

you're probably not going to be able to

afford to sell 500

sofas in a thousand of those you

probably don't have that much money

to invest into something like amazon fba

right so we want to keep this price a

little bit low for our first

round of products that we are trying to

sell and you can go through and

add some more filters on here if you

would like what i would do is suggest

turning this competition down from very

low down to about

medium competition they run a number of

different factors in this to

decide what's going to be competitive

and what's not competitive

but this is going to help you tap into

those niches or those industries

that everybody's not in right like if if

we try to sell

cutting boards everybody's selling

cutting boards it's really hard to tap

into that because so many people are

searching for it

so we're going to go for something very

low to medium competition

we can also look at seasonality as well

which is going to be important

christmas just happens so we probably

don't want to sell a christmas item or

it could actually be a way to get into

the market here

so now what we're going to do is we're

going to click search because we've set

our

different things here so we're going to

wait for this to load for just a second

and it looks like it just loaded here so

now we can go through here and we can

look at all these different products

that popped up

based off of our search criteria for a

product that we might want to sell

on amazon so we can go through here and

you're going to see ones that you

just are not going to be relevant to you

so a yankee candle i'm not going to sell

that because well

i don't own yankee candles um so what

we're going to go through here because

what we're really going for

in this case is we're probably trying to

find something

that we can private label meaning that

we can actually source from a

manufacturer we can slap our own brand

name onto it and then we can sell it

for a premium price so you know this

one's actually pretty interesting right

here

valentine gnomes you know i've actually

seen this a number of times

we were doing some product research

about two months ago back in november or

maybe those three months ago now

back in november and we're looking at

gnomes for christmas and

it's just very interesting to see that

for some reason the no market doesn't

seem very tapped into and we're just

using this as an example here for the

purpose of this video

but let's say that we're just intrigued

by this so we can go ahead we can click

on valentine gnomes

and we can look at the average units

sold right obviously starting to pick up

a lot

one thousand 1 621 units sold

in january so far this is of course an

estimate

this is going to be a seasonal item so

you have to decide this is something

that you really

want to end up selling but let's go

ahead and let's start to look into this

a little bit more

right so let's actually search this on

amazon

so we're searching for valentine gnomes

on amazon

and we can go ahead and we can look at

what we have here

and what we have is a number of products

that

don't really have many reviews i mean

take a look at this

they don't have many reviews but they're

averaging quite a few

monthly sales now this is of course an

estimate

this might not be totally accurate but

it's very intriguing to see this

why there are so many gnomes being sold

here uh and

they're getting quite a few sales right

so this might be a product that we're

interested in

trying to source and trying to sell so

now

one one quick note here uh if so we're

going to use this as an example for this

video here

sourcing gnomes and selling valentine's

gnomes but the problem here is that i'm

filming this video we're creating this

video

uh in january and so if we wanted to

actually do this we should have been

ahead of the trend

right so because it's going to take a

couple of weeks to find a manufacturer

to get those to amazon

and then amazon ships them out into and

to build some reputation there

so if you're going to do something

seasonal like this you

you're going to want to think many

months out right so right now it's

january

i'm gonna start thinking about maybe

fourth of july or independence day

gnomes or summer gnomes and maybe

easter gnomes right later on in the year

so that i'm prepared for them

that's just a quick note there that i

wanted to mention so let's go back to

jungle scout

and let's say that we're very interested

in selling gnomes right because they're

selling quite a few gnomes here

it looks like this is a pretty good

product to sell so now that we've found

a potential product

that we want to end up selling we've

identified that there's demand for it

right they're obviously selling

thousands of valentine gnomes

per month and there seems to be quite a

bit of demand for it as well

okay so now that we have identified that

what we're going to do

is try to find a way to source that and

that's going to be in the next segment

here

so assuming that you are using the

jungle scout plugin here

what we can do is we can go up to the

chrome extension which we have installed

here

after we've searched for valentine

gnomes we can go ahead and click on it

and this is just another view that you

can have here so with an average of 1

672 monthly sales uh what we're really

looking at here though

is uh the spread here on the different

products are being sold right so these

are

all different brands here and they're

all likely selling

thousands of different gnomes right so

they're obviously selling a lot here

their monthly revenue

uh for an example here is well over

fifty thousand dollars i guess a lot of

people like gnomes i don't know maybe

old people

i wouldn't buy one of these but some

people obviously do with an average

price of 15.78

so we're probably not going to become

multi-millionaires off of this one

specific product because the margins

might be a little bit low but it could

be a great way to tap into the market

and start to build

our reputation here so what we can do

now is we can go over to

alibaba so this is alibaba and this is

where we're going to source

a lot of our products from this is going

to allow you to

connect directly with a manufacturer or

in sometimes

in some cases a trading company so

there's a difference between a

manufacturer and a trading company

on something like alibaba and you're

going to want to know the differences

between these two

now a trading company you're likely

going to end up paying more for

a product because this is not actually a

company that

actually makes your specific product but

you're actually just kind of buying it

from them and they're like a middleman

and then they go talk to the

manufacturer and get it made for you

so it's it's not the best option the

good thing about

dealing with the trading company over a

manufacturer is that their customer

service tends to be

a bit better from our experience but you

really do want to probably go and find a

manufacturer

i have a lot of friends who do so much

on amazon fba that they end up

taking business trips over to china

quite a bit which to just be honest here

most of the products are going to be

coming from china or from some different

countries

um that have quite a bit of

manufacturing in

infrastructure in those countries okay

so let's go ahead and let's search for

the product that we've just found on

jungle scout we might not still sell

this right we still need to do more

research and see

how cheap can we actually source this

product for now one thing that we want

to

sort of use is like a quick and dirty

rule of thumb that we like to do

it's called the rule of thirds so let's

say that we're looking back on these

different valentine's knowns

um and we're seeing that the average

price is 15.78

so what we want to do here is if we're

using the rule of thirds which means

that

one third of your price here

uh is likely going to be going towards

the cost of the product so

perhaps five dollars or less we would

want to have for the product

one third of that goes towards amazon

right amazon takes a lot of fees

their referral fee their fba fee their

long-term

their long-term storage fee and also a

seller membership

of 39.99 per month so they take a lot of

fees

but with the rule of thirds we have that

first thing which is the

cost of the product that might be five

dollars then we have the amazon fees

which could be another five dollars or

more

and then hopefully the other third can

be our profit which would

be hopefully five dollars in our pocket

for this

so let's see if this is actually going

to happen well we can go back over to

alibaba here

let's look for valentine gnome

and let's see what we can find here for

valentine gnome right so

let's let's look this up here

so for valentine gnome we're going to

have

a bunch of things pop up here and this

is a interesting looking

creature of a gnome but it looks like we

can get them for about

2.63 cents per piece with a minimum

order of 500. now this is probably from

a trading company

we can go through here and and look at

it specifically we can look at actually

this company here

but let's scroll through and let's see

if we can find something for a better

price

or just a better option here right so

you know these actually look kind of

cool i suppose

and these are relatively cheap 1.37

we can go through here a little bit more

you know is there anything that we

really like

i kind of like these i think these

actually could sell pretty well so let's

go ahead and let's click on these

and let's see what we're dealing with

here so this here is a trading company

as we can see

uh based off of this right here it says

trading company

so we're probably not going to source

them from here we're going to want to

find a manufacturer

but let's go through here and let's just

read a little bit about the company

right and some of their different things

that they have available so

what we can do and what i suggest doing

is ordering

from at least three to five of these

different

manufacturers or if you buy it from a

trading company you want to

order these and source these from a

couple of different ones and

when i say this i don't mean you should

be ordering thousands from each

different supplier

but rather you're going to order a

sample from each one of these companies

right so go ahead through this and what

i

think you should do and what we like to

do is pick five different companies

we say you know this might be a good one

here or maybe

we like this one here for only 20 cents

that's extremely cheap a little bit too

cheap in some cases

you want to be careful on how cheap they

are because sometimes if you're just

going for the lowest price you might get

some pretty bad

quality but we're going to order a

sample

from each one of these five and the way

that we're going to do this is we're

going to send a message to these

companies so

we're going to go in here and we can

send a message to each one of these

companies

uh reach out to them we can contact them

and say hey

this is what i'm looking for i'm looking

for a thousand of these items i'm

looking for x

amount of these items uh to ship over to

me so that i can sell them

can you do it for this price blah blah

blah and can you also send me a sample

is there a price for the sample because

sometimes they're going to charge you a

little bit

actually in a lot of cases it's free to

get a sample from these companies they

might just ask

that you pay for shipping so that they

don't lose a ton of money sending out

samples to

a potential buyers so go ahead and maybe

look for five different products here

that you can experiment with then you're

going to end up getting those to your

home wherever else

you're gonna inspect each one of those

five different products

that those companies sent you as a

sample and then you're going to decide

based off of the price based off of your

negotiations with those companies

which one you think is the one that you

want to use for your

fba business once you make that decision

then we go through the process of

actually putting in an order with one of

these companies

now in most cases we end up just wiring

money to these companies

uh and in a lot of cases you're going to

do 30

up front and then you're going to pay 70

once that product gets shipped but you

can of course negotiate these terms i've

seen people pay

50 up front and then 50 once the product

is shipped

but that's really going to be the way

that you can source products

you can deal directly with manufacturers

if you want to private label

something uh for example let's say that

we're not selling gnomes but let's say

that we're selling like workout

equipment

uh so let's just look up right like

workout

workout shorts right and we can find

something like this and then perhaps we

can end up

actually private labeling these meaning

that we can work with the manufacturer

to slap our label on the side of these

shorts or on the side of these leggings

or anything else in here

right and so this is also another option

that people like to do because this can

actually

build your brand as a whole and then you

can end up selling these brands i mean

i've had friends who have sold their

brands

they've built businesses on amazon fba

they've become very popular people start

to recognize

that brand name and then they're able to

sell this brand

just the ip the brand name itself for

hundreds of thousands of dollars

because it's a very reputable brand and

they own some of those spots at the top

of the list

on amazon searches because they've made

this great branding

for all their products they've slapped

their brand on there they've worked with

the manufacturer

so that's what we suggest doing for that

but let's go a little bit deeper into

this here

so once you discuss your different deals

with the manufacturers or the trading

companies that you're working with

through alibaba or through some other

type of source

then what you're going to do is you're

going to actually discuss how those

products are getting shipped to you

this is an important step of the process

because we have two different options

unless the manufacturer is right down

the road from you

you're probably going to have to get

this stuff shipped to you from the other

side of the world in most cases

in a lot of cases this is coming from

china so we really have two big

options here the first option is to have

this

product shipped to you via by c

right so if if you're shipping products

by c we find that the average price that

is going to run you from just

our experience here tends to be roughly

like

25 cents to 50 cents per pound it really

depends on

what you're selling and how much space

it takes up as a whole as well um but

you can end up getting a lot of products

over

by sea for relatively cheap in terms of

shipping the problem here if you're

getting your products

shipped from the manufacturer to amazon

by sea the problem here it can take a

pretty long time i mean we're talking a

couple of weeks

these are coming over on big ships

across the ocean across the pacific

it's going to take a lot of time in some

cases over a month we've seen

so that's the problem with having your

products shipped from your manufacturer

to

to amazon by shipping it by sea now the

faster way to do this

is by air the problem with air though as

you'd expect when you're getting it in

like five days

rather than a month is that it's going

to end up costing you more

we see that this can end up being closer

to like a dollar or two dollars per

pound

but of course like i said it does depend

on the

overall space that the product takes up

as well um now you're also going to want

to make sure that you have an f and skew

barcode on that so that amazon can send

those out we can go

more in depth on that in a later video

we'll do like a follow-up here

to kind of touch on a couple of things

that maybe you would like us to go over

but also please let us know down below

in the in the comments section

if there's something else you would like

us to elaborate on more i'm trying to

cover as much as i can here

so i hope you can understand that but

what i want to do actually

is take you over to the amazon seller

central here

to show you around a little bit and so

that you can get started with this

now the thing we have to know about this

is like i said earlier amazon they like

to take their fees and one of the fees

that they take

is an overall seller fee just to even

allow you on their platform

so you can either have the individual

plan here or you can have the

professional plan

as an amazon seller now pretty much

everybody that i know

has the professional plan which is going

to be 39.99 per month

or you can do the individual plan now

the problem with the individual plan is

that you're paying per item sold

this can really end up costing you a lot

of money so

you know maybe you want to start with

the individual plan at first when you

just get started

because you're not selling many products

but once you start to sell like a dozen

products or more

then you would want to switch over to

the professional plan as an amazon

seller but i do suggest you go to this

page

we'll try to link to it down below and

go ahead and look through some of the

different

uh things that they're taking here

they're different fees that amazon takes

they actually help you estimate your

amazon sales margin so you can go

through

and look at the different referral fees

that they have right

so every time that somebody's buying a

product it depends on the category in

which they're buying the product

but you're basically paying amazon or

somebody else

as a referral fee for bringing somebody

to your product remember

amazon's one of the largest search

engines in the world so you're going to

end up paying a commission

to other people or companies in order to

actually have people buy your products

right so here's just a nice list of all

the different things right if we're

selling beauty products

we're paying uh it looks like

eight percent for products with a total

sales of 10 or less and then 15

for more items what you're going to

notice though is that the general trend

is that

these referral fees can be about 15

of our total uh price that we're selling

these items for so keep that in mind

some can be lower closer down to about

eight percent even in some cases

computers only six percent but in a lot

of cases you can end up paying

15 as a referral fee to

amazon okay so once we've done that

let's talk about what makes a good

listing because we're going to wrap up

here soon

but we want to go over what makes a good

listing here so let's go back to

these products here let's go back to the

gnomes and let's take a look at some of

these gnomes that are selling

right so let's go ahead and let's look

at these

gnomes let's go to the first ones that

are popping up that are not sponsored so

let's take a look at these right here

this is a two pack of

these little gnomes now what they're

doing here is

is we can look through and we can see

that they have quite a few words in

their title this is something that we've

been doing for so long

you want to stuff a lot of keywords into

your title this is going to be a great

tactic

uh if you just had a title that was

valentine's day

gnome and that was it there's no other

title to it you're going to end up

missing out on a lot of opportunity so

you want to do some keyword stuffing

here as many as you can

that are relevant keywords if you want

to learn more about what keywords you

should be using

you can do two things you can look at

your competition and you can say well

i'm going to borrow some of these ideas

right

don't copy don't totally copy other

sellers that's just not very cool

you don't want to be that person but you

can borrow some ideas right you can

switch around the order

you can decide you know what i'm not

going to have santa doll in there but i

i am going to change this to valentine

doll perhaps or something you know just

just

start to change things up there and you

can borrow those

or you can go back to jungle scout and

you can go up to

your keywords and you can start to look

for different types of keywords

right so keyword scout and we can start

to look for things that are related to

that so we can type this in

let's look up valentine gnome

and let's see what comes up here and we

can search for it

oh and it looks like you actually need

to have a higher expensive one that we

don't have here so

never mind

so once you've stuffed in quite a few

keywords into your title

you're also going to want to look at

your description here now this one's

very interesting i've never seen emojis

really in descriptions very much but i

actually kind of like it a little bit um

this description is not too bad they're

obviously giving you quite a bit of

information but there's definitely a lot

going on here

what we actually like to do let's see if

we can find a different one here

because what we like to do for our

descriptions here yes the bullet points

are very good

but what we like to do is have all caps

for the first couple of words

and then follow it up right so they

chose to use brackets here this is also

another option

but what we do is for example we might

say perfect valentine's day gift

all caps right it's all in caps and then

the following sentences are in

regular text how you would normally see

it right so this is not bad i like how

they're doing this

you can think about having different

types of pictures as well amazon does

want you to have

your main photo as a white background

for this so keep this in mind you're

going to want a white background for

this

if you're looking for ways to get

pictures of your products there's a

couple of ways to do this

you can end up actually paying people

you can use five or you can use

up work you can send these products to

photographers

or models and have them take some photos

with your products i would suggest doing

that

because it does help with conversions

when you actually have people

holding your product or using your

product we see this especially with

different types of fitness products it

works

extremely well right like if you're

selling athletic shorts you're going to

want to have something besides just a

white

background picture you want to have some

photos of people wearing your shorts in

action so that people can

kind of relate to it and we find it does

sell quite a bit better that way

so let's see what else they have here

and what else we can use as an option

now i want to show you another cool

thing that we can do that most people

don't tell you

which is when you scroll down and you

look at this frequently bought together

tab this can be some secret sauce here

okay because what we can do

is we can look at the items that are

bought together

and we can actually end up creating a

separate listing that has both of those

bundled together which can save people a

lot of money

right so what if we end up selling a

product that has both

gnomes and whatever the hell this thing

is it looks like a

uh it's a happy valentine's day heart

wooden wall decoration right

so what if we ended up making our own

product and actually

bundling both of these together selling

them as one item where they get these

gnomes

and also this wooden happy valentine's

day and this

love thing because people want to do

like an all-in-one they buy some

decorations for valentine's day so

they're buying

all three of these so we could bundle

these together and make it one product

and see people who are buying all three

of these they're paying forty two

dollars we can end up selling this for

less maybe thirty dollars

as a bundle deal so that's a cool thing

that a lot of people don't tell you

about we've seen a lot of success

with something like that but then we can

scroll down and we can look a little bit

further into this

the question part very important if you

have people asking questions

you want to be fast with your response

time this helps out a lot of other

people

not just the people asking the questions

but prospective buyers in the future as

well

and then also the most important thing

by far is going to be the reviews

i don't know about you but this is the

one thing that i look at

all the time i want to see the reviews

if they're good or bad

i personally rarely buy anything that

has less than a four or three and a half

star review

i just won't buy it so you want to make

sure that you're selling good quality

products and you're getting reviews from

your customers now you can't just go out

and ask your customers and say hey

if you like the product make sure you

review it if you don't like the product

don't review it

you cannot say that so what you want to

do is you can say hey don't forget to

review the product

and you can just do this by putting like

a little piece of paper in each one of

the products that you're shipping out

you can have your manufacturer

do this for you if you'd like to when

they're bundling

these together and just say you know

here's the contact information if you

have an issue with the product

you know feel free to leave a review if

you'd like to that's one thing that

we've seen

that helps get a lot of reviews but

let's actually talk about

how to tap into the market basically how

to start selling right because

a lot of people find issues with this

they find it's very difficult

to start to actually sell product

because it's difficult to tap into it

right like how do they get to the top

spot

on amazon when somebody searches for

something it's really hard to get that

spot

so there are basically two strategies

that we use

to get our product to the top and start

to sell products

immediately even if we don't have a lot

of reviews for people to base

their decisions off of now the two

strategies are as follows

the first one is probably going to be i

would say

your easiest one but it's going to cost

you some money and that's basically ppc

which is pay per click

which is going to get you towards the

top so let's say for example that

somebody is looking for cutting boards

and you happen to be selling cutting

boards

right so if somebody's looking for

cutting boards what's going to happen

here

well amazon they like to make their

money and so these ones at the top here

these are all sponsored these are all

sponsored listings

for cutting boards so you could sponsor

your post

this is going to cost you money you

might lose money on this

but in turn you can end up getting some

decent reviews so it's an

option it's not the best but it's

something that you know maybe if you

have some money to spend you have some

money to invest into this

you could consider sponsoring your post

and getting it to the top

just so you can start getting some

reviews maybe once you get five six

seven reviews you feel like you don't

have to really have it sponsored anymore

because it'll already do well on its own

but that is one strategy to start to get

some reviews to start to get some sales

but keep in mind if you're sponsoring it

it's costing you money

you're probably not going to be making

nearly as much and in some cases you

might end up losing money which is not

the overall

long-term goal now the other option for

you to do

is to basically undercut everybody else

who's selling the products

so that you can end up positioning

yourself higher on the list

and then eventually raise your prices

once you get those reviews

once you get that kind of credibility

this is a tactic that i've used for many

many years

and it works pretty well the issue with

this of undercutting your competition

is that you might end up forcing your

competition

to also cut their prices because let's

say that uh everybody in here selling

cutting boards for

you know 20 right we're seeing a lot of

cutting boards for 25 dollars 19

right we're seeing a lot of cutting

boards for those price ranges let's say

you go in here and you start selling

cutting boards for 12

what's going to happen you might sell a

ton of cutting boards your profit

margins might be pretty bad they

probably are bad you might only make

like a dollar or two um

but now your competition is going to

look at us and say well wait a minute

we're losing a lot of

money here because we we could have been

getting way more sales so they start to

lower the prices as well

to compete with you and then everybody

kind of ends up losing because you drove

the prices down

so you want to be careful with that

really the strategy here is

low price for the first maybe dozen

sales the first two dozen sales

they write some reviews you get some

sales going then you can raise the price

that's a tactic that i've always used

but just be careful on how long you

leave that low price in there

i mean we have brought items into the

market uh where we've lost money on the

first hundred items that we sold

we've end up lost money on purpose so

that we could position ourselves in a

good spot

on amazon a little bit of a risky move

um but it's something that

that does work if you know what you're

doing all right everyone so

i would love to go more in depth on this

if you want to see an even longer

tutorial

really getting into the nitty-gritty of

like sourcing products and

manufacturers and the types of messages

that you send to those manufacturers

let me know in the comment section below

go ahead follow me on instagram if you

guys want to connect a little bit

i'll try to respond to you as much as

possible thanks for watching the video

like i said guys you have to pay any

money for any of this information go

ahead find more information like this

online for free don't pay for those

thousand dollar courses they're just not

worth it we never did

and i don't think you have to either so

thanks for watching hope everybody has a

great day

and i'll see you next video