Lots Of Things On Amazon Arent Sold By Amazon
There was a time when Amazon only sold books. Back then, everything was owned by, and shipped from, the company. As the Amazon marketplace has grown, this has become less and less the case. By August 2020, 53% of all products sold on Amazon were from third-party sellers.
If you frequently shop on Amazon, this might not come as a surprise to you. But what some might not know is Amazon also has a huge catalog of used items. There isnt an auction system, like eBay, but its still a massive resource for secondhand commerce.
How To Sell Products On Amazon
Before setting up your own Amazon store, it’s worth taking the time to cover the basics of selling things on Amazon. Even if you’re familiar with Amazon as a shopper, the way it works for sellers is quite different. Take a quick peek behind the curtain and learn about the most valuable listing positions on Amazon, how to get your product shipped out of Amazon’s warehouses, and some costly pitfalls to avoid.
Is It Profitable To Sell Clothes On Amazon
During the pandemic time, online shopping becomes more and more trend, which accelerates the revenue of Amazon. In general, selling apparel online is known as a very profitable business. In 2020, the revenue of this market was approximately $1.46 trillion. According to Statista, by 2025, about 2.25 trillion dollars in revenue is expected to produce in the apparel online retail sector in the United States.
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Fulfillment By Amazon Program Vs Shipping My Own Items
When it comes to how you choose to warehouse and ship your items, youll have the choice between managing the shipping and handling yourself or signing up for Fulfillment by Amazon.
Fulfillment by Amazon allows you to store your products in Amazons fulfillment centers, where Amazon then picks, packs, and ships your products. It also handles customer service and returns. In addition to the fees associated with your chosen seller plan, you will be charged for order fulfillment, storage, and any optional services you choose. FBA fulfillment fees will vary depending on the category of your product and the size of the product. You can see the full list of FBA fulfillment fees in the Amazon seller help section. The same goes for storage fees. These vary by the space your inventory occupies. You can see the breakdown of FBA storage fees in the help section as well.
When deciding whether FBA is right for you, consider how much product you plan on selling. If youre signed up for an individual seller account and dont plan on selling more than 40 items a month, paying the extra cost for FBA might not make sense. However, if you plan to sell more and want to focus solely on growing your business and replenishing your inventory, FBA could be a good idea.
Why Sell Used Stuff Online
In 2017, 40% of secondhand purchases happened on the web. According to the 2020 annual report for the popular secondhand fashion app ThredUp, the secondhand market is poised to hit $64 billion globally by 2025.
The proliferation of new websites for selling used items has taken secondhand retail out of the margins and ushered it firmly into the mainstream.
But getting started in the world of selling used items online is a deep rabbit hole. There are questions of how to scale while maintaining profitability, keeping track of your inventory, and most importantly, how to pick the right marketplace to sell on.
In this comprehensive post, well cover the motivators behind why people buy used items and how you can resell them. Of course, well also do a deep-dive into the best platforms for selling used items.
Finally, well conclude with some pro tips on the best ways to sell used stuff. But first, lets establish an understanding of the pros and cons of selling things online.
Pros of selling used items online
Cons of selling used items online
- Increased consumer skepticism. Its harder to evaluate the quality of a used item online. After all, your customer only has a few photos and a written description to go on. It takes some skill to put your best, most convincing foot forward in the virtual marketplace.
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Can You Sell Used Items On Amazon
In short, there are some instances in which you can sell used items on Amazon. Unlike marketplaces like eBay or Poshmark, however, Amazon is not designed for selling used itemsâin fact, Amazon has very strict guidelines and regulations about listing categories and what business owners can sell in each category.
If youre looking to sell used items on Amazon, they would have to be eligible under category and condition guidelines. Some categories that allow used items are books, music, software and computer games, toys and games, tools and hardware, and computers.
Additionally, certain applicable used items, like videos, DVDs, and Blu-ray, require that you obtain approval from Amazon to sell themâwhether used or new. In this case, you not only have to apply to sell these items, but you are also required to have a Professional plan .
All of this being said, it is worth noting if you become an established Amazon seller in particular product categories and meet specific requirements, you can apply to participate in the Amazon Renewed program, which allows you to sell refurbished, pre-owned, and open-box products.
How The Sites Work
If the item you want to sell isnt allowed on one of these sites, that pretty much settles the question right off the bat. However, if its allowed on both sites, the next thing you need to know is what selling it will involve. To sell items on either Amazon or eBay, you have to follow the same basic steps: set up an account, then list your items for sale, and finally ship them out to buyers. Heres how that process works on both sites.
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What Is The Difference Between Amazon Renewed And Used
Renewed is also a type of Used. What makes these products qualify for a completely different category is that they are tested and inspected to work like brand new by an Amazon-qualified vendor or supplier. These products have little to no cosmetic wear and tear and come with a 90-day guarantee in case they donât function properly.
But what about refurbished? Some products are labeled âCertified Refurbishedâ, what does that mean?
Top Selling Items On Amazon: Product Research Software
Pinpointing top selling products is more complicated than simply looking at Amazons best seller list. Its just the first step and a way to gather ideas. Unfortunately, its impossible to find all the relevant information there.
The fact is that you need a more scientific approach. You need to know the stats behind each product before you decide to invest in it:
- What are its average monthly sales?
- How many other people are selling it?
- What is its average price, average reviews or sales history?
- What kind of sales margins can you expect?
- Are its sales trending up or down?
As a consequence, consider using third party product research tools that can show you this information, for example AMZScouts Product Database and Pro Extension.
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How To Sell Certified Pre
Amazon offers a program called , through which sellers can list pre-owned and refurbished items that have met Amazons performance and inspection criteria.
Not every seller will be eligible to sell in the Amazon Renewed program. The strict requirements will typically only be met by high-level, experienced sellers. Amazon does this to be sure the businesses selling like-new and refurbished items are legitimate and high-quality.
- Supply invoices showing a minimum total value of $50,000 in qualifying refurbished purchases in the previous 90 days from the date of the application. You may black out the unit purchase amount on the invoices. Note that sellers intending to offer products related to Home, Tools, or Lawn & Garden, Kitchen may supply invoices showing a minimum total of $50,000 in qualifying refurbished purchases in the previous 180 days.
- If you are an existing seller on Amazon, we require an ODR of 0.8% or less in the trailing 90 days.
- If you want permission to list factory refurbished items you need to submit a minimum of 8 images of a sample unit for product and packaging review .
- Your company backs all of your refurbished products with the Amazon Renewed Guarantee and is responsible for all claims under the guarantee.
- For approval to list the Apple brand in Consumer Electronics categories, we require invoices dated from trailing 90 days that total $2.5 million in Apple refurbished products.
Notes About The Trade
Before I tell you all about the way the trade-in program works, there are a few important things to point out about the way that it operates.
Luckily, most of the notes we need to make are positive things the Amazon Trade-In program is very user friendly and can be done by the young and old alike.
With that in mind, lets consider these things:
1. Returns on your item cost NOTHING
That means that if you ship off an item thats too dirty or too damaged, and its not up to their standards, they will ship it back to you without charging you anything. It more or less removes all of the risks of engaging in the Trade-In program, since you will just get your item back with no penalty.
2. The original place that you bought the item from DOES NOT matter
You might have assumed that you needed to have purchased the items from Amazon initially, but thats not the case theyre happy to accept items from any retailer.
3. You DO NOT need to be an Amazon Prime member
Now they do ask that participants be above the age of 18, but if youre an adult who wishes for their child to learn about sales and shipping, you can always just sign up using your information and then help them with the process. Theyre quite loose with the restrictions in this regard.
4. There are no hidden fees
5. You are limited to only 2 trades on any identical items per 3 months
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Is It Better To Sell On Amazon Or Ebay
Selling on Amazon might be easier than selling on eBay if you take advantage of Fulfillment by Amazon. This makes selling much more convenient because it handles all picking, packing, and shipping of your products, as well as customer support and returns. However, to know which platform is truly best, you should conduct thorough product research on what you want to sell. This will help determine which platform the product sells best on.
Using Tactical Arbitrage To Find Used Items
Tactical Arbitrage can be used to hunt down some used books and some other profitable used items. To be honest with you, this is a little known secret. In fact, most dont even look for these types of deals because most resellers are focused on new items only.
You may notice that some used books from third party sellers who utilize FBM and FBA have a huge price difference. This is a huge opportunity for flips as you people are willing to pay a premium for Amazons fast shipping and great customer service.
Tactical Arbitrage can search for these types of arbitrage opportunities and provide you with a list of opportunities to buy and flip on Amazon.
You can also do some searches on eBay to find some other good used items. We have been lucky enough to find some really profitable video games that I would flip on Amazon FBA for big profits.
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Places To Sell Stuff Online
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Before you sell stuff online to make extra money, determine the ideal venue for your goods. Selling Grandmas vintage tea cozies is a different endeavor from offloading your old stereo system. Weve rounded up some of the major online marketplaces along with tips about their audience, style and fees.
How Much Can You Earn Selling On Amazon
Exactly how much you can earn selling on Amazon is up to you and how much you want to commit to growing your business. Selling on Amazon can be a great side hustle where you sell items here and there to make some extra cash. Or you can go full time and sell professionally. For instance, a seller who focuses on baby items might build an entire brand out of it, designing and sourcing items, and signing up for FBA to warehouse inventories of thousands of items.
According to Jungle Scout, an Amazon selling tool, most Amazon sellers make at least $1,000 per month in sales. Some super-sellers, however, make upwards of $250,000 each month in sales.
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Check Out Used Products On Other Online Retail Platforms
Buying products from an online retail platform and selling it on another is whatâs known as âonline arbitrageâ. People engaged in this form of selling usually seek out brand new products to resell instead of ones that are used or refurbished.
While new products allow for more accurate profitability estimates, the price fluctuation with used items between different marketplaces can play to your advantage.
Letâs start with eBay. Start by searching for any item that comes to your mind. We thought of âtrucker hatsâ and gave it a go. After typing in the search term, make sure to set the product condition as âUsedâ. You can do so by using the filters found just below the search bar.
Here are two products that caught our attention.
For $30.00, one seller is offering 17 vintage-style trucker hats. Now letâs head on over to Amazon.com to see what we find. Using the same search term , these are a few items on display:
Clearly there is an opportunity for us to sell used products on Amazon.com at decent profit margins. Mind you, this is what we found after barely five to ten minutes of searching. Imagine the products you can unearth with a little bit of extra effort!
What Does It Cost To Sell On Amazon
Amazon offers two selling plans — Professional and Individual. The Professional selling plan costs $39.99 per month, plus per-item selling fees, which vary by category. Alternatively, the Individual selling plan allows you to pay $0.99 per item sold plus other selling fees, which vary by category. The Individual selling plan doesn’t have a monthly subscription fee, so if you plan to sell less than 40 items, this is likely the smarter choice.
Originally published Mar 11, 2019 7:00:00 AM, updated August 09 2019
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Places To Source Used Items To Sell
There are a few tried-and-true places to find hidden gems for your secondhand venture. However, its important to keep the opportunity cost principle in mind. Every hour spent digging through thrift store bins is an hour taken away from actually selling.
This may be a net positive if you find a rare item that makes it all worth it. But just make sure youre not losing money in your efforts to source items for your storefront.
That said, here are the most commonly-utilized places to source used items:
Garage sales
Garage sales are some of the best places to find used items because, frankly, most garage sellers are ignorant to the true value of their items. Coupled with the fact that garage sales are all about convenience , this makes them a prime setting to negotiate lower prices.
Thrift stores
Rare used items often find their way into thrift stores like Goodwill and the Salvation Army. The benefit of these stores is their open hours , making them easy targets for a daily quick scan.
The truly great items tend to get snatched up pretty quickly, so rather than going for an hour-long trip, favor periodic, quick scans of the store. This also keeps your opportunity cost low so youre not wasting precious time.
Flea markets
Craigslist
Create An Amazon Seller Account
- Business email address or Amazon customer account
- Phone number where you are reachable
- National ID e.g. KSA ID
- For Businesses Trade License if you are owner and a Power of Attorney only if you are a legal representative
- For Individuals Either of recent bank account statement, credit card statement or utility bill
- A bank account where Amazon can send you proceeds from your sales
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What To Sell On Amazon: Criteria
When youre about to choose products you want to sell on Amazon:
#1. Look at the top selling products for each category and find trending products.
#2. Go for items with high demand : an item doesnt have to be selling massive amounts per day. However, at a minimum, any product you plan to sell should achieve at least 10 sales per day.
#3. Avoid being too trendy or seasonal so you have consistent sales throughout the entire year. Selling products in demand 24/7/365 will help you achieve sustainable growth.
#4. Avoid picking heavily-saturated markets, consider international markets.
#5. Find a niche with consistent demand: in general, buyers often dont just browse on Amazon, but look for something specific, e.g. Cookbooks for instant pot cooking is more specific than Cookbooks. You can use a chrome extension to research products in a niche market, e.g. Jungle Scout to see monthly sales volumes on products or products with low competition.
#6. Consider products with low competition that could indicate an untapped market . There might be high demand for a product, but not many sellers are offering it. Why not swoop in and offer a really good version of that item?
#7. Leverage existing product reviews, e.g. the number of reviews could indicate how often a product has been purchased or how long a product / listing has been up. A small number of reviews that are in the 4-5 star range could mean that that product is emerging as a top seller .