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Amazon offers some attractive ways to earn money yourself through the platform. What these are and how best to start selling is explained here!
When you hear about Amazon, you think first and foremost of mail order, and rightly so, because the US group is the largest online retailer in the world with annual sales of $280.5 billion. With B2C sales in 2019 of 59.2 billion euros in Germany alone, the online giant is the undisputed number 1 when it comes to online shopping.
These numbers are impressive and show what opportunities the digital age offers. Of course, to benefit from one of the top-selling markets in the world, you don’t have to find the next Amazon. The online giant offers a few ways to make money on Amazon.
This makes sense in many ways because, in addition to the enormous reach, you benefit from the existing trust of users in the platform.
This article examines the best ways to make money with Amazon. In addition, in the end, there is a step-by-step guide on how to build a successful Amazon business!
5 ways to make money on Amazon
Everyone has certainly spent money on Amazon at some point, but what about the opportunities to make money with Amazon? There are different approaches here. Some just bring you an extra income and with others, you can build a long-term business. This section outlines six proven ways for everyone to benefit from Amazon’s growth and reach.
1.) Become a merchant with Amazon FBA
From kitchen products to gardening equipment to groceries, the selection of products on the online giant’s platform is almost limitless and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ early vision of an “ everything store ” has long since found its way into reality.
In Germany alone, more than 500 million items are offered on the platform. What many do not know, however, is the fact that the majority of the products sold do not come from Amazon itself. The company has long since outgrown its infancy as a purely online shop and offers its platform as a marketplace for retailers to sell products.
This makes it possible for third-party retailers to offer their products to the world via Amazon and have them shipped either on their own or through Amazon.
The latter is known under the Amazon FBA program, short for Fulfillment by Amazon. In addition to storing and shipping the products, Amazon also takes care of returns management and customer support.
Amazon FBA is the oldest business model in the world – trading, just online. Goods are procured cheaply and sold under their brand ( private label ) after deduction of all costs with margins of 20 to 30%.
You can imagine the whole thing as a small marketplace where you can rent a shop and offer your products to visitors for sale.
Amazon takes a small fee for providing the “store”, which is between 7 and 20% depending on the category. So Amazon FBA is about selling physical products online. Here is a representation of the individual steps of the Amazon FBA process.
Now, of course, the question arises as to what the process behind an Amazon FBA business looks like and how best to start. First of all, Amazon FBA is one of the best ways to build a business and make big profits.
Having the right knowledge at hand is crucial for success. If you want to know what is realistically possible with Amazon FBA, you should take a look at the field report.
To be able to sell on Amazon and offer your products, the first step is to research the product and niche. You don’t need an innovative product idea for this. The potential is great and there are still several niches in which you can position yourself with a high-quality product.
After the research, the next step is product development and then importing the goods and positioning the product on the platform. This entire process is made up of several areas that should be worked through one after the other. For each of the steps, there are detailed blog posts with practical tips that you can use to build a successful business selling on Amazon:
- Product research: Finding a suitable product to sell on Amazon is the starting point of your own Amazon FBA business.
- USP development: The second step involves developing and implementing a USP, i.e. unique selling proposition, for the product.
- Sourcing: After a product has been found, the search for a suitable manufacturer and product development begins.
- Certificates: To be allowed to sell in Germany, products require appropriate test certificates depending on the material or use.
- Packaging and design: Packaging is not just about design. Legal issues such as disposal and labeling are also important.
- Product calculation: One of the most important steps is the calculation of a product. This is the only way to know whether the product is profitable.
- Import: How do you import your goods? Point 7 is all about quality control, customs, and importing goods to Germany.
- Product images: What makes good product images? Learn why product images are so important and what guidelines to follow.
- Create listing: Learn everything about how to present your product excellently on Amazon and optimize it for maximum conversion.
- Launch: What do you have to pay attention to when starting sales and how can you use the Amazon algorithm for yourself? You can find out all of this here.
Getting started with e-commerce has never been easier thanks to Amazon FBA. It is already possible to set up your own company with starting capital of €3,000 to €5,000, which gives you a high income and freedom.
2.) Make money with Amazon Merch
Anyone who has ever searched for products on the Amazon platform will sooner or later come across clothing with the right logo for the respective search term. The possibility of having your designs printed on T-shirts and selling them over the Internet has long been known.
Thanks to modern print-on-demand solutions, retailers can handle the entire process from production to delivery to the customer online.
Ultimately, all you have to worry about are designs and marketing. Especially in the area of marketing, success ultimately decides from failure, because you can have the most beautiful designs, but if customers cannot find them on the Internet, no sales can be generated.
This is exactly where the great advantage of Merch by Amazon, or MBA for short, lies. Millions of customers already trust the platform of the online giant and merchants can easily sell their products on Amazon and enter online trading.
Since the summer of 2018, it has also been possible to use Amazon’s print-on-demand service in Germany.
But how exactly does the process behind Merch by Amazon work? The first step is to develop designs that will later be printed on different clothes.
However, if you do not have in-depth knowledge of design, it is not recommended to create designs yourself. The design samples are then uploaded to the platform if the MBA approval is successful. Now all you have to do is create an offer (color, t-shirt, hoodie, etc.) and this in the long term via Amazon SEO market.
Amazon takes care of the product images, the production as well as the purchase of a product, the shipping, and customer support. As soon as an article is sold, the provider receives a commission on sales (approx. 25%).
MBA offers Print on Demand retailers many advantages because it makes it possible to build up an extra income without a lot of start-up capital. Goods do not have to be pre-financed, nor is there a risk of being left with products.
Where there is light, there is also shadow and it is the same with MBA. The first hurdle is getting into the MBA program because not everyone gets approved for sales. Interested parties can apply using a form and then receive (unfortunately quite randomly) an acceptance or rejection.
In addition, you should be quite familiar with SEO to create an income where you can give up your main activity. For more information and detailed instructions on how to sell your products on Amazon with an MBA, take a look here: Merch by Amazon.
3.) Amazon Kindle and e-books
Earning money with your e-books is already a popular way to build up a good extra income. Thanks to platforms like Amazon and its Kindle program (Kindle Direct Publishing, KDP for short), it has never been so easy to publish works on your own, because the fight for publishers in offline trade is tougher than ever.
According to Statista, the book trade generated annual sales of 9.29 billion euros in 2019 alone. With Amazon’s Kindle program, it is now possible for anyone to gain a share of this market by selling their books on Amazon. It is not necessary to write a 500-page novel yourself.
A ghostwriter who takes over the writing of the works can be found on well-known freelancer platforms such as Fiverr or Upwork.
After the content of the book is finished, it’s time to upload the book to Amazon. The work must be available in a simple file format such as Word. There are a few requirements regarding the formatting, these are clearly described in the help area.
You should also rely on professionalism when creating the cover since it is the cover that the customer sees first. Like the content of the book, the cover is also subject to certain requirements, which can be found in the following help area.
Of course, the question arises as to how much money you can make with a Kindle Business. Just like in any other field, the quality of the product is only half the battle and the marketing is the other half. In contrast to offline trading, the royalties, i.e. the commission per work sold, are quite high.
The bonus options can be chosen between 35% and 70%. Each of these two options comes with certain terms and conditions, which can be looked up in “ E-Book Royalty Options ” on Amazon.
It should be noted that, unlike printed books, e-books are subject to VAT at 19%.
4.) Trade well-known (second-hand) books via Amazon
When Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in a Seattle garage in 1994, his vision was to create the world’s largest bookstore. At that time there were around three million different copies of the book, of which the largest bookstore only held 150,000 copies.
Jeff Bezos saw a great opportunity in this, because the guiding principle ” Assortment is growth”, which Bezos has consistently followed since then, helped him to build the largest bookstore in the world with the help of the Internet.
According to Statista, Amazon holds a remarkable 15% of the market share of the total retail sales of the second half of 2019 in the books and office supplies category.
Even today, the books category still generates a lot of sales volume, from which third-party retailers can also benefit. Selling books on Amazon is certainly not ideal for building a long-term business, but it is a good way to generate seed capital for getting started with Amazon FBA, for example.
In addition, you can use this approach to gain initial experience with the platform and become familiar with important tools such as Amazon’s Seller Central.
But how can you make money selling books through the online giant’s platform? It is analogous to the principle of Amazon FBA. It is a simple trade. We try to buy books as cheaply as possible and then sell them at a profit after deducting all costs.
The real work is getting good books at a reasonable purchase price. Wholesalers, bookstores with remaining items, or platforms such as eBay are particularly suitable for this. With this method, you can build up capital to then build a company by selling physical products via Amazon FBA.
5.) Extra: Amazon Affiliate Marketing
Amazon even offers a way to earn money without having to sell your products on Amazon. The Amazon affiliate program is probably the most well-known thing that can be found in this area. With Amazon’s affiliate marketing program, it is possible to build an income stream.
However, success stands and falls with one thing – reach. First, however, the question of what affiliate marketing is and how it works should be clarified.
The principle behind affiliate marketing is the successful mediation of customers, leads, or sales for another company. For each successful referral, the affiliate receives a predetermined fee, which can be assigned to them via a user-specific link and is paid out by the product provider.
The whole thing works quite simply. The affiliate or intermediary usually looks for an attractive product via an affiliate network, which he would like to market for another company. He now gets an individual link for this product, so that the affiliate can be assigned a commission for every successful purchase via this link.
The best-known affiliate program is undoubtedly Amazon. The so-called Partner Net makes it possible to create an affiliate link for any product on Amazon, which can then be posted on YouTube videos, for example. You can also advertise many other products, such as recording equipment, under videos and posts.
To become an Amazon affiliate partner, you can register for free in the partner network. This is possible via the following link: Amazon Partner-Net.
After successful registration, it is possible to create and use an affiliate link for any product on the online giant’s platform. The huge advantage of Partner-Net compared to other programs is that you get a commission on the customer’s entire shopping cart. It is possible to receive a commission of up to 12% of the sale price through the program.
Build Amazon Business – start step-by-step
Before you can start building your own Amazon business, you should first decide on one of the four options. There are a few points to consider when making a decision. On the one hand, you should first be clear about both your short-term and your long-term goals.
Here it helps to sit down and write down clear goals and your vision. If you only want to build up a small extra income, Amazon’s Kindle program is a good choice. However, if the goal is to build a long-term profitable company that is scalable to get off the hamster wheel, Amazon FBA is the right choice.
A combination of different options is also possible. If you want to get off to a flying start with Amazon FBA, but you don’t have the necessary start-up capital yet, it makes sense to sell books on Amazon first, for example.
In this way, initial experience with the platform and Seller Central can be gained, which is of course an advantage for the later sale of products via Amazon FBA. For long-term success, it is essential to decide on a method and commit yourself 100% to it. Focus on one thing is the keyword here.
Of course, not only the earning potential plays an important role, but above all your strengths and passions. For this reason, one should always focus on strengthening one’s strengths rather than trying to turn perceived weaknesses into strengths.
Those who follow the second approach will in most cases not go beyond mediocrity. However, those who constantly promote their strengths will achieve extraordinary goals and even have fun doing it. For this reason, it is essential to understand where your strengths lie before you decide on a method with which you want to make money on Amazon.
Now that you’ve decided on a way to make money on Amazon, the next step is how to build your Amazon business.
No matter which method you ultimately choose, all of them are commercial activities. Above all, this includes the rights and obligations that come with it. First, you have to start a business. Which legal form you choose is of course up to you and depends on various factors such as time, capital, and risk tolerance.
There is no right or wrong here, but you should research the different options for yourself and compare the respective advantages and disadvantages. The quickest and easiest solution is to set up a sole proprietorship.
What you should pay attention to when founding a company and which documents you have to take care of is explained here: “ Founding your own company”.
After founding the company, you still have to create a seller account on Amazon. This can be done for the four methods at the following links:
- Amazon FBA:
- Amazon Merch:
- Amazon Kindle:
- Amazon books:
Then you can start with the operative business. To do this, the product must first be created, procured, and then marketed on Amazon. For the Amazon FBA area, it is best to follow the detailed step-by-step instructions.
Conclusion – Sell on Amazon
As you can see, Amazon offers some lucrative ways to start your own business and make money online. From selling your products to e-books and affiliate marketing. As each new generation grows up with online shopping as a matter of course, Amazon’s reach offers merchants many advantages over the long term.
Of course, each of these avenues is a get-rich-quick scheme, but with the right guidance, it’s still possible to build a profitable business that generates hefty monthly profits.
In addition to the best knowledge and clear action steps, a certain love for entrepreneurship is decisive for success.
However, if you want to break out of the hamster wheel in the long term and enjoy a life of freedom, Amazon FBA is the best way. In addition to the enormous range, shipping processing, and support, Amazon offers other advantages that make it easier than ever to get started in e-commerce.
The big advantage of Amazon FBA over the other ways of making money with Amazon is the scalability of the company. Of course, the competition is also increasing in this area, which is not a disadvantage, however, since there are not only more sellers but also significantly more customers.
If you focus on implementing every step of the Amazon FBA process with passion and a certain attention to detail, you will be able to build a successful Amazon business with the right knowledge and environment.
The key is to get it implemented as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is to start with detailed step-by-step instructions for Amazon FBA.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
How can I sell on Amazon?
Third-party retailers can use the Amazon platform as a marketplace. This makes it possible for retailers to offer their products to the world via Amazon and have them shipped either on their own or through Amazon. The latter is known under the Amazon FBA program, short for Fulfillment by Amazon. In addition, it is possible to sell your books via Amazon’s Kindle program via the online giant’s platform.
What products can I sell on Amazon?
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ early vision of an “ everything store ” has long been a reality. Consequently, it is possible to sell almost any product on Amazon. This article explains what other options there are for making money with Amazon.
