Getting Started With Amazon FBA

Last updated on October 16th, 2021 at 10:45 pm

Hey all!

In my last update I had just sold my first business! After I got that all sorted out I took a 3 week vacation and traveled with my girlfriend to the US to visit family and friends. Honestly, we had an incredible time and it was so good to chill out a bit and not do anything.

But! I’ve been back in Guangzhou now for about 2 weeks and grinding away.

While I was traveling I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to spend my time doing and ultimately decided to go ahead and pursue Amazon FBA.

What’s that!?

If you’re not familiar with this, I’ll give you the most simple explanation about how this works…

WHAT THE F*CK IS AMAZON FBA?

Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) is a program that allows individuals, like you and me, to sell products on Amazon’s website.

Simple enough, right!?

Most of the products you’ve ever purchased on Amazon are not actually sold by Amazon, but rather 3rd party sellers who register and then are given the ability to list their items there.

So, the individual who wants to sell has to come up with a product idea, find a supplier and then ship these products to Amazon’s warehouses.

The beauty about FBA is that once the items are in stock at Amazon’s warehouse, the seller (me or you) doesn’t have to lift a finger, if you don’t want. Customers go to Amazon and buy the products that are under your listing and Amazon fulfills them automatically. Money comes in, Amazon takes a fee for holding the inventory and packing and you, the seller, takes what’s left over.

It’s a very nice passive income model that can be built from a laptop anywhere in the world….

Much like Shopify, there are people who run Amazon businesses who are pulling in 6 figures a month. There are also people who are making as little as $100 or less—so obviously it depends on a lot of variables what will determine your success.

Many people will say “it’s too saturated, the glory days are over, or it’s too difficult to make any money.” To this I say, keep preaching, because it will just push away the less motivated and less serious entrepreneurs and leave more of the pie to those who will do the work.

I noticed the same exact things with Shopify. Many people thought it was a scam because they were trying and not making a dime. I also wasn’t so sure myself but I changed my mind pretty quickly when I started doing multiple $300+ days and eventually breaking $10k in one month. I realized the people who are doing nothing but complaining are doing exactly that—nothing. They expect to put in minimal work and enjoy huge rewards. That’s not how it works baby!

I imagine this Amazon game is quite similar.

Why I Want To Try Amazon FBA

The reason I am attracted to the FBA model is because there has to be more focus on the product and developing the brand, which was more of the stuff I got a kick out of when doing the horse niche on my Shopify store.

I like how, in order to be successful, the seller really has to find a good product, create nice professional packaging, get good photos, and use these in conjunction to develop a solid brand around the product.

With dropshipping on Shopify, shitty cheap products are selected off Aliexpress and then sent in plastic baggies to people, sometimes taking 4 weeks or more to arrive. That just never sat well with me.

Where Am I At Now?

After spending hours upon hours researching which products have good enough demand and low competition, I’ve selected three that I’m vetting now.

The awesome part about living in Guangzhou is the speed at which I’m able to move at. In one week I’ve been able to get 5 different product samples and have quotes from 4 suppliers.

Now, I’m doing a profitability analysis to determine which item I plan to go ahead with and still keeping close tabs on how items in each niche are still selling on Amazon.

Next steps are to get the logo completed and design label inserts that the factory will package together with my product.

I’m very new to this and it feels a little overwhelming on the things to keep track of and to know if I’m even doing it right, but that’s half the fun. This is the same feeling I had when trying to get the Shopify store going.

I want to keep writing about the progress of the FBA story and keep the readers posted on how it goes. I realize I enjoy reading blogs about people who started out like me and became successful so I hope I can be an example for others.

If you enjoyed this post or want more depth info on any other subject related to Amazon FBA, let me know in the comments below!