4343DCJGJIJDAmazon Seller Secrets Revealed - Volume 1 - Getting Started On Amazon - Final PDF

Thank you for picking up Amazon Seller Secrets Revealed -
Volume 1: Getting Started Selling on Amazon!
As a token of our appreciation, we’ve put together a gift package

for you that will help you in your Amazon selling journey.
You can get access to this exclusive package by visiting

www.helium10.com/gift
You may be wondering: What is Helium 10?
The Helium 10 software suite is a collection of multiple online

tools designed specifically for Amazon sellers to use in choosing
products to sell, launching products to the marketplace, and
marketing those products for increased profitability.
Our tools can also help you build your product listings from the
ground up, ensuring that you are using the right keywords and
search terms, so customers can find your product.
Better yet, our software suite is so powerful that each tool can
help you turn hours or even days of work into seconds!
For those of you not familiar with Chrome extensions, they are
add-on programs that alter the abilities of your Google Chrome
web browser, such as displaying hidden data or blocking ads from
third parties.
The Helium 10 Chrome Extension grants users access to hidden

information on Amazon products in real time passively as well as
these great tools:
• Xray – See the inner workings of just about any product
you search for, including monthly sales figures and more
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• ASIN Grabber – Easily obtain the Amazon Standard
Identification Number (ASIN) for products you want to
research
• Inventory Level – Find out how much inventory a seller
has left for a particular product
• Review Downloader – Download competitor reviews for
any Amazon product for data mining
*Please Note: At this time, the Helium 10 Chrome Extension is

only available on the Google Chrome web browser, so be sure to
use that when conducting your Amazon seller business to get the
best value from Helium 10!
Aren’t a Helium 10 member yet? Download the Helium 10

Chrome Extension to start experiencing our FREE tools such as
the powerful Xray that help you find products on Amazon best
suited for your selling style.
Besides great tools, we also have great resources to help you

succeed. Be sure to check out our Ultimate Resource Guide for
Amazon sellers.
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Introduction – What is This Book?
In case you are unaware, I love to interact with the AMPM Podcast
listeners and create helpful dialogues with sellers at all stages of the
Amazon selling journey. Fans of the podcast come from all walks of life
with one goal in common: create and sustain a success e-commerce
business on Amazon.
For those of you who do not know me, my name is Manny Coats and I am
the CEO of Helium 10 and host of the AMPM Podcast, a show dedicated to
unlocking the great strategies and mysteries of selling private label
products on Amazon.
A Little Background on Manny Coats (Me)
I started out in the online world back in 1999 when I created the world’s
largest humor website, TwistedHumor.com. Over the next several years, I
had a hand in creating many successful companies in software, online
marketing and sales, and mobile game development.
I found my calling in 2015 and decided to take the plunge into private label
selling on Amazon. I found the business to be a natural fit for my skills in
the online space coupled with very aggressive search optimization tactics.
It wasn’t long (9 months to be exact) that I raked in my first $1 million from

Amazon sales, right before speaking at the 2016 Amazing Summit.
To succeed, I ended up having to create my own tools to do the things I

needed to make selling on Amazon more efficient and profitable. I took the
few initial tools and founded Helium 10, which now has many more tools to
help seller like you use the tactics that brought me success.
In my infinite curiosity to see how other sellers reached success on

Amazon, I created the AMPM Podcast to find out. It was only natural for me
to ask other successful seller directly how they got success in the lucrative
landscape that is Amazon.
We created the Amazon Seller Secrets Revealed series of videos to

highlight the experiences and expertise of many sellers who have been
there and done that.
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Why Do the Answers of These Sellers Matter?
The sellers featured on the video series and in this book all maintain
successful Amazon businesses and have gone through the steps of
choosing a product, launching it, and maintaining a solid presence on
Amazon’s top rankings through effective marketing strategies.
Many sellers have been business experts for many years while others
decided they wanted a change in their lives. Whatever the case may be,
most have come from the popular FBA Highrollers group on Facebook,
which is dedicated to serious sellers looking to continuously improve their
storefronts and increase profits on the Amazon selling platform.
A Word to the Wise When Reading This Book
You may notice that some sellers may give advice or answers to questions
that differ from other sellers featured for the same question. These
occurrences are not meant to confuse or deceive you, but rather give you a
broader perspective on the subject matter and widen your perceptions
about the “right way” to sell on Amazon.
The truth is, while there are definitely consensuses to be drawn regarding
certain things for selling on Amazon, there are always multiple roads to
success on this e-commerce platform. One seller’s journey may not mirror
your own, but that is part of the appeal of selling on Amazon: there is really
no one way to do it.
What You Will Gain by the End of Reading This Book
After reading the responses of our many esteemed experts on the art of
selling on the famed online platform, you should have a greater grasp of
what it is like to begin selling a product on Amazon and the expectations
that go along with it.
You should also gain a grander perspective on the various experiences

other can have when first starting out on Amazon. Volume 1 will focus on
the beginning steps of selling on Amazon, which include the following:
• What products ARE and ARE NOT good to sell on Amazon
• Tips on performing product research
• Things to know before launching your first product on Amazon
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Probably one of the most popular searches anyone can perform on Google or any other
search engine regarding selling on Amazon is something like “best product to sell on
Amazon.” The sellers all gave diverse yet interesting answers for this question, proving
that there is never really just one way to go, depending on the resources available to
you when you start.
Daniel Audunsson - Co-Founder of Ryan and Daniel
“I think the best products to sell on Amazon are a higher priced product, so products
that price $40, $50, and above. It doesn't really matter so much the category, but
usually that's where you'll find the most untapped opportunities and also the highest
profit margins.”
Barbara Boschen - Co-Founder of CoMerchant Relisting Software
“Alright, so I think the best products to sell on Amazon are something that you're familiar
with, I think you have the best success selling a product that you believe in that has
good qualities. I know a lot of people just sell stuff, but ultimately, they move away from
them, they don't invest in them. And to me, selling something that you understand and
believe in is you're going to be your best option.”
Steve Choo - MWQHJ Blog
“It's all mine, but the types of products that I like to sell are textiles and anything that
doesn't involve any sort of sizing whatsoever. And the reason why I like textiles is
because it won't break in the mail. It's really easy to just kind of modify and create and
you can usually get a production run up really quickly as well.”
Fernando Cruz - Partner at Seller Tradecraft
“I would say the best products to sell on Amazon are kind of the more niche or long tail
products. I know a ton of people like to go after things like of electronics or
supplements, super saturated niches.
Especially as a newer seller, it's going to be really, really difficult to promote and keep
your listings there. So, I would say going after industrial and scientific or office products,
things that are not as commonly thought about are the perfect partners to go into,
especially as you're starting out--they're not as sexy and they're just a lot more niche.”
Sophie Howard - Founder of Aspiring Entrepreneurs
“So, choosing products to sell on Amazon has gotten a bit trickier. There's none of those
easy seven-figure single product winners out there anymore. They're all pretty well
picked over, so I go pretty far to the other end of the spectrum.
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Another thing is I like them to be a bit harder to source so I tend not to look in the same
places as everyone else, so that might mean sourcing from India. I take a couple of
groups to a big trade show in India to source products, and those suppliers don't even
have a website, so once they find a unique quality product there, nobody's going to be
able to find it and copy it very easily.
I always look for a 30% margin, which means not necessarily buying cheap but charging
more by doing a really world class job. If you can get a really unique product and it's
hard to copy, then it kind of sets you because you get the short term high price.
From day one you're selling at a high price, you never get into a price wall and that's
initial work you do to set up and launch the product means you've just got so much
longer runway earning money off it because people can't come in and copy it easily.
I like to build a brand of double figures of products under one umbrella brand and
consumables are good if you can get some repeat purchases in the mix, even if it's just
some products in that brand and then that's really, really helpful. And especially when
it's time to sell a business and they're always really interested to see that statistic
around repeat purchases.”
Tim Jordan - President & Co-Founder of Hickory Flats
“I hate the trendy stuff, like the fidget spinners and the baby towels and the Moscow
mule mugs because it's super competitive and you've got to keep reinvesting a ton of
money in inventory that's eventually going to become saturated.
Also, all the big brands out there are seeing those flash in the pans and you're fighting
against big name brands, big retail stores for those same items, so I liked the stuff that
flies below the radar.
The stuff that turns out 200 or 300 units a month, nobody's paying attention to them.
They're not sexy, they're not interesting, but I have less competition on those products,
so I can build out 10, 15, 20, or 30 SKUs and nobody's even paying attention.
Nobody's competing with me and it's a more long-term play than these flash in the pan
things that just are going to die in the next 12 months anyways, and I'm stuck with a
baton inventory I can't get rid of.”
Seth Kniep – Just One Dime
“I don't focus on the product type, but the product category. So, for example, instead of
focusing on selling in a large category like sports and outdoors, I recommend selling in
a sub or sub-sub-category or sub-niche of that category.
Let me give you another example. Let's say you're selling in sports and outdoors and
you're looking at backpacks for hiking and hiking is your subcategory. Instead of trying
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to sell something major like backpacks, whether it might be a lot more brand loyalty, sell
a subcategory of that, such as perhaps a holder for a canteen bottle.
Once you build up your brand value through that accessory item, then it's much easier
to then start to advance and say, ‘Okay, now that they recognize this for an accessory
item, where there isn't brand loyalty, now we can focus on selling bigger stuff because
we've built the value of our brand.’
That way you can dominate the market over items where people don't care about the
brand as much. They're just looking at the value that you offer.”
Anthony Lee - COO of SixLeaf, LLC
“I think that the best products to sell on Amazon, especially for beginners, are small,
light, and uncomplicated. But the most important factor is what I like to call a ‘necessity.’
A lot of people try to go after the shiny, glittery new products—trendy. Those products
can make a lot of money, but they can also completely fail. I think a safer bet, especially
if you're just getting into the market, is to do something like an ‘essential,’ or something
that you know everybody's going to need and all you need is a small point of
differentiation and then you can excel in that market.”
James Thomson - Co-Founder of PROSPER Show
“It's more about how you sell what you sell, rather than what you sell. Amazon is a
marketplace of widgets and for companies that understand how to measure their
profitability and understand how to evolve over time.
You can sell basically anything, and I have seen people sell all sorts of crazy stuff. So,
I'm not going to tell you that it's this type of widget or that type of widget, but I'm going to
tell you that it's how you run your business to make better decisions about the products
you ultimately choose to sell.”
Will Tjernlund - Founder of Goat Consulting
“So, the best things to sell on Amazon usually tend to be in a smaller niche. You don't
want to have to go after the big market where you're competing against multibillion
dollar corporation.
Some places not to look for products is anything you can buy in Target or Walmart.
Most consumers know where and how to buy that product. They kind of know an
average price for that product.
But if you can get into a sub niche, especially one where an older clientele who might
not be as familiar with e-commerce like woodworking or a question or a tool, you can
really find a niche that's unexplored on Amazon and you can still make a ton of money.”
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Besides choosing the right product for you to sell on Amazon, categorizing it correctly
can also make a significant difference in your success. There are many different
categories on Amazon, so choosing one that you are able to compete in is key to your
product launch.
Till Andernach - Team Lead for FreightHub
“It's everything that excites you. If you care for cats and this is the one thing on your
mind all day, then you should probably do something related to cats. I think it should be
something that you care for. It may be something that you came up with or something
innovative in a way.
Maybe it’s something that you picked up in your daily life. Also, this is actually also why I
keep repeating this because that was my initial mistake. I started with something that I
didn't care for too much and then very soon my interest dropped and I just let it be.”
“Everybody sells everything, so I think a good product category to get into would be one
where you have that familiarity with the product set. For example, my business partner
and I started doing RA, and he started doing really big things, baby strollers, cribs, and I
was like, ‘That's huge.’ I started in, I call it ‘Stuff Women Like.’
So, I started in an area that it was things that I had a comfort zone in, I understood, I
used personally. So those are the categories that I feel comfortable in because I really
know the products and I really know where the ins and outs of them are.”
Shawn Hart - Co-Founder of Quick Fast Hurry

“I think that the easiest category for people to jump into the beginning is something that
has a lot of traffic already; for me that would be ‘Toys’ or ‘Sporting Goods.’ ‘Toys’ would
be my number one choice just because of all the product listings and all of the
complementing products you can easily put together on later building up brand.”
Michael Jackness - EcomCrew Blog & Podcast

“Number one: if you can find something that you have a personal interest in, I think
that's really important. It helps you find products and think of things that you can do to
improve upon on that niche a lot easier.
And number two: I try to find things that people themselves have some interest and
passion [for because] boring products are very difficult to market. So, if you have
something that people are very interested in, think the ‘Baby’ space for instance, or the
‘Gun’ space or something where people are very, very passionate about what they're
doing there versus a boring product like an ice cube maker or something like that where
people might not be as interested in talking about your product for you.”
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“I liked the simple items. I like ‘Tools.’ I like ‘Home Goods.’ I like ‘Sports and Outdoors.’
These are items that are not going to be difficult to ship. They're not going to have a lot
of breakages.
Generally, you're not going to have a lot of issues of liability. A lot of people sell kids’
toys. I've sold a lot of kids’ toys, but you have to consider the liability issues there. I liked
the items that a lot of people aren't focusing on either. If you go to a trade show like Toy
Fair, there's a million Amazon sellers, and they're trying to get involved.
If you go to a trade show, I think it's called GIE, it is literally a trade show for
landscapers and landscape architects. If you go to a trade show like that, and of course
now there will be a lot of people there because I just talked about it, but there are
people there that have invented a new tool that has a new process for gardening and
you can go in there and get great ideas for products.
That just goes to show that nobody's looking at certain categories as much as they are
other categories.”

“I love this question because product categories have a huge impact on the strategy
you're going to use to sell and rank your product. ‘Arts, Crafts, and Sewing’ has low
demand. It's easy to get into if you know the industry really well.
‘Baby’ is difficult because it's high risk. You need insurance, your chances of something
going wrong and getting sued are much higher and you also have to get special
certifications for certain products in case they're at risk for a child.
‘Home and Garden’ is a great one to get into as long as you stay away from power tools
because accessory items don't have brand loyalty and you can carve out a niche for
yourself.
‘Industrial and Scientific’ is another good one. You have to search longer to find
something that you can really plug into. And again, the competition tends not to be as
strong as like ‘Sports and Outdoors,’ but if once you find a gem, you can really dive into
that and go deep.
If you do ‘Office Products,’ I have found more success selling office products in mass
and bulk with the business setup than I have individually because sometimes you have
large companies.
Organizations will come in and buy stuff on Amazon in large bulk. I recommend office
products, again, unless it's a really specific niche that's meeting a specific need that
people need for their office desk.”
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Jeremiah Kovacs - Founder of MuseMinded
“Generally, what I see that really works for my clients is the folks that really think the
‘subscribe and save’ categories like ‘Health and Personal Care’ or ‘Beauty,’
‘Groceries’—those types of consumables. Those are the folks that I really see month in
and month out, hitting really strong numbers.
I'm getting those repeat sales from customers, but at the end of the day I see clients win
in pretty much every category. So, if you're really struggling, go find something you're
passionate about, you can really win in every category for sure.”
Gil Lang - Managing Partner of Commerce&
“I think there is a lot of different categories you can get into. If you have a special
knowledge on something, that's where you want to go. If you know something that gives
you a head’s up, especially in those gated categories, that's where you want to go. If
you have no clue about anything, you should go to ‘Kitchen’ or ‘Pet Supplies’ or ‘Sports’
I guess like when I started.”

“So, the product categories that I suggest people get into is ‘Kitchen’ [because] is one of
the best and the reason is because it's full of those essential products that people are
always going to need and it's also full of innovation.
Hot new products come and go in that marketplace as well. There's just a ton of
opportunity in ‘Kitchen.’ I think that's my favorite category.
Aside from that I would definitely say that other opportunities are in ‘Sports and
Outdoors.’ That's always going to be a trending, but that's more seasonal. You'll get
something really good at the beginning of the year. And ‘Office Supplies’ is a very
underappreciated niche with a lot of great potential.”
David Zaleski - Founder of Sellerology
“Personally, I recommend people to get into categories that are actually gated. Since a
category is gated, it's a little bit less saturated because there's always that barrier to
entry where you do have to get ungated. I mean if you look at automotive in any types
of products to private label in automotive, it's a lot less saturated in markets like those
than ‘Home and Kitchen’ for example.”
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While we use the powerful tool Black Box by Helium 10, performing Amazon product
research can be a tricky business if you aren’t sure where to start your search. Like any
good treasure map leading you to riches, some routes may be better for achieving
success than others.
Till Andernach - Team Lead for FreightHub
“We start with looking at the average sales on the first page. Then we look at some
statistics. What's the listing with the highest number of sales on the first page? We
obviously look at the competition.
Are their products optimized, or are their listings optimized? We [also] look at negative
reviews a lot, so what we could actually improve on the product. Can we make the
product any better? We're looking at average sales price. We also look at the highest
sales price.
Then we look at the number of quality reviews that others have out there. Of course, a
big one also is with that product, can we do FBA? And if we can do FBA, do we have to
do fulfillment by merchant? Is it possible for us to set it up in a way that we still get the
Prime badge? I think the last one would be the seasonality.”
“We go through a rigorous testing and research phase. So, we actually do source, let's
say three to five units of items we had researched, and [see if they] are viable. We
actually test selling them and put them on Amazon. We may do a round of 10 to 20
listings on Amazon and then we will see what happens.
Then you look at that data and we combine that with our sourcing data to project out the
actual viability of that product to see if it makes sense. Of all of those 10 [listings], which
one is most promising opportunity?”
“I use a combination of Helium 10 because we do a little sourcing there. A lot of it

though comes from me looking at products [to see] if everybody is going that way, I'm
going this way.
I'm trying to find things where people are not in. A lot of what we do is look at if there's a
red, green, and blue one, we're going to extend into an orange one or a different size or
some way to spin on the same time to try to carve out a space that no one else is in.”
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“For me personally, looking through the subcategories and looking at what are
categories that people aren't necessarily looking at and people don't want to do. Then I
go really deep into those subcategories and niches and then using [certain] tools have
been really, really helpful for me in terms of estimating revenue and then go, ‘I'm taking
that to calculate margins.’”
Liran Hirschkorn - Amazon Seller Podcast
“For me, the best way I find products on Amazon is really two ways, but I like to just dive
deep into the Amazon catalog. I like to look at past sellers, dive deep into
subcategories, and find opportunities to improve and differentiate products that I can
bring to the market. There's essentially more demand than there is supply.”

“I live in New Zealand, so I'm a very long way away from the market I'm selling to, and a
little bit closer to Asia. So, what I do is most of my research for suppliers is online and
I've got a big sort of selection checklist for things I look for in the perfect product. And
then I go from there and hit up Google.
It's usually actually a Google search that finds the best suppliers, but the other thing that
I really like doing is going to trade shows. I do a few trade show trips taking groups to
India and sometimes China. I've done a lot of sourcing in places like Bali and I just think
these unique products that aren't off page 1 of Alibaba are the winners.
If it's really easy for someone to find your supplier on Alibaba in one click and there's
tools out there helping them do it, then I feel like you're pretty exposed in your business.
For example, those Indian suppliers I use, they don't even have websites. And my first
product was handmade in Nepal. It just was like completely outside the main places
people go and look.”
“I look away from Amazon to find the best products to sell on Amazon. I don't want to be
selling the same stuff that everybody else is selling. I don't want to be using somebody
else's success is an indicator of where I should follow suit.
I like looking off of Amazon. I also liked to use search term volume as opposed to sales
volume. What I mean is I'm looking for the things that people are searching for, but
there's not really any listings to match it as opposed to looking at what people's current
sales or an existing product and trying to just play follow the leader with them.”
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Dave Kettner - Co-Founder of AMZ and Beyond
“What I like to do a lot of times is get out there and go to trade shows. We've been going
to things like CS or ASD in Las Vegas. If you can get out to China to go to the Yiwu or
Canton fairs, that's when you're going to start seeing things in action and be able to see
what's popular. You started seeing some ideas, getting some others.
You might see something as ideas for other things or even just out and about. I mean a
lot of times my wife and I [will be] out shopping, and we'll see some things [and be] like,
“Wow, that's an interesting idea. Let's go do some research on it, see if there's an
opportunity there.”
“Sell based on keyword clusters. What I do is I find what people are already searching
for on Amazon and I create a keyword cluster. So, if the item is “tape,” I'm going to find
five, six, or seven different keywords people are searching for that ended up landing
here because each keyword validates the potential of the product.
Each keyword has to meet a certain level of criteria and the basic criteria is we need as
high demand as possible and decently low competition. Not super low because that can
mean there's no demand, but decently low competition; low enough that I can land on
the first page without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the one product
before it even starts selling 15 times a day.
A keyword cluster, again, as we have multiple keywords all pointing to the same product
and those keywords are high demand, low competition—that means I'm not putting all
my eggs in the basket of one keyword.
I can differentiate myself and move those keywords around based on my PPC ad
reports and find out how to optimize the listing based on that.”
Tom Wang - Owner of Digital MUVMNT
“Number one: I definitely do not want to compete in niches where everybody on the first
page has hundreds and hundreds of reviews. So that's probably my first criteria and
second, not as important as reviews, but it's something where people come back
repeatedly, right? So, things like skincare products.
[You want something] people really want to buy, let's say once a month, twice a month.
Your customer value in the long term is a little bit greater than just a one-time
purchase.”
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While you can sell just about anything allowed by Amazon’s Terms of Service, each
category has its own limits and barriers to entry. Only your available capital and
willpower can determine what products are worth it and which are duds.
“I occasionally have people coming to me wanting to sell supplements and that sort of
thing. I’m pretty anti-supplements. Anything that is super popular and super competitive
where you might have to give away hundreds of thousands of dollars with a unit just to
even rank on the front page.”
“We really try to avoid products that have any type of regulations around them. I've been
in other niches before. We were an online affiliate marketer in the poker space of all
things, so I'd been used to having the government or an outside regulatory body squash
my entire business before.
We stay away from things like pharmaceuticals or anything that requires approval from
Amazon or something that they might change their opinion on from one day to the next.
Those are things that are completely off limits to us.”
Brian R. Johnson - Amazon PPC Expert
“I look at it obviously from an advertising standpoint, and the products that I see that
struggle the most are typically those that have a lot of product variations, style, color,
fit—that type of thing. They usually have much lower conversion rates because it slows
down the buying process.
Things like clothing is a big one. It's like it has to be a pretty unique item in clothing for
me to want to actually source it and sell it because a lot of the clothing has such a low
conversion rate.”
“I would definitely avoid things that are super high in inventory like clothing and shoes
because not only do you have a ton of color variations, you've got to have a ton of style
variation and sizes. You can spend a lot of money on only a few styles are going to
work well.
I also stay away from things that are really hard to import. People don't know a lot of
these problems that we run into as a shipping company, but stuff like raw wood is a
nightmare. People that are importing home décor—that is raw wood. A wooden vase or
something is very, very difficult to get into the US. If you're sourcing that product, you're
not going to know until you try and get it across the border.
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Then if you don't have all these precautions taken care of, which most suppliers based
in China don't really care about, then your goods are getting held up, they're getting
destroyed, and they're getting rejected.
The other thing that I like to consider is the Department of Transportation. Nobody's
probably ever said that in regard to Amazon selling, but everything that we're selling as
a product has to be transported, right?
So, the reason that Amazon has the Hazmat questions about new inventory [is
because] they're asking about [things] like lithium ion batteries. It's because
transportation is restricted for those. Whether it's air, whether it's truck on the ground,
whether it's UPS, deliveries to the customers—all that stuff is regulated.
It also has a lot to do with storage. The Department of Transportation in the US

regulates storage. If Amazon is selling a ton of items with lithium ion batteries, they
have to track that because they can only have so many items in a warehouse.
I stay away from things that are hard to import, maintain just a mountain of inventory,
and also on items that are logistically difficult to ship because of the Department of
Transportation regulations.”
Nick Katz – The Japan Guy
“Definitely avoid products that have a low barrier to entry. By that, I mean often there'll
be injection molded products, and plastic products that have very cheap simple molds.
For example, if you start a product like that and it sells really well, you're going to get a
lot of competition very, very easily. You should try and target products that aren't as
easy to copy.”
“Number one: I would avoid selling what I call a “me-too” product. I don't think there's
any particular product that's bad to sell unless you're infringing on a copyright on a
trademark or a patent, so I don't think there's any wrong products.
It really depends on your knowledge, who you're working with, what your brand loyalty
is, and so forth. What matters is don't sell a “me-too” product. I'll give you an example: I
worked with a lot of sellers and a lot of them they start searching for their product and
they will find one that has really high competition and the demand is not too bad and
they're like, “Oh my goodness, if they can sell it, then I can too.”
Instead they go to Alibaba and they try to find the duplicate of that one and maybe
tweak it just a little bit. “Oh, theirs is offered in pink, I'll offer mine in purple.” And they
think that that is private labeling.
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It's kind of like the old days where they used to say, “Here's private label, here's a
product, stick your logo on it. Tada, and I've private labeled.” It doesn't work like that, so
don't sell a “me-too” product.
[If you’re] just trying to copy what someone else is doing, why would I buy your product?
Just because it's like theirs, when they already have the reviews and the status and the
ranking, there's no reason for me to buy. You need to give a really strong reason to
buyers that's clearly above the competition.
Second, don't sell a product you don't understand well. One of the first products that we
ever sold were vapes and I used to smoke a pipe just once a week, but I knew nothing
about vapes and I didn't understand it. And the learning curve was so long and so
heavy; that was primarily through e-commerce and it cost me a lot of money and time
because I didn't understand that industry.
Start with something you understand better, but you're not married to the product, so
you can remain objective and make analytical decisions instead of emotional driven
decisions.”
“A product that I would definitely avoid selling on Amazon, only because of a personal
experience, would be a really expensive baby product. The reason why is because the
more expensive the item, obviously the more hesitation there is.
Baby items in particular require or at least tend to have a tremendous amount of

research put into them. The more decision making a customer has to make on your
unknown brand product, the less likely they're going to buy from you. Bigger brands
[are] probably going to win that sale.”
Seth Stevens - Co-Founder of Quick Fast Hurry

“I would avoid selling products that are low-priced or low, low margin, have low demand,
or very high competition. We avoid low price products because all of your profits are
basically eaten away by fulfillment fees.
We avoid low-margin products because it's a low return on our investment. We can put
our cash to work better elsewhere and we avoid low demand products. I mean, it's
obvious because no one wants to buy what we're selling. We also avoid very high
competition products because the profits are so low and the cost of acquiring customers
is so high.”
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“I'm not excited about selling vitamins or wireless accessories for a couple of reasons.
Both those classes of products have huge amounts of competition. There's lots of extra
capacity for companies to go and get their own manufacturing so they can private label.
When there's no barriers to entry, that makes it hard for me as a business owner to
know that whatever I build today will in fact have the possibility of being a meaningful
amount of revenue down the road. So, I would stay away from those two.
And within those two I would stay away from vitamins and supplements because you've
got all the issues now with content of the product. Do you know what all the ingredients
active and inactive are in the products? Yes, there are lots of people who are attracted
to vitamins and supplements because it's a big opportunity on Amazon, but it's so
saturated with companies that have made their own private label products.
Worse yet, [they] have made their own private label products without a clear
understanding of all the ingredients of that. To me, that just spells a huge potential risk
to be in a position that you're either going to get suspended or eventually just shut
down.
And as we all know, once you're suspended a few times on Amazon, even if you do
manage to get back up and running, Amazon's not going to invite you back when you
decide, “I'm going to stop selling vitamins. I'm going to make some other kind of less
dangerous or less risky product.”
“Personally, products that I would avoid selling are just replacement parts for anything.
Whether you're selling replacement parts or just parts for either cars, computers,
vacuum cleaners, any type of replacement part.
I would just avoid private labeling just because you get a ton of returns with products
like those because people think they know what's wrong with the issue they're having,
so they go on Amazon and they ordered the replacement part, but little do they know it's
completely something else, so they'll return it.”
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Another subjective question, but again, the answer will depend on your unique situation,
financial assets, and knowledge base. Some categories are more saturated than others,
and then some present a whole other set of problems due to outside forces like
regulatory bodies across many countries.
Taz Ahsan - Host of The Amazon Entrepreneur Podcast
“Personally, I would probably say electronics. The reason why is that there are so many
different things that can go wrong with electronic products and they just have higher
return rates. You can never be 100% in your manufacturing, no matter who your
manufacturer is. You've used tons of different electronics in the past and you've most
likely experienced something that's come wrong with them.
The other issue is you can't spot defects through inspections. If there's something
wrong with a PCB (the circuit board that you've created), you may have tested a couple
of them, but if it’s a massive defect, you can't listen to something and just see or view a
massive defect. You can't test a thousand units that way.
Whereas when you have an issue with say, a wooden product, you can tell whether the
quality is good or anything like that, but with electronics it's hard as a spot, so I'd
probably say that's the worst.”
Greg Elfrink - Director of Marketing with Empire Flippers
“When it comes to categories, I am against anything digestible just because there's a lot
more regulations that go into it. [Things] like nutraceuticals, stuff like that. One other
thing I would suggest is to move away from “me-too” products that are easy to build.
Look to build something unique.”
Lesley Hensell - Partner at Riverbend Consulting
“People won't like the answer to this because it's ‘Health and Personal Care.’ There are
a lot of potential rewards in ‘Health and Personal Care,’ but it's got a lot of problems. If
you have stocked [products] in the warehouse, it's not temperature controlled.
[Products] gets dropped and [they] get broken.
[They have] to be thrown away. If [a product] comes back as a return, there are safety
problems. You have to do a lot of testing. It's a lot more work than you think it is.”
“So as far as worst FBA product category, I could probably say ‘Clothing.’ The clothing
category is a tough one because of the lower conversion rates. ‘Pet Supplies’ has a lot
more competition than what it really should have; for some reason, a lot of sellers want
to get into selling pet items.”
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Gill Lang - Managing Partner of Commerce&
“It really depends on [the product] and on the angle you [come at it] from. [Anything]
could be the worst category to sell in if I have no money and I want to start trying to go
for supplements and I don't have the marketing budget. But it could be an amazing
category if I have the marketing budget and I know my way around Amazon.
On the other hand, the worst category [could be] to start selling in ‘Sports,’ little small
items that are really cheap if I have a lot of cash flow. So, it really, really depends. I
think in every category you can make a killing if you know how.”
“I would say that one of the most difficult and challenging, especially for a new seller,
would probably be somewhere in the men's wellness space, just because sports and
fitness supplements is an extremely competitive niche.
Unless you have a lot of money to throw at it, (there's a whole bunch of upside if you
do), but for the average individual, that is probably one of the most challenging spaces
to try and make it into. I definitely don't recommend that for anybody that's not very, very
well-funded.”
Nathan Resnick - CEO of Sourcify
“I would say the worst Amazon FBA product category selling are going to be really
bulky, heavy products. I'm not going to dive in any product category specifics, but I
would say anything where your costs of importing those products to FBA is going to be
very high.
It's going to eat at your margin and even if you can charge a premium on those products
at the end of the day, it's going to be harder to scale up because of you're shipping
overhead and it's going to be so high.”
Cynthia Stine - CEO of eGrowth Partners
“Personally, I feel that the worst category to sell in, although many sellers will disagree,
is going to be topicals because those are the riskiest. Those are the ones that Amazon
comes down on sellers the most for, and they're the most vigilant.”
“The worst category to sell into in my experience is the nutritional supplements

category. For our consulting agency, the second incoming clients say they're selling
supplements, no matter how big their company is, no matter how cool and scientific, or
how many patents they have, we just tell them, ‘Sorry, we can't help you because it's a
lost cause.’
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Not only are the margins super thin, but also now people have spent a crazy amount of
money on the advertising for their supplements. So, the advertising is way too
expensive.
And lastly, if the competition and the advertising prices aren't going to scare you away,
it's going to be all the government regulations, all the different paperwork you need, and
all the different lab testing you need just to sell your product to the US consumer (and
you still might hurt the US consumer).”
“Everybody knows [about] garlic presses, but I would have to say one of the worst
categories to sell in is replacement parts, some electronics, and things that are easily
breakable. So, anything that's glass and just involves a lot of space. For example, glass
containers or jars, I would just avoid those. At least if it's your first product and you're
just getting into Amazon, just avoid selling products like those.”
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One of the most popular questions, yet also one of the hardest to answer. While it’s
possible to start with a relatively low amount, you have to wonder just how far you’ll get
on that small load of cash.
“I'm sure that the numbers vary for this and people have already heard, ‘Oh, I started
with $500.’ Yeah, maybe with retail arbitrage, but for private label, I'm going to assume
you're only going to start with one product.
You're going to launch one product and it's not going to be a super big oversized
product. The landed cost of the product will be, say, under $10. So, if that's the case, I
would say you can start with $5,000. That gives you enough to get your first shipment
and it gives you enough to reorder and also to handle the initial costs for your PPC and
your launch. And those are really low estimates.
$5,000 is still going to be tight. I did it, but I would say have $10,000 so if you make
mistakes upfront, you have a bit of cash left over to fix them.”
“I've actually had students in my class start with just like $1,000 for private. Yeah, for
private label at minimum, $1,000. And even that's a little bit on the low side, you want to
be able to buy at least I would say two to 300 units in your first order to be able to test
the market.”
“I think to start with an Amazon business, you need about $10,000 to do it right. I know
there's stories out there of people starting with $200 and I understand that works, but it's
going to take a long time to build up.
Here's how I tell people to break their budget out: $10,000 to start. As an actual
business, you need $2,000 in education. I'm not saying you have to go out and buy a
$2,000 course, but I'm saying if you're starting out, spend a $1,000 and go to a three-
day Amazon sellers conference. Go meet as many people as you can. You can go to a
three-day conference, spend a $1,000, meet 50 people and gain more experience.
Other people might watch YouTube videos and stuff for six months. I think you need to
have $6,000 for inventory. With $6,000, I think that you can realistically purchase test
samples of maybe five or six items.
You're depending on what you're looking at it. They might not be the final product that's
super customized, but it will get your foot in the door that leads you around $2,000 at
the backend for your pay per click costs and also a buffer to hire a professional.
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Now I know that we all like to think we can do at all, but I see where customers think
they have a really good grip on something all the time and at the end of the day, they
really don't, so use that as an emergency fund.
If your listings aren't converting and you realize that you're lost in the weeds and can't
figure out how to get your listing optimized or your PPC nailed down, spend some
money and hire professionals to do that for you and get yourself out of that water. It's a
really good investment.”
Kevin King – Freedom Ticket
“The number one question people always ask us is, “How much money do I need to
start an Amazon business?” And that answer varies. It depends on the product you
choose. Some people say, ‘Can I do it with $500?’ Some people say, ‘No, you need
$3,000.’ So, I'm saying you need $10,000.
I know people that do the whole range all the way up to $60,000, but that depends on
the product you choose. The products that you source determines how much money
you need. You need two and a half times your initial inventory investment.
So, if you're ordering 500 units to start with and they cost you $5 a piece, that's five
times $500, [which equals] $2,500, and multiply that by two and a half. So, you need
$6,000 to $7,000 in that range to start and have a good chance of launching a product
properly.”
“I would recommend $3,500 as a general rule. It depends on your product. If you're

selling a higher end, more expensive product, you made need more at the front, but just
remember this. When you put money into your business and you do it strategically,
you're putting an investment on your future.
You need to feed the passive income machine so that later on it will feed you just like an
apple orchard tree. You plant the tree, you give it fertilizer, you water it, you take care of
it, and then years later, and in this case, it can be months later on Amazon, it starts to
feed you back.”
“I wish there was like a super easy answer for this, but I'd say in terms of a minimum
amount of capital, you could validate an idea with just a couple hundred dollars, no
doubt. But for product launches, I see most of my clients generally are thinking $5,000
to $10,000 in initial product launch.
Some more savvy folks are kind of getting away with $1,000 to $2,000 if they're really
being smart about how they're sourcing, the quantities, or they might have a good
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connection with a manufacturer that they can get low minimum order quantities. So
generally, $5,000 to $10,000 is what I would probably bet on.”
Matt Loberstein - 7-Figure Brand Owner and YouTuber
“My answer has sort of two parts: the amount you should have, and the minimum
required. So, to me, [the optimal amount] is really $5,000 to $10,000, though it is
possible with $1,000 or $2,000. I just think that actually makes your life a lot more
difficult. It's riskier.
You're not going to take those leaps to really push and go aggressive when you need
to. You're going to be playing defense, so while it's possible to start with $1,000 or
$2,000, I really think $5,000 to $10,000 puts you into that optimal territory.”
“You can definitely start out with a very low amount, so it's just $1,000, $1,500. But for
you to turn that into a multimillion dollar business, whatever your goals are, I think it's
less probable than if you have a little bit of bank roll.
I think that for your first Amazon product, I think you should definitely start with at least
$5,000 in cash. That way if you make some mistakes or whatever, at least you have
some cash to deploy instead of just saying, ‘Oh shoot, I'm out of cash.’ And at the end
of the day this is a very, very heavy cash-based business.”
Coran Woodmass - Founder of The FBA Broker
“It's an inventory-based business and some people say you can start with $500 to test
the product. That's fine if you're just getting started, but I wouldn't limit yourself when
you're getting started.
The biggest reason for this is a lot of people think they can go from a $500 investment
to a million dollar a year business.
Now, the great thing with inventory is you can do the math on this and what you'll
actually find is you'll need a lot of capital to invest once you find out what's working to
really get that capital returned.
A lot of businesses that are successful reinvest everything for the first 12 months and
even more capital of their own once they figure out what's working.”
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“Personally, I would argue if you really want to get serious with it, the more the better of
course, but I think $5,000 is a comfortable space to get your foot in the door with a
product that might sell for $19.99 but cost around $5 or $6 to manufacture and get to
Amazon's warehouse.
So, I would argue around $5,000. Anything less, honestly, do some retail online
arbitrage and just save up a little bit because you're better off waiting a month or two
and saving up more money and doing it right the first time.
However, to really just get your foot in the door, it's like $2,000.”
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We all have skills in something that defines who we are, but we all equally must
confidently admit when we just are not meant for something. Having money to buy
inventory is not enough; being an Amazon seller is not for the faint of heart and requires
a tremendous amount of dedication, business acumen, and perseverance.
“I think for me, this is anyone who isn't going to treat this seriously. [Everyone] thinks
that something that can be done overnight. This is a real business; selling on Amazon
isn't like going through your basement and picking a few things out that you're going to
put on Ebay.
If you want to make serious money, you have to take it seriously and put the time into it.
Many people see all these figures out there where people publish their sales numbers
and I have a thing against that anyway, about people just saying that I'm not talking
about their margins or their actual net profit.
But aside from that, people see these big numbers and I think, “Oh my God, you can
just buy something from Alibaba and sell it on Amazon.” Yeah, maybe three or four
years ago you could do that. Maybe even two years ago you could do that, and it was
easy and there wasn't a lot of competition.
Now I think there are 800,000 new sellers every hour or something like that, and only
5% of them actually sell a thing, but there's a lot of competition out there. So, don't
assume that this is going to be an easy ride.
Even myself, I thought, ‘Wow, I've done all this stuff. I thought I did the studying, I did
the training. This is going to be great.’ But you can't anticipate all the different
challenges you're going to face until you actually go through them. So, if you think that
you're going to be successful overnight or even in a couple of months, don't waste your
time.”
Danny Carlson - CEO of Kenji ROI – Amazon Seller Services
“I believe you should not sell on Amazon if you can't sleep at night with large amounts of
uncertainty because on Amazon, you're constantly going to be having [major] changes
coming at you.
A tricky, sneaky black hat tactic is your competitors trying to get your account
suspended and stuff like that. Then there also is a risk of getting suspended on
Amazon. There's so many variables that if you can't deal with that uncertainty, then
you're probably going to make some pretty rash decisions.”
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“Amazon has been really good for me, but it's definitely not for everyone. There's a lot of
people that I talk to, they want to come and do coaching, and I can just tell from the day
they couldn't get Skype to work to do the call or they're worried about the $40 a month
Amazon fee. These are not the people that are going to get out the starting blocks.
They’re off to the wrong kind of start and I don't want to waste their time or money or my
time. I could help somebody else who's really ready to go. I think you've got to be a bit
of a generalist. It's easy to teach creative people who are good at the product selection,
how to outsource the system side.
There's kind of only one best way to do a lot of the downstream implementation stuff,
but choosing products is a challenge and that's the bit I really enjoy and spend most of
my time helping other people do.
I think it's quite hard if you are very, very analytical and find it hard to think creatively
enough to work with designers to come up with brands. I think that's where you get the
big wins on Amazon. It's not by being the best analysts. There are so many tools out
there that do the analysis.
It's much more about being a bit more creative and building original products with points
of difference and products that people actually want and that stand out a bit in what's
getting to be a much busier platform now.”
“I really think that Amazon's a good business for just about anybody, but there's
definitely a subset of people out there that I would recommend to just do something
else.
Number one: if you're risk averse, I would stay away from it because you have to have
the ability to fail and lose some money at it. It's definitely a possibility.
Number two: if you really just don't have the money to lose, I wouldn't do it. I would treat
your first couple of listings almost as gambling. I mean, it's definitely not gambling, but
you have to be prepared for something to go really wrong.
There's a myriad of things I can tell you that could go wrong. I always focus on what
could go right, but if you have a problem with this inherently, I would stay away from it.
The last thing would be if you're just not a motivated person, if you're always just trying
to do the least amount to get by, this is probably not the best business for you. I find the
more effort we put into this, the more unique products we make, the better-quality
products, and the more effort we put into our products, the more successful we are.
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And not a lot of people are necessarily willing to put that extra mile in. So, if you don't
want to do that, I would just stay out of it and go do something else fun with your
money.”
“The person that should not sell on Amazon is a hobbyist. It's someone that doesn't take
this seriously. It's someone is not willing to stay up all night when they need to, working,
hustling, kicking their own tail to get this thing done.
Five years ago, four years ago, guys were falling into this. They're making a ton of
money. It was very easy for them. Right now, the water has becoming bloodied. You are
dealing with people with a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of resources. If you're just
going in there and get your feet wet, maybe you'll have a little success.
I'm not saying you won't, but for the most part I can tell you hundreds of stories of
people that just tried to dabble a little bit. It didn't go very well. They got discouraged.
They walked away. If they would have just stuck with it, they could have learned from
those experiences.
Like myself, I had a lot of failures early on, but I learned through them. I pushed through
them, took those experiences and made it big, but if you're coming in as a hobbyist or
someone's just dabbling, you're going to get discouraged. You're going to walk away.
You're not going to give the time, dedication, and effort required to turn this thing into
something that's really sustainable.”
“Someone who does not understand the value of risk and reward. I work with many
people and some of people I've worked with have this romantic idea that they're going
to go out there, just going to start selling on Amazon, make a ton of money and they're
going to fire their boss.
They're going to say, ‘Yes, we did it!’ and they're going to travel the world. That's all true
and it can happen, but you have to switch your mentality from a secure 9-to-5, ‘I get my
paycheck and I have my benefits’ mentality to ‘I'm naked, I'm on my own. I'm on the
street and I got these assets. How am I going to handle these in such a way that's going
to take care of me and build a business?’
It's a different mindset, so here's what I do. I take every decision and I put risks on one
side and the rewards on the other and I ask which one wins. If the risks are higher, then
I'm not going to touch it. If the rewards are higher, I'm going to do it and dive straight in.
Let me give you a super tangible example of that. Let's say you realize that to do
enough giveaways to get on the first page of search results is going to require
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purchasing 250 more units and that's going to cost you another $1,000. That $1,000
that you spend, it hurts—I know.
But you're going to have to divorce yourself from the money in order to get where you
need to be, and you have to take that risk. Otherwise you're avoiding risk, but you're
going to end up with more risk because you won't have enough products to get on the
first page of search results, which means you end up spending more money and
wasting a lot of time and losing your ranking.”
Matt Loberstein - 7-Figure Brand Owner and YouTuber
“[I am afraid for] the people that come to me that are in a serious place of desperation
with their business. Like they only have $800 to start and they absolutely 100% cannot
lose a dime. That to me is a very risky place to be.
I think you need to be willing to just play with this, throw some money at it, see what
happens, lose in some places so you'll learn, and that will lead to you making money in
other places.
When you're down to your last few dollars and you just need something out of pure
desperation, I feel like that is a really hard place to be in this business. You've got to be
able to jump in, give it a real effort, and learn as you go sometimes.”
Chris Rawlings - CEO & Founder of JudoLaunch
“If you are this type of person that needs security, if you're the kind of person that
doesn't like taking risks, this is just not the place for you. It seriously isn't. You're going
to get hurt emotionally and it's going to be painful.
So, if you're trying to start this out thinking that it's going to be not an easy ride, I'll tell
you one thing for sure—you will have many, many, many times in this journey where
you think, “It’s all over. I'm screwed. I'm going to go bankrupt and I’m going to lose my
house. This whole business is crumbling, and I left my job for nothing.” That's going to
happen a lot.
No matter who you are, that's going to happen to you dozens of times, literally. So, if
that's not something that you're cut out for and you know that, that security is more of a
value to you than an opportunity or risk or adventure or new experiences, then just don't
start.
There are other things that you can do to make lots of money that do have security. You
can go into banking or try to go the corporate route and become an executive. There
are tons of ways that you can go about this if it's about money that fit your personality
better. But I've seen those people try to do this and it's never pretty. There's always a
breakdown.”
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“One thing I've learned in coaching, talking to people, doing webinars, speaking at
conferences, and meeting all these different Amazon sellers out there—the main thing I
see that kind of aligned all of the most successful sellers is that they're creative and they
think outside the box.
If you're looking for an easy step-by-step program where everything is, ‘Okay, once you
finish Step 3, now just do Step 4,’ there's going to be some point in there where you're
going to have to [step off the path.]
If you just follow it step-by-step, the entire process, you're not going to really grow your
business, you're not going to get your maximum potential and Amazon might not be for
you.
You might have more of the employee mindset instead of the kind of employer mindset.
And so, if you need someone to tell you what to do, step-by-step, kind of the rigid school
style, Amazon may not be for you.
But if you're more creative, you think outside the box a little bit differently than other
people, and you don't mind learning on your own, then Amazon might be a perfect
avenue for you to create a business and create a side income revenue.”
“I would say people that think this is the get rich fast thing. This is like you're building a
business. It is no different than if you were to build a doughnut shop or a coffee shop,
except this is online with a little bit less entry barrier.
I just think so many people have the mentality of saying like, “I can start an Amazon
business and quit my job in three months and drive a fast car and life will be perfect. I
can go [live] on the beach.” If you think that's gonna happen, then I think you need a
reality check. Amazon isn't for people that think they can get rich in two months and
then retire.”
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Like any new venture, selling on Amazon will have its share of surprises, pitfalls, and
achievements. The featured sellers below outline some of the thing you must be aware
of when setting out to compete with other sellers for top ranking and building your own
brand on Amazon.
Rolf Claessen - Patent Attorney, YouTuber, & SUNY Albany Graduate
“Most new sellers are not aware that if they are sourcing products from Alibaba,
Taobao, Aliexpress, or any other Chinese marketplace, they are actually liable for
anything that they are selling in their country.
For example, in the US, they are considered sellers and responsible for whatever they
sell. So, if they come into a fight with a patent holder, or a trademark holder, or design
patent holder, then they will be liable. They have to pay the damages.
Of course, they can try to also then come file a complaint against the producer in China,
but they will have to file the complaint in China with the Chinese court and that will be
very difficult and very costly. So be aware that you are liable for any everything that
you're doing.”
“I would actually not invest too much in branding in the beginning. I know a lot of people
will spend a ton of time finding the perfect name and then buying the perfect domain
name and really investing in the social media and all that kind of stuff.
Personally, I would say it's all about speed of market. Really test the product. If it ends
up being like kind of a homerun or something that you really see has a lot of expansion
potential, then start worrying about maybe rebranding and doing the brand registry and
trademarks and all that kind of stuff.
But in the beginning, you just want to test the product because it could be that it ends up
[making] you wait too long and becoming saturated later on.”

“A huge problem with private label is that people think they can develop a brand and
they bring a product to market. Then they just start making money and they forget a
really important step, which is testing. No matter what your product is, it needs to be
tested before it comes to market.
Between the brand part and the selling it part and even simple products. I've got a guy
who sells lemon squeezers. Do you think that doesn't need testing? Yes, it does
because he's had lousy enamel on it and the paint was chipping off into people's food.
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There is an opportunity for every product to cause reliability issues, so no matter what it
is, even though Amazon doesn't make you test it, test it anyway. The challenge with
testing is it looks different with every category.
For example, in [the ‘Baby’ category,] there are specific labs that Amazon has a list of
that it will accept and it has a specific list of tests. If you're doing topicals, you can
actually choose what testing that you want to do. There's different kinds of microbial
testing, for example.
My best advice is if you're working with a solid contract manufacturer who's good at
what they do, you sit down with them as part of your product development process
because they know the answer to that and they do a lot of the testing in-house. If you
set it up from the beginning and if not, they can help you find labs that will do the right
testing. They don't want the liability either.”
Liran Hirschkorn - Amazon Seller Podcast
“The number one thing I think most sellers aren't aware of is that your first product that
you bring in—consider that your MBA in private label. Considering an education, if you
spend $2,000 or $3,000, that's going to be money that's well spent on learning the
process of importing, launching products, ranking, and doing sponsored ads.
So, don't even worry about the profitability of your first product. And the things that
you're not aware of is that that's how the first product is going to play out. It's certainly
not necessarily going to be something that you keep long term.”
“One thing about private label that most sellers are not aware of is that you really need
to differentiate yourself. A lot of sellers think that can just be another “Me too” product
and just put their label on a on a plastic bag and sell the same thing as everybody else.
You’ll see all these courses and stuff that say, “Here's 100 top products to do that.”
That's not what you want to do. You want to differentiate yourself and create something
that is completely unique or different or fixes a problem based on all the reviews. And
that's the number one thing a lot of sellers miss.
I've never had a hijacker in two and a half years or been hijacked (someone that comes
on your listing and is basically copying you). It's because I differentiate.
That doesn't mean you got to create a brand-new product. You just have to have
something different, whether it’s the packaging or what you're including or fixing the
problems.”
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Gill Lang - Managing Partner of Commerce&
“Branding to my mind is a long-term game. It's not really performance marketing. If you
start performance marketing and sponsored product ads on Amazon, after one week
you can see what performs and what doesn't.
If you start branding campaigns, you go into Edwards, into Facebook, into classical PR,
it's going to take a long time for the customer to notice your brand. It could take years
for your brand to actually start to grow and have your customer know that you are a
brand. So, it's really a long-term game; be patient.”
“I think one thing that I'm constantly [getting] educated on is how big the opportunity is
outside the US. Everybody always focuses on the US because it's just the biggest
market. The problem with that mindset is that it's also the most competitive.
There is a huge opportunity to take all of these strategies that have created this highly
competitive market in the US and apply them in places where the competition is a
completely different story, a totally different landscape with strategies that are far earlier
stage than the more complex strategies that we've come up with to launch here in the
states.
And because of that, the relative size of the market almost doesn't matter because you
have a much greater capacity in a much better ability to "dominate" that market once
you get there. So, markets like Germany (the second biggest Amazon market), the UK,
and Japan are blowing up right now. These are all markets that [are] easy to do
logistically.
Now you can outsource everything: your tax compliance, your logistics, your fulfillment.
It's all taken care of. There's no reason to not do it. Yeah. Sellers always seem so afraid
of it. One thing, it's not worth their time.”
Cynthia Stine - CEO of eGrowth Partners
“I think most of them are not aware of all the regulations and rules that they actually
need to meet. A lot of them think, “Oh, I can just get a product, put my label and my
brand on it and I'm ready to go,” but in fact, there are a lot of rules and regulations that
can get you in trouble, whether it's proper packaging, the ingredients, or a UL
certification. There's a lot of things like that that sellers don't focus on until it's too late.”
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“When you decide that you want to become a private label seller, it's very exciting. You
say, “Gosh, I found somebody who's going to manufacture this product. I've done the
math and I think I'm going to make some money. There's demand for the type of
products I sell.”
One of the biggest issues that private label sellers, at least the new ones don't
recognize, is that Amazon is also a private label seller and Amazon makes a lot of
private label products. They have all the customer search data and all the customer
purchase data to be able to find all the needles in the haystack.
When they develop a private label product, it's going to do very well and they know that
there's going to be a lot of sales, a lot of eyeballs looking at the product, and oh, by the
way, Amazon doesn't have to make anything other than razor thin margins on those
products.
So, when you're a private label seller and that is your business and you're looking to
make certain types of margins, whether that's certain margins per sale or certain total
margins across the volume you expect to sell, just be aware that Amazon is also in this
game and they have better data and lower margin expectations than you do.
If you think that you have some extra advantage that allows you to gain an advantage
over all your other competitors who haven't yet entered this private label space, just
recognize that Amazon already has your data plus everybody else's data to leverage to
be able to beat you at your own game.”
“A lot of people want to get on Amazon. However, most people that are getting started
don't really see the longer picture of building a brand around their private label product. I
would really recommend for everybody [that] before you even private label a product
and before it gets into Amazon's warehouse, [you should] really start building a social
media presence for your products.
Whether that's through Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, [you should] really start
uploading generic photos of your products that are relevant to your niche and just start
building that type of brand. Later on, [you can start] getting rid of those photos and
upload photos of your own product. [By then,] you [will] already have that social media
presence of people that are interested in your product.”
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Just like you would help an old friend reach success, the featured sellers below give
their strongest advice to newcomers about what they feel are the most important
aspects about being an Amazon seller to get right before jumping in.
“The number one tip I give a friend who wants to start selling on Amazon is to really do
proper research. And truly use the opportunity to have to look at what's already selling
and see what looks like an exciting opportunity.
Employ the scientific method to test and validate opportunities rather than just jumping
into selling based on tools or surface level data. [Otherwise] you're really not putting the
odds in your favor, but if you do the research and testing phase correctly, then you're
success is going to be very high and have a tremendous opportunity to start things off
right.”
Danny Carlson - CEO of Kenji ROI – Amazon Seller Services

“The number one tip I always like to give is play with a real amount of cash. Um, not a
lot of people really factor in the money that you need to pay for the second round of
inventory before you actually get paid in full by Amazon for the first round of inventory.
So, someone has $3,000 to start, but they don't realize they're going to be another
$3,000 to order their second round of inventory before they actually get that money from
Amazon.”

“The number one tip that I would give to a friend about to sell on Amazon is knowing
your numbers. So really calculate your ROI and your contribution margin or your gross
margin after ads because I think a lot of sellers really focus on the revenue, which is
great, but you know, their take home might be really slim.
And in a business where [it’s] really cash intensive or just generally like consumer
products, you really want to focus on those kind of high ROI items.”
Greg Elfrink - Director of Marketing with Empire Flippers
“My number one tip is to join the Facebook groups that [are about] Amazon, especially
the FBA program. There's a bunch of people out there in the trenches doing it that you
can ask questions to and they can give you a solid answer. It's because they're in the
trenches with you actually doing it.”
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Chris Guthrie - Co-Founder of Salesbacker and AmaSuite
“The number one tip I give is that you need to treat this like a business. Don't treat it like
a side income thing or a way to make extra money. You need to look at it as a way that
you can actually replace your day job income because most people are going to be
starting on the side and you want to think about it like a side business that can turn into
a real business because if you treat it that way, you're more likely to take more seriously
and not slack off and actually approaches like the opportunity.”
“The number one tip I would give someone is to not follow the crowd. Most people who
sell on Amazon get into it because they have a friend or a family member who's killing it
and so they go, and they want to do the same thing their friend or family member did.
Everyone else has taken that course. Everyone else has bought that gum road list. You
have to find your own way, develop your own expertise and sure, learn from those
people in those classes and those friends that you make, but then you really have to
branch out and do your own thing or else you're just with the crowd and we all know
what happens then: the listings get tanked and you end up making no real profit.”
Liran Hirchkorn - Amazon Seller Podcast
“The number one tip that I would give to somebody who just wants to get into Amazon is
think long term. Your first product that you bring in may just be a learning experience.
Your first shipment might be just a breakeven or a slight loss to learn the process and
you really need to think about the long game when you're getting into Amazon.”
“The number one tip I’d give to a friend would be to not try to sell products that are sexy.
Try to go for something unsexy. A joke that I commonly make is to sell urinal mats. It's
one of those kinds of things where it's like nobody else wants to sell. You don't want to
tell your family that you sell the product, but that also means that your competitors don't
want to sell that product either. Less competition.”
Chris Jones - Zonlife Success
“I would say the number one tip would be to focus on two factors and that is the find-
ability and I've always said, I'm not even sure if that's a word. It's the find-ability of your
product who is an Amazon search engine and then it's the conversion factor. If your
product is not being found on Amazon, [you won’t make money]. If it's not being
converted in terms of a well written sales copy that no one's going to click add to basket,
[that’s a problem.]”
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“If I had a friend getting into Amazon, I would tell them to buy the best information
possible upfront. And I know that a lot of people are going to argue with me on that.
There's a lot of free content. You can spend a lot of time on YouTube, learning on blogs,
listening to podcasts.
But if you're going to take this business seriously, then you have to strike fast and to
strike fast, you need to get as much information in a concentrated form as you humanly
can right away, and then don't sit on your butt waiting.
Get the information gained as fast as education as you can, then get out there and do it.
Strike while the iron is hot because this industry is evolving constantly and if we just sit
around waiting and we sit around over analyzing, then we're always going to be chasing
the pack.”
Nick Katz - The Japan Guy

“I think it's important to think about why they want to start selling on Amazon. It depends
on how much time and money they are willing to spend on the business. So, depending
on that, they could think about starting with things like arbitrage, retail, online arbitrage,
or if they're willing to invest more time, they could do private label.
They really need to think about that before they start, and they can kind of transition
later on. But it's something that I think people don't think about.”
Dave Kettner - Co-Founder of AMZ and Beyond
“My number one tip for someone that wants to start selling on Amazon is really go out
there and find a mentor. I think there's a lot of people that are in this business that don't
have anyone to follow. They might purchase a course, but there's only so far that takes
you and then really the only step out to do any hand holding or whatnot.
If you can go out there and find a mentor, someone that's actually done this business,
they're having success, has been proven, then go ahead and find that person.
Sometimes you might have to search far and wide for it because it's some people you
can't trust out there but finding a mentor would be one of my biggest tips that I would
give to someone that's looking to sell on Amazon.”
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“The number one tip I would give to a friend who wants to sell on Amazon would be
make sure you come with enough money. The trick is don't start small. If you want to
grow quickly, don't start small. You don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars or
something like that, but you need about two and a half times your initial inventory
investment.
So whatever product you choose, whatever that product might be, whatever it's going to
cost, you need about two and a half times that amount as your initial seed investment to
actually have a good chance of crushing it on Amazon.”
“I love this question because I believe 90 percent of the battle is here. Anyone can get
knowledge. Anyone can learn more hacks. Anyone could learn how to make money.
What stops people from succeeding on Amazon is never a lack of knowledge. Now it
could be, but why did they have that lack of knowledge?
That goes back to a mindset valuing for assets. People are number one, time is number
two because you can't get a refund on it. Knowledge is number three, because
knowledge is underestimated. And money is number four, in that order.
If you value these four assets in that order, that you can set up a business strategy that
is built based on that premise. How does that help me practically? Well, for example,
think about your customer, the product you're going to sell. It doesn't matter if you like it,
it doesn't matter if it makes you feel good. What matters is that something they want,
and they love, so make sure it's a product that they want.
What are you really doing there? You're valuing the asset of people. See, then you're
going to set up and automate your business, so it runs automatically for you and you're
not spending 24 hours a day slaving away for this new slave that you thought you were
getting away from when you fired your boss.”
“I would say the number one tip I give to friends starting to sell on Amazon is find a
product that you're excited by and create your own brand around that product. I think
creating your own brand enables you to charge a premium on those products is what
enables you to scale up as an Amazon seller.”
CJ Rosenbaum - Owner & Founder of Amazon Sellers Lawyer
“The number one tip I would say is get into the business for the long haul. Look at
products that long term you can sell without problems, without him making IP
complaints against you without having any authentic issues. Keep your, keep your eye
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on the ball, which is long term sustainability of your business, and then from that, then
identify products you can sell.
Stay away from flash in the pan products like you know, fidget spinners and that sort of
thing. Keep your eye on the ball long term plan and were a big proponent of developing
your own private label products.”
Tim Short - Marketing Manager at AMZ Alert
“The best tip I can give for anybody, especially a friend that wants to start selling on
Amazon, is to start off aggressive. If you're going to do something right, you got to go at
it with all guns. I mean, you can't just go at it half-hearted. You got to go ahead,
wholehearted, and you had to do all the steps. You can't just expect it to grow without
putting effort into a product.
With us, we had to put numerous hours just with our first product and now we're 20
products in and we're continuing to grow. So, starting off strong and starting off correctly
is the right way to start it on. You can't start it off the wrong way.”
Seth Stevens - Co-Founder of Quick Fast Hurry
“The number one tip I'd give to a friend that wants to start selling on Amazon is don't be
afraid to test your ideas and actually buy inventory and test them in small quantities.
That way when you actually do find a winning product, you're not scared to go into it and
do it right. This is the cheapest way to be sure that the product you're going to go into
will actually work.”
“I've been asked for more than 10 years. People coming to me saying, ‘I'd like to sell on
Amazon.’ I think it's a great opportunity for me to be an entrepreneur. I look at that and I
say, ‘There's a lot of things you can spend your time doing if you're going to be a seller
on Amazon.’
There's no such thing as being a part time seller. You have to be fully invested. You
have to understand the numbers. You have to be willing to change the catalog of
products you sell. It is not a place to go.’
[Don’t] think that just because you showed up that you're going to make a bunch of
money. There are very large sophisticated companies already selling on Amazon that
have teams of data scientists that have very sophisticated software that allow them to
find the opportunities and then capitalize on them.
If you happen to be some guy who says, “I have $50,000 of money that I want to put
into trying out this thing being an online seller,” I would say to you, “That's all very nice
and well, but unless you've got access to a unique product that nobody else can sell, or
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you're willing to constantly change what you're doing and not become emotionally tied
to the products you're selling, you're probably not going to succeed as an Amazon
seller.”
Your [may] be rather frustrated by the lack of support that Amazon is going to provide
you and some of the ruthless or logical behavior that some of your competitors might
demonstrate. And so, getting into the business of being an Amazon seller is one where
need to go in with your eyes completely wide open.
If you're going to be an Amazon seller, you need to bring data sophistication. You need
to bring emotional stability where you're comfortable changing in and out of products
and you have to be willing to get into the numbers to a level that quite frankly [difficult];
this is not like running a lemonade stand.
You have to understand an awful lot of content on an awful lot of skills, bringing a lot of
skills to the table around Amazon expertise before you have any chance at all of making
sustained revenue.
“The number one tip I give to a friend selling Amazon is literally just start. The thing I like
about Amazon so much is that it's very systematic. There's a lot of information out there
such as the AMPM podcast that I actually personally listened to when I started selling
on Amazon about a year ago.
A lot of people just take the time and started researching everything and they get so
confused based on the information out there that isn’t. They actually don't take action at
the end of the day, action is the only thing that's going to pay dividends. So just start
today. Start doing something today.”
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If there was ever any final advice from expert Amazon sellers, these are it. While the
answers may vary widely, do absorb them all and keep them in mind before you even
sign up for your Amazon Seller Central account.
“I truly believe that the single most important thing you can do over studying and
researching or whatever else you can think of is getting a mentor. [This person is] going
to guide you through the actual steps you need to take.
Now, not everyone can acquire a mentor or get a mentor, so I definitely say the next
step would be study a course, whether it's a real course you're purchasing, whether it's
a podcast, like I listened to Manny's podcast incidentally, and that's how I learned a ton
of the things that I know about.
[However,] the challenge there is not learning the right things at the right times. So I was
learning about PBC before I even had a product out, which was pointless. And the third
tip would probably be to do one product, choose a product, don't go super aggressive
like I did, and try to launch six products in two months in queue, fall.
And you know, it wasn't the best idea at the time. That is a very expensive lesson that
you can’t afford to have happen to you if you just choose one product, get it completely
wrong with one.”
Dan Ashton – E-commerce Consultant
“Probably [number one is] start selling on Amazon. Something that worked really well
for me and I think speeded up my success at selling on Amazon was finding other
people who were selling on Amazon. I didn't realize [there] was such a large community
of people out there, whether it's on Facebook or in forums.
And once I started to read what other people were doing and maybe start even teaming
up with other people, it really accelerated my learning. I would say that was definitely
something that helped because a lot of people just don't know that resources like that
out there.
The second thing I would say is to plan. Again, it's something I wasn't fantastic at when I
started, but I quickly realized that if I'm going to make this a success, something that I
needed to have in place was a step-by-step plan of how I was going to get from where I
was to successfully selling products on Amazon and repeating the process.
Once [you] realize that, you then just follow a process so that you can replicate again
and again. And the third thing I would say would be to set targets. Now it doesn't matter
if you changed your targets over time. In fact, you probably will because you would
need to.
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You start to realize what's realistic. You might have been underestimating what you
could achieve. You might have been overestimating, or if you were unable to measure
whether you were successful or not, it's very difficult to move your business forward. So,
the third one I would say definitely to set targets.
“One of the first things you have to do is learn to form relationships. If you don't have
relationships, you're not going to have people that you can learn with or bounce ideas
off of. You're not going to have people that you can mastermind with, learn from their
mistakes, or share your experiences.
The first thing you have to do is just figure out how to network with other sellers. The
second thing you've got to learn to do is manage your listing. There's a lot of people out
there that make just the silliest mistakes. There's a lot of information out there and
maybe you're reading conflicting information.
You [may not] think it's important, but you're listing is the first thing that the consumer,
your client is going to see. If you don't have the listing right, then you're just peeing in
the wind. It's completely pointless. Nothing's ever going to happen.
The third thing is figuring out what products to sell. If you don't pick a good product, it
doesn't matter how perfect your listing is, how much time you spend on advertising, how
much networking you've done, or learned all the tips, tricks, hacks.
If you [have a bad] product sourced that's either oversaturated or it just kind of sucks, it
doesn't matter what you do to get that ball rolling. No one's going to buy it. You're going
to get discouraged. You're going to lose money. It's going to be game over.”
“Every new seller has to take these three things in consideration before they start selling
on Amazon: The first thing is you got to do your product research. The key on Amazon,
it's all about the product. Everything is about the product. You have to do your keyword
research. You have to make sure there's actually a demand on Amazon for that product.
The second thing is you got to source the product very well. A lot of times the money is
made in the sourcing because the better you can source, the better pricing you can get
without sacrificing quality, gives you a better room to work, especially when competitors
come in.
And then the third thing is you have to spend time on your listing. You have to spend
money taken really good photographs and creating really good copy. You do those
three things and you do it right—it's like a machine. You just keep doing those three
things over and over and over and you can generate millions of dollars on Amazon. It
doesn't have to be complicated.”
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“Number one: plan your Amazon store as if you were building a brick and mortar. Think
as if I'm owning a real true, legitimate business. It's not like something I can kind of do
on the side and throw a few things up there and hope they sell. There was a day where
that was true—not anymore. You must plan it as a legitimate real business.
Number two: have a minimum of $3,500 set aside for your first product launch. Now it's
going to depend on the product and what product category you're in. I've seen people
launch with $500. I started ultimately with a dime, but $3,500 is a safe number.
You need cash in order to make cash. In other words, treat it as if it was one of your
kids. You're going to invest in the kid and someday they returned that blessing back to
you. Treat your business that way.
And number three (which I mentioned): surround yourself with people who are better
than you [and] who will constantly challenge you. Remove yourself away from negative
people who speak lies, or always see the negative side, and I don't mean to be around
these positive feeling, “Oh, everything's wonderful and they're not real.”
Be around real people, but people who always see hope, who always see opportunity.
As a result, your business and your actions reflect that. And you can build wealth that
way.”
“I'm going to take an accounting spin on this, but the very first thing is you're going to
want to [do is] start an LLC. I think for most people that that's just a great way to get
started and, if anything goes bad goes down in the future, you're protected personally.
Second thing is you definitely want to set aside an account just for business
transactions, so it's a personal credit card, personal checking account for business. You
definitely want to do that. That's going to save you down the road in terms of taxes and
bookkeeping.
And then the third thing is you definitely want to get registered for sales tax license in
your home state. Those three things should get you going in terms of legal accounting
[things].”
“Three things that you got to do before you start selling on Amazon: [the first is] you
need some kind of access to capital because I'll tell you a really quick story of what
happened to me when I started my business, which became a seven-figure international
brand.
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In the beginning, it almost looked like it would fail about five times. [I thought,] “Okay, I'm
definitely going bankrupt now.” So, I mean I literally was at the point. I started my
Amazon business for my eCommerce business while motorcycling across New
Zealand. It was ultimate freedom and it was totally amazing.
I was doing the “solopreneur” thing and kept investing all of the profits from the business
into growth of the business. I made that classic mistake of trying to grow too fast. I spent
all of the money that we had in the bank and then had bills that I couldn't pay [like]
$7,000 40-foot freight shipment I couldn't pay and suppliers that I couldn't pay in time to
ship because I tried to grow too fast.
I didn't have the access to capital before trying to grow that quickly, so I ended up with
$25,000 in credit card loans and had to move back into my mom's basement for two
months. I went through that, the whole “broke entrepreneur” story, and took a loan out
from my dad. I mean I really went as low as you can go, but then I came back, and that
business ended up being very successful brand that's still running to this day.
But I could have avoided that if I looked further into the future and had access to capital.
So, I'd say, number one: just make sure that you have a plan for [getting] access to
capital.
Number two: I would say this is going to sound weird, but when you're an internet
company, when you're selling things online, all people see is the pictures; that is your
entire presence. That's the purchaser’s whole experience of the product in the time that
they're making that decision to either purchase or not purchase.
It's so much more important than everybody makes it. You should invest as much as
you need to get the most high-quality images possible, have them show the benefits
[instead of] showing the features. Then showing [the product] in use in four different
scenarios, a solo shot and you need your florist shot. That's extremely important.
I've done over 240 launches for companies and I would say about 70% get this totally
wrong. Invest whatever money you need to and getting awesome photography. Don't do
it with your iPhone.
The third thing I would say is, if you do this right, you're going to start to make serious
money. Don't spend it, don't spend it on a car or motorcycle. Don't spend it on a big
lavish wedding.
A business is like a gorilla that poops out money, but it also eats money. So, if it's
pooping out money and you're taking all the money, then that gorilla is going to starve to
death. It's going to be a skinny, [weak] gorilla that everybody bullies and makes fun of.
But if you feed that [gorilla] constantly and put that money back in the system, it's just
going to get stronger and bigger and it's going to be the king of the jungle.
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“I would say first and foremost, you have to know your supply chain and you have to
know how you're going to scale that up. If you're just buying products wholesale and
you're expecting to really grow an Amazon business, it's not going to happen. So, know
actually how you're going to get products from the ground floor, you know, that's
something you can use Sourcify for.
Number two, I would say you need to know your margins. As you scale up and grow or
as you're just starting out, margins are going to change based on your order volume.
And number three, you really need to know the space that you're in, what competitors
are out there, how do you set yourself apart and what's that price point that you can
really create a fit in the market with.”
Tim Short - Marketing Manager at AMZ Alert
“The first thing is reach out to people who have done it before. They know better than
you at that time what it takes to become a really good seller and to make a really good
presence on Amazon.
The second thing is don't give up. That [goes] for everything you do in life, but for
Amazon don't give up. Amazon is really good at getting you down a little bit, whether it
be they take your product down for random thing or whatnot, whatever it might be, don't
give up. There's always a way to fix it. There's always a way around it so you can
continue to create those sales and generate those sales.
And the last thing is to do your due diligence, whether it be looking up when you're
looking at products. Make sure your product is going to be successful before you put it
down there. I'll follow what the top competitors are doing.”
“If there were only three things that you needed to know to be a successful Amazon
seller, there will be even more people selling on today. But let's start off with the primary
ones.
The most important characteristic is, what is your point of differentiation?

• What is it that you're selling that somehow makes you better at selling this than
the 2 million sellers who are already there?
• Do you have better data analytics and hence better insight into the data?
• Do you have better costs?
• Do you have access to products that everybody wants, but nobody else can get
their hands on?
• What is it that you're doing?
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• If you're simply procuring product from some guy that you know who can get you
product and sell it on Amazon, do you even know what the competitive
landscape looks like for every single one of those SKUs?
Unless you have that level of data, you're wasting your time and quite frankly, Amazon's
going to find a way for you to lose most of your money. So that’s number one:
understand what your strategy is and have a clear strategy in place.
Number two: do you understand unit economics, and have you applied that to every
SKU in your catalog?
• Do you know what the full all-in costs are for you to sell every SKU?
• Do you know what the return related costs are?
• Do you know what your overhead is that you have to apply to your selling costs?
Most companies don't work out their unit economics and instead they say, “Well, you
know, I did $100,000 in sales. Isn't this exciting?” My first question is, “Okay, tell me the
three most profitable products and the three least profitable products you have in your
catalog.”
And by the way, profitability is not just your acquisition cost and your fees you pay to
Amazon. It's all these other things I talked about in terms of return related costs,
inbound shipping costs, and possibly product development costs.
Unless you factor that in and figure it out [as well as] how to apply that to your individual
SKUs, you're going to end up spending a lot of time selling product, you're the only guy
making money as Amazon and you're basically wasting your time. So, number two, unit
economics.
Unit number is our issue number three. To be successful, you need to be able to evolve
and adapt fairly quickly. On any individual SKU that you sell, it's entirely possible that
tomorrow morning you're going to wake up and discover that Amazon is now selling the
same SKU.
Well, guess what? If you're going head to head with Amazon, you're dealing with a
competitor that's prepared to lose money for a long period of time selling the product,
that has the opportunity to do huge volumes and most likely have much lower costs
than you.
And quite frankly, you know you're probably in this business as a seller because you
want to make money and yet if you're not able to evolve, whether it's Amazon now
competing against you or some other seller that doesn't have proper unit economics
calculated and so is selling product at a loss without realizing it.
Unless you're able to evolve and say, “I can sell this product today, but tomorrow I might
sell something else, or I might sell this product today and then I might have a hiatus
because there's a bunch of irrational behavior on the part of some of my competitors.”
57
You've got to continue to adapt and realize that every day is a new day where the
products you sell, the pricing at which you sell those products, you're likely going to
have to make some changes. It's really frustrating becoming a new seller, trying to learn
what Amazon's all about only to discover that every single day, you may have to change
what you look like.
This is not like opening up the local store down the street and saying, “well, I'm going to
put a bunch of products on the shelf and we'll see what works.”
Imagine a situation where you open a store down the street on any given day, and
some guy is going to come in and he's going to burn a third of your inventory or he's
going to buy all the inventory and throw it in the garbage.
Or your supplier is going to say, “I have no ability to supply with future product.” That will
be a very different type of model that be difficult for you to work through. And yet as an
Amazon seller, you're going up against so many sellers who have different business
models than yours, different cost structures than yours, so you have to be very
adaptive.
So, to summarize:
• Number one: have a business strategy that's very clear and differentiates what it
is you're doing versus two million other sellers.
• Number two: make sure you have unit economics calculated for every SKU in
your inventory. And
• Number three: make sure you're not only willing to be [adaptive], but actually be
set up to evolve and change the way that you do your business, so you can
adapt to the ever-changing competitive landscape.”
Stay Tune for Volume 2, where our speakers will discuss the finer
points of launching your product once you’ve narrowed it down!
58

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Thank you for picking up Amazon Seller Secrets Revealed -

Volume 1: Getting Started Selling on Amazon!

As a token of our appreciation, we’ve put together a gift package

You can get access to this exclusive package by visiting

You may be wondering: What is Helium 10?

The Helium 10 software suite is a collection of multiple online

The Helium 10 Chrome Extension grants users access to hidden

*Please Note: At this time, the Helium 10 Chrome Extension is

Aren’t a Helium 10 member yet? Download the Helium 10

Besides great tools, we also have great resources to help you

A Little Background on Manny Coats (Me)

It wasn’t long (9 months to be exact) that I raked in my first $1 million from

To succeed, I ended up having to create my own tools to do the things I

In my infinite curiosity to see how other sellers reached success on

We created the Amazon Seller Secrets Revealed series of videos to

A Word to the Wise When Reading This Book

What You Will Gain by the End of Reading This Book

You should also gain a grander perspective on the various experiences

Daniel Audunsson - Co-Founder of Ryan and Daniel

Barbara Boschen - Co-Founder of CoMerchant Relisting Software

Steve Choo - MWQHJ Blog

Fernando Cruz - Partner at Seller Tradecraft

Sophie Howard - Founder of Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Tim Jordan - President & Co-Founder of Hickory Flats

Seth Kniep – Just One Dime

Anthony Lee - COO of SixLeaf, LLC

James Thomson - Co-Founder of PROSPER Show

Will Tjernlund - Founder of Goat Consulting

Till Andernach - Team Lead for FreightHub

Barbara Boschen - Co-Founder of CoMerchant Relisting Software

Shawn Hart - Co-Founder of Quick Fast Hurry

Michael Jackness - EcomCrew Blog & Podcast

Seth Kniep – Just One Dime

Gil Lang - Managing Partner of Commerce&

Anthony Lee - COO of SixLeaf, LLC

David Zaleski - Founder of Sellerology

Till Andernach - Team Lead for FreightHub

Daniel Audunsson - Co-Founder of Ryan and Daniel

Barbara Boschen - Co-Founder of CoMerchant Relisting Software

“I use a combination of Helium 10 because we do a little sourcing there. A lot of it

Liran Hirschkorn - Amazon Seller Podcast

Sophie Howard - Founder of Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Tim Jordan - President & Co-Founder of Hickory Flats

Seth Kniep – Just One Dime

Tom Wang - Owner of Digital MUVMNT

Steve Choo - MWQHJ Blog

Michael Jackness - EcomCrew Blog & Podcast

Brian R. Johnson - Amazon PPC Expert

Tim Jordan - President & Co-Founder of Hickory Flats

It also has a lot to do with storage. The Department of Transportation in the US

Nick Katz – The Japan Guy

Seth Kniep – Just One Dime

Anthony Lee - COO of SixLeaf, LLC

Baby items in particular require or at least tend to have a tremendous amount of

Seth Stevens - Co-Founder of Quick Fast Hurry

David Zaleski - Founder of Sellerology

Taz Ahsan - Host of The Amazon Entrepreneur Podcast

Greg Elfrink - Director of Marketing with Empire Flippers

Lesley Hensell - Partner at Riverbend Consulting