Wholesaling on Amazon can be a great way to run a business, but it's definitely something that requires careful consideration. Read on to learn about the things you need for wholesaling on Amazon and decide whether or not it's right for you.
Why Wholesale on Amazon?
When you are a wholesaler, you buy products in bulk from the manufacturer and then sell them at a profit. When selling on Amazon, this may mean that you are one of the multiple sellers listing that product on Amazon, so you will have competition, but you also have a huge marketplace available to you, rather than trying to sell directly from your own website.
Amazon can also handle a lot of the elements of the sale, such as shipping and customer service, which can free up your time. Of course, you will pay for those services, but allowing them to handle those issues allows you to reduce employee time and costs.
How to setup wholesaling on Amazon
First, you need to set up an Amazon Seller Account.
Next, decide what you're going to sell. Obviously, your best bet is finding something not already sold on Amazon, but that can be easier said than done. You can also look to see where you think you can successfully compete with other sellers. Then you have to source your product. You need to get the company to agree to a wholesale account with you so that you can buy the product at a low enough cost to be able to sell it at a good profit.
You then need to decide if you're going to fulfill the shipping yourself or if you're going to use Amazon's services for shipping. Each has its benefits, so you'll want to do your research to decide which you think will be more profitable to you.
Once you've got that in place, you need to list the product for sale. One benefit to selling a product already on Amazon is that you can add yourself to the existing listing - or you can create an entirely new listing for the product.
Tips for Wholesaling on Amazon
Spend time researching products with high potential. You're going to have to put in a significant amount of money up front to buy the product so you want to be sure that you'll recoup your costs in a reasonable amount of time. This isn't like dropshipping where the risk is low. You don't want to be stuck in a garage full of items that you can't sell.
Go to trade shows to check out items that you might be able to sell rather than just searching online. You might come across a company without a big presence on Amazon.
If you find a company that is already directly selling on Amazon, are they properly marketing their item? Does their listing need work? See if you can partner with them to wholesale their product and take control of their listing, cleaning it up and making it more appealing to customers.
If you are handling your own shipping, be sure to provide excellent customer service. Package items well and ship quickly. People have gotten used to Amazon's two-day shipping, so anything slower can feel like an eternity.