How to Start Selling on Amazon and Actually Make Money

Wondering how to start selling on Amazon? The development of e-commerce over the last decade has changed the way we think about retail.

Gone are the days where you head over to the local mall to pick out a gift for someone.

The growing popularity of sites like Amazon has created a situation where almost anyone can start their own Amazon business online. However, getting an e-commerce business started can be difficult to navigate. That’s why the help of an amazon seller consultant can serve you to better understand the operation of sales in Amazon

With this in mind, let’s walk through how you can get a small online retail business started today:

How to Start Selling on Amazon

1. Decide What You Want To Sell

Before you can set up your e-commerce business, first you need to decide what you’d like to sell on Amazon.

With over 310 million active customers on Amazon, chances are whatever you choose to offer will be of interest to online customers.

If you’re having trouble figuring out what products you’d like to sell, there are plenty of great tutorials online that can help you locate the right niche.

A great place to find manufacturers is Alibaba, Aliexpress, or DHGhate. At these sites, you can also find products that you may want to sell at a premium on Amazon.

2. Choose A Selling Plan

After you figure out which products you’re going to be offering, it’s time to choose the selling plan that’s right for your business.

There are two selling packages for those who want to learn how to start selling on Amazon: a professional plan and an individual seller plan.

The Professional plan is $39.99 per month, and allows users to sell an unlimited number of products without incurring additional fees.

On the other hand, the individual seller plan doesn’t require a monthly payment, and charges sellers $0.99 per item sold through Amazon.

While the individual plan might seem like it is the best choice for those selling a few items a month, it is important to note that the individual plan can often lead to additional fees per product sold.

Unless you’re planning on selling only a few items per month, the professional plan is probably the best choice for your e-commerce storefront.

3. Register With Amazon And Start Listing Products

Once you’ve chosen your products and decided on the right selling plan for you, it’s time to register your storefront with Amazon.

A quick visit to Amazon Seller Central to register your account will allow your storefront to be up and running in no time.

Confused on how to start a Seller’s account? Check out this step-by-step guide that walks you through the registration process – selling on Amazon couldn’t be easier!

4. List Your Products On Amazon

After your account is set up and running, it’s time to list your products so customers can start shopping.

If you’re set up with the individual seller’s monthly subscription, you’ll be able to post your products one at a time.

If you opted for the $39.99 per month Professional seller subscription, you can add large batches of your products to your storefront using Amazon’s bulk tools.

5. Wait For The Sales To Roll In!

At this point, your only job is to kick back, relax, and wait for the sales to roll in. While it might take a little while for a strong sales volume to develop, don’t worry! After all, you’re now learning how to start selling on Amazon.

As customers start to purchase your products more (and leave positive reviews), Amazon’s algorithms will start to take notice.

This will lead to higher search results, which in turn will lead to more frequent sales.

6. Ship Your Products To Customers

On Amazon, small businesses have a number of different options when it comes to shipping products to customers. If you’d like shipping to be as frictionless as possible, we suggest using Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA).

With the FBA program, your products are housed in an Amazon Fulfillment warehouse, where they are automatically shipped to customers as soon as their purchase request is received.

While Fulfillment By Amazon is a super convenient option, there are some minor fees associated with the service.

These include both a packaging and handling fee and a separate shipping fee. However, the convenience and amount of time you save from having to ship your own items separately is a game-changer.

In addition to Fulfillment By Amazon, sellers have the option of shipping their products directly to customers.

This is a great way to save a little bit of money on shipping fees, but becomes increasingly difficult as the selling volume continues to increase.

7. Customer Service

Providing good customer service is vital to obtaining positive reviews and selling more items on Amazon.

Just remember one thing – the customer is always right!

Once your e-commerce business is big enough you may want to think about hiring a virtual assistant on UpWork to handle the support.

8. Get Paid!

When selling through an Amazon Storefront, your proceeds are automatically taken care of.

Amazon will deposit your payments at regular intervals, ensuring that your small business has a steady flow of income.

Additionally, you will be notified whenever payments have been deposited within your bank account, ensuring that you can access your funds instantaneously if needed.

9. Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Taxes

Now here is the fun part when finding out how to start selling on Amazon.

One of the most important task to take care of when selling on Amazon is dealing with taxes. The last thing you want is the IRS (or respective tax agency) to come knocking on your, looking for their check.

A number of sellers end up hiring bookkeepers or CPA accountants to handle their Amazon taxes. However, this can be expensive and time-consuming.

Additionally, you are going to need to signup for bookkeeping software like Fetcher, QuickBooks, or Xero.

Here is where Taxomate comes into play. It was created to offer quick and easy integration with QuickBooks Onlineand Xero Accounting.

Essentially, Taxomate automates your Amazon bookkeeping experience!

Selling On Amazon: The Ultimate Small Retail Business

As you can see, starting an e-commerce business can be a simple way to start your own small retail business.

With great resources for sellers and access to one of the largest collections of customers on the planet, selling on Amazon is truly a no-brainer for those wanting to get started with an online business.

About The Author

Michael is a content manager at Taxomate, an automated cloud-based service used by Amazon merchants to import their Amazon sales and fee transactions and to post summarized transactions to Xero or QuickBooks accounting systems. He has been working in various marketing roles at startups for the past 5 years.

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