How to start an Amazon FBA business
A FBA business on Amazon allows you to choose what products you want to sell, find suppliers, order products, package them, and ship them. Amazon’s Fulfillment Centers house everything, and they handle the rest.
Despite its pros and cons, along with many details to understand as a seller, the FBA business model is an enticing one, especially when explained thoroughly.
How do you proceed if you decide that the Amazon FBA business model is right for you? You get your business started!
Step One: Pick Your First Product
Picking your first product is the hardest part of this process (and can be a time-consuming process).
If you choose the wrong product to start with, your business will fail.
Even if it doesn’t break it, if your first product has little to no market demand, if it competes in an extremely competitive market, or if it is expensive to purchase in bulk, then you won’t see the profitability you were hoping for.
Take the time to brainstorm, do market research, and explore different supplier options.
Please remember that this first product may be the beginning of an ongoing process of trial and error. Despite your best efforts, there will always be better products to list or better ways to supply or market it.
Step Two: Source Your New Product
You probably feel pretty relieved now that you know what your FBA business’s first product will be, but don’t relax too much. Your next step is to figure out where you’re going to get your product from, and this step is almost as time-consuming as picking the product.
Find a Supplier
Since cost will drive where and how you supply your product, it’s a good idea to consider sourcing your product from outside the U.S.
If you’re searching for domestic suppliers in the United States (or you prefer using companies in your area), purchase a trade magazine online or at your local bookstore, or use Google to find local tradeshows that plan on hosting the big-hitters in the industry.
“Ship” Your Product
Figuring out how to source your product will also involve considering if you can afford to source your products by boat, by air, or by train (which will also affect whether you’ll source your product overseas or domestically).
There are so many rules and regulations governing every method of shipment, but there are even more involved with receiving products from overseas.
Step Three: Market the Hell Out of Your Product
Alright. You’ve picked a product, you’ve figured out where you’re getting it from, so it’s finally time to start spreading the word about your kickass product that you’re super excited to be selling on Amazon.
While having it listed on Amazon is already going to give it a fair amount of traffic, there are still several things to keep in mind when crafting your product’s description and marketing your product.
Optimize Your Product Description
I’m sure your product is awesome — otherwise, you wouldn’t have selected it! But you need to make sure your audience knows why it’s so awesome, and you can do that through clear, compelling copy and great pictures of your product.
Andrew Ilisin at Bplans recommends focusing on your copy first, and the first place to start is on your product’s page title, or simply its title. Using an understanding of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), you can hack your product’s title and fill it to the brim with highly-searched-for keywords.
Find Easy Ways to Advertise
Once you’ve got that awesome product listing, it’s important to look into advertising, and a great low-cost option is using a Pay Per Clicks (PPC) program, which can also help you gain a broader audience.
PPC marketing is basically the “Sponsored Content” that pops up when you’re searching for a product on Google or any major search engine. As an Amazon FBA business, you pay a small portion to the company or search engine that’s marketing your product for each click that your product gets.
Amazon has a great PPC option that’ll boost your product so it appears on the first page of their search results as a “Sponsored Product.” These targeted ads help customers find your product within the vast sea of Amazon products.