hi and welcome back to another amazon selling video if you're new to my channel my name is nikki
kirk and i've been selling on amazon all from my fifth world rv doing retail arbitrage for about
almost four years now about two years ago i started sharing my amazon selling journey
on instagram and friends and new sellers started asking me questions and so my whole channel came
about from just rv travel videos and then just answering questions on amazon from new sellers on
how to get started and what to do and what it is i actually do so if you go back in the beginning
of my channel that is pretty much all my amazon videos are just q a answering questions i had got
on instagram and then just making videos out of them when i first discovered retail arbitrage and
selling on amazon it was truly life-changing it was something i could do anywhere so it's perfect
for traveling and it was really easy once you got into it so four years later that is still one of
the things i love most about selling on amazon is just how it was able to change my life it
allows me so much more freedoms because i can work when i want i don't have to work when i don't want
and i don't have a boss or anyone that i'm answering to i built my own business working
for myself and it's really been so incredible i'm proud at the end of the day of the work that i've
put in which i can't say that that really ever happened when i was working for someone else i
am currently in the middle of a 2 200 mile trip from oregon all the way to the gulf coast in texas
and so i'm here in green river utah where it is beautiful i have to wear sunglasses and they can
be outside it's like 70 degrees it's so great we are back on the road and it's been awesome
during the first half of the drive i did a q a on instagram just ask me anything and a lot
of the questions almost all the questions were about selling on amazon so i thought i would just
go ahead and share the same questions here and answer them going back to what i first used to
do because i think it really does answer a lot of questions that i get often and so hopefully
you'll find something helpful from this video alright so let's jump in one of the questions i
get asked most frequently is what scanning app do i use i just use the amazon seller app it's free
it comes with your selling account so if you don't have an account while you can download
the app from the app store you can't log in and do anything so it's not of much help but that is
the app i've always used there's a lot of apps out there inventory labs has scoutify or scoutify too
i don't use all those but they are definitely all they all kind of have the same information so use
the one that is best for you for me i just use the amazon seller app another question the top
stores to source at for fba my personal favorites are tj maxx home goods marshalls those are all
the same company they all kind of have the same thing so if you buy something at marshalls you
can also probably find it at t.j.maxx or homegood and ollie's on the they're kind of taking over so
if there was a toys r us in your area it might now be in ollie so definitely check it out it's mostly
on the east coast and then in the middle i don't know what you call it it's like everywhere but the
west coast right now but on the west coast there's grocery outlet which i am really sad to be leaving
behind but grocery outlet is my jam i loved it so there's grocery outlet always i also like walmart
i shop at walmart a lot another question i was asked was am i only sourcing clearance at walmart
because normal items aren't profitable and i actually don't really source clearance a whole
lot if i see the aisle while i'm out at walmart i will go through and scan it but i don't do that
very often the things i'm sourcing in walmart are seasonal toys grocery and health and beauty type
items so those are the aisles i'm going down if you're a new seller you should also go down the
kitchen and the home because there's a lot of stuff there if you're new the clearance is a
great place because you'll find stuff that you never would know to look for so when i
first started i was in the clearance aisle and i found like a toilet cleaner it was a great product
i sold a lot of them i also found odor eaters which you might have seen in a previous video
another random item that was in the clearance item that i sold a lot of when i was starting out
so if you're gated in a lot of things definitely the clearance aisle is a great place to start
another question and comment was i am starting next week what's your best tip if you can only
give one and of course i can't just give one but honestly the best tip is to not give up
sellers make it on amazon when they don't give up so many people quit because it is hard it is a lot
of work in the beginning but trust me all that work you do in the beginning is worth it because
it gets easier and it is not so hard later on but a lot of people don't make it over that so if you
can just not give up you really can make it the other main tip is to set your expectations because
you probably won't see any money back even the money that for inventory so say you spent 500
you might not see that money after the item sell from amazon for like four to six weeks it
takes a while so if you set that expectation that you're not going to get that money back right away
it really sets you up to not give up because you're not so like oh it's not working i'm not
saying any money you know what you're going into so don't give up and set your expectations it
really does help another number one newbie mistake is to not check the ranks and not use keepa i know
it's confusing but it's all not really all that hard and i will link a video to keepa here but if
you can double check that it has a rank that works again i have my free rank guide when you sign up
for my newsletter but if you make sure that it has a rank that is worth it and you check keepa
those will really help you make smart inventory decisions you will be scanning for hours on end
but i'm telling you it's worth it because all the mistakes and time you spend in the beginning
pays off at the end another question i was asked was do i have a date in mind for my fba course
and if you didn't know and you probably didn't because i have never announced it on youtube yet
that i'm making a how to get started on amazon beginner course it's going to go over
everything from how to set up your account to how to source how to pack your shipment
all the stuff you really need to know to get started selling on amazon and give you the
best start possible it's going to be a video training course it's going to be outside of
facebook so if a lot of people don't like face i'm only on facebook for my groups honestly but
so it'll be outside it'll hopefully eventually have its own app even but the courses are coming
beginning of april is my like launch date time frame i wanted to have it out already but
as you probably know the renovation took a lot longer than i thought on the rv so i'm sad that
it kept getting pushed but i really am pushing to get it out by the beginning of april so if
you want more information on that the links are below and on my website as much as i want you to
take my course don't wait for me to get started if you want to start selling on amazon just start
going get out there create your account and get the process going i got two questions about
books one was do i recommend starting with books first or just anything that you can sell meaning
anything you're not gated in and another one was how often do i source books the answer is that i
don't actually source a lot of books i think i've sold maybe 10 to 15 books overall through all the
four years i don't do a lot of book sales but a lot of people do start by selling books so really
it's up to you if you want to start selling books then start selling books books are a
little different and i highly recommend if you're going to sell it as new make sure it's poly bagged
i don't sell a lot so i can't get into it all that much but start whatever you want to start
with honestly start with scanning stuff around the house just start another question buying
inventory cost 263 expected profit back from my first shipment how does that sound and i said
of course that sounds great you're getting almost 74 roi back and honestly just getting your first
shipment out is amazing so congratulations on that and you got a good profit to boot so congrats
another question was do i sell fba this person has only been selling fbm so they're curious about the
fba process and the shipping i sell predominantly fba it's what i started with not until 2020 did i
start getting into fbm because honestly i didn't know how to do it and like anything if you don't
know what you're doing it makes that you know hurdle to go do it that much harder but i do do
fbm occasionally because i travel and live in an rv it's harder to hold all the inventory on
hand because fbm is me shipping it direct to the customer whereas fba is i pack it all up in a box
and send it to amazon and then amazon sends it to the customer and is the customer service which is
awesome so i mostly do fba the shipping for fba you can be anywhere from seven to twenty twenty
five dollars for a box shipment to a warehouse and it really just depends where you're at where it's
going how heavy it is it's not really all that bad i don't think i've ever had one like big shipment
including all the different warehouses over a hundred dollars i think like the big ones are
usually 83 to ship so it comes out to less than 50 cents an item and so anyways that's the shipping
expectation overall it's cheaper to ship at all to amazon another question what is my way to source
oa which is online arbitrage i don't do a whole lot of online arbitrage again because i travel
and it's hard to coordinate shipping times and making sure i'm going to be there or it'll be
there before i leave so i don't do a whole lot of it but when i do do it mostly i just
scan the computer using my phone and pull up the listings just like i would be in the store
some stores have the upc on the product page so you can just add it into amazon and look but i
usually just have my laptop open and i search on my phone using my laptop i did a whole video
going further into it and what i look for but if you're interested i'll link it here but that's how
i do oa another question the bolo group or the ungated guide for new sellers beginner sellers
honestly it kind of is up to you and what your budget is because i think that getting ungated
is more important in grocery and topical i would say to do that before you join the bolo group
that's what i would do it's a little it's like 320 dollars all in to get ungated in a lot of
categories but if you have the budget it's worth it because you'll be able to find more high profit
items in store and you'll be able to get more items off the bolo list but if you don't have a
whole lot of budget and you have the money every month to join the bolo group you'll also learn a
whole lot get new ideas of where to source what to source things to look for asking questions
both groups are awesome so it's really up to you and what your priorities are if it was me i would
probably get ungated and grocery and topical first and then join the bolo group okay another question
when i do take profits do i hold back money for taxes i don't i've never been a really good saver
i just pay what i owe on my taxes when i file my taxes every year that's what i do i'm not a
tax expert so please don't listen to me what are the most profitable categories on amazon
i'm assuming this means like what do i sell on amazon that's most profitable and for me
it's really grocery topical toys so topicals are like my year-round staple i can always find
really good topicals doing retail arbitrage toys and grocery kind of ebb and flow and
throughout the year they're really good then there's things seasonal is also great i source
a lot of seasonal whatever season we happen to be in i'm always scanning it and the key with
seasonal is you want to get in early because that's where a lot of the great profits are
okay another question any tips on getting your sales tax certificate i can't really tell you
how to do it because it varies by state but almost every state has a department of revenue
website so you just go on there and it's usually under business taxes and it's called sales and use
tech so click around in there you might have to register your business and you can do it as a sole
proprietor you can usually get one but definitely your department of revenue for your state is where
to start you can even google your state plus sales tax certificate and see where that leads
you they are almost always free the only one i know that charges you is florida so if you
happen to end up on a something that's trying to charge you make sure you're on the government
website and not someone with a service trying to charge you that's all i'll say on that
what is my best department to source at grocery outlet hands down the beauty aisle that long
isle of all things beauty like shampoos all that kind of stuff that is my favorite aisle and i will
usually spend an hour or two at grocery outlet skinning it so yeah that's my favorite and then
all the other dry groceries you know i do i don't do the heavy canned good type stuff but anything
that's lighter i will scan all the groceries do you need to have an llc to sell on amazon
no you don't i started as a sole proprietor so again i'm not an expert in anything on what you
should do for your business i just started as a provider so i know you don't have to have an llc
do you still think it's worth it to sell on amazon doing fba with all the fees taken out
a hundred percent absolutely yes fba is so much easier selling on amazon is awesome
and of course since i'm using their platform instead of creating you know nicki.com
and selling my own stuff trying to get all the marketing to get my customers to shop there
amazon does it all everyone's shopping on amazon all the time i just shopped on amazon this morning
everyone's shopping there so if you using their platform i don't mind
paying them a commission to sell products and make a profit so it is worth it you just have to find
the right products that make a right profit but it is so worth it to sell on amazon so 100 yes
it is worth it okay my last question is about my canada and gating guides does your topical canada
guide have a supplier i can use to get ungated yes all my guides come with the supplier not
just canada but u.s all of them are telling you suppliers some have multiple suppliers in them
they're not only telling you the supplier they're telling you how to order with them how to work
with them how their website works all of that they're very detailed and they go into all of that
the canada topical guide is a us supplier so you might have to pay more in shipping but i'm telling
you there's no minimum order and at the end of the day the canada topical and the us topical are
spending the same amount of money to get ungated because the us topical has a minimum order of 200
the canada doesn't so you can place an order and get ungated in a lot of stuff for under a hundred
dollars but then you have to pay like a hundred dollars for shipping so it all comes out together
anything ungating is a business expense you are not going to make money on ungating sometimes
you might get lucky and break even but it is an expense to be able to sell all these categories
that you can source at retail arbitrage and it is worth it it's always the tax write-off you get to
write off all your business expenses all of that so it's worth it to get ungated if you think it's
worth it for your business i would suggest it but anyways so yes all the guides come with suppliers
who can help you get ungated the canada toy guide has multiple suppliers in canada the only one in
canada that is not is the topical one but again if i had to do it while it's a shock that you have to
pay a lot in shipping at the end of the day it's still not all that much money to get ungated so
it's worth it i think but anyways do what you think is best for your business as always thank
you guys so much for watching and hopefully next time we meet i will be in texas at the beach you