Regardless of what some might lead you to believe, print media is far from dead – and
neither is the market for print media.
Plus, thanks to Amazon, it’s easier than ever to tap into this demand to make a significant
income.
The best part is, that they’ll do all of the hard work for you.
This is known as book arbitrage with Amazon FBA, or “fulfillment by Amazon”.
To pull this off, you purchase used books at places like thrift stores, garage sales,
and flea markets and then resell them for a hefty profit.
But the beauty of it is that this profit comes very easily thanks to Amazon FBA doing all
of the logistics for you.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Amazon FBA Explained Again, FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon,
and essentially what it can do for you is make the process of selling books - or practically
anything - incredibly easy.
Simply send your books into Amazon's fulfillment centers, then they'll list them on the website
for you.
When a customer makes a purchase, Amazon will handle everything from packing and shipping
the product to providing customer service and processing returns.
So, essentially the only real bit of leg work you'll have to do to get your book arbitrage
business is sourcing your inventory, scanning a few barcodes, and then shipping them off.
The rest is all taken care of for you.
While this might sound like an incredible, fool-proof deal – and in many ways, it is
– there are a few caveats to consider, which we'll get to in a minute.
With Amazon FBA you can sell standard book formats like hardcovers, paperbacks, and even
ebooks utilizing Amazon's logistics network.
It doesn't matter if you're an established brick-and-mortar bookstore or simply an entrepreneur
who is interested in getting a new book arbitrage business off the ground.
Amazon FBA will make selling on Amazon a breeze.
Why Choose Amazon FBA Amazon is the world's largest retailer.
It’s the first place people go to when looking to purchase the latest book releases and many
other items.
With traffic like that, if you're selling popular works of fiction or nonfiction, you
will sell through your inventory in no time.
You can also get started with just a few books, in any condition.
You don't need a huge inventory to get this business up and running, so you can start
making profits within days.
Step 1: Building Your Inventory The easiest way to get started is by selling
books that you already have, but if you want to expand your inventory, you can do so with
a couple of different strategies.
One of these is wholesale: You can obtain a high volume of new books directly from publishers
or distributors.
Alternatively, you can buy books in bulk at pennies on the dollar either through online
lot auctions or bookstore closing sales.
Next is Local Secondhand Sources: Thrift stores, library sales, used book stores, garage sales,
and platforms like Facebook marketplace are all great places to look.
You can also look into Estate Sales and Auctions: Many times you can procure vast collections
of books through these sources.
When people pass away, their families will often sell off their libraries, especially
if they don't have the space to store them.
These sources are also excellent for finding collectible and hard-to-find items, which
of course come with higher profits.
In any case, when obtaining your books, it's crucial to evaluate their condition.
Amazon actually has a pretty detailed condition guidelines page that we highly recommend consulting,
but just know that books in better condition are more likely to sell, and for a higher
price.
Step 2: Create A Seller Account Next, you’ll need to register on Amazon
FBA either as an individual or a professional seller.
With the individual seller plan, you pay your fees as you go.
You'll only have to pay these fees, however, when an item sells.
Additionally, you'll be given the ability to make basic listings and use Amazon's order
management tools.
The main drawback to this plan is you can only list items one at a time by matching
books to existing pages or by creating new ones.
With a professional seller plan, you can upload batch files and manage your orders through
various reports and feeds.
Unlike the individual plan, you'll have to pay a monthly fee regardless of whether you
sell anything, but the advanced selling tools are especially useful for medium to large
businesses.
You may want to start with the individual plan and upgrade to the professional plan
after you get some traction with your business.
After selecting your plan, you'll want to select how you want to fulfill your orders.
While you can choose to fulfill your own orders with the Merchant Fulfilled Network (MFN)
option, we’re obviously going to choose FBA so Amazon fulfills our orders for us.
Step 3: Set Your Prices Pricing depends on several variables, including
condition and book type.
To get a good idea of how you should price your books, look at what other sellers are
asking for, then adjust your price accordingly.
If you want your books to sell quickly, price them competitively.
Word of advice, though, be sure you know precisely what edition you have on hand.
Some books have multiple print editions, and you wouldn't want to mistakenly sell a rare
version at the same price as a more commonly available reprint.
Step 4: List Your Books After you’ve gotten your books on hand,
simply scan the book's barcode with your smart device, type in the ISBN, or look up the title
manually, then tap the 'Sell on Amazon' button on the product page.
After that, enter the SKU or leave the field blank and Amazon will generate one for you.
Next, you'll enter the price.
You can match the lowest price by clicking that option.
From there, enter the quantity (the default will be one), and select the condition.
ALWAYS be honest about the condition of your books if you want to maintain a 5-star rating,
which is essential for the longevity of your business.
Finally, select the fulfillment option – in this case FBA.
Step 5: Market And Promote Your Books Once your books are listed, all that’s left
to do is get them sold.
The best way to learn how to promote your books is by checking out Amazon's free Seller
University page.
There, you'll find training videos that will lay out all of the basics covering sales tactics,
advertising, and promotion.
To grow your business, drive up sales, and get a better idea of how effective your ads
are, you should use the Amazon Advertising tool.
Step 6: Fulfilling Orders With FBA Again, the best part of using Amazon FBA is
that they’ll ship and manage all of the products for you.
All you have to do is provide your products to them.
Once you’ve listed your books, you’ll need to create your shipment through the Amazon
Seller Central account and let them know your products are coming.
Then, you’ll need to pack up your books according to Amazon's pack and prep requirements
and ship them to the Amazon fulfillment center provided to you.
Once you've completed these steps, you'll be good to go.
At this point, running your FBA business is as simple as maintaining your inventory, keeping
a watchful eye on your sales data, and enjoying the fruits of your labor once you start making
sales - all while Amazon does the heavy lifting and logistics.
The Truth About Amazon FBA Be warned, Amazon FBA isn’t quite as easy
as it sounds.
The first thing you might realize when becoming an FBA seller is that you'll be required to
cover the shipping costs of your inventory packages to Amazon's fulfillment centers.
Since books are pretty hefty, and chances are you'll be shipping a ton of them, postage
isn't going to be cheap.
On top of that, you won't have the choice of what fulfillment center you ship to.
If you are told to ship your package across the country, it's going to be a lot pricier
than to one in your hometown.
Especially if they require that your products be sent to different locations, you may be
sending out multiple packages at once.
After you've shipped your package, you'll have to wait anywhere between 1 to 2 weeks
for Amazon to receive your shipment and make your books available for purchase.
So be prepared for a little bit of a delay before you can actually start selling your
products.
The next big caveat you should be aware of has to do with pricing.
While a brand new copy of the latest Steven King release might sell for $14.99, a used
copy might go for as little as five bucks.
And since your goal is to compete with other sellers by offering the lowest price, you
might find yourself in a position where you're selling books for far less than you initially
expected.
In the worst cases, you may even end up selling them for less than you bought them for, which
is why it’s so important to do your research before purchasing your books.
When you consider all of Amazon's fees, such as the referral fees, variable closing fees,
per item fees, and fulfillment fees, there's a very real chance that you'll barely even
break with lower-priced books, unless you sell a lot of them.
All of this ultimately means that to make a meaningful profit, you're going to have
to sell a massive quantity of books, and be incredibly strategic from the inventory sourcing
phase all the way through the final listing.
The bottom line is if you really want to find success with Amazon FBA selling books, you'll
need to focus on high-profit margin products at a very high volume.
Fortunately, if you can do this, Amazon FBA makes it so easy to run an online business
whether you’re looking for a side hustle or a full-time income.
For another great side hustle idea, check out this video about starting a vending machine
business to earn hundreds of dollars a month.
Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next video.