Reselling on Amazon: How to Run a Successful Storefront

• Look for quality items that are high-demand but have little competition from other sellers to maximize your profit.
• As long as you’re transparent about your product’s condition and where you obtained it, reselling on Amazon is completely legal.
• Utilize Fulfillment by Amazon to make the shipping and packaging process easier.
• Maintain a high standard of customer service so buyers will keep coming back to your shop.

What to Sell

Determine what kinds of items you’ll be selling. While you can sell basically anything on Amazon, you should focus on popular items to maximize your profits. Make sure to check out Amazon’s Best Seller list for inspiration. Some categories are always popular with buyers, including electronics, beauty and personal care, books, home and kitchen, and toys and games. While Amazon doesn’t have any restricted items, it won’t let you sell items from certain brands on the site unless you are an authorized seller and have an approved application. These brands include Adidas, Black & Decker, Chanel, Disney, Fisher-Price, Gillette, Hasbro, Jockey, Keurig, L’Oreal, LEGO, Nabisco, Olympus, Panasonic, Ray-Ban, Samsung, Tommy Hilfiger, Under Armour, and Victoria’s Secret. As long as the products you sell are not counterfeit and are acquired honestly, reselling on Amazon is legal. You must be transparent about the condition of the items you are reselling and where you obtained them.

Decide how to get items to resell. There are five main ways Amazon resellers get items to resell: used items, retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, wholesalers, and manufacturers. Used items: These are items that you have around the house that you’re looking to get rid of. This type of product acquisition has almost no upfront cost, but may not be a good long-term strategy unless you have a lot of things you want to sell. Retail arbitrage: This method involves going to retail stores and buying items to resell later. You should focus on buying clearance, on sale, or markdown items to maximize your profits. Online arbitrage: This method is the same as retail arbitrage, but you are buying from an online seller instead. Popular places to find items for resale are eBay and Aliexpress. Wholesalers: There are a number of businesses that sell items in bulk for a price lower than retail value. This can be a good way to stock an Amazon resale store, but since you have to buy a lot of product at a time this can have a higher up-front cost. Manufacturers: Just like wholesalers, you can buy products from manufacturers in bulk at a low price. This can be a good option if you’re looking to create your own private label brand, but as you must buy a lot of products at once it also has a higher up-front cost.

Find items to resell. Once you’ve decided how you’ll get your items, start gathering them. Make sure to look for high-quality items, and if you’re selling used items look for ones that are gently used. A good place to start is to find high-demand but low-competition products so your items will stand out more. You should aim for items that will provide a 30% to 50% profit margin. You must consider the item’s original price, the price you will be selling it for, and any shipping or fulfillment fees. Your products should be priced low enough to win the buy box—which means Amazon will place your listing on the ‘buy’ button on the product page—but not so low that you don’t make a profit.

Create Your Amazon Store

Gather all required materials. In order to become an Amazon seller you need a government ID card, a valid credit card, and tax information. Make sure you have all of this information ready when you sign up to make the process easier.

Create your Amazon Seller account. There are two types of seller accounts you can create on Amazon: Individual and professional. Individual accounts are charged $.99 per item once it sells and have more restrictions, while professional accounts are charged $39.99 per month no matter how many items they sell. A general rule of thumb is if you are selling less than 40 items per month, you can stick with an individual plan until you pass that threshold. This is because your monthly fees will be less until you start consistently selling more than 40 items per month. You can always change your account type later, so you can start as either an individual or professional account and upgrade or downgrade later if you want.

Set up your storefront. A nice-looking digital storefront can increase your credibility, which will make buyers feel more comfortable buying from you. You should select a unique store name, create a logo for your profile picture, and add a cover image at the top of your store. To edit your store's appearance, first navigate to your storefront and select Manage my Storefront. From here you can add a profile picture, cover picture, page title, and page tagline.

Sell Your Items

List your items. From Amazon's Seller Central you can start listing items for sale. More often than not, you will be selling items that already exist in Amazon’s catalog. Amazon only has one listing per product and all sellers are listed on that page. You can start listing an item by clicking on the Inventory dropdown and selecting Add a Product. If you’re selling something that is already on Amazon, you can search for it on the product listing page once you've initiated a listing. From there, go through each tab and make sure all of the required information is filled out (denoted by asterisks). If you're selling an item that already exists on Amazon, most of that information will be filled in already. If you're selling an item that doesn't have an Amazon listing already, you will have to create it yourself. You will need a product identifier (such as a GTIN, UPC, ISBN, or EAN), a SKU (inventory tracking number), product details, product photos, and offer details (such as condition, price, and shipping options).

Ship your items to Amazon if you are using FBA. FBA, or Fulfilled by Amazon, is preferred by many Amazon resellers. Shipping and packaging can take a lot of time and effort, but if you pay a small fee for FBA, Amazon will take care of it for you. FBA fees vary based on the type and size of your object, but most items will incur a fee of $20 or less.

Maintain your customer relationships. Your job isn’t completely done after you’ve made the sale. Making sure your customers are happy is an important part of being an Amazon seller, so make sure to answer questions and interact with your customers to build a relationship with them and strengthen your brand. Having good customer service will also help you win the buy box. Amazon looks at overall performance as well as price when placing a seller in the buy box, so having a low amount of canceled orders and product returns will help you make more sales in the long run.