Hustle of the Week: Amazon Online Arbitrage

In the last decade, the world of online shopping has experienced a significant transformation with the emergence of Amazon. Today's blog is a little more niche; today we're going to discuss a subtopic called Amazon OA, better known as Amazon Online Arbitrage. This business model allows entrepreneurs to buy products online on sites such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and resell them on Amazon, reaping profits from the price differences. We will discuss the main three topics within this blog, which are pros and cons, virtual assistants, and sourcing.

The Amazon online arbitrage niche presents a range of advantages that attract the average person seeking entrepreneurial success. For starters, it opens doors to a broad customer base thanks to Amazon's massive reach and popularity. Selling on Amazon definitely allows you to meet that demand; the flexibility to choose and diversify your inventory is also a significant advantage. Moreover, with Amazon FBA, having them organize all your shipping and product handling allows you to easily scale to 6, and maybe even 7 figures. Finally, Amazon online arbitrage provides the flexibility to work from anywhere, which is every Instagram guru's dream. The Amazon sales screenshot while on a beach with a mojito!

While Amazon online arbitrage offers its positives, it also comes with its fair share of challenges. Amazon's influx of sellers demands constant adaptation and analysis of pricing and sourcing strategies to stay ahead. Many sellers run repricer software on their Amazon accounts to keep up with pricing on products. However, at a smaller scale, it's much easier to manually keep in tune with your product pricing. A lot of times, entrepreneurs spend hundreds to thousands on inventory only to find out the price has been undercut by the time their inventory reaches Amazon. It can be super disheartening to see your unrealized profits suddenly get wiped to break even before your product has even touched down at Amazon. So, we recommend staying level-headed and calm when selling on Amazon. Getting your hopes up will only lead to disappointment.

Virtual assistants are very specific to online arbitrage since they play a vital role in comparing products on various sites for extended hours. It's a skill that you will only understand the value of once you personally try. It's recommended that you get a taste of sourcing leads yourself before hiring a virtual assistant, not only so you appreciate their work more but also to allow you to act as more of a guide as well as a teacher. The most popular destination for hiring VAs (virtual assistants) right now is the Philippines, where the average salary is lower than the west, allowing you to pay them a decent wage while being more affordable for you in the United States.

Now that we've covered sourcing, it's important to discuss what sourcing is exactly. Sourcing requires a lot of patience and discipline since it's as simple as checking a product on X site and comparing it to the price on Amazon, then taking a profit out on the price difference. There are a few ways you can make your sourcing more efficient; a few examples are by making sure you're signed up for email newsletters on these websites, as they tend to send out specific discount codes for the newsletter list. Other ways you can improve your sourcing efficiency are by starting with sale items, as these are way more likely to show a price difference when compared on Amazon. There is obviously way more to sourcing products to sell on Amazon. If you're interested in learning more, make sure to join our Discord server and acquire an Amazon role. You will then receive access to a section which includes Amazon guides, support (for any questions/help), and weekly stages where we cover specific topics that will help you with your Amazon journey. Click HERE to join our server!

In this blog, we offered a very light taster of what it's like to sell on Amazon. In the coming weeks, we will also release blogs discussing different sub-niches, such as wholesale sellers and retail arbitrage. If you like what you've just read and are ready to jump into selling on Amazon, then make sure you are a part of our official Discord community. We have a specific Amazon section which you can access by getting the Amazon role in the #amazon-role channel.