Sold over $323,000 in 1 month on Amazon FBA. Here’s what I learnt & how I'm going to double it to $600k in Q4 2018. entrepreneur how earn by blogging blog

OK first up I know this isn’t a particularly big number relative to lots of other entrepreneurs on this sub & I’m not putting this here to brag. This is my own personal strategy to maximising profit using the Amazon FBA + Private Label business model, and specifically in the December/Q4 peak of the year. Hopefully this can show you that it definitely is possible for someone relatively new at selling online to have great success with Amazon FBA.

I’ve made a video that goes into more detail on this topic and you’ll find the link below the content.

My previous post in this sub was well received (>130 upvotes) and goes through the 7 lessons I wish I knew before selling $1.3m/year on Amazon FBA. You can view this here: https://redd.it/8l0ahj I answered lots of questions in the comments so check them out if you’re interested in learning more.

Basics – What is Amazon FBA + Private label?

I own my own brands & inventory and have products manufactured according to my specifications. I only sell products that have already existing demand on Amazon. I sell them entirely through Amazon & use their Fullfillment by Amazon (FBA) service to store & send the goods to customers.

It costs at least a few thousand dollars to get started and is competitive, but is also very scalable and hands off – a great lifestyle business model.

Overview – Why are you talking about December? What is Q4?

“Insanity” is a good word to describe the consumer demand during the period starting with Black Friday (November 23) and ending around December 20 each year. Technically “Q4” means October to December, but really, everything only picks up in this last 30 day period. You can expect:

1. Conversion rates + traffic increase to phenomenal amounts.
2. PPC (Pay per click) advertising costs drop due to the high conversion rates
3. Overall sales can be 2-10x a normal month

Basically, it’s a great time to be selling and worth specifically planning for. I am planning to make $600,000 in sales in December this year and I wanted to take you through how I’m going to achieve that.

Product Research - What products do I target to sell in December/Q4?

I target products that are giftable. Not all products will sell well around Christmas, but it’s pretty easy to figure out what is giftable – just think whether you could potentially give/receive it yourself.

I’m also looking for low competition products. These criteria generally work for me (but not always):

1. $5-$10k/mth revenue for most of the year
2. Main competitors should have under 100 reviews.
3. Not a fad/trending product

In the video I show how I use Google Trends and Viral Launch to estimate seasonality and ensure that I’m not going to get caught by an unexpected change in demand. This is a critical step for all product research – to be protected from the downside risk of getting into a product just after peak season. On the flipside, I want to be exposed to the upside of great Q4 sales.

I then pick whichever of these I can build into my existing brands and take things easy, wherever possible:

1. Using existing keyword research/suppliers/packaging & branding.
2. Making variations of existing products (size, style, colour, quantity).
3. Ideally, building in some unique differentiating factor or improving on the problems of competitor products

Basically, I’m going for products that already exist in some way on Amazon, are pretty “normal” and not very noteworthy throughout most of the year, but well positioned for a lot of extra profit in December & Q4.

Product Launch – How to get these products started correctly on Amazon?

I launch these products year round, depending on available resources. A launch strategy is always required because Amazon’s algorithm wants evidence that your product can convert customers and make sales. There are various options for doing this:

1. Free/heavily-discounted giveaways,
2. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising,
3. Instagram/youtube influencers
4. Facebook ads
5. Cross-promotion from existing Amazon listings

As long as it shows Amazon that people are buying your product at a rapid rate, the algorithm will start to show your product organically for search results – and allow you to make profitable sales.
My preferred launch process is to start at a low price and run heavy PPC for converting keywords, while doing cross-promotions from my existing listings within the brand. I occasionally use giveaways also. As a result of picking low-competition products, I probably put less effort into launching than average.

Other lessons I learnt selling $323k in one month:

When to start: Now. It doesn’t make sense to wait to catch some optimum window just before Christmas. Better to get going today and your products will be making money sooner, and be more established by the time next December rolls around.

Cashflow: Super critical for seasonal products. Factor in the time delay between deposit/balance payment, shipment, time to sell on Amazon + Amazon payout delay. Expect to be sucked dry of cash in August-November. Don’t take out any profits – keep re-investing. December sales require a huge amount of inventory.

Set crazy goals. In December 2016 I made $22k sales in 30 days, 2 months into selling on Amazon. I thought I was insane to try and 10x that in one year, let alone 15x, but I set the goal anyway, and in the end I exceeded it by 10% in 2017. It’s worth the fear and self-doubt. Don’t hesitate to set crazy big goals.

Ranking on Amazon during Q4. I found this counterintuitive but this was my experience - I launched a bunch of attractive giftable products in November without actually doing any “launch” – they just took off on their own merits with a bit of PPC. Therefore if the product is giftable, well priced, with a good listing – it can be very easy to rank during this period.

Expect Delays! Everything to do with the shipping process is delayed. Amazon takes longer to check in shipments, customs seems to be more likely to hold and inspect shipments, etc. Get everything in early. The downside cost of running out of stock is higher than the cost of an extra months worth of storage. If the goods aren’t in by December, they’ve probably missed out.

OK, that’s all. What’s next?

1) Check out the Youtube video for more detail & walkthrough (also proof): https://youtu.be/YjES1EeikDM

2) Ask me a question & I will answer to the best of my ability. Any topic that you’re struggling with in particular on how to do Amazon FBA or private label or if you’re just curious to know more. Best way to get me is just drop me a comment here or via YT.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this valuable!

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