How Much Do You Need To Start Selling On Amazon?

This question is something a lot of people ask and many have been confused as to the correct answer.

I recently had an email come into my inbox from a well-known company that designs software for Amazon businesses. (*COUGH*, Jungle Scout, *COUGH*) In that email, they said that you could start an Amazon business for as LITTLE as $1,200. The real answer, though, is much lower than that.

In the past, starting any kind of retail business required huge startup costs.

You needed a storefront, which requires money. You’d need equipment – money. You’d need inventory, lots of it. – money. You’d need to advertise to get in front of as many people as possible. – money. Market research- stumbling through trying to figure out what people actually want to buy- time and money! So many things were needed to start a physical retail location.

However, to sell things on Amazon, a lot of this is in place for you already. How so?

1. Rather than needing a public storefront, that is done by having a central marketplace where people already are shopping in masses.
2. Equipment, all you need is a phone or computer, a printer and internet connection. Most of us already have what is needed to get started.
3. Advertising- Amazon spends millions to keep people shopping there so we don’t have to
4. Market Research- Amazon shows you what products are selling and how well. All you have to do is see what ones you can source for cheap enough to make a profit on them!

What Is Really Needed To Start An Amazon Business?

The answer is much less than you think. Lets break it down.

To start a professional Amazon seller account, the cost is $40 per month. You can get an account that is free, but I recommend you get the $40 one.

You need to find a few things to sell. You could easily start with $20 or $30 to test a few items and get a feel for what you are doing.

You will also need a few basic shipping supplies:

1. Boxes or envelopes, depending on what you are selling.
2. Tape, and maybe some bubble wrap or packing paper.
3. You will also need a computer and printer for shipping labels and a smartphone, most of us already have these things already though.

The reality is, that you could easily start with as little as $100-200 if you already have those basic items, which most of us do.

Follow the Best Methods

So what about those guys saying you need $1,200 or more to start? In reality, they are trying to sell you on the riskiest way to start selling on Amazon. And you will hear the same pitch from most of the so-called “guru’s” on Youtube. That you need to put down thousands of dollars buying 1 product from China, based on all this research you have done using those expensive softwares that will magically tell you what you should sell.

What they won’t tell you is that for a beginner to find success in that field is very rare. Most people who do that will end up thousands of dollars in the hole, with a garage full of unsellable junk that they bought from China and they will be too ashamed of their failure to go back to that “Guru” and tell them it didn’t work.

Why? They sell it as though it is such a surefire way to make money that you must be REALLY bad and doing something REALLY wrong to fail. They only post about the handful of people that make it work.

The reality is that less than 5% of those will succeed.

The approach that I prefer is much less risky and is much easier to succeed with. Will you be making $1 million in the first month? NOPE! Is it passive income with minimal effort? NOPE!

Can you start making money right away? YES! It won’t be retire-in-a-week money, but you will see how it works quickly.

And with that small amount that you start with, you can slowly watch that grow, and grow. Like the tortoise and the hare, you will make slow but steady forward progress, and soon you will have a productive, successful business selling on Amazon.

How can you do this? Believe it or not, you can do it just by buying simple, everyday products off the shelf of virtually any local store and reselling them on Amazon.

How can you determine which products to sell? Do you need to buy that fancy, expensive software to find them? NOPE!

A lot of good products can be found just with the Amazon seller app on your phone when you are in the store.

I explain my favorite method in a video using a rather inexpensive Google Chrome extension, Keepa. This is a key program for any Amazon seller, but it will not break the bank.

The great thing about this method is:
1. You have your products immediately. You don’t need to wait for them to be shipped across the ocean.
2. You can get them listed to sell very quickly.
3. You already know if the product is selling based on rank and history.
4. You don’t need to build brand recognition for a cheap product that you hope is something people want.
5. You don’t need to pay for advertising because people are already looking for these products.
6. You don’t need to buy 10,000 units to test if something is good, just buy a couple.
7. If it doesn’t sell, you can probably use it or return it to the store where you bought it.

The risks are so small in this business model and it is much simpler than the other way.

Now, to be fair, there are challenges to this process. As you start your Amazon selling account, you will be restricted in several categories, and a ton of brands, and at times it will feel like you can’t sell anything.

But there are still so many things you can start selling, and as you do, those other ones will open up.

You will have to compete more directly with other sellers since you will be using listings that anyone can list on, so sometimes an ASIN will get saturated and the price will drop.

But that is why we keep looking for more things to sell, keep moving, and don’t get attached to any product or listing.

You have to go find the products rather than just sitting behind a screen and making someone else do all the work.

In reality, though, if you never do any real work, how successful do you think any business could be? People on the internet aren’t just going to send you their money for no reason. You need to work. And the purpose of retail is to provide a service to them. That is work.

How Much Do You Really Need To Get Started Selling On Amazon?

Not a lot. Obviously, the more you have to start, the faster you can grow, but you don’t really need it to get your feet wet.

Don’t get fooled by those guys telling you to go invest your life savings into a trash product from China that will never sell. Don’t listen to the “Guru’s” that want you to buy their $2,000 course and then get hung out to dry.

Instead, just set aside a little bit, or try selling a few things from around your house that you don’t need anymore and invest that money. Dip your feet in and slowly learn the business. This way will allow you to grow, though slowly at first, until you have a healthy, profitable e-commerce business.