Podcast Episode 219 – Items Beginner Amazon Sellers Should Focus on Reselling

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Episode 219 Transcript:

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:01.8] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode, it’s our goal to help you turn part-time hours into a full-time income, selling almost anything on Amazon. Now, your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.

[WELCOME]

[0:00:20] REBECCA: Hello there, and welcome to another episode of The Full-time FBA show. We’re on episode number 219 today. We’re going to be talking about items that beginner Amazon sellers should focus on reselling. This is a great topic if you are just getting started and we would love to have comments from those of you who have been at it for a while too. To talk about this topic with me today is my co-host, Stephen Smotherman. Welcome to the show, Stephen.

[0:00:49] STEPHEN: Hey, I’m glad to be here. Yeah, you’re right. This is great for newbies. Also, if you’ve been selling on Amazon for a while and haven’t even thought of selling these items, it’s great for new Amazon sellers and practice Amazon sellers alike.

[0:01:05] REBECCA: Last week, on episode 218, we did a deep dive into the topic of the inventory items that beginning Amazon sellers should avoid selling. It was because of how complex or difficult those types of items are to sell. As a beginner, there are things that you can work your way into but you shouldn’t really focus on right out the gate. This week, we wanted to flip the tables. Since we told you what to avoid last week, we’re going to talk this week about the items that are the best for you to sell on Amazon as a beginner.

[0:01:38] STEPHEN: Yeah. It’s always good to remind you that the sourcing strategies and skills that a beginner Amazon seller needs to focus on are completely different than the sourcing strategies and skills that a more experienced Amazon seller needs to encompass. So, when a newbie Amazon seller is just getting started, the name of the game is learning. Learning as much as you can about different sales categories, different Amazon guidelines, different sourcing strategies. So, the items we’re going to suggest you focus on as a new Amazon seller are the items that you’ll source now, but it might not be what you source for when you are focusing on more long-term success.

It’s not to say that there’s not going to be any overlap, but just so you know, that this episode is mostly focused on newer Amazon sellers sourcing these strategies and what you’re going to learn with this type of sourcing focus. Rebecca, kick us off with the items that Amazon sellers should be focused on reselling as a newbie.

[0:02:35] REBECCA: Okay. First off, we’re going to talk about a category and an item that I first started off sourcing when I first got into selling on Amazon. It’s basically my favorite category to buy on Amazon and that’s books. Now book selling, unless you have a team of people working for you, is not a strategy for long-term success and making a full-time income on Amazon. It’s just really hard to scale, but it’s a great category to start learning how to sell on Amazon.

Cheaply priced books can be found so many places. Garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales are all great for finding books and especially if you’re a reader like us, you can even find things to sell on your bookshelves in your own home. I’m not talking about brand new books. I mean, technically, unless you’re buying directly from a publisher, all the books that you’re going to be selling online are going to be used. Focusing on used books as a beginner is a great way to learn how Amazon sales rank works and how fast certain sales rank books will sell.

It’s also good for beginners, because the ROI or return on investment that books can bring is really pretty high. It’s not uncommon to find a profitable used book for under a dollar at one of those places that I told you about earlier garage sales and stuff. Then you can sell it on Amazon, oftentimes for $10 or more. Every once in a while, you can find a used book that you can sell for $25 to $40. Even more than that, I think the highest priced book that we’ve sold on Amazon was about $150. So, books can be a really great way for new resellers to get started on Amazon.

[0:04:19] STEPHEN: Another category that newer Amazon sellers should focus on learning how to sell in is the toys and games category. The only caveat is that toys and games is partially gated, meaning that some of the major toy brands are gated or another word is restricted for newer Amazon sellers to sell. They just don’t have permission yet from that brand. The fact that some of those toys and games category is gated or restricted for newer sellers is – actually can be a positive. I’ll tell you why that can be a good thing in just a moment. But first, why would a new seller focus on selling in the toy category?

Two main reasons, birthdays and holidays. The toys and games category is one of the top selling categories on Amazon. The big reason is that kids have birthdays every day of the year, right? I mean, in the US alone, there are over 200,000 kids celebrating a birthday every day of the year.

[0:05:12] REBECCA: I did not know that. That is a crazy amount of birthdays every day.

[0:05:16] STEPHEN: Absolutely. Then during the holidays, all 200,000 of those kids get gifts for the holidays. There’s so many different holidays throughout the year, i’s just spread out all year round. All this toy buying is one of the reasons why the toys and games is a great place to start. I mean, that’s a ton of velocity when it comes to sales. But what about the items that are gated that I mentioned earlier? Yes. There’s a certain percentage of toys that are gated or restricted for new Amazon sellers.

Yes, gated items can be a source of frustration. Why am I suggesting that beginner Amazon sellers focus on this, a partially gated toys and games category? This because it starts the new Amazon seller on the path to learn and get accustomed to the whole ungating process. In fact, we go deep onto that in episode number 43 of The Full-Time FBA Show, the how to get approved to sell more items on Amazon, and how the whole Amazon gating and restricted process works. You can find more about that, fulltimefba.com/43, but plainly put, most Amazon sellers let a gated restricted product stop them in their tracks.

They let the notification that they are not approved to sell that item be the end of the story, but that doesn’t have to be. The sooner an Amazon seller gets used to the process, we outlined in episode 43 of The Full-Time FBA Show and learning the mindset that it takes to get the approval process going and the commitment to that process. If you do that during your early days of your Amazon business, that’s going to put you on the road to success much faster. It will open up more brains for you to sell faster along the way. Plus, once you get approved to sell those items as gated toys, that means less competition from the lazy Amazon sellers who are still not approved yet, who are just letting that notice that they’re not approved, stop them in their tracks. With that said, we think Toys and Games is a great category for Amazon sellers when they’re first starting off to start focusing on selling.

[0:07:12] REBECCA: The category includes a ton of items that even new Amazon sellers can sell from day one. Home and kitchen are going to be items that you can find around your home, including your kitchen. I’m not talking about going to find it there to buy, but I’m just saying, look around your home. I mean, things like pillowcases, stainless steel tumblers, space heaters, home decor, small kitchen appliances, cooking tools, utensils, candles, bathroom stuff, garage stuff, coffee makers, coffee accessories, Christmas lights, the list just goes on and on.

[0:07:48] STEPHEN: Yeah. By the way, we came up with that list by just looking at the best sellers on the home and kitchen category in case you’re curious.

[0:07:55] REBECCA: This category is great to focus on, because it’s a high sales category. People are buying stuff from this category all the time. Specifically, I am buying stuff from this category all the time. If you sell in this category, chances are you’re going to sell to me. Again, there are some brands that might require approval, but that’s true in any category. as you’re learning the approval process –

[0:08:18] STEPHEN: You’re learning the approval process, right?

[0:08:21] REBECCA: Yeah. Home and kitchen is going to be a great category that you as a beginner Amazon seller should focus on in those early days of building your Amazon business.

[0:08:30] STEPHEN: All right, moving on to the next item that a new Amazon seller should focus on trying to sell. If you’re a new Amazon seller, you might be happy to hear this. Sell items on Amazon that you know the most about. I mean, if you’re basically a minor expert in something, focus in those items and see if they’re profitable and see if you can sell them. Do you like to go camping often? Focus on trying to sell some camping gear? Do you have some toddlers at home, focus on selling baby stuff? Do you like to cook? Focus on kitchen items. Go with what you know.

Basically, if you really know a certain category really well, it gives you an upper hand on knowing what might or might not be a good deal. What might or might not be a hot item? Also know that the stores that these items are sold at. You also know more about these stores that these items are sold at than those who don’t. So, when they have got a clearance sale going on, maybe you could buy stuff at lower price, because you know what a good deal is. What knowledge do you have? They can give you an edge. To be honest, reselling can sometimes be boring, but reselling items that you know a lot about, that could be energizing. I mean, Rebecca really enjoyed sourcing books, because she loved books.

Now don’t forget, again, every category will have the occasional brand restriction. As always, double check that you’re approved to sell an item before you sell them on Amazon, but as a newbie seller, using the knowledge of an experience that you already have with selling in particular categories, that is a great way for a newbie Amazon to focus their time and energy.

[0:09:55] REBECCA: The next item that we recommend for newbie Amazon sellers is clearance price items. Now, if you’ve listened to The Full-Time FBA show for any amount of time, you know that we preach that one of the best strategies for long-lasting, long-term success on Amazon is to sell replenishable inventory. That is inventory that you can find on a consistent basis that sells on a consistent basis. Basically, it’s inventory that you – when you sell it out, you replenish it. If you start to sell it out, you replenish it. Hence, the name replenishable or replan.

Why are we recommending that new Amazon sellers focus on clearance items? These are items that you can’t really find on a consistent basis, because the store is getting rid of the item and they’re not going to be restocking it. That’s because sourcing replens is a fairly advanced, maybe intermediate skill. A skill we actually have an entire course focused on with our Reseller’s Guide to Replenishables course. You can learn more about that course at fulltimefba.com/replens when you’re ready. But as a beginner, sourcing replens is a skill that you are probably not ready for yet. You first need to learn how to source profitable items, not just replenishable items.

You need to learn how sales rank numbers work in each category. That’s why we’ve given you some categories where sales rank is pretty straightforward. You need to learn how each category on Amazon has just a different personality to it. On how you source, how you sell. You need to learn how competition on Amazon impacts the pricing of different items in different categories, and what better way to learn all of those skills than sourcing lowest price items with the highest discounts, all on the clearance isle at your local retail store or on the clearance page of your favorite online retail website.

Once you get some confidence in your clearance sourcing, then you can advance to this next level and start sourcing replenishable items and really scale your business. But as you’re getting started out as a beginner, sourcing clearance priced items can help things be a lot simpler during these learning processes and they can help you get a good start on Amazon with buying at really low prices and getting a good ROI or return on your investment.

[0:12:21] STEPHEN: What else can help you get a really good start selling on Amazon?

[0:12:24] REBECCA: Tell us.

[0:12:24] STEPHEN: Our upcoming free five-day Amazon income accelerator workshop.

[0:12:28] REBECCA: I knew that’s what you were going to say.

[0:12:30] STEPHEN: I thought so. Next month, we’re going to be hosting a free workshop five days where I outline basically, how to realistically make a full-time income selling on Amazon by the end of the year. I mean, imagine how your life is going to be different when you’re pulling in a full-time income working from home by the end of the year. It’s going to be awesome. In any case, there’s no better way to start off the new year than getting energized about your Amazon business, right? I mean, I’m already excited about this workshop that’s coming up and we’re going to get even more excited when and we find out that you have signed up.

All the sessions are going to be recorded for you. If you miss one on each day, we’re going to have the replay for you. We’re also going to have Q&A during the workshop where you can ask me questions. Did I mention it was free? In fact, our goal is that this workshop is even better than the last Amazon training you paid for. That’s our promise.

[0:13:17] REBECCA: So, to sign up for free, head over to fulltimefba.com/workshop and get signed up. It’ll take you less than 60 seconds to sign up and it might be one of the best decisions you make to close out this year. It’s definitely going to be one of the best business decisions you make of this year. Again, the link is fulltimefba.com/workshop. We can’t wait to see you there.

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Full-Time FBA show. As always, the show notes can be found at fulltimefba.com/219. You’ll also find on that page any of the links that we mentioned in this episode fulltimefba.com/219, because this is episode 219.

[0:14:00] STEPHEN: Next week on The Full-Time FBA show, the episode drops on Christmas. So, we’ve got a Christmas episode which we’re going to have some fun with and it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll see you next week on The Full-Time FBA Show.

[OUTRO]

[0:14:15] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. Head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you will find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources. Now, take action on what you have learned today, so you can find success at turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.

[END]