It’s Saturday morning and you’re headed out the door to run your weekly errands. Your first stop is Starbucks for an iced coffee. There, now you can focus!
Then it’s off to Rite Aid to pick up a prescription, Walmart for some groceries, and Target for “just 1 or 2 things.”
A few hundred dollars later, you’re back home and double-checking your budget.
What if those same Saturday morning stops were able to make you money instead of cost you money? And what if you could take it one step further and run a profitable business by shopping at retail stores?
With retail arbitrage, you can do exactly that.
What Is Retail Arbitrage?
Retail arbitrage is pretty straightforward. You buy an item from a retail store and sell it to someone else for a higher price. The difference is your profit!
Maybe you snagged a Hatchimal one year and sold it for a higher price on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or to your neighbor up the street. That’s retail arbitrage.
When we talk about retail arbitrage here at The Selling Family, we’re talking about retail arbitrage for Amazon sellers. Specifically, through the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program.
For this business model, you buy items from retail stores, send them to Amazon, and Amazon ships the items to customers who purchase your items.
You may have heard about other sourcing methods that are compatible with the Amazon FBA program like online arbitrage, wholesale, and private label. If you’d like to learn more about those options, check out our guide to The 5 Most Popular Ways to Start Your Amazon Business.
But today I want to take an in-depth look at retail arbitrage and how it works for an Amazon FBA business. Honestly, retail arbitrage is our specialty and it’s our top recommendation for new Amazon sellers.
Retail arbitrage is how we first found success selling on Amazon and it’s the business model that allowed both of us to replace the full-time income we had at our old jobs.
And you’re in luck because you can get started selling on Amazon with retail arbitrage with a very small initial investment and just a handful of tools.
How to Start Reselling on Amazon with Retail Arbitrage
The first thing you need to do before you start your retail arbitrage business is to set up an Amazon seller account. You likely already have an Amazon buying account, but you need to go ahead and apply for a selling account as well.
You can sign up for your selling account here. You’ll need to decide if you want to start as an individual seller (free plan) or as a professional seller (paid plan). Don’t worry too much about this choice because you can always upgrade or downgrade your account later.
Once you have a seller account, you’ll also get access to some helpful tools like the FBA Revenue Calculator and the free Amazon Seller app for your phone (you can download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store.)
You’ll need at least one of those free tools to help you decide which items to buy at the store (more on that later).
You will also need some basic supplies before you make your first FBA shipment, but you do not need to buy any of them before you start exploring retail arbitrage. You can always try out sourcing in stores before you purchase any supplies.
As long as you have a smartphone with a camera and the free Amazon Seller app, you’re ready to try your hand at retail arbitrage!
Can You Really Make Money with Retail Arbitrage?
Before you invest any time in learning about retail arbitrage, you’re probably wondering if it’s really possible to make money this way. Let’s take a look at the numbers you’ll need to know to run a profitable Amazon arbitrage business.
Amazon Selling Fees
If you buy a toy for $5 on clearance and sell it to your neighbor for $15, you’ve profited $10. But if you buy that same $5 item and sell it for $15 on Amazon, you’ll end up with closer to $5 profit.
That’s because Amazon deducts fees from the purchase price of the items you sell.
Now before you give up at the thought of being “nickel and dimed” by Amazon, let me briefly remind you of the benefits to you as an Amazon FBA seller:
- Instead of packing and shipping items to each customer, you get to ship in lots of items at once to Amazon at discounted rates
- Amazon pays for prepping, packaging, and shipping the items to your customer
- If your customer has a problem with their order, Amazon handles the customer service
- You can go on vacation and your items keep selling
- You get access to Amazon’s already massive audience of loyal customers and eager buyers
This last one is so important that it’s probably worth the fees alone. If you’re selling a toy on Amazon, you have all of Amazon’s customers searching for the item and stumbling upon your offer.
Now if you listed that same toy on your own website JacksNiftyStuff.com, how many people would find it? Probably not that many.
For FBA sellers, it's even better. Not only are your items available on Amazon, but they are available for Prime customers to buy with free 2-day Prime shipping.
Prime customers are paying $119 per year to take advantage of free, fast shipping, so when they're shopping, they are specifically looking for Prime-eligible offers (like yours when you use FBA!).
So instead of thinking about Amazon “taking” fees from you, remember how much you stand to gain by listing your products on the Amazon platform.
Here’s Amazon’s fee schedule if you want to understand exactly what Amazon charges in fees for the items you sell.
Also, you’ll always know the fees in advance, so none of them should be a surprise to you after you’ve sold an item.
The 3x Rule of Amazon Arbitrage
To make money selling on Amazon, you need to sell items for a profit. And to know your profit you need to know the following information:
Selling Price – Fees – Your Cost = Profit
You will always know your cost and you should have a good idea of the selling price before you send an item to Amazon.
The fees are the biggest variable, but they are usually roughly one-third of the selling price. So if an item sells for $15, the fees will be about $5.
So for that $5 toy you’ve found on clearance, your profit would look something like this:
$15 (selling price) – $5 (Amazon’s fees) – $5 (the price you paid to buy it) = $5 profit
If you put all of the pieces together, you’ll see the beauty of using the “3x Rule” for retail arbitrage sourcing.
You want to look for items that are selling on Amazon for 3x the amount you’ll pay in stores. This will help you make quick decisions about which items are worth considering for retail arbitrage.
The 3x rule works best for items selling at the $15-$20 range and higher on Amazon. If an item is selling for $5 FBA, there's really no way you can make money on it, even if you get it for $1 in the store.
So when you're using the 3x rule, remember that it's more of a helpful guideline than a profit guarantee. To know the exact fees and profit you can expect, stick to the information on your Amazon seller scanning app.
How You Can Tell Which Items Are Profitable
“Which products should I sell?” is one of the questions I hear most from new sellers. And it's a great question!
This is the part of retail arbitrage that will make or break you as a profitable business. You can’t just send any item to Amazon and expect to sell it for a profit.
You may find a great deal on an item only to find out that Amazon is selling it for an even cheaper price. Or you might spot a cool looking kitchen gadget for $5, but if you can only sell it on Amazon for $7, you’re not going to make any money (remember, it would need to be selling on Amazon for closer to 3x your purchase price).
If you’re standing in a store just guessing about which products you’d like to sell on Amazon, you’re probably going to be losing money before too long.
I assume you’re here to make money and to do that, you need to be able to identify profitable items for Amazon arbitrage.
Fortunately, the free Amazon seller app will show you everything you need to know to make a smart buying decision. There are other scanning apps available too, but you can definitely start with the free one from Amazon.
Our goal with retail arbitrage is to find products that are being sold at enough of a discount that we can still make a profit on Amazon even after Amazon deducts their fees from the selling price.
So once we’re at a store, we simply open up our amazon scanning app, use the phone’s camera to “scan” the barcode on the product, and the Amazon Seller app returns this information to us:
This shows us at a glance how much the item is selling for and what the FBA fees are.
You’ll see that the FBA fees are $5.53, or about one-third of the selling price as we discussed earlier.
Then, to get our profit, we need to subtract the cost of the item itself (what we’re paying for it at the store.) To do that, click on the “Gross Proceeds” to get to a second screen with even more information.
Enter your cost of purchase and the app will calculate your profit.
In the images above, this is an item at Walmart that usually sells for $5.69. But I found it on clearance at one store in town for $3.00. At that price, I’m left with a profit of $6.82 if I sell this item on Amazon for $15.59.
The app will also show you if you’re going to lose money on an item, so be sure to scan every item before you buy it.
For example, I recently spotted this kids’ lunch kit for $9.99. But when I scanned it with my app, I saw that it is currently selling for $10.49 on Amazon. That means that after shipping and fees, I would lose $4.36. I left this one on the shelf and decided to keep scanning until I could find a profitable item.
To get comfortable with your scanning app, do some practice scans of items in your home. Just look for any items with barcodes such as books, items still in the original box, or clothing with tags on.
The # 1 Way To Know If Something Will Sell On Amazon
One of my favorite features on eBay was the ability to check the past sales of an item I was considering selling. I could see all of the prices that an item had sold for in the past.
With Amazon, we can't see how often an item sells. But they do give us small clues. One of those clues is the Amazon Best Seller Ranking.
The easiest way to interpret the rankings is to know that the lower the rank the better.
In our Amazon Boot Camp, I give a full ranking guideline based on category. But for now, I can give you an overall ranking guideline of 150,000. If a rank is higher than that, I would skip the item for now (at least until you have gained some personal experience.)
In the item we showed above, you can see the best sellers rank of 51,246 and the category is “Kitchen”.
Many sellers don't know and/or think about the best seller rank when they get started and regret it. Because when you buy based on profit only, you are missing part of the equation and may end up with inventory that sits for a really long time.
What Are the Best Stores for Retail Arbitrage?
Now that you’ve done a few practice scans at home, you’re probably wondering where you should go to buy inventory.
Although you can really pick any store you like, you’ll have better luck as a beginner by spending your time at the right stores.
We think that beginners can’t go wrong with drug stores like Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid. These are our top picks for a few reasons:
- They’re smaller and less intimidating than grocery stores and Walmart
- They have multiple locations so if you find good items at one, you can hit the other nearby locations to try to buy more
- They have great clearance aisles, sometimes with items 75% off or more
Once you feel comfortable with the drug stores, you can venture into other nationwide and regional chains. Here are some retail stores that are popular with Amazon sellers:
- Walmart
- Target
- Kohl's
- Lowe's
- Home Depot
- Best Buy
- Big Lots
- Ollie's
- Tuesday Morning
- Ross
- TJ Maxx
- Kroger
- Meijer
- Safeway
- Publix
- H-E-B
- Trader Joe's
- Staples
- Office Depot
In other words, don’t worry about running out of stores anytime soon! And if you don’t recognize all of those store names, that’s because some of them are only in certain parts of the country. I’ll tell you later why that’s a good thing!
After you’ve sourced at a few different stores, you’ll figure out which ones are your favorites.
Here are a few words of encouragement before you head out on your first sourcing adventure:
- You might feel a little nervous the first time you scan. You’ll get faster as time goes on and you’ll learn that really no one is paying attention to you!
- Don’t give up too soon! Try to set a goal like scanning an entire shelf or aisle and don’t leave until you’ve met your goal. You never know when you’ll scan a winner!
- Don’t overthink it! Some sellers make assumptions about which items are worth scanning. As a beginner, all items are worth scanning! So stop trying to guess what sells well on Amazon and let your Amazon scanning app do the work for you!
- Don’t be afraid to buy. It’s easy to get stuck in “analysis paralysis” trying to make the absolutely perfect buy. You’ll probably make a bad decision on some of your items as a beginner (we all do!). It’s ok if you sell some of your items at a loss as long as the majority of your items are profitable.
Wait. Why Would Someone Buy on Amazon if it's Cheaper at the Store?
I know what you’re thinking. With all those great deals in your local drug stores and supermarkets, why would someone pay three times more to buy from Amazon?
There are many reasons why people love to shop on Amazon, but here are three common ones.
1. Convenience
Let’s face it, most people don’t have lots of extra free time to drive around and run errands. And for most people, the thought of getting in the car, sitting in traffic, driving to Target, finding a parking spot, shopping, waiting in line, and driving back home isn’t too exciting. Especially in the hectic holiday shopping season!
Plenty of shoppers are willing to pay more for the convenience of having their items delivered right to their door. And with more and more cities eligible for free same-day Prime shipping, there’s even more incentive to shop online.
2. Different Types of Buyers
Maybe you’re a natural bargain shopper. You might even enjoy the thrill of scoring a good deal (I find that many people drawn to retail arbitrage are!).
Well, not everyone shops around for the best price. Many people are happy to head to their favorite store and buy their favorite brands, no matter the price.
Plus, when some people see the selling price on Amazon, they just think that that’s the price everywhere. They don’t know (or need to know) that you happened to find the item on clearance.
3. Product Availability
Not everyone has access to the same products. Even in big chains like Walmart, some store locations will run out of stock of popular items faster. As the items get harder to find, the price goes up. Remember supply and demand from high school economics? Yep, this is that.
Manufacturers will also discontinue items from time to time, meaning that loyal buyers are eager to stock up at any cost.
Sometimes a person will lose access to their favorite items. Imagine that you’re a southern belle who’s just relocated to Maine for work. You wake up one morning craving a bowl of creamy grits, only to realize that grocery stores in Maine don’t even carry grits! What’s a girl to do? Head to Amazon and buy a bag of the south’s finest grits. They’ll taste so good that you’ll forget that they cost triple what you used to pay.
These cost $1.49 in grocery stores but are not available nationwide
Is Retail Arbitrage Legal?
Retail arbitrage is perfectly legal. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I definitely wouldn’t teach it to others if it weren’t legal.
Sometimes skeptics who think that retail arbitrage is “too easy” will question if it is illegal. I remind them that all profitable inventory-based businesses are based on buying items at a low price and selling them to consumers at a higher price for profit.
It is just as legal as a wholesale or private label business model on Amazon and it has the added benefit of requiring less money to get started sourcing.
Ready to Start your Retail Arbitrage Business on Amazon?
If you’ve read through this article, you already have all the basic information you need to start your Amazon retail arbitrage business TODAY. With a smartphone and a free app, you can head to a store and find your first purchase. In fact, I encourage you to do just that!
If you need more information about getting started as an FBA seller, you can also read our guide on How to Sell on Amazon FBA.
If you really want step-by-step guidance to get your Amazon business up and running fast, you should check out the Amazon Boot Camp.
I created this training with new Amazon sellers in mind. That’s because when I first started selling on Amazon, there were no comprehensive courses like this one.
I spent hours pouring over Google, wordy Amazon help pages, and the (less than friendly) Amazon Seller Forums.
And because I’m such a big believer in growing a business through retail arbitrage, that’s the primary sourcing method that I teach in the Amazon Boot Camp.
The course includes step-by-step screen share and video trainings that will walk you through buying your first items, creating your first FBA shipment, and making your first sales.
Plus you can join our members-only private Facebook group where you can pick the brains of 4,000+ other Boot Camp students and receive help directly from me and my team.
If you’re ready to start your Amazon business, you can get the full course details here.
So what are you waiting for? If you’re like most of my students and other successful Amazon sellers, your only regret will be that you didn’t open your Amazon selling account and hit the stores for retail arbitrage sooner!
Thoughts? Comments?
If you are thinking about starting a retail arbitrage business on Amazon, I would love to hear your thoughts and/or questions you may have about retail arbitrage.
If you are ALREADY selling on Amazon using retail arbitrage, I invite you to share your experiences and any tips you may have for someone who is just getting ready to start their own retail arbitrage business.
If you buy something from Walmart and it has a Walmart tag, do you remove the Walmart tag or sell it on Amazon with the Walmart tag?
You can still sell it with the tag.
This is really good, detailed information. Thanks! But I do have a serious question and I hope I’m phrasing it right: Say I go into a department store like Belk and buy some deeply discount items on clearance. Then I get home and see on the price tag it states “Designed Exclusively for Belk”, am I still ok to sell that on FBA? What about Sonoma at Kohl’s? I don’t want to get into legal trouble. Thank you in advance!
You can still sell it. They may even do really well because of it!
Thank you for all the information and tips that are “showing me the way”. I’m still not certain whether to enroll on your boot camp and can’t afford it until my husband closes his next deal, so I would have to wait a little anyway, but this certainly sounds like it would be fun and profitable. I appreciate you. Thanks, Merrill
These first steps are great and I feel more confident in starting. BUT… I’m nervous about the packing the products and shipping to Amazon warehouses part. I want to see someone go the store, buy some products, get home, and package them. And I still don’t get how it works when I buy an item. Do I have to take the pictures and add the details and price? Or does Amazon do most of that?
Hi Bailey, I would recommend signing up for the free 7-day course just below the article. Or our Amazon Boot Camp 🙂
Thank you for the great information.
Do you need a business to start selling on Amazon?
It is not required by Amazon.
Great article always full of valuable information.
Here is my question:
How do you get un-gated in a category doing retail arbitrage?
Next, which is better for beginners FBA or Merchant fulfilled for retail arbitrage.
Thanks
William
For ungating, you will need to use a wholesaler if Amazon requires an invoice. Here is a masterclass we have for the toys category.
I always say FBA is best!
Thank you for all of your blogs! They are very easy to read and understand. I’m trying RA, but it is a little frustrating because anything good I find with the Amazon seller app says it is restricted.
Keep going! You will find it gets easier and less stuff will show as restricted.
Yes keep going! I happened upon a knife set on clearance at Publix of all places. Used my new app to scan (very nervous) and saw they sold for double the clearance price on amazon and had a great rating. I bought 2 sets and sent them off with some other things and they sold THE DAY they got to the ware house!! I’m so excited!!
Are yo unable to buy only 1 or 2 units of an item and sell it via amazon FBA? Or do you have to buy multiples? Just curious if there’s a minimum or if it is necessary to find an item and stock up on 10+. Thanks for all your info! It has been extremely helpful in motivating me and clearly explaining the process.
Hi Alexandria, that is the great thing about retail arbitrage is you don’t have any minimums! You can get started with just a few of each item and really diversify the types of items you send in.
You say that retail arbitrage is perfectly legal- are you sure? I have heard so many mixed opinions on this. It seems to me that technically once you buy something from a retailer, it is now legally a USED product, which would make reselling it as new illegal. If that’s true (and I think it is), then if a brand caught you doing this, you could get in a lot of trouble. I’m currently starting to do some RA, but I’m being very careful because the legality of it is very vague. That being said, thanks for the article! I’ve looked back at it tons of times for reference.
It’s something I feel comfortable with. If you don’t I would not recommend it.
If you get an item as a gift and do not use it, it is not used; it is only purchased. The same goes for buying the item with the intent to re-sell it.
But if the item is unused or opened isn’t it returnable to the store? Some retailers will still sell the item as new although it has been returned in “like new condition” As long as it’s unopened and in it’s original packaging I don’t see anything wrong with reselling it. Just my opinion, especially if all you did was purchase it and not use the items and/or products
Personally if an item is still sealed in it’s original package and has not been used, I consider it new.
I need clarification on some things. You mentioned Home goods what exactly does that consist of? Im Thinking food? or furniture? To start selling I’d need at least a few hundred dollars to buy all the things I want to sell on Amazon right? Then I bring it home and put labels on all the items and ship it all to Amazon? How quickly will Amazon give us our profit? On sold items?
Hi Helen, for home goods I think of things like small kitchen appliances, accessories, decorations, table cloths, etc. Lots of stuff in that category. Here is a post about how much it takes to get started on Amazon. When you first get going, it takes about 3 weeks to get your profits after the item sells, sometimes faster.
I live in New Zealand; I am assuming this cannot work for me?
Hi Marion, I don’t think this business model particularly will work. But you can sell on Amazon. I would check out the online sourcing business model and then use a prep service.
Very good overview, thanks for sharing Jessica! Finally sending in my first shipment today after being in “analysis paralysis” for a month. I definitely think that’s the worst part of getting started for me personally. I want to be the an expert at sourcing before I’ve ever sold a single product, but I finally had to make myself realize that was a ridiculous mindset and to just jump right in. Best advice to anyone starting out is to join a group like the one that is a part of the Amazon Boot Camp course. Hearing other people’s successes is the biggest motivator to get me outside of my own head.
This happens a lot, so don’t beat yourself up! But I am glad you have now jumped in all the way 🙂
Looking to get started on selling on amazon
Never sure how to price items,that are not being sold on Amazon.
I always try to find something similar or see how much it is selling for other places online. If none of that works, then just pick a profitable point and see if it sells 🙂
Jessica,
Thank you for sharing this retail arbitrage
guide.
I have tried to source wholesale and also private label and I always come back to retail arbitrage.
It has given me the best results.
Thanks for sharing that!
I wish I knew if I could switch between individual and professional selling plans. I tend to be a 4th quarter only seller for now as I’m heavily involved in work and my son’s sports during spring and summer.
Hi Shelly, you can switch between account types! I totally understand and know there are a lot of sellers who just sell during Q4.
Good article. I wished the gurus would talk more about the brands to avoid, you may be approved to sell some brands like ASOTV products, but listing those is almost an automatic IP/counterfeit complaint. I found an extensive list on FB that I use to stay clear of the nasty beasties.
Hi David, we have a list of those types of brands in our Amazon Boot Camp Facebook Group, I should make that a public post as well. Thanks for sharing.
Four factors knowing more about when I was getting started included; Sales rank, number of sellers on ASIN, if Amazon is a seller and their in stock averages. We do not purchase anything at this stage without this information.
In addition, always checking Keepa and/or Camel helps us to avoid purchasing products that look good on initial scan but don’t produce the anticipated returns.
Hi Jessica,
I’m really enjoying your helpful tips. It’s hard for me to understand, though, how you can make money sending in items a few at a time. Don’t you need to order in bulk from a wholesaler?
Thanks, Cindy
The way that we teach people to get started is with Retail Arbitrage. If you want to do wholesale that is definitely something to try out after you have figured out the business. Lots of people make money with just a few of each item. It actually really helps to spread the risk out!
If a product is ranked very high and has lots of reviews is it a good product for a beginner to sell.
If the rank is super high I wouldn’t. UNLESS it is a SUPER high-profit margin. Like, buy for $5 and sell for $100 or something like that. Then I would let it sit longer 🙂
Is there a formula that includes,ranking,reviews,price and the weigh Of a product that would narrow your chances of picking winners.
One thing I didn’t know when I started that I wish I would have known is to factor sales rank and whether Amazon is selling the same item into your buying decision. Not knowing that early on has left me with items in inventory that may never sell. I found some winners too, so it evens out – but checking to see if Amazon is selling is so easy and I never knew to look for it.
That is a great tip Jennifer. It is definitely something to watch out for.
To minimize competing for a sale is there ranking and review zone I should stay in.
This was my first mistake: only buying stuff that I am familiar with and personally like in the stores that I enjoy going to. You definitely have to get outside of your comfort zone and expand your horizon. Learn about different types of products and stores, pick your spouse’s brain, your kids, your kids’ friends, your friends with hobbies that you don’t know anything about, etc. because there are so many products that you might easily disregard while sourcing. I am just a beginner and my learning curve is still ahead of me but I already have a different prospective when looking at products at the store. Thanks to you, Jessica!
great advice1 Thanks for sharing 🙂
As a new seller, I have found your articles to be very helpful. Following some of your tips has helped me reach my short term sales goals and my first yearly sales goal. You explain what might be difficult concepts in simple language so that even the easily confused person can feel confident to move forward. Retail arbitrage is addicting; it does not feel like “work”. It is almost impossible to go shopping with friends for fun without looking for the “deal” that will help build my business. Thanks for all you do for so many of us!!
You’re welcome! I can totally relate, it is addicting. We often joke about “running into the store ‘real quick’ knowing it’s never just a quick trip.”
Great info for those starting out. You may want to mention sales rank too because it’s not just about getting the item at a great price. But perhaps you cover that more in depth in your course. 🙂
Thanks Sarah! Great point. I have added some about rankings as well (could be a post all of it’s own for sure!)
I’ve found most items at Target are now restricted. However that doesn’t stop you from flipping them in Ebay or other sites!
I find more brands are restricted, but I wouldn’t shut out Target for Amazon arbitrage for sure! Still lots of stuff that can be flipped on Amazon.
The one thing I find difficult is the listing and taking the pictures, and writing the descriptions I feel like that is holding me back. I have listed with someone selling the same item but my other items I have to do my own listing. Any ideas would be helpful, I have really enjoyed all the info you have out there.
Thank you
Victoria Bock
Hi Victoria, I agree those are difficult processes. That is one of the big reasons I recommend retail arbitrage to someone just getting started. Because all of the product listings are already made so they can skip that whole ordeal! My friend Karon has a guide about how to write awesome product listings for Amazon that may help you with where you are at.
Hi Jessica, awesome post as always! I think you were comprehensive in your description of how to get started doing RA and addressing some of the frequently asked questions. My only edit would be that Prime membership has recently gone up to $119/yr.
Thanks, Kimberley!
What if you live close to a distribution center. Can you physically deliver your inventory to save on shipping cost?
That would be wonderful, unfortunately we have to use one of Amazons preferred shippers. And they often have us ship to locations that are not the one closest to where we live.
This is good Jessica. I think I would add to just keep scanning and sending inventory in. It gets easier and when you become more comfortable with sourcing retail, it helps with sourcing other methods such as OA and wholesale.
Dear Jessica
I think you hit all of the things that a new seller would need to know to get started in FBA using retail arbitrage. I found some things that may sell in time. I did find one thing that I thought was at least helpful one of the clothing items that I bought has a perforated part below the UPC code so you can take the $5 price off. the item was listed on Amazon for $16.94. Rank of 98,081. I think I will go get about 10 more.then I will have figure out how to make my first shipment.
Great tip! Thanks for sharing
We started selling on Amazon about 2.5 years ago. Retail Arbitrage is still our main source for buying, but we feel it is getting more difficult because Amazon keeps restricting more brands. But we enjoy the thrill of the hunt. I also should say we don’t visit as many different stores like we did when we started, and that is probably a mistake. We tend to get in a rut and visit the same stores over and over. We are looking into expanding our sourcing into wholesale and eventually Private Label. But we feel everyone should start with RA and “learn the ropes.”
I totally agree that it is the best way to start an amazon business. Retail arbitrage really helps you learn the ropes.
Thanks for all of your wonderful posts, Jessica! I’m a newbie doing retail arbitrage and love the thrill of the hunt! It’s really true about scanning everything without second guessing if someone will buy it or not. I purchased something on clearance that I was a little wary about because it was “seasonal” and it was now “off season”, but it sold within the month and at a hefty profit! I’m excited to continue this Amazon FBA adventure!
That is so important Sara. We often forget that people still want things even when the store thinks they are out of season. Glad you were able to reap the profit on that one!
Very informative! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, It is logical and very helpful. Thank you..