Want to Make 6 Figures From Your Amazon FBA Business? Here's How. You'll need a lot of financial resources, plenty of products to sell -- and a website.
By Thomas Smale Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
If you want to grow your business to six figures, it must be scalable, regardless of the business model. The advantage of a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) business is that you don't have to warehouse products or handle the picking, packing and shipping. This is part of what makes an FBA business so attractive and, ultimately, scalable.
However, there are two major challenges. In order to get to six figures as an Amazon seller, first, you will have to put a lot of your financial resources into inventory. Second, you will need to sell large quantities of products.
Many business owners make it their goal to make six figures online, as that is a major milestone to hit. Here are some important steps to take as you look to reach a new level of growth in your business.
Crunch the numbers
Let's assume you have a profitable business already. But if you're looking to scale, you can't ignore the numbers. Here are several tips to ensure you have a business worth growing:
Use the FBA revenue calculator to establish the viability of your product(s) after all relevant fees and expenses. In particular, pay attention to the adjusted gross margin, which should be between 15 percent and 20 percent.
- Track all of your financials the moment you open for business. If you want to sell your business at some point, this information will prove critical to the selling process.
Track your numbers using multiple methods so you can keep your finger on the pulse of the business and adjust your strategies as necessary.
Build a dedicated brand website
You likely started your FBA business absent any intention of subjecting yourself to the technical minutiae of building a website. Steve Chou from MyWifeQuitHerJob.com tells of a student of his who shared that she'd had a six-figure success on Amazon but also plenty of frustration building a website with an open source shopping cart. She said she eventually found some solace with the Shopify platform.
Even if you're not technically proficient, any long-term view of your business will convince you that building a website is a step worth taking. Here are four reasons why:
First, you don't have access to customer data through Amazon. One way to gain access to this invaluable information is a tool like Seller Tools, which will help you track orders and customers. Seller Tools is a great solution, but there is nothing quite like building a website when it comes to capturing customer data.
Related: Guide to Starting a Fulfillment by Amazon Business
Second, when you establish a website, you can build your brand, which creates another channel for sales, as well. This will also help you mitigate the risks of building your business on a third-party platform. Amazon of late has had a penchant for changing its terms.
Third, you can take advantage of the Amazon Associates affiliate program to earn affiliate commissions on related products and boost your revenue. By writing reviews on relevant offers and promoting them with a tool like BuzzBundle, you can even generate income on autopilot, assuming you've set it up correctly.
Fourth, you can build your email list, which will give you a way to communicate directly with your prospects and customers while collecting the data you need. Knowing your customers will help you find more people just like them to sell to. Don't forget to set up a follow-up sequence to convert more prospects into customers.
ShutterstockLeverage paid advertising
As we all know, SEO takes time. You don't implement a 100-point checklist today and shoot to the top of Google or Amazon tomorrow. Paid advertising will not only help you build some immediate traction with your products, but also lower your customer acquisition cost.
The key to success with advertising is testing. You'll need to play with your ad images and copy to determine the best way forward. Even if you think you know your customers and your business, you may be surprised to discover what works and what doesn't.
Building your email list will also come in handy when you're looking to optimize your advertising, as you'll be able to create retargeting ads and lookalike audiences.
Related: Fulfillment by Amazon Poses a Great Option for Those Looking to Break Into Ecommerce
ShutterstockGrow slowly and sustainably
Ryan Moran from Freedom Fast Lane has been successful in selling over six figures' worth on Amazon FBA with just two products.
What we can learn from this is that launching too many products too soon can actually be detrimental to your business. It's not difficult to see why. When you have a lot of different products to sell, most of your money will be tied up in your inventory. In addition, too many products makes tracking the viability and sales of each product harder. This is a key piece to ensuring profitability, and can't be ignored.
Moran also shares his two steps to scaling your Amazon business:
- Rank higher for your keywords. This takes time. You will begin to rank higher with reviews and sales. Beware of gaming the system, as Amazon has been coming down harder on sellers that are buying or automating reviews.
- Release more products. Moran suggests launching more products once you are satisfied with the results of the ones you already have. He notes that launching too many products too early is actually the downfall of many business owners.
Additionally, optimizing your best seller rank is essentially the same process. You need to outsell the competition and get positive reviews for your products. If you can't seem to outrank the competition, you can always switch to another product offering.
Bottom line: Grow your offerings slowly and sustainably.
Final thoughts
The FBA business model is still relatively new. Slowly, but surely, however, new resources and tools are becoming available. There are now SaaS for Amazon FBA tools you can leverage to grow your business, and these make it easier for you to increase your search rank, track and measure your marketing and sales and ultimately succeed as an Amazon seller.
Scaling, like anything worthwhile, takes time, and it won't happen overnight. It might be a matter of finding the right product niche. It might be a matter of sticking it out with a single offer until that offer starts converting at a satisfactory level.
Just remember not to take any shortcuts, as they are likely not within Amazon's terms of use, and could get your business shut down before you reach that coveted six-figure milestone.
Click here to learn how Shopify can help grow your business.
