CEO of Urtasker.com.
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There are 6.3 million sellers on Amazon selling products in every category imaginable. The vast majority of them don’t make their full income selling products online, though. In fact, there is a large chunk of sellers who have full-time jobs and use Amazon to top up their income on the side.
However, as an e-commerce marketing agency that helps clients market themselves on platforms such as Amazon, we’ve noticed a steep increase in the number of sellers looking to get serious with their Amazon side hustles over the past year — partly due to the profitable nature of e-commerce right now, and partly because selling on a platform like Amazon is becoming an acceptable business choice.
Below, I’ll share some information for optimizing your Amazon business — from side gig to full-scale acquisition.
How Sellers Are Succeeding With Side Hustles on Amazon
If you don’t have the space to store products or aren’t as tech-savvy as you’d like to be, that’s okay — you can still start making money. Here are four options that a lot of sellers overlook:
Amazon FBA
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Amazon’s FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) option allows merchants to set up stores, select products and sell to customers all over the world without the hassle of storing products in their own homes. Instead, Amazon stores stock in their own warehouses and sends them directly from there when a customer places an order.
White Label
The Amazon white label or private label model is where merchants find a high-selling item and label and sell it as their own. The goal is to create the best version of the original product to stand out and beat the competition.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping lets sellers buy products from other stores when a customer places an order. This eliminates the need to store stock and only requires the expense of buying stock when a customer places an order. Be cautious with this business model though, as a lot of sellers get banned from Amazon when they don’t follow the marketplace’s strict terms of service. Sellers with limited budgets often choose to dropship over the Amazon FBA option — plus, they have the option to customize their store more than FBA sellers.
Acquiring Existing Amazon Businesses
Aggregators can purchase a percentage cut of a store or buy an established store outright and immediately acquire the associated income. Sellers that grow their stores from a side hustle to a full-time business can also benefit from aggregators by selling their businesses for a tidy sum.
As you can see, there’s a full spectrum of opportunities and massive growth potential, but it’s hard to stand out when there’s so much competition. Even the smallest sellers have to leverage the tools available to gain product visibility and drive sales.
The key is to scale. However, with many side gig sellers claiming they don’t have enough time to learn and implement pivotal strategies, it’s easier said than done. Turning an Amazon side hustle into something that generates a full-time income requires planning and expert advice.
In my opinion, there are five key areas sellers should focus on:
1. Product Selection
Choosing which products to sell can be hard for sellers — after all, there are millions of options available. Using a tool or seeking expert advice to tap into trends and buying patterns can help sellers select the right products for their audience. Be sure to choose the right category, as it’s one of the most critical factors in your success and the rest of your strategy. The category defines the type of audience you’ll be targeting and helps to consider what unique selling propositions (USPs) you can add to each item.
Ask yourself questions like:
• Who do I want to serve?
• What are my strengths?
• What unique feature(s) can I bring to products?
2. High-Converting Listings
Getting eyeballs on products is crucial for increasing brand awareness and driving sales. Sellers should create engaging product descriptions that are optimized with relevant keywords and include high-converting elements like customer reviews, high-quality images and a compelling features list.
3. Product Visibility
Once product descriptions are in place, sellers can implement PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns to drive traffic to the listings. The focus should be on targeting relevant, well-searched keywords and optimizing campaigns until they are performing as well as they can be.
Keep track of indexed keywords you’re ranking for and add any keywords you’re not ranking for (but that you would like to be ranking for) as this will help boost your visibility. Initially, I recommend running an auto-campaign to mine high-volume keywords. Then you can download the search term report and add the relevant search terms to your manual campaigns.
4. Up-To-Date Financials
It’s important that your finances are always up to date and in a good place, just in case an aggregator comes along and wants to snap up your business or if you need to get quick financing to cover expensive outlays.
5. Diversification
Amazon reaches all four corners of the globe, so don’t limit yourself to just one. If you’re selling on Amazon U.S., explore your selling options on Amazon Europe, Amazon Canada and Amazon Mexico to increase your reach and audience. You can also consider other marketplaces, such as Walmart, eBay, Shopify and Etsy, to cover all bases.
The sheer size of Amazon makes it a promising platform to start and grow a side hustle. Several different selling options make it easy to choose a business model that works for you, and there’s always the chance that, later down the line, a hungry aggregator sees your potential and reaches out to acquire your business.
But, first and foremost, sellers need to establish a steady turnover that they can scale. This involves choosing the right products, creating listings that are fully optimized and engaging, and driving traffic to those listings with powerful PPC campaigns.
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Author: Omer Riaz, Forbes Councils Member
