Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces for goods and digital services. It started out as a small organization selling books to a company similar in size and reputation as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. It is one of the largest retailers in the world and its revenues continue to grow daily.
Besides being a company that sells electronics and novelty items, they also sell groceries, nutritional supplements, clothing, digital books, and has its own streaming service (Amazon Studios) for movies and TV shows. Amazon also owns Audible, Goodreads, Zappos, IMBD, and Twitch to name a few.
Because the company is so diverse, there is a great demand for production, sales, and warehouse associates, as well as at-home customer service agents and delivery drivers. Amazon offers a lot of opportunities for those looking to earn extra money or work from home.
How to Make Money on Amazon
If you’re looking for a side job for extra money, or you need a job you can work from home, these categories offer plenty of options. Here are some of the best ways to earn money from Amazon:
1. Sell Product With Amazon’s FBA
FBA means fulfilled by Amazon. This means that as a seller listed on the Amazon Marketplace you would list your products for sale on the site and then ship your inventory to Amazon’s warehouse where it is shipped to the customer for you.
This option does come with fees and many sellers choose to ship the items themselves to avoid these fees. However, if you sell in volume it makes more sense to ship via FBA.
Because the cost of shipping multiple orders can be quite hefty. If you choose this option be sure to do your research and know what is involved in working with Amazon FBA.
2. Private Label Products
This next option is one in which you find products and attach your own label. You would then register the product as your own on Amazon. This is common practice with items purchased in bulk like the ballpoint pens you see in hotels with the name of the hotel on it. You find a product through a third-party supplier such as T-shirts, baseball caps, jewelry, and novelty items. You go through a process for a private label and sell it on Amazon under your brand name.
3. Retail Arbitrage
This is the option that many people are familiar with as it is very popular around the holidays. Retail arbitrage is the practice of buying low and selling high. Some sellers make the bulk of their income from retail arbitrage and do quite well for themselves.
Buying inventory from companies overseas can get very costly in terms of shipping. To avoid this happening many sellers visit local retailers and buy their clearance items before and after big sales and price the items higher on Amazon. Sellers will often clear out the clearance items at every Walmart in a 50-mile radius. They collect all their inventory and ship it to Amazon. Most often the item has already sold on Amazon before it has even been shipped.
The strategy is pretty simple to implement. Check out your local Walmart and scan items using an app on your smartphone to see how much it’s selling for on Amazon. After doing this for a while you’ll get to know which items have the potential for selling at higher prices.
Retail arbitrage isn’t for everyone because it involves a lot of research and driving to every retail location to pick up the items. You may have to endure crowds and chaos especially during sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and etc.
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4. Delivery Fulfilment Warehouse Associate
If you live in one of the areas that have an Amazon fulfillment center you may be able to get a position as a warehouse associate. You can also apply for the delivery stations, sortation centers, and customer service centers, as well as Prime Now locations and Campus pickup points. These positions are available full and part-time.
5. Amazon Flex
Have you ever ordered something from Amazon and a plain-clothed delivery person brings it to you? This is Amazon Flex, a same-day delivery option for customers with qualifying orders. These jobs are usually in larger metropolitan areas and pay anywhere from $18 to $25 per hour. If you have a reliable car and a smartphone, that is all you need to start delivering goods through Amazon Prime. It may sound like a dream job, but be aware that there may be a lot of downtimes spent waiting on orders.
6. Work from Home for Amazon
If you are looking for a job you can work from home, maybe Amazon’s virtual customer service team might be right for you. On the website, it is listed as a Work-from-Home Customer Service Associate. The base pay is $10 an hour and full and part-time positions are available in certain areas only. Virtual opportunities don’t open often, but when they do it’s worth getting in on it if you can. Positions are open to bilingual customer service, and tech support positions as well.
7. Become an Amazon Affiliate, Amazon Associates
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn passive income if you have a blog with a decent amount of traffic.
As an Amazon affiliate, you earn a commission by putting affiliate links to various Amazon products on your site or in your content. If you have a blog about travel you may promote items such as packing cubes, sturdy suitcases, or wrinkle-free clothing. You should promote products that are in line with the topic of your blog.
Every time one of your visitors clicks on the affiliate link and goes to the Amazon site, you’ll earn a commission for the sale. Commissions pay 4% to 8.5% of a sale, depending on how many products you are promoting.
Amazon has a progressive earnings structure on most of its merchandise and the more sales you get from your site, the more money you make.
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8. Publish an eBook on Amazon
Have you ever wanted to publish your own books? You can self-publish an ebook on Amazon, and each time your book sells Amazon takes a percentage of the listing. The platform allows you to write about almost any topic and it doesn’t have to be 100 pages long either.
Write about topics you are passionate about or topics that you know a lot about. This is one way that a lot of authors set themselves up as subject experts. Although it will be listed on one of the largest digital marketplaces in the world, you will still need to do some promoting to get the word out and get buyers to your content. You can use Kindle Direct Publishing (also owned by Amazon) for an easy way to get started.
9. Amazon Trade-In
Sell Amazon your used books, games, and electronics. This is one of the lesser-known options because you won’t earn any cash for it. You will still get paid but in gift cards you can use to buy more goods on Amazon.
If you have ever used a selling app before you’ll be familiar with how this works. You’ll need to take photos, measurements (for clothing items) and write a description of your item. This may be a good way to get rid of some of the stuff you’ve had laying around for years that you just don’t use anymore.
Gather all of your unwanted items and send the information to Amazon. They will give you an estimate of how much you can earn from the transaction and will pay you with a gift card that you can use for groceries, household items, or personal care products.
10. Amazon Vine
This is another option where you don’t earn cash but you do receive compensation. If you’re a regular Amazon customer you’ve probably read reviews from customers that have received a product for the purpose of a review. They send you the item to review and give your personal opinion of it. You get to keep the item in exchange for writing a review. This option is usually only offered to customers who regularly leave reviews for products they have purchased through Amazon.
There are a lot of opportunities to earn money with Amazon. Whether it is offering a service, selling a product, or writing ebooks, you now know how to make money on Amazon. It’s great as a side hustle or as a full-time income if you hit on something that works for you.
Before you get started selling, be sure to research and find out as much as you can about the products and how Amazon charges their fees. You should know everything upfront so there are no surprises later.
