Maxim Tarasov, 24 years old, hometown — Novosibirsk, Russia, Amazon business expert, tarasovsk
About business choice
I started selling on Amazon in December 2016. Launched the product under its own brand. Sold it for six months and came to the fact that began to resell goods from different categories. Resale of goods from different suppliers allows you not to depend on one product, on the season and competitors. By selling different products not only one you reach more customers.
I chose Amazon because of quality traffic.
People are ready to enter this platform and buy, and they have a high level of trust. It is profitable to sell on Amazon because buyers from America make more purchases, more often and more expensive. This site is the largest retailer.
About the features of the platform
Amazon is loyal to customers and does not tolerate mistakes of sellers. There are many rules of how a seller should behave. Performance metrics tracking, and if the seller is outside of the limits on the number of cancelled orders, Amazon after a warning can block it.
Difficulties may arise due to the fact that the platform does not explain how to register, what documents to provide. Amazon is not committed to attracting new sellers. The platform has high-quality traffic and a lot of sales, so everyone wants to sell there. There are about 500 sales per second. Beginners learn from mistakes, but Amazon does not forgive mistakes. Therefore, it is almost impossible to start without training and support.
About earnings
Here people earn different money. Some of my students earn up to $12,000 a month. In the first month, I earned about $1,000, in the new year holidays — $250 for one day. But the next year I had a record - $847 for one day. Now I teach people to resell goods on Amazon.
Alex Shmytkin, 31 years old, hometown — Zaporozhye, Ukraine, author and publisher on Amazon, travel blogger aloha-family.com
About business choice
My publishing business on Amazon is physical and electronic books. I chose this niche because entering this market is cheaper. At that time, when I was looking for a business model, for me, it was the best option with a minimum of costs. The most important thing, for me, was that I was fluent in English, I can and I love to write books. To engage in one business for a long time, you must have a passion for this. If you feel that it will entice for a long time, it is necessary to delve into the topic of sales. I have written several books myself, created covers, formatted, customized the necessary tools. In 2017 I partially began to delegate the processes.
About the features of the platform
Amazon is one of the most visited sites in the world. This is the largest marketplace on the Internet. It sells everything from clothes and furniture to video games, from car parts to house cleaning services.
For a novice seller, the main difficulty is the lack of strategy and understanding of what to do. There is partial information on business aspects, but there is no complete picture. But at the same time on such a rapidly changing site as Amazon, there is no need to delay the start.
On this site it is important to develop, information becomes obsolete quickly, so you need to keep your nose in the wind and be flexible. On Amazon, there are different models of business creation. There is a category of private label, where a person creates his own brand. I know many such people who even join groups and hold their own forums. The Private Label community is responsive and active. There are categories where access is restricted. In order to sell them, you need special permits, for example, for food and cosmetics.
On Amazon spinning large amounts of money. Each person has the opportunity to create a small business and compete with brands, stand on a par with Adidas. This is an opportunity to sell your goods on the market of the USA and other countries. You just need to choose the right niche.
About earnings
In the summer of 2016, I realized that without help on Amazon was difficult to understand and found a good course about the book business.
A month later I earned the first 600 dollars.
By the end of 2016, my income was about $1,500 a month, and that's not the limit. In many ways, I was helped by a systematic approach, and a clear plan – that's why I was trained and constantly continue to learn. Sometimes the income in the books is dependent on seasonal fluctuations – Christmas sells some books during the summer other. If you do everything efficiently and thoughtfully, it is a legal and interesting business that brings pleasure and readers of books, and writers, and business owners. I know one seller in the book business recently had $100,000 in net income per year. This is an American who successfully writes fiction novels. At this stage, I am striving for these figures.
It is worth noting the importance of my decision to take a training course in due time. When I began to make money on books, I was often asked for help. Now I myself give advice in the Russian and English online market, and it is a special feeling to help others grow.
Of course, this kind of business is not for everyone, but it's great absolutely different people can find a direction to their liking and earn on Amazon.
Roman Husnullin, 29 years old, city — St.Petersburg, entrepreneur, business mentor, blogger youtube channel biznesnaamazon
About business choice
I had experience in a commodity business in Russia. It was a hobby that was not the main source of profit. The products I sold through the site were network marketing products. During my work, I understood how e-commerce is technologically arranged. Later I thought about what kind of business to do to have more free time. At the same time, I could do business remotely, without reference to people. And the criterion was the level of income, so I could live and provide for the family.
My searches led me to Amazon, although I heard and knew about the eBay, Aliexpress sites.
The platform got me interested in its global character. Today it is the most gigantic online store. On Amazon hundreds of millions of buyers around the world. I trade in the US market, where the greatest concentration of buyers who do not even think to buy goods somewhere else.
On sales on Amazon a lot of nuances. Before launching the product, I was looking for various forums and people who explained the essence of the work received personal training.
About the features of the platform
The volume of buyers here is so big the competition on this background pales.
Many people do not understand how you can trade with a large number of sellers. If you enter the market correctly and enter your product under all Amazon algorithms, you can compete with large sellers.
People have a misconception that you can put the goods, and it will be sold. Amazon is putting an algorithm in place to protect the rights of buyers. And when you become buyers or sellers, the system you begin to seriously check. Therefore, to understand the algorithm of sales, it is necessary to undergo serious training.
Difficulties may be patent infringement in which the seller is not sure. If the release of your product will be a long time to go preparation for these few months, the market may settle. Therefore, I recommend launching sales as quickly as possible, so that it takes a maximum of three months.
Today it is possible to start the commodity business from any corner of the world, without leaving the country which in a month-two will come to turns in 10 000 — 15 000 dollars. These are quite serious figures because business does not bind people to the place, time and people.
About earnings
My first experience was a failure because Amazon is a fast-changing marketplace. And what worked six months ago, now does not work. I thought it would be fun to sell meat thermometers. Many Americans love barbecues and like to control the baking process. But I made it difficult to launch the product by connecting a thermometer with a timer for the kitchen. In the world of high technology, when every smartphone has such a function, timers are not needed. Now I understand it was a big mistake to complicate everything.
For the first two or three months, I sold up to 300 units of goods, which is a normal indicator. People bought, but not in the volumes that I expected. I invested $3,500 in the product, and it only paid off half.
This experience gave me an understanding of how to sell. After that, he began to study a new niche, namely electronic devices. I chose power bank it was a competitive product. At the moment, my products are sold on autopilot, because for six months I managed to bring them to the first page of the search results. This gives from 2,500 to 5,000 dollars of net profit. For me, these are good numbers, because I am no longer involved in operational tasks and business processes are automated. I spend an hour a week on business. There are examples when children earn up to 200 000 dollars a year. In order to achieve such volumes, we need large investments in starting a business.
Nikolay Anashkin, 27 years old, hometown — Ekaterinburg, eBay seller, youtube blogger sprosiKolyana channel
About business choice
I started shopping on eBay in 2011 and liked this site so much that a year later I thought about how to start selling myself. Began to study all material, but information on the Internet was a little. I had to do everything by trial and error, by the method of the poke. The site was completely English-speaking, and for me, as a person who did not learn English, it was difficult. Now the site is almost completely localized for Russian speakers, but in sales when you create an ad you have to see the English page.
About the features of the platform
Novice sellers find it difficult to conduct business on the site. At first, it seems this is a good part-time job for a schoolboy. Now I understand it was a big mistake to complicate everything. eBay is positioning itself as a safe place for buyers, so many sellers value their reputation. If your rating falls below 90% — then your sales will be almost like novice sellers.
First of all, novice sellers are carefully checked not only by buyers but also by the site itself. After the first successful transactions immediately leave the buyer positive feedback, then send the goods, do not wait for 2-3 days, put in a small parcel card with a reminder of the request to leave a review. If 30 days have passed since the purchase and the feedback is not received, then write a message to the buyer with this request. You have to set a goal for yourself to make 10 successful deals.
About earnings
To begin with, I wanted to understand the principle of all work but did not know what to sell. And the first thing I saw on the table was a phone case. I took a picture of it, made a description and put it up for sale for $3, plus shipping $1.5. Two hours later I bought it American, and three hours later the lot was removed, as my case was a copy of the famous brand Louis Vuitton. Then it turned out that the delivery will cost the most expensive ads, I did not know about the Commission. I had to write to the buyer and ask to cancel the transaction. I made him a refund so that in the future there were no problems.
I was engaged in active sales on eBay from 2012 to 2016, now I have moved to another direction, but periodically sell the main product to maintain knowledge, rating and turnover of funds. When I started trading on the site, I tried to put the value of the goods so that the net profit I had 1,000 rubles from physical goods and 300 rubles from virtual. But sometimes it was necessary to make concessions to buyers and do a discount, for example, when one client ordered three goods at once.
The biggest amount of net profit I earned from a single trade is $200.
I started to approach more competently, began to monitor prices on eBay. I worked for a large company and decided to sell antivirus activation keys. The difference with foreign prices was 3-4 times less, and foreigners are even more willing to take PC than compatriots. I had 5 to 10 orders a day through eBay.
Then such goods as the Soviet Filmstrip, the Polaroid camera, a cartridge from Dandy, branded clothes and many other things were sold. With each passing month, I was more and more increased the account limit, and I put more and more new products. I sold my tablet, smartphone, and the most interesting thing is that most of the goods in my country I would not sell for anything. We do not have such collectors as abroad. I started to work with suppliers and sell new products, there were even a lot of regular customers.
