In this case study, you’ll see how one of our rock-star clients (Dr. Ben) launched his e-commerce business from scratch and grew it into the multi-million dollar business it is today. You’ll see how he started from the bottom (with some rice cakes) and quickly clawed his way to the top, build a business with over $1,000,000 in projected annual sales in his first year in business.  Ben started working with us about one year ago, and since then has never ceased to amaze the StartupBros team. I could go on all day about this guy, so I will just let you read his case study below šŸ™‚

This is the story of how I took my side business from $0 to over $600,000 in 365 days, while working 60 hours a week in my day job.

And it all started with $2,200 in rice cakesā€¦

just-do-it-image

Who Am I?

My name is Ben. My StartupBros friends call me ā€˜Dr. Benā€™, because I’m a practicing resident physician. I’m never really sure if people understand what that means, so I always describe it as “a lot like the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, but with less sex.”

We work too much, get paid too little, and are trapped by student debt. Sound familiar?

My $1,000,000 Business

So four years ago, on February 2, 2015, I started a side business with $360 of spare cash.

Since then, we’ve grossed over $600,000. If you extrapolate our current monthly sales volume of $90k (without factoring in growth), that puts us just over the $1 Million mark for the next 12 months.

Is that cheating? I donā€™t think so…

Weā€™re going to destroy that projection.

Here’s How It Happened

Rewind to nearly four years ago, in March 2014.

I was driving home from a night shift in the hospital with a zombie stare on my face that would probably get me a guest spot on The Walking Dead.

There’s something satisfying about being a doctor, about “saving lives,” if that’s what I did that night. But honestly, the drudgery wears you down.

To keep from falling asleep on my drive home, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts of all time, “The Smart Passive Income Podcast,” with Patt Flynn. Heard of it? I thought so…

In particular I was listening to Episode 99 with Jessica & Cliff Larrew that detailed how she and her family were making hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying things from big box stores like Walmart or Target and reselling them on Amazon. It’s a process that’s known as Retail Arbitrage.

By the time I finished the podcast, I was hooked on the idea of giving Retail Arbitrage a try. And because I’m addicted to taking action, I did it.

1

The Results of Taking Action

By the next day I had hit all three Walmarts, the Target, the Lowes, the Home Depot, the Big Lots, and the Sam’s Club. By the end of the week, I’d bought $389 worth of retail goods to send into Amazon.

Amazon-retail-arbitrage

Thatā€™s when I found the backbone of my retail arbitrage products: Quaker Popped Variety Packs. These suckers cost me $3.50 a bag at my local Walmart and sold for $15 on Amazon. Thatā€™s $7 profit!

SERIOUSLY!

Thereā€™s nobody even selling these things right now. If you see them on the shelf in your local Walmart, itā€™s like picking up $7 off the shelf every single time.

popped-quaker-rice-snacks

In 90 days I’d sold over $4500 on Amazon, which included $2200 of rice cakes. That’s over $1000 in PROFIT on rice cakes!

Amazon-sales-report

The Hiatus

The whole reason I started doing Retail Arbitrage wasnā€™t to make a big business out of it. I just donā€™t think itā€™s easy to scale an RA business.

No, for me the reason was simply because I wanted to learn the eCommerce process, so if I happened to see an opportunity in the future, Iā€™d be able to take quick action on it.

Learning skills just for the sake of learning them has been a recurring theme in my life. This last year, those skills Iā€™d amassed helped me achieve rapid success.

Eventually, I got bored with the whole RA process and I began to go back to my normal routine. Cash continually trickled in for the next 4-6 months as the inventory Iā€™d accumulated slowly sold out.

Amazon had become an afterthought…

The Return to Amazon

Several months later in November 2014 I was listening to yet another podcast discussing the merits of making money on Amazon. Niche Pursuits Podcast 53: How to Earn Over $12,000 Per Month Selling Physical Products on Amazon with Chris Guthrie.

In this episode they discuss the idea of importing and private labeling on Amazon.

There was a little pitch for an Amazon selling course at the end of the episode, but after Googling it a little bit, the course seemed a little to ā€œInternet Marketyā€ for me.

Nevertheless, I was SOLD on the idea of importing and selling on Amazon, so I went searching for more information and came across Will Mitchellā€™s post on StartupBros.com, How You Can Make Big Money Importing From China ā€“ The Rise and Fall of My Empireā€¦

Weā€™ll take a brief intermission while you go read thatā€¦.

Done? Ok, good.

I ended up joining the StartupBros Import Empire January 2015 Jumpstart Group, now called the E-Commerce Empire Elite Program.

I was a little apprehensive to spend big bucks on a course, because after all–a residentā€™s salary isnā€™t exactly a Kingā€™s Ransom.

But itā€™s a good thing I did, because my investment was returned hundreds–and I do mean HUNDREDS–of times over the next 365 days.

But this isnā€™t a pitch for E-Commerce Empire. If you want to hear more about EEE and get some exclusive bonuses to launch your own E-Commerce Empire, you should watch this 3-part video series ā€œHow I Launched My $1 Million Business with $300.ā€

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The First Sale

Within my first 30-days I had sourced my first product, ordered 40 units, and sent them into Amazon FBA. Did I mention Iā€™m addicted to taking action?

Just-do-it-gif

While my inventory was in transit to the FBA warehouses, my buddies and I left Missouri and headed up to Crested Butte for a much needed ski vacation.

I was driving through the mountains just outside of Denver listening to a live EEE webinar when I got an email alerting me that my inventory had been checked into Amazon and my product listing was now live.

YES!!!

An hour later, just before we we lost cell signal, I decided to check my Amazon stats one last time. Just for kicksā€¦

When I opened my Amazon Seller Central app, I could hardly believe my eyes. Iā€™d made my first sale of my private label product within an hour of hitting the Amazon warehouse.

For the next 5 days, I was getting sale after sale while knee deep in powder on the side of a mountain. I had to order 300 more units on the 2nd day of my vacation!

skiing-while-making-amazon-sales

The Next 365 Days

The next year was a crazy whirlwind of sales, product launches, travel, team building, speaking, product sourcing, number crunching and growing.

It wonā€™t happen the same way for everyone, but hereā€™s how it happened for me:

Month #1: Feb 2 – Mar 2

Gross Revenue: $4,620

Gross-revenue-feb-march

In January I spent probably 100 hours researching my first product and setting everything up. That means a thorough listing on Amazon includes GREAT pictures.

Can’t afford professional product photos? Take the DIY product photography route!

When I finally launched on February 2nd, I spent the next 30 days in a hyper-focused state. I launched this product on my personal Amazon account.

I didnā€™t have a business setup.

I didnā€™t have an EIN number.

I didnā€™t even have a business bank account.

THAT CRAP DOESNā€™T MATTER RIGHT NOW!

My single focus was simply reviews. You CANNOT have a good product launch on Amazon without getting hustling for reviews. Period.

I got my reviews by giving away product to friends and family.

Key Points:

  1. Reviews, reviews, reviews. REVIEWS!

Month #2: Mar 2 – Apr 2

Gross Revenue: $12,368

Difference: +$7,748

Amazon-income-report-march-april

By the second month, I knew that I was going to be able to make this product a success. I was working at a little over a 40% margin, so profit was somewhere around $5,000.

It was at this point that I partnered up with a friend of mine from med school, Peter.

We both saw the potential and decided to each invest $10,000 to stock up on inventory and launch some new products.

We decided to open a new Amazon Seller Central account just for the business, which is why you see the sales at zero at the beginning of the month.

We set up an LLC S-Corp, set up a bank account, and got our EIN. We wanted to make sure our FBA business was ready for tax time!  At this point we also started researching and ordering test products for a second product line in a new niche.

Key Points:

  1. Stay in stock.
  2. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.
  3. Feed the beast (reinvest).
  4. Setup business structure.
  5. Research new products.

Month #3: Apr 2 – May 2

Gross Revenue: $17,782

Difference: +$5,414

Amazon-revenue-april-may

By month 3 we had stocked up enough inventory of our first product, which included 2 color variations. We received about 100 units of 3 new products in an entirely different product line.

These three products accounted for a $2,500 bump in revenue during this month. Having multiple products within a product line allowed us to start getting some cross-selling between our own products.  HOORAY!

Key Points:

  1. Stay in stock.
  2. Test multiple new products in a new product line.
  3. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.

Month #4: May 2 – June 2

Gross Revenue: $21,704

Difference: +$3,922

amazon-income-may-june

We continued to expand Product Line #2 as sales of Product Line #1 continued to grow. At this point we placed large orders for all 5 new products in Product Line #2.

Key Points:

  1. Added 2 more products in Product Line #2 giving us a total of 5 products in the line.
  2. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.

Month #5: June 2 – July 2

Gross Revenue: $31,225

Difference: +$9,521

amazon-income-report-june-july

Same old story here.

We continued to add to our product lines and test new products. As sales continued to grow, it became more and more time consuming to answer customer emails.

I started to get stuck working in my business rather than on my business–an age old problem.

Thatā€™s when I began the search for our very first employee, a customer service agent.

At this point we had more time than money, so I opted for Chris Duckerā€™s, Virtual Staff Finder service to find myself a Filipino virtual assistant.

Key Points:

  1. Added a 3rd product to Product Line #1, which we launched as a variation of product #1.
  2. Tested a 6th product in Product Line #2.
  3. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.
  4. Started interviewing Customer Service Agents.

Month #6: July 2 – Aug 2

Gross Revenue: $53,734

Difference: +$22,509

amazon-income-report-july-aug

While we were in Alaska fishing, errā€¦ I mean discussing business strategyā€¦ a couple things happened.

First, Amazon had Prime Day. We werenā€™t a part of Prime Day, but we say a good 50% boost in daily sales.

Second, we began doing heavy promos on a few of our products using Viral Launch, which really pushed our sales to the next level. We also saw our organic sales on our two product lines continue to grow.

Thereā€™s no feeling quite like being on a river in Alaska and knowing that your business is bringing in cash all by itself.

This was the first day off that I had taken since launching in February.

The only reason I was able to get away with this was due to our recent hiring of Dyan, our customer service agent.

Key Points:

  1. Began running aggressive promotions.
  2. Hired our first employee.

Month #7: Aug 2 – Sep 2

Gross Revenue: $54,164

Difference: +$430

amazon-income-report-aug-sept

We hit a bit of a plateau phase when we started to streamline our business processes and develop new products that were taking a little bit longer to get to market.

It can be a little discouraging to see your revenue flatline after such tremendous growth, but it was all a part of the plan.

Key Points:

  1. Stay in stock.
  2. Continue developing new products.
  3. Streamline business processes during the plateau phase.

Month #8: Sept 2 – Oct 2

Gross Revenue: $70,148

Difference: +$15,984

amazon-income-report-sept-oct

We had another pretty decent jump here as we launched a few new products. Notice the increase in average sales price per order jumped up about 50 cents.

As we built out our product lines, we noticed more and more cross selling, which increased our average order size.

Key Points:

  1. Continue to expand your product lines.

Month #9: Oct 2 – Nov 2

Gross Revenue: $82,450

Difference: +$12,302

amazon-report-oct-nov

In October we applied for and were accepted into 4 days of lightning deals that included 5 of our products.

The first one that you can see as the giant sales spike, is responsible for the $12,000 revenue increase in October.

Key Points:

  1. If you get an opportunity for lightning deals, jump on it.

Month #10: Nov 2 – Dec 2

Gross Revenue: $105,532

Difference: +$23,082

amazon-income-report-nov-dec

The lightning deals continued into November and December and we saw BIG spikes in revenue.

Early in November we realized that we needed to buy a crap-ton of inventory, but we didnā€™t have the money to do it because we put it all into new products in August and September. So we took out two personal loans totaling $30,000.

Our company was now in debt $50,000.

Key Points:

  1. Manage your cash flow while experiencing rapid growth.
  2. Only consider taking on debt to fund key parts of your business.

Month #11: Dec 2 – Jan 2

Gross Revenue: $93,364

Difference: -$12,168

amazon-income-report-dec-jan

Oh no! Our first month of regression!

This was to be expected as the lightning deals ended and the Christmas buying season came to a close. Many people see a tripling of sales leading up to Christmas, but our organic sales were relatively flat with a minimal 50% increase.

Key Points:

  1. Expect a decrease in revenue at the end of December and into January.

Month #12: Jan 2 – Feb 2

Gross Revenue: $96,994

Difference: +$3,630

amazon-income-report-jan-feb

In January sales picked back up for us and we were finally caught up with all the inventory that we needed.

We all of a sudden had a lot of cash coming in and not a lot of cash going out.

For the last year, we had focused on top line growth by reinvesting all of our profits. Once you decide to stop reinvesting, thatā€™s when things start to get really exciting.

Key Points:

  1. Reinvest for top line growth to scale fast.

UPDATE: Month #14

Gross Revenue: $155,273

Difference: +$58,279

amazon-income-report-month-14

In February of 2016, we launched 6 new products into one of our existing lines.

This includes a product that we found at the Canton Fair after a guy from a US company stormed into a booth we were at and told us “You have to sell this. People in the US LOVE this!” So we did….

The result of the 6 products was 1 homerun, 2 doubles, 2 singles, and 1 player who’s just a little slow getting to first base.

Key Points:

  1. Launch more products!

What Should You Take Away From All of This?

To be honest, I never expected things to move this quickly.

I knew there was a TON of potential importing and private labeling products, but it didn’t really hit me until I was on the side of the mountain replenishing my inventory.

For anyone out there reading this who is interested in following my path, I would highly recommend getting your feet wet with Retail Arbitrage first.

Start a Profitable Retail Arbitrage Business in 2018! 

Once you do begin to dive into private labeling, be sure to follow these pro-tips:

  1. Find a mastermind group. Without help from the E-Commerce Empire Community, I wouldn’t have had access to the tools and resources needed to grow as quickly as I have. You’re a reflection of who you surround yourself with, so surround yourself with the best.
  2. Focus on reviews early on. This is part of Amazon’s unique value proposition–they are one part e-commerce platform, one part review club. Do not underestimate the importance of this.
  3. Keep your product in stock. Going out of stock will effect your Amazon search ranking, so be sure to keep a close eye on your inventory numbers.
  4. Reinvest your profits. This is a business, not your personal piggy bank–you’ve got to think long term.
  5. Focus on customer service. If there is a problem, take care of it IMMEDIATELY. If you neglect a customer complaint, Amazon will hate you. Period.
  6. Research new products once you’re having success and expand your product line.
  7. Reviews, reviews, reviews, I can’t state this enough.
  8. Use Amazon PPC to boost the sales of already successful products.
  9. Once the workload becomes too much, hire a virtual assistant. This way you can focus on growing your business instead of working within it.
  10. Be mindful of your cash flow and only take on debt if absolutely necessary for growth.
  11. TAKE ACTION! Yeah, I’ve said it a million times by now, but there isn’t anyone doing 6-figures on Amazon who didn’t first work their tail off to get themselves established. Just keep taking consistent action, and you too may find yourself on the side of a mountain or fishing in Alaska with the sales pouring in and not a care in the world.

If you’d like a more detailed, ‘over-my-shoulder’ view of how I launched and grew my e-commerce business from scratch, make sure you watch this quick video I put together for you.

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Wrapping This Up…

So if there is one thing you take away from this, it’s not that I’m special or have some mutant DNA (although the thought of that is pretty cool). It’s that I simply took action on the opportunities surrounding me. There is no perfect business model.

And there are opportunities EVERYWHERE.

Sure, I’m a bit of a workaholic, but if I can pull this off while working 60+ hours a week while in my medical residency, then I know anybody can be successful with this too!

So get out out there, and DO IT.

Author

Avatar for Dr. Ben
Dr. Ben

Dr. Ben is a medical doctor, serial entrepreneur and community leader of the StartupBros E-Commerce Empire Training Program. Keep up to date with Dr. Ben and his business adventures at EcomDocs

  1. Hey Dr Ben!
    I would like to thank you for this amazing content, the way you have mentioned every key point is very helpful and easy to understand and motivates people to start a business.
    Stats and updates of an online business, nobody wants to share but you did it for your users: Thanks man

  2. Well done.Thanks for sharing. Question? May I give product away and have people review it on Amazon or do they have to buy it on Amazon to give a review,Thank you

    • Right now, asking for reviews by giving away products is against Amazon terms of service. But if the customer buys the product then they can leave a review.

  3. Hey Ben,
    This is well inspiring and detailed.
    Before I jump in to “Actions”, I’ve got one concern for you.
    I’m from Sri Lanka (The small country you will find underneath India :D) and is this whole process possible here too?
    Thank you and good Luck!

  4. Hello DR. BEN,
    Your great and inspiring article motivates others, who are really interested to Make Money Online.
    Right now I don’t have any plan to sell any Physical product on Amazon, yes I do have a Blog, which I started one year and seven months ago and after launching it within 5-7 months, it started to make $400-$500 and after a year of launching it, it is Making around US $1000 Monthly. I’m quite happy for it.

    Thanks for sharing your Success to launch ecommerce Business.

  5. So you ship your products directly to Amazon FBA? How does that work exactly? Do you have to do any extra steps that involve packing or putting labels on?

  6. Thanks a lot for this article, it is a really great resource. I feel like there is one section where you took a leap that I would really like to know more. I just don’t understand how you buy a quantity of 40 katanas at a price that you can make money off of. Everything on alibaba and such is always in the 500 or 1000 minimum order quantity range, meaning you have to spend thousands of dollars on your first product, which I think is probably the biggest hurdle for most people to try their first product. Thank you!

  7. Great story, I just started my amazon business and this just gave me a boost of confidence and motivation. Which FBA prep service do you use? and in the beginning of a product launch I am having a lot of trouble getting reviews for a product, any advice on how I can get more reviews? thanks a lot!

  8. Man, I love a good rapid growth story. I like it even more because it’s a “let’s see how this goes” story. Congrats Dr. on the successful venture and thanks for sharing the keys.
    Well, have to go start a new business. That gif that appears twice is pretty effective.

  9. Hi Dr Ben,

    Which FBA prep service would you recommend? Does this complicate the tax issue at all?

    Thanks

  10. Thanks for sharing! Out of curiosity, what if I’m based in Asia? Am I still able to use Amazon FBA?

  11. Dr. Ben,

    You are true inspiration to us all. I’ve always said if you want something done give it to a busy man or woman. Keep up the fire!

    Robert Guillot

  12. Hi,
    Thank you for a great and inspiring article. IĀ“m on my way of ordering from China and ship it to Amazon and I do have a question about shipping directly to Amazon since IĀ“ve only shipped to my home in Sweden before. Could I just ask the supplier to arrange everything and trust that it arrives correctly to Amazon? Should I use some kind of shipping service for quality control?
    Thank you very much for helping,
    Ann

  13. Hi Ben
    Thank you for your article. I was just wondering you mentioned that you had a lot of growth from cross selling as you launched new products. Are all of your products in the same category?
    Thanks
    Kerrie

    • Yeah, most of our products are in the same category and we have multiple products serving a specific market. So lot’s of opportunity for cross selling.

  14. Interesting read. Were most of your profits from products you have creatively invented and patented?

  15. My concerning part is the debt you were in after 10 months (before having to take out a loan) so letā€™s do the math.

    You mentioned about a 35-40% profit margin, so letā€™s do 35% to be conservative in case you need to do advertising, etc.

    Month 1 profit: $1617
    Month 2 profit: $4328
    Month 3 profit: $6223
    Month 4 profit: $7596
    Month 5 profit: $10928
    Month 6 profit: $18806
    Month 7 profit: $18957
    Month 8 profit: $24551
    Month 9 profit: $28857
    Month 10 profit: $36936

    So after 10 months, you had a profit of $158,799.

    I understand you need to reinvest profits for new products and reinvest into products selling.

    But you reinvested about $178,000 into products in those first 10 months since you said after a $30,000 loan that you were now in debt $50,000, correct?

    Products from China are a fraction of what you sell them for on Amazon, so Iā€™m not quite seeing how you were in debt after profiting $158k? So you were investing more money then you were making each month?

    And if you really want to step up your game and invest a huge inventory, even with that profit you still had to take out a loan.

    So from month to month you werenā€™t making any money unless you stop reinvesting?

    When you stop reinvesting you see a profit, but then in a few weeks or months you are out of products. So how can you do this without spending more money then you are making to see a profit but continue to grow your inventory?

    Please tell me where I am wrong here. It seems that even though you profited thousands of dollars each month, you were still losing money, and couldnā€™t quit your day job (which everyone else that wants you to invest in their course says you can).

    Not trying to be negative, but the concerning part for me is all the money you were making and still not having an ROI. Most people will just see revenue and not think profit, which is misleading in this post.

    Appreciate this case study and your input.

    • Hey Mike,

      Thanks for the analysis. It looks like you’re a real numbers guy!

      Both my partner and I are working full time jobs, so making extra side cash wasn’t a big concern for us. We wanted to grow this BIG! Our plan the whole time was to not take any cash out of the business for AT LEAST a year in order to scale.

      In February we kinda caught up with our spending and we started to going into the black at a rate of 30-40k profit per month. Over the last 6 months, we reinvested about $125,000 in 2 new Amazon businesses. And we’re looking at launching 2 new product lines with an initial cost of about $25,000 each.

      At our current revenue (about $150,000 per month) we would profit $60,000 per month if we stopped buying inventory and launching new products. But as you see, we’re about growth. If you wanted to go more conservative, I’d consider only reinvesting 20% of profits.

      Ben

  16. The video among the article is an image instead of a real video mentioned, please check and relaunch the video with thanks!

  17. Thank you Dr. Ben for writing this,
    And thank you Startup Bros for posting. Exactly what i needed to read right now. I love the gif immensely as that seems to be what i am mostly doing right now (learning and not doing). I work in 2 different hospitals and do 12-hour shifts. Time or “tired” is my excuse lately and this post just help me to see that those are just excuses. Thank you again. Motivation renewed.

  18. Great post! However, the one thing I would like to ask about is product liability insurance…were you required to obtain insurance by Amazon once your sales hit consistently over 10k month? And, if so, can you recommend where you purchased same?
    I am in my third month of 10k plus sales and am waiting for the email from Amazon about this (which has me a little worried) as I know nothing about this area and you rarely see it mentioned anywhere.
    Thank you.

    • While technically a requirement as you mentioned by Amazon, it’s not something that Amazon typically goes after sellers for. If they do, they’ll ask you for proof of insurance within a certain time period of them asking you. My recommendation is to get quotes from a bunch of insurance companies as the quotes can be specific to the type of products you’re selling. Also, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If it seems cheap, it’s probably not what you need?

  19. Wondering if Dr. Ben has had problems with overseas suppliers and what advice he has to find good ones?

    • If we’re looking on Alibaba, we look for suppliers with multiple years of being a “gold supplier”. We try to use paypal for payments on initial orders as much as possible. Never western union. Quick response times are key when skyping or emailing. And look for a supplier who can offer you multiple products in your product line.

  20. Hey Dr Ben, happy to have had a small part in your learning.

    I remember doing the episode with my buddy Spencer over at NichePursuits but don’t remember any pitch for a course. Probably the only thing mentioned was our AmaSuite software – startupbros have a discount page up for their group for that software as well.

    In any case happy to hear you are on your way.

    Boo yah

    • Hey Chris,

      It wasn’t you that pitched any thing. It might have been at the end of the episode or maybe I’m misremembering. In any case, I’ve learned a lot from you!

  21. Hi Ben,

    Congrats on your business. Just wondering how do you get inventory from China to Amazon that quickly?

    If I’m not reading it wrongly, you have a new product and restock within a month time.

    Are you shipping them by air?

    • We ship a lot by express air (DHL, FEDEX) and air freight, which has a shipping time of 4-7 days usually. We try to do as much sea freight as possible, but it doesn’t always work out.

  22. This is all well and good… but what’s the average margin? šŸ˜‰

    • In the section for month 2 I mention that our margin is around 40% all said and done. I’d maybe give it 35-40%.

  23. Problem with this is overseas suppliers are catching on. There are several reports including on Reddit /r/FulfillmentbyAmazon that they are being pushed out by suppliers who are directly sourcing to Amazon. Hence cutting the middleman, which would be the author of this article.

    I expect to see this type of behavior to continue and eventually make this article a moot point.

    • Interesting thought Josh. Not sure if I agree 100%…

      I personally think we are going to see the entire retail sector of our economy disappear over the next 25-years, and I believe all those $’s are going online. The sheer growth of this market is going to make it a great pool to swim in for the forseeable future. Just my opinion, of course.

      From what I am seeing, the Western consumer is actually becoming less patient – which leads to them paying premiums for US-sellers. Chinese sellers may do decent on eBay, but only with mass-produced products. The retail economy is simply becoming more sophisticated – more segmented and personalized. It is not a zero-sum game – a rising tide raises all ships. Just make sure you’re playing in the right pool šŸ™‚

      • I wholeheartedly agree with you. There are many strong benefits of being a US side “eTailer”, customer service is one example. And with a positive “can do” attitude willing to overcome any obstacle is what it will take. I think suppliers and customers alike will appreciate the effort.

        Maybe a topic of another article?

      • Another thing about the overseas ‘retailers’ on Amazon – they often don’t pay attention to details, like proper US sizes, dimensions, etc. If you pay attention to those details, your returns will be minimal and your satisfaction score as a retailer will be better. These Chinese companies don’t care about being accurate – they just want the sale. So their scores are lower. Me personally, I always look at the score of the retailer. Anything lower than a 95% doesn’t get a sale from me, because it’s usually cheap/crappy made products that I’ll end up returning and I just don’t have time for that.

  24. This sounds stunning. The biggest problem is finding a product that gives you a return after shipping import tax and amazon fees?

      • Dr B. First…way to go! Im in the medical field as well ( critical care flight paramedic) for 20+ years now so I totally get the burn out thing. Im trying to do Amazon as well. You said start digging to find the product that gives you needed ROI. 1) where do you find this info? Do you look at the Amazon Top 100 and the head over to Alibaba after choosing something from the 100 or do you stay away from that and go w/a product that is..say..less competitive? 2) do you suggest selling something you’re passionate about? I am trying desperately to get into the supplement (very competitive yes but also a billion dollar industry and I LOOVE it) biz but dont have the capital to private label just yet and re-selling someones else product doesnt appeal to me. 3) if i go to walmart, target etc how do i know which products are ‘the” products to buy and re-sell? I mean, who has time to go thru allllll the items on Amazon and see what matches up to what’s on sale at the brick and mortars? 4) Are you a “professional seller” or individual? thanks in advance!

        • Kathy,

          There’s an entire blog post on this site on how to find the right product. I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks off and on and haven’t found the right one. I am going to start selling on EBay because it’s much easier to get started.

          For me personally I have to start with a product that I’m passionate about otherwise I just won’t have the motivation to keep going. I also want to use my first product to begin to develop a brand so again the passion thing comes into the equation.

          I have had a super difficult time choosing the product because every one I come up with is already on EBay and Amazon and very competitively priced. I’ve also noticed that there seem to be a lot of products listed that have little or no sales making me think the most important thing to getting started is very careful product selection. I’d be interested to hear how you’re getting on.

      • Well is there a certain percentage in price difference you wanna look for when you are looking for items for RA as a rule of thumb?

  25. Hi there excellent post! I’m wondering if running this kind of business is a lot of work (now that you have it up and running). Could you sit back and collect your earnings now, if you wanted to? Are you just continuing to grow for fun now? Interested.

    • For the returns we’re seeing the amount of work is surprisingly little. Except that we are trying to grow rapidly so we’re always on the edge of chaos. I could sit back and rake it in, but if you’re not growing, you’re dying!

  26. Well color me inspired – I had NO IDEA you could do this.

    I’m going to follow your advice and start taking action and trying to finally start my own business. I’ve wanted to for many years and have even tried a few times – but it’s always just too much.

    Thank you for the case study!

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