2021 Lessons from the Most Successful Amazon FBA Sellers

Amazon sellers are inclined to set out on their ecommerce journey for related causes. Many wish to grow to be their very own bosses, others search the flexibility that distant work gives, and a few are merely curious sufficient to strive it. Success as an Amazon vendor is accessible to very almost everybody — 85% of Amazon’s third-party (3P) sellers are worthwhile — and 3P manufacturers are available all sizes.    

In Jungle Scout’s survey of nearly 5,000 Amazon brands and sellers, we discovered that 19% have made greater than $1,000,000 in gross sales since beginning their Amazon companies, and 58% of these sellers did so in fewer than 5 years. We bought curious: what makes excessive earners totally different, and the way accomplish that many of those sellers ascend to their millionaire standing so shortly? 

We spoke on to extremely profitable Amazon sellers to get their recommendations on tips on how to rework what you are promoting, and recognized widespread traits and behaviors of Amazon’s millionaire sellers to see what game-changing methods our information reveals. Let’s dive in. 

 

1. Regardless of age, gender, and site, anybody might be an Amazon millionaire

To get a whole image of how million-dollar sellers get forward, we in contrast them to those that hadn’t but cleared $1 million in lifetime gross sales — the latter being a bigger group comprising 72% of sellers (9% say they don’t know their lifetime gross sales whole). In phrases of demographics—age, gender, location, and so forth.—there don’t seem like any main variations.

  • Age: The most populous age vary amongst each million-dollar sellers and non-million greenback sellers is between 25 and 35, however there are sellers from ages 18 to over 65 in each teams
  • Education: Sellers are inclined to have related academic backgrounds, with 73% of Amazon millionaires and 70% of non-million greenback sellers holding a minimum of a Bachelor’s diploma
  • Location: While sellers in each teams are situated throughout the world, a barely greater proportion of million-dollar sellers come from the U.S. (61% vs 44% non-million greenback sellers)
  • Gender id: Roughly 65% of the sellers in every group determine as males, and 32% as women 

To uncover the actual variations, we’ve to have a look at how they really run their companies. 

 

2. Amazon millionaires have extra time, info, drive, and ambition

Million-dollar sellers credit score three principal explanation why they’ve discovered success on Amazon.

  1. 60% of million-dollar sellers say they’ve the obligatory time to decide to their Amazon enterprise, whereas solely 47% of non-million greenback sellers say the identical.
  2. 51% of million-dollar sellers — versus 40% of non-million greenback sellers — instructed us they’ve the instruments and data they should succeed. 
  3. 54% of million-dollar sellers instructed us they’ve distinctive drive and ambition. Just 44% of non-million greenback sellers shared the identical sentiment.

Additionally, Amazon millionaires are extra assured of their vendor experience. When requested about their total vendor data of Amazon, over half (53%) of the million greenback sellers instructed us that their degree of Amazon data is “superior.” 

And whereas 42% of non-million greenback sellers consider they’ve a minimum of “intermediate” Amazon promoting data, solely 6% thought-about themselves superior.

Million-Dollar Tip: Foster a growth-oriented mindset

Dan Vas, an Amazon millionaire and founding father of the FBA course Ecom Freedom, credit a lot of his success to having an entrepreneurial mindset, which entails believing that you just’re able to success as an entrepreneur. 

“One of the largest battles that you just face as a brand new entrepreneur is you’re all the time making an attempt to battle off these fears that you’ve got and these limiting beliefs that you’ve got about your self,” says Dan. “If you wish to succeed, you must consider it’s attainable for you.” 

Dan knew that his first 9-to-5 job can be his final: “I believed that I used to be considered one of the luckiest 21 12 months olds as a result of I had secured a job at considered one of the huge banks in Canada. Three weeks later, I used to be depressing already. I all the time felt like I might accomplish that way more, like I used to be destined for greatness. If you felt that method, that’s such an vital indicator of potential future success.”

He says that seeing himself in the extremely profitable Amazon entrepreneurs he stumbled upon through YouTube as a 21-year-old was a “large epiphany,” and encourages different sellers to method their companies with fierce dedication. “There’s solely two issues: both success, or a lesson. The solely motive which you can make failure exist for your self is should you stop.” 

You can study extra about Dan’s entrepreneurial mindset on his YouTube channel or take a look at the clip under. 

 

Carlee Peszko, Jungle Scout’s Manager of Insights and Operations, shared related ideas on what it takes to succeed in millionaire standing: “you must have grit and perseverance.” 

Carlee was “all the time destined” to promote on Amazon, and has been operating a enterprise along with her brother since 2016. Having entrepreneurial mother and father helped spark her ardour — she says it was “ingrained in us to begin a enterprise.”

As Carlee explains, being versatile and tenacious is vital to long-term success. “I’m an individual who will discover a solution to make it work it doesn’t matter what. I additionally like educating myself issues, so it was enjoyable to study by doing. I’m geared in direction of delayed gratification. In this enterprise, you don’t see the fruits of your labor straight away, and you must be pleased with that otherwise you’ll get bored and quit,” she says. 

 

3. Amazon millionaires didn’t hesitate to begin their companies

Millionaire sellers are inclined to launch their companies extra shortly and with extra startup funding than non-millionaire sellers. 

  • 44% of million-dollar sellers have their Amazon companies up and operating in six weeks or much less. By distinction, 27% of non-million greenback sellers say the identical. 
  • 47% of million-dollar sellers instructed us they had been capable of flip a revenue in lower than six months, versus 39% of non-million greenback sellers who say the identical. 
  • 42% of million greenback sellers instructed us that they spent a minimum of $5,000 to launch their companies. Meanwhile, solely 35% of non-millionaires spent over $5K. 

Million-Dollar Tip: Launch your concept shortly

Dan’s journey is an instance of what one can obtain with a fast startup time: he launched each his Amazon enterprise and his entrepreneurial teaching firm inside the identical 12 months. 

“I began making movies about what was working for me in my amazon FBA enterprise after which I made a course, and that’s how Ecom Freedom was born (my teaching firm). About 9 or ten months after I discovered about Amazon FBA, I already made my first million together with my course. So I turned a 21 12 months outdated millionaire.”

Amazon sellers are individuals with day jobs, households, and duties, and never everybody has the time and funds to decide to a six-month time-to-profit. But no matter their sources, most sellers want they’d began promoting on Amazon sooner (49% of millionaires and 74% of non-millionaires). Carlee echoes this sentiment: if she might return in time, she “would have began sooner and invested extra money and time in the early days.”

 

4. Million-dollar sellers overwhelmingly use the non-public label enterprise mannequin 

Of all Amazon business models, non-public label is by far the hottest amongst millionaire sellers — it’s utilized by 81% of them, adopted by the wholesale mannequin at 64%. The identical is true for non-millionaire sellers: 64% promote private label and 23% promote wholesale. 

Amazon millionaires are additionally extra doubtless to make use of dropshipping than non-millionaires (12% versus 8%). This could clarify why excessive earners are capable of supply so many merchandise — dropshipping merchandise are created on-demand and don’t require investing in present stock. 

Fewer million-dollar sellers use retail or on-line arbitrage (25% versus 39% of non-millionaires). Non-millionaires’ better use of arbitrage could account for his or her comparatively longer time-to-profit, since it may be time-intensive to develop constant arbitrage gross sales, as a result of variations in stock and demand.

Greg Mercer, Jungle Scout’s founder and CEO and million-dollar vendor, explains the magic of the non-public label enterprise mannequin: 

“Private label companies are so profitable on Amazon for 3 major causes. First, you don’t have to compete with different sellers for the Buy Box; you’ll have the itemizing to your self. Second, not like arbitrage enterprise fashions, you have got an infinite supply of stock, and also you don’t have to hunt for brand spanking new stock constantly. Lastly, you’re constructing an actual model and with that, precious model fairness.”

Million-Dollar Tip: Drive exterior visitors to your listings

The non-public label methodology gives the alternative to make use of your creativity and imaginative and prescient to construct a model from the floor up, with really distinctive branding and product choices. On the flip facet, this additionally means you’ll want a bit extra hustle to tug it off. Whereas wholesale or arbitrage sellers profit from present model consciousness,  private-label sellers need to generate notoriety from scratch. 

The resolution? “Utilize social media,” says millionaire vendor, ecommerce skilled, and branding whiz Joshua Crisp.  

As he constructed his personal ecommerce enterprise in 2016, Joshua seen that his Amazon pay-per-click (PPC) advertising efforts had hit a wall. He wanted to drive new visitors from exterior of Amazon to his listings — a transfer that “helped catapult” his model’s rating on Amazon.

“Amazon loves exterior visitors,” says Joshua. “When you’re sending visitors exterior of Amazon into Amazon’s ecosystem, not solely are they earning money off of the buy of your product since you associate with Amazon, however they’re capable of get [the customer] into Prime and get them to purchase Alexas and so forth.”

Joshua advises sellers to ascertain a robust model presence on social media as a strong however usually underutilized technique for “effectively and successfully” rising and scaling an Amazon enterprise. 

As Joshua notes, constructing model notoriety by social media pays off in the quick and long run: “Down the street, should you select to sell your company, one thing {that a} enterprise capitalist or an investor goes to ask you is for these digital property. So that is going that will help you with the valuation of your organization.”

Joshua explains extra about selling your model in the clip under — you additionally discover him on his YouTube channel. Learn about social media advertising and marketing finest practices for Amazon sellers in our guide.  

 

5. Million-dollar sellers usually tend to promote the next quantity of merchandise 

On common, we discovered that Amazon millionaires checklist extra merchandise than non-millionaires. 

  • 72% of million-dollar sellers have 20 or extra energetic product listings on Amazon. By distinction, 70% of non-millionaires have 10 or fewer 
  • 34% of million-dollar sellers have 250 or extra merchandise listed on Amazon. Only 5% of non-million greenback sellers instructed us the identical

To attain $1 million in gross sales for her enterprise, Carlee “began including extra merchandise and discontinuing people who had been now not profitable.” She sells between “40 to 50 merchandise at any given time, however a strong 20 do the bulk of the enterprise.” 

More merchandise means extra alternative for gross sales, which might account for the distinction in earnings. But millionaire sellers know that increasing a product line must be a strategic, value-enhancing transfer. 

Million-Dollar Tip: Out-deliver your opponents

Tatiana James is an ecommerce skilled and influencer who launched her personal million-dollar non-public label model on Amazon in 2014. She says promoting on Amazon isn’t a passive, get-rich-quick scheme; in an effort to achieve success, you must do analysis and innovate. 

She says, “failure to innovate the product is a quite common mistake that I see. This methodology of slapping your model title on the identical product doesn’t work anymore. There’s much more competitors on Amazon, and the merchandise are greater high quality now. You wish to add extra worth — you wish to change the product or add worth not directly.” 

To be sure her merchandise earned and retained their best-seller standing, Tatiana took the following steps:

  • She bought the best-selling merchandise in her area of interest to make use of as a reference for her personal product 
  • She learn evaluations for competing merchandise to search out out what prospects liked and hated, then requested her provider to make corresponding modifications to her product 
  • Each time she ordered extra stock, she made enhancements to her product — altering the form, enhancing the high quality of the supplies, or utilizing a brand new shade

You can study extra about Tatiana’s technique on her YouTube channel, or by trying out the clip under.

It’s additionally vital to notice that having extra merchandise isn’t important to success as an Amazon vendor — Jungle Scout’s Million Dollar Case Study is a testomony to this concept. Since 2015, Jungle Scout has launched 5 merchandise on Amazon to take viewers step-by-step by our startup course of. Our final objective was to make $1 million in gross sales to donate to charity, which we reached in 2020, proving that promoting a restricted product vary can repay.

Greg breaks down the math for incomes $1 million in gross sales with only one product: “One million {dollars} per 12 months in income equates to $83k/month or roughly $2800/day. If your product sells for round $25-30, that’s solely 100 gross sales per day.” 

“When you concentrate on it that method,” says Greg, “the objective may be very attainable. One residence run would get you there. Five merchandise promoting 20/day would get you there. You can see how the gross sales add up fairly shortly and also you don’t want a ton of merchandise to do it!”

Your success could rely upon the place you promote your merchandise as nicely. 91% of Amazon millionaires have listings in the U.S. Amazon market, in comparison with 76% of non-millionaires.

Here’s one other tip: millionaires are inclined to increase to different ecommerce marketplaces. Compared to non-millionaires, they’re much more more likely to checklist merchandise on websites like eBay, Shopify, Walmart, or Facebook along with Amazon. 

Off-Amazon Marketplaces Millionaires Non-Millionaires
eBay 27% 16%
Shopify 18% 8%
Walmart 17% 3%
Facebook Marketplace 14% 9%

 

6. Amazon millionaires spend extra time every week on their Amazon companies

Amazon millionaires put extra time towards operating and constructing their companies. Over half (53%) of millionaires say they spend over 30 hours every week engaged on their companies, whereas solely 16% of non-millionaires say the identical. 

Millionaires’ potential to spend extra time maximizing their Amazon earnings could come right down to their employment standing. While each teams have related ranges of part- and full-time employment exterior of Amazon, millionaires are much more doubtless than non-millionaires to be self-employed or work solely on their Amazon companies (54% versus 40%).  

Million-dollar sellers are additionally extra more likely to be targeted on growth-oriented areas of their companies, like advertising and marketing their merchandise on and off Amazon, monitoring their funds, and getting extra buyer evaluations. Non-millionaires usually tend to give attention to discovering merchandise to promote.  

Amazon Sellers Areas of Focus Millionaires Non-Millionaires
Optimizing my product listings 74% 55%
Managing my stock 74% 52%
Finding merchandise to promote 61% 68%
Managing my Pay-per-Click (PPC) bids 60% 46%
Getting buyer evaluations 53% 46%
Monitoring and managing my bills, income, and different monetary metrics 52% 45%
Managing money circulate 41% 29%
Running promotions for my product(s) 38% 24%
Marketing/selling my product(s) off Amazon (engines like google, social media, and so forth) 25% 19%
Hiring and vetting freelancers to assist my enterprise wants 21% 10%

Million-Dollar Tip: Be affected person — ecommerce is right here to remain

It could also be the case that millionaire sellers are capable of give attention to various things as a result of they’ve been promoting longer; 78% have a minimum of two years of Amazon vendor expertise. For non-millionaires, 79% have been promoting for 2 years or fewer. 

Millionaire sellers additionally fared higher throughout the COVID-19 pandemic than non-millionaires. 61% of millionaires say their Amazon enterprise carried out higher due to the pandemic, whereas solely 35% of non-millionaires say the identical. Interestingly, 36% of non-millionaire sellers say they don’t know if their gross sales elevated or decreased throughout the pandemic, whereas 96% of millionaires gave an up or down reply

Here are a couple of quotes from our vendor survey about COVID-19’s impact on millionaire sellers’ companies: 

“My Amazon FBA enterprise carried out exceptionally nicely due to Covid-19. I anticipate no change with my Amazon FBA sells if the pandemic is broadly over. Covid or no covid, ecommerce is booming due to Amazon.” – Stephen, 25, promoting in the U.S. Amazon market

“Our enterprise carried out rather well as a result of our merchandise are at-home actions. Since this product wasn’t created particularly for COVID and we noticed development beforehand, I don’t count on that our gross sales will go down after the pandemic is over.” -Kimberly , 32, promoting in the U.S. market

“Amazon enterprise did very nicely. After Covid, I count on to proceed to develop my ecommerce enterprise, however could have to do extra promoting and promotions.” – Sue, 58, promoting on Amazon in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada marketplaces

If you haven’t reached the degree of success on Amazon you aspire to but, hold at it. Three in four Americans consider on-line purchasing is the way forward for retail, and Amazon is their most most well-liked purchasing vacation spot. As extra shoppers shift to ecommerce, what you are promoting has that many extra alternatives to earn loyal prospects.

 

7. Million-dollar sellers get unstuck

Feeling “caught” in your vendor journey is a typical phenomenon — 66% of all Amazon sellers discover themselves slowed down by evaluation paralysis at one level or one other. 

Between discovering merchandise to promote, negotiating with suppliers, wrestling with PPC campaigns, and monitoring their progress, sellers are examined. 

Common Challenges for Amazon Sellers Millionaires Non-Millionaires
Getting assist from Amazon/Dealing with Amazon modifications 58% 45%
Protecting my enterprise from black hat ways, counterfeiters, and different dangers 54% 33%
Getting buyer evaluations 48% 57%
Finding a product to promote 35% 53%
Managing PPC bids 33% 46%

Million-Dollar Tip: Get a hen’s-eye view of what you are promoting

To get previous obstacles, Greg recommends looking at the huge image. “Zoom out and ask your self, ‘what’s stopping you from scaling what you are promoting’?” says Greg. “You can give it some thought in two classes: do you have to optimize your present merchandise extra, or do you have to add extra SKUs? After figuring that out, construct the plan to execute on that.” 

At the finish of the day, it by no means hurts to hunt assist in operating what you are promoting — in any case, millionaires are twice as more likely to hire freelancers. The Amazon vendor useful resource trade has exploded lately, that means that along with paid instruments and companies, there’s extra alternative at no cost schooling, mentorship, and collaboration than ever earlier than.

Dan Vas is a giant proponent of utilizing books and FBA programs to teach your self earlier than and all through your promoting profession. By the time he determined to launch his ecommerce enterprise, he had learn “over 100 entrepreneurial and success books.” 

“I discovered each single [FBA] course that I might discover and I instructed my good friend the subsequent day about Amazon FBA (he additionally needed to stop his job and he additionally shared this entrepreneurial dream). We determined to put money into programs and to each study. Three months later, we had been each profitable — thoughts you, he was profitable together with his first product, I used to be profitable with my third product,” says Dan.  

Greg emphasizes making the most of all accessible sources: “Remind your self that each one enterprise issues have options. For instance, don’t know tips on how to optimize additional? Get on YouTube or hire a consultant. Short on money for stock? Look at financing options or negotiating higher phrases along with your provider.”

You can discover how-to guides for each facet of operating an ecommerce enterprise by Jungle Scout Academy, on the Jungle Scout blog, and inside our free Resources center. You can even supply recommendation and techniques from profitable Amazon veterans like Greg, Tatiana, Joshua, and Dan — check out the speakers from our current digital convention, JungleCon, to begin.

 

Adopt a million-dollar vendor technique

Not each vendor desires (or wants) to be a million-dollar vendor. But everybody can study one thing from these excessive earners. Whether it’s constructing their vendor data, specializing in development, or diversifying their model, million-dollar sellers observe successful methods. 

How will you modify what you are promoting method? Let us know in the feedback if these insights impressed you. 

 

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