Starting a new business is one idea that almost everyone has had, but most people back out of it considering the initial investments required to start a business.
These investments can also be very risky. If your business never turns a profit, you essentially lose all the money you put in.
But that’s where Amazon FBA comes in! With the FBA facilities, you can cut down a lot of expenses when starting your business. You can even grow a successful business, starting Amazon FBA with $500! Let’s find out how.
Can I Start Amazon Fba With 500 Dollars
Yes, you can start Amazon FBA with just 500 dollars! While a small budget of just 500 dollars isn’t ideal, you can be smart with that money and invest any profits you make back into the business.
This way you can slowly scale up your hustle and start making big profits.
As much as 18% of successful Amazon sellers have started with just $500!
What all these FBA sellers have in common is that they start with wholesale products and retail arbitrage, and then invest back their money into the business and start growing their inventory slowly.
It might take longer, but eventually, you can start to see your source of income come in.
A Guide To Starting Amazon FBA With $500
Starting a successful business with just 500 dollars in the bank sounds like a scheme too good to be true. Well, you better believe it. I’ll show you exactly how to get started.
Market Analysis
The first step to starting an Amazon FBA business is market research or product research. Choosing the right product can make or break your shot at FBA success. This is true for any type of selling on Amazon, but especially for a small-budget business.
A profitable product selection starts with searching across Amazon for specific products and seeing how well they’re doing.
Since you don’t have a lot to spare, small, boring, everyday but essential items are usually very cheap to bulk-buy but also are in demand.
You have to find the perfect balance between being popular and still not so competitive that you don’t stand a chance. Here are some tips:
- Start with mundane things. Look around you, and see items that you regularly use or buy yourself from Amazon. Search up the product on Amazon, and see if it’s doing well. Try to aim for products that have a good number of reviews, ideally less than a hundred or so.
- Secondly, make sure that there aren’t already a lot of top sellers with thousands of reviews for that specific product. Finding low-competition products on Amazon can be hard, but the more specific you get, the easier it’ll be.
- And finally, the lighter the product, the lower you’ll have to spend on shipping and storage.
It might take a little searching, but eventually, you’ll land on the perfect balance. There are also extensions available that you can use to research the market.
These extensions show you profits, popularity, revenue rates and so much more for different sellers on Amazon.
Getting the Goods
Once you’ve decided on a few products, it’s time to find reliable suppliers for Amazon FBA. Most people who want to start for a cheap look at Aliexpress and Alibaba.
Search for the product you want on AliExpress and see if you can find the ones that you like. The keyword you’re using to search must be the same, across all these platforms.
So for instance, if you’re looking for a unicorn cupcake stand, search that across Amazon, and see how it’s doing. If it’s doing well, search it up on AliExpress. You’ll usually find one that is already on Amazon. Order it for yourself, and inspect it properly.
Once you’re happy with the product, search it up on Alibaba and order about 200-300 units to ship to Amazon warehouses and then Amazon fulfillment services will take care of the rest.
Talk to the supplier and mention any customizations and ask for both shipment by sea and air and see which costs less. Lighter items cost less to ship, so that’s why again, product selection is crucial.
Presentation
When selling on the Amazon selling platform, the picture of the product is what the customer sees first. When it comes to low-cost marketing for Amazon sellers, the right picture and description do half the job. This is why you need to have a copy of the final product with you as well.
Once you’re happy with the customizations and logo you can take the perfect picture of your product. It’s better not to use stock images.
Nowadays, you don’t even need a professional photographer for this stage. If you have a good phone camera and some sunlight you’re set.
Set up a blank background, experiment with the lighting and angle, and take good photos of your product.
There are several tutorials online for you to learn product photography and how to make it look so good that people will click on your products.
If you do have a few bucks to spare, however, you can also get this done professionally.
Product Launch Strategies
So you’re on the seller central page, and you’ve added your product, but there are no sales? It can be a bit difficult to get those first few sales rolling. This is where you need support.
You can ask friends and family to buy your product at full price and leave a good review. It’s important that they search for the product and then find it, instead of through a link. This way the algorithm will push it up in the search results.
Reviews are also essential to let customers know that your product is legit and it’s of good quality.
If you have friends or family who are popular or can help you with influencer marketing, you can also ask them for help. And of course, simply promoting it on your socials can be a great way for promoting products without breaking the bank.
When calculating expenses for Amazon business, you’ll see that it’s not as high as you might have expected. The best one of FBA advantages is that they handle shipping and packaging so a lot of your costs are cut down.
Essentially when you start your own Amazon business, you’re just going to be spending on these few steps.
Fulfillment by Amazon also means that you’ll get their efficient inventory management, so you’re saving there as well. So don’t be scared to invest in marketing your product.
Repeat
Hopefully, once you get the sales rolling, you’ll start to see revenue coming in. It can take a while, so be patient, but don’t lose hope. Even with an Amazon FBA initial investment of just 500 USD, you can eventually learn to make a lot of profit.
But it’s important at this stage to put back everything you earn into the startup capital for Amazon FBA. The more you put in, the more you can expect to see returns.
So keep repeating these steps, until you can slowly order more units, and expand your product range.
FAQs
Can I start Amazon FBA with no money?
While it is not possible to start your Amazon FBA journey without any money, you can do it for very little. If you can manage a bit of cash from other sources, you can get started with your Amazon seller account and start selling products!
How much does the average Amazon FBA owner make?
The average FBA business owner makes about 1000 to 25,000 USD per month in sales. Most sellers will see profits of 1000 USD per month, and a lot of them bring in numbers even higher. So people are still making amazing progress on Amazon FBA and you can too!
How long does it take to make money on Amazon FBA?
You can start making money off of Amazon within a few weeks if you’re smart. But it can take 3-6 months to start making profits and start generating revenue if you start with very little money. If you have more to invest in the beginning, you’re more likely to see profits faster.
Is Amazon FBA easy?
No, Amazon FBA isn’t easy, especially at the beginning. It requires a lot of consistent hard work and smart marketing strategies. But once you get the hang of it and start seeing profits, it gets much easier down the line and can even become a form of passive income.
Final Thoughts
As you can see it’s possible to start your FBA business with just 500 bucks and still be successful. However, we still suggest trying to make your budget a bit higher.
Anywhere from 1000 USD to 5000 USD can be a great place to start. But even if that’s not an option, don’t be discouraged. Just get started and stick to it. Soon you’ll have more to invest.
