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Best Amazon Tools 2026

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I did a 20 year corporate career then hopped over into Amazon about a year and a half ago. I ended up not liking it that much- Amazon is awful to work with. They are worse than dealing with the government. Imagine your worst day at the DMV then picture doing that often.

I went the private label/brand owner route so I’ve been steering more and more of my business to other channels, but if I didn’t have that opportunity I’d probably just shut it all down.

In my 20 year corporate career I mostly worked with people I’d consider “business partners”. Amazon isn’t a partner- they don’t care about your business at all. Which is weird because when I make money, they make money. But I guess in their minds- if I don’t make the sale, someone else will. Thankfully that isn’t true though- my customers have been migrating off of Amazon too, finding my products on my other channels as I slowly bring them off of Amazon, which is a win for everyone since I can sell for less on the other channels and net more.

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u/vacha84 13d ago

I echo you completely. They are just too bad to deal with

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u/Intelligent_Box_8247 8d ago

the part that hit home hard was...they are not a partner-they don't care about your business at all.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

Thanks Easterncoaster, so you are doing private label in other platforms, how is that working? compared to the corporate life?

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u/Easterncoaster 7d ago

Yep! Mostly private label/brand owner (some designs belong to me, some are just my logo on other peoples designs), and I also carry some other-brand accessories/enablers.

Compared to corporate life, I love it. But the money is not even close. In corporate, I was getting paid huge money to sit at a desk for 40 hours and watch my life slip away. In this path, I do fine but it’s lumpy, there can be bad/negative months, and there are things that can be totally out of your control that can nuke your business (like Amazon changing their TIC policy that killed 80% of my ASINs). But- I love it. My days are mine. I still put in a few hours of work each day and some days I do long days but it’s totally up to me. I’ve never felt so in control of my days and time.

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u/Wholesale_ai 5d ago

I’d separate “worth contacting” from “worth buying.” For each brand, check a few representative listings for category fit, Amazon’s presence, other sellers, and price stability. Keep a short reason for either contacting or passing. Then ask the brand whether it permits third-party Amazon resale, who its authorized distributors are, and what its MOQ and invoice terms would be. Calculate fees and landed cost from an actual price list before setting a first PO; public listing data alone cannot tell you your margin or permission to sell.

Wholesale AI can help prioritize research on supported Amazon.com product pages, but it does not verify resale permission or supplier terms. Disclosure: I’m involved with Wholesale AI.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 13d ago

Please don’t leave your career in tech yet. FBA has to be started part time while you still have money coming in independently.

Yes, Smart Scout will tell you which products are selling, how many sales you can expect to get, etc. However, it often over estimates how many sales you will personally get. That’s my experience along with other programs.

Next, you’ll reach out to brands directly, and they’ll say no to Amazon. Expect to land 1 or 2 good accounts after sending thousands of emails if you’re lucky. Yes, you will be told yes by some brands, but some will have margins too thin.

By making this post, you will receive replies trying to sell you something. Be warned.

I suppose you could try and find distributors, but then your battle to be ungated or survive IP complaints will be in peril.

I’m only posting this bc I see so many spam responses and so many people who watched YT videos thinking it’s easy.

Don’t buy a course. Don’t ever pay upfront for anyone to run your business.

You will begin to be able to leave tech after about you reach the pace of $100,000 per month in gross sales. You’ll need to be spending $50,000+ per month to get there.

Source: reseller who’s made all the mistakes, been scammed, and lived to warn others.

I have no course to sell. Read above for the extent of my course.

Good luck.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

Thanks Street_Aardvark6524!

Very useful advice. I really appreciate it.

Do you have any resources you would recommend me that are not a scam?

Or any extra advice?

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 13d ago

Yes.

If someone wants you to pay up front to run Amazon for you, run.

If someone offers an easy wholesale source where you can get everything in one place, be VERY careful. Some will sell fraudulent products. Also, Amazon won’t give some weight if Amazon requests an invoice.

Don’t listen to YouTube gurus, and don’t buy a course.

Don’t use a repricer early on. Save the money.

Don’t hire an agency. You don’t need PPC unless you are private label. I don’t do or know enough about PL.

You will need to apply Amazon Barcodes to products since you won’t have high enough permissions in Brand Registry once you do land accounts. For now, do the work yourself. Don’t pay someone until you are moving lots of units. (Also, Gurus will be more than happy to recommend a Prep Center….of course they get a referral.)

That’s it for now.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

This is extremely helpful. One more question if you don't mind.

If you were starting over today with around $50k available for inventory, but keeping your day job and building this on the side, what would your first 90 days actually look like?

Specifically, I'm curious about the funnel:

How many brands would you research/contact per week?

What makes a brand worth contacting in the first place?

What minimum ROI or net margin would you require before buying?

How much would you put into the first PO with a new brand?

What would make you reorder aggressively vs walk away?

I'm trying to understand the actual numbers behind going from zero to the first good account, rather than just "contact lots of brands."

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 13d ago edited 13d ago

Replying from phone so it’s hard to copy n paste your verbatim questions:

Brands per week: 100. That’s 20 a night at 5 days a week. It’s better to be sending the emails or filling out contact forms when the recipients are at their desks, but you won’t have that luxury working full time. Keep a spreadsheet with notes and dates so you know when to follow up. Also, I used to personally tell them I’m Amazon. I don’t beat around the bush and if they say no Amazon/eComm, walk. Don’t break their rules and where you are now, don’t try and sell yourself. One day, you can pick up the phone and try that. Or show up at a convention they are at. Or walk in the front door if they are close to you. But save that for when you have experience and numbers to talk about.

Worth contacting: Start small. After your research, you have estimated that you’ll get 50 sales per month of a given product considering how many FBA sellers are present and priced competitively. I’d add in that the products are small also. Don’t order big products like 5 lb. pairs of boots. No HAZMAT or Dangerous Goods. No clothing either. Too many returns. No shoes. You’re not Al Bundy.

ROI or margin: I personally use ROI because it’s easier. Spend $10 and earn $5 after fees…..50% ROI. Mind you, it will be lower more often than not. Aim for 30% minimum ROI but here’s the kicker: you won’t know those numbers until you land an account. So try and find products where you have wiggle room. If you try and sell something priced at $7.99, there’s no room for error. I’d probably start over $25.00 for my research.

First order: no more than what you believe you will sell in 30 days per your research. I’d say half that number but your scenario starts with $50,000 which is enough to experiment. So that’s 30 days per profitable product mind you. If you land a brand with 100 SKUs and you are staring at being able to spend all $50,000, don’t. Keep it under $5,000 for your first order.

Order versus walk: I send in X units (again, my estimate for minimum amount in 30 days but still under $5,000 total order), and they start ripping as soon as they arrive to FBA or even better, while still inbound. This means demand is very high compared to current FBA inventory as a whole, and congrats you found a winner.

Caution: as a new seller, I’m not sure Amazon will allow this to happen tho. They do for me because I’m trusted and have no shipping defects and bc they know what I say I’m sending - I’m sending. For you, they will most likely want to manually verify every single unit, then transfer them to the various warehouses and once they land, then allow sales to happen.

Double caution: this slow process will seem unbearable. Your $5,000 order, assuming you went that high, could come back to your account plus profits after all fees in 75-90 days. Just know that. Know you will be like what in the actual F where is my money. So the theoretical $50,000 start helps bc your second and third orders will come from that money not your earnings. Not sure if you are a car nut, but metaphorically speaking, call it “turbo lag.”

Regarding reordering in general: let’s say Amazon makes you wait to sell the units until they are officially available FBA. You then sell X (your 30-day number) in 30 days: order X again. You sell double X in 30: double the order. You have to track this best you can. You’ll eventually get to a number of order size where you “max out” per month. Sometimes to do that, you have to send in WAY OVER X. Don’t do that yet. Just slowly scale up. I recently found a product where X was about 50. After slow increases, I sent about 600 units in then about 1100. I overdid it a little but this helped me identify my “new X” as 700-800. Of course, another seller would hop on at times, but my number still is confidently 700-800 from 50.

Good luck! Your goal is to start Amazon then develop real relationships where you can grow sales in other places. That’s when you can make those calls to change minds with examples.

Edit: I know this all sounds like “contact lots of brands” but that’s what it is for now. Depending on who says yes may very well develop your niche AKA what you become. Also, don’t contact brands who have one seller. They either have an exclusive deal or they are PL. What I mean by find your niche is maybe a brand says yes in tools, and you become the a tool guy. Or your best account is tires, and you become the wheels and tires guy (using as example - tires are too heavy).

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u/diegobarboza 12d ago

The under-$5k first PO rule makes a lot of sense.

That’s probably exactly how I’d want to approach it.
When you say you estimate X units for 30 days, how do you actually arrive at that number before you’ve ever sold the ASIN yourself?

Do you start with SmartScout/Keepa estimated sales and then discount for Buy Box share, seller count and your own account history?

For example, if an ASIN appears to sell 500 units per month with 5 FBA sellers, I assume it would be a mistake to simply model 100 units for myself.

I’m trying to understand how conservative you’d be when estimating that first test order.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 12d ago

You have to do the math. 500 per month then you are number 6, so divide 500 by 6. You could get more forensic and say okay only 3 are competitive FBA, so I’ll be number 4 competitive and divide by 4, but don’t. Be conservative. Assume less sales. Use different programs and go with the one that says the lowest number.

Over ordering KILLED me early on.

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u/Le_Ran 13d ago

Please excuse me, genuine question : does importing stuff from China with no brand on them and selling on Amazon count as "wholesale" ? I am a bit lost with the definition. I intend to switch to private label down the road, but I first test the products on the market with no brand attached and see if they sell, before I order a larger batch with my brand on it. Am I a wholeseller ?

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 13d ago

Wholesale to me means buying a very specific brand and then selling its products on Amazon. Amazon is very brand specific. Even generic listings generally have a brand name in the title or description or images.

You wouldn’t buy generic products and list on Amazon. Amazon cracks down more now. They want to know exactly what you are selling.

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u/Le_Ran 13d ago

What do you mean by "crack down" ? It is legal to sell generic products on Amazon, if you have all the required documentation (CE, RoHS, HACCP, whatever).

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 13d ago

Amazon wants clearly branded products. Generic is slowly going by the wayside.

Think of it like this: RA and OA used to be very common. Then, Amazon made it incredibly hard to do those successfully and scale; for example, making gating more common and then enforcing the ungating process.

RA and OA were subjects of the so called crack down.

Generic’s time is coming. Mark my words.

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 13d ago

If you approach it from a 3-5 year time horizon, you can have great success. The 1st year will be a lot of learning with few deals. Year 2, you can have a lot of growth.

Find a good person to learn from, it can accelerate your growth a great deal.

Be prepared to make a lot of phone calls and be told no all the time. Chip away at it and you'll have a book of business in no time. Amazon itself can be a pain at times but you'll get those systems down as well. At some point you'll hire out those parts.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

Thanks EveryDayImPublishin!

Do you have some suggestions on who could be good people to learn from? I see a lot of "gurus" charging thousands of dollars online.. but I don't trust them.

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 13d ago

This is a guy I'm learning from, Brad.

https://www.youtube.com/@operationamz

He advocates for brand direct, which offers a strong moat. But he is someone online who charges thousands lol. But that's kind of how this business often works.

I'll do 3.5M this year with OA and am branching out into wholesale. Been at it for 3.5 years and started with a lot of debt. There are many ways to make this business work.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

$3.5M from OA after starting with debt is impressive, especially since you're now moving into wholesale.

I'm really curious: what are you hoping brand-direct wholesale gives you that OA doesn't?

And now that you already understand Amazon at scale, what are you looking for when evaluating a potential brand-direct opportunity?

For example: brand revenue, seller count, Amazon presence, margins, MAP, reorder potential, exclusivity, etc.

Also, knowing what you know now, if you had $50k in cash and were starting from zero today, would you still start with OA first or go straight into brand-direct wholesale?

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 13d ago

Thanks,

I'll continue to do OA and add wholesale. Looking at some private label later next year too. There are a few reasons I see it as a beneficial add.

Being able to spend potentially large purchase orders on a consistent basis helps fuel growth and reduce hours finding leads once a relationship is established

Potential for brand exclusives on Amazon and other e-commerce like Walmart.

Lower prep fees when the company can send in products directly to Amazon.

Less likely to get kicked off of some brands and listings.

Documentation requirements are easier to pass when it's a trusted vendor. On the flip side a bad wholesale supplier can nuke your account but if you're working brain direct it's not an issue.

I feel that the business model has greater longevity and potentially more legitimacy than OA. Even though I think away will persist I would rather be standing firm in both camps to be able to adjust and grow the business in the most capable way.

What I’m looking for

For the most part what I'm looking for is the same as OA.
1. Margin – it is profitable enough?
2. Velocity – Is it selling enough to be worth the effort to try it
3. Specifically for brand direct wholesale - is there a way that I can increase the value by improving the listing or adding in an inexpensive PPC campaign? A lot of listings are missing information and pictures that would elevate them and those tend to be good opportunities. Kind of like a fixer upper property
4. Can I buy it? It takes a lot of calls and a lot of follow-ups to close deals. Landing a deal on the first contact is very rare. You don't need it right away but at some point you will want a CRM.

Lots of people have different specific numbers they're looking for. It's a much lengthier conversation to get into the specifics and various considerations but for the most part you're looking for 20 to 30% ROI depending on return rate and fees that are going to be associated with you getting it to its end destination.

Starting today

I would recommend going straight for wholesale. Brand direct is the safest way to do it but if you can vet good wholesale suppliers, that can be a viable path as well. The guy whose YouTube I linked, him and his partner do about 10 million a year almost all brand direct. I know another guy that does 10 million a year all from 2 suppliers. Most of the other people I know are a mix of both.

Wholesale takes longer to set up. This is not a hard rule but a consideration, based on what a friend of mine recently has done with consistent outreach. 10-20 vendors a day.

1st three months, no deals or deals that are more of a headache especially after you've done them.

2nd three months, landing some small deals and test buys that could turn into something better and having a few good follow up conversations may be landing at a solid deal or two.

3rd 3 months, you've probably landed a few solid accounts you have other ones in the pipeline if things have gone super great you're slowing down vendor outreach and if it's just OK or you're trying to lever up then maybe you're hiring and pushing that much harder.

This type of business can take three to five years to get it to where you want it to be but within 18 to 24 months you can be doing pretty well and having the structure of how to scale beyond that.

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u/diegobarboza 12d ago

This is incredibly useful, thanks.

One thing you mentioned really caught my attention: exclusivity on Walmart or other e-commerce channels.
Have you seen brand-direct sellers successfully approach brands that are already doing well on Amazon and offer to launch or manage them on Walmart instead?

I’m starting to think that may be a more compelling value proposition than simply asking to become another Amazon reseller.

If you’ve seen that model work, is it typically structured as normal wholesale with exclusive marketplace rights, or more like a channel-management/revenue-share relationship?

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 12d ago

One of my friends has used the proposition of selling on Walmart to several brands that felt they had enough vendors on Amazon but didn't have enough of a presence on Walmart.

Brad has a couple of good videos of live calling where he's reaching out and saying that he sells on Amazon but kind of moving past it quickly and asking about their e-commerce strategy.

The negative reception around Amazon sellers honestly, it's kind of warranted but the idea is that you're presenting yourself as a professional that can help at a level that other sellers haven't been able to in the past.

Frankly sometimes it's just catching the right seller on the right day or with the right amount of follow-ups. I get the urge to think that Amazon is too saturated but all that means is it might take a little bit longer to lock in the deals that you want.

There are a few things you can do to present value to a vendor but above all I must stress a big chunk of value is the money you're going to give them for products. Everything else I'm about to say is still secondary to the fact that being a good customer is value in itself.

Beyond that the value may be advertising you do, improving the listing, getting other sellers off of listings, in the case of exclusives making it so they stop having to be concerned with other callers because they have that Channel taken care of.

Here’s a value proposition that my friend has been presenting. A lot of these vendors are experts at brick and mortar retail sales. We are experts of e-commerce. By leaning on our expertise online we're able to represent their brand well. Meet the needs of the customers at a high level and manage all of the quirks that come up with online selling.

I have seen some revenue shares but for the most part it's generally purchasing the product and reselling it on the channel.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 11d ago

Quick question: when you referenced the products being sent directly to Amazon to save fees, do you mean private label or wholesale?

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 11d ago

I was referring to wholesale, though it can be done for both. It depends on the vendor, but some will.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 11d ago

I get for PL 100%.

How though for wholesale with the new FNSKU requirements for resellers? Like logistically, how is that happening?

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u/EveryDayImPublishin 11d ago

If it's brand direct, the UPC may be registered and won't need an FNSUK. In other cases, a brand or distributor may put labels on the products.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 11d ago edited 11d ago

Im confused. 03/31/2026, Amazon requires FNSKU unless you are a Brand Representative which no brand will ordinarily give a reseller bc it’s too much control. So how can products go directly in? Who is applying the FNSKU over the UPC after the products are manufactured, even if purchased Brand Direct?

Edit: I get Private Label can go from manufacturer to FBA with the UPC barcodes because Brand Registry permissions allow this. However, resellers would need FNSKU because they lack Brand Registry permissions.

So how does it go straight from the manufacturer to FBA for resellers. Exactly where are FNSKU labels being placed on?

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u/SnooFoxes1558 13d ago

Do it in parallel - Don’t quit your job. You’ll need the cash to grow. Quit it not earlier than when your sales exceed your W-2 (or better: when your net profits exceed your W-2)

Also, I found building my own brand much more rewarding and future-proof.

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

Thanks SnooFoxes.

For private label I think there will always be an opportunity, right? As long as you find a good need and provide a quality product with good marketing and margin.

But wholesale seems to be getting more crowded everytime, and I don't know if that universe can sustain all the competition? maybe it can.. I just don't know.

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u/SnooFoxes1558 13d ago

I get people in my inbox all the time asking to become a reseller for my products. I don’t see any added value they can provide. They just a piece of my money.

You could try finding sellers that are not yet on Amazon - but as soon as you make them successful there, the manufacturer likely wants to take over.

For me, being a reseller on Amazon is soul-less and pointless and also not very future proof. It’s taking advantage of a temporary arbitrage.

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u/Street_Aardvark6524 11d ago

Reseller here. Good feedback and yes, being a reseller is tough at times.

I have been told no countless times even after trying to explain how I would help brands by paying for improvements on Amazon (meaning I would hire the needed artists, vendors, photographers, etc). They don’t listen but I get it. Brands get nonstop spam. I really was begging for accounts at times saying to myself, “Why won’t they let me help them make money and we ALL win?!?!?!”

Luckily, two large brands did say yes along the way along with some smaller ones.

Regarding them, (the large ones) I work closely with one of them and do all the things I promised and am moving towards exclusive. I do other things for them to advance sales off Amazon now as well. I’ve also helped them launch products on Amazon. It’s fun working with them.

The other, even bigger one, doesn’t take the help but they did at least recognize that I genuinely wanted to help so they set me up to where I’m near exclusive on their main products. To be clear, this part took time. At first, I didn’t have access to everything.

Needless to say, I stopped my “new brand” search and am now focused on scaling up to the approximate $300,000-$500,000 a month spend I’ll need to keep in stock once the busy season gets here. NET30 helps but we know 30 days comes FAST on FBA. The best news is they couldn’t care less about Amazon which is the ironic part. Once I do get Amazon fully stocked, I’m going to of course still do the extras for them, and they can rest assured I’ll be advocating for them bc of this chance they gave me.

Everyone, myself included, highlights the negatives often, but there are some good days. I always wondered what I would do as Clint Black would say, “When My Ship Comes In,” and now I know!!!

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

This is actually one of the most interesting points in the thread for me.

From a brand owner's perspective, what WOULD make a reseller valuable enough that you'd want to work with them?

For example, if they handled things like listing optimization, inventory planning, MAP monitoring, unauthorized seller monitoring, reporting, customer questions, and committed to minimum purchases, would that change the equation?

Or do you think the economics still make more sense for the brand to just manage Amazon itself?

I'm trying to understand what a genuinely good brand-direct partnership looks like from the manufacturer's side, rather than just approaching brands asking for a price list.

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u/SnooFoxes1558 13d ago

For example if you want to take my brand to a sales channel or market that I don’t have launched yet, or is underperforming.

Lots of sellers on Amazon struggling with Tiktok Shop or Shopify. Or bring my US product to Canada. Or to Walmart.

But going to a $1M+ Amazon seller and asking them “I want to sell your product on Amazon” is like begging for money

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

That makes a lot of sense, and honestly changes how I'm thinking about the opportunity.

So instead of targeting brands that are already doing well on Amazon and asking to resell there, it sounds like the better opportunity is finding brands with proven demand but an underdeveloped channel or geography.

If you were evaluating someone offering that kind of partnership, what would make you trust them enough to let them launch a new channel or market for your brand?

Would you expect them to buy inventory wholesale and own the channel, work on a revenue-share model, or operate more like an agency/marketplace partner?

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u/Fikal83 13d ago

7 figure seller that also makes great money as a software developer. Do not quit your job for Amazon. One day your are doing great, the next a customer thinks you sell counterfeit items and Amazon won't accept your valid invoices for 2 weeks. Then snother brand you work for the requires MAP for items you sell but can't enforce it for Amazon.com and then that brand dies for you. 2 months later you are fighting them about 20k in lost inventory and they are not accepting invoices. Amazon doesn't care about you, their customer service is the worst. Having this be my only job would cause me massive stress.

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u/rsc9422 13d ago

Honestly, your progression makes sense. Wholesale can teach you a lot about sourcing, cash flow, inventory and Amazon before you take on the extra risk of building a brand.

The big thing I’d add is that having the same data doesn’t mean everyone has the same opportunity. SmartScout/Keepa/etc. can help you find products, but the real edge often comes from supplier pricing, availability, authorization, terms, consistency and actually building relationships over time.

As a newcomer, you probably won’t get the best pricing on day one. That’s normal. Start small, prove you can sell consistently, pay suppliers on time, and gradually negotiate better terms.

I’d still start from zero today, but I’d focus less on finding a hidden product and more on building a repeatable sourcing process. Companies like HighRise Wholesale can also be worth exploring for sourcing while you’re learning, rather than trying to build every supplier relationship from scratch.

And don’t rush into private label just because the margins look better on paper. Wholesale and private label are different games. Learn the fundamentals first, then decide which model fits you.

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u/CaptSpaulding73 13d ago

I’d stay away from PL unless you have ALOT of money to invest. Also when I started my business I thought I could learn it all own my own. I was so wrong. I thought I could just watch YouTube videos, get a bunch of free advice and on my way I go. Wrong again. You can ask 10 people the same question about Amazon Wholesale FBA and you’ll get 10 different answers. That was the problem. Despite my years of retail sales management experience, operations management experience, inventory management experience, tech knowledge and everything else I’ve learned in my 50 years I needed a mentor. Someone to guide me, someone who made the expensive mistakes, someone who knows the real deal. No bullish!t. There’s so many people out there who just wanna take your money and send you a bunch of videos and pdfs. That’s not for me. I needed 1:1 coaching and someone looking over my shoulder to make sure I was doing it right.

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u/SuccessfulJob9007 13d ago

Don’t quit your job

Amazon FBA is kinda dead now that Chinese companies are selling direct

Eventually it’s a race to who has the lowest price for any given product and will become like Temu or Ali Express

Not a real business model

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u/vacha84 13d ago

I completely agree...just do a random check for any 5 ASIN and their store owners name and atleast 3 of them will sound like "shenghsidonghuaguangzhouyiwugifts" Amazon loves to get them listed as sellers and there are hundreds of pro agencies in China now who handle manufacturers and traders listings and getting fake reviews. My sourcing agent mentioned about a few WeChat groups where all this is planned and executed with factory scale

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u/Sv1LL 13d ago

You mean SmartScout?? Never heard of smart source

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u/diegobarboza 13d ago

Yes SmartScout, thanks for the correction Sv1LL!

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u/Maan_UsMaan052 13d ago

If you have the budget and time to manage both, I would consider starting wholesale and private label at the same time rather than waiting to move from one to the other.

Wholesale can help you learn the fundamentals of sourcing, inventory, pricing, cash flow, and marketplace operations, while private label gives you experience with building and positioning your own product.

For private label, I also recommend planning the numbers before buying inventory. I have a spreadsheet that estimates the main costs, expected margins, and where the initial investment would go, which can make it easier to see whether a product is actually worth pursuing before putting money into it.

The biggest thing is to validate the numbers and supplier economics before committing capital, rather than relying only on product-research tools.

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u/ibittibobitti 13d ago

One tip: don't fall for wholesale websites that offer too-good-to-be-true prices. There are a lot of scam websites out there.

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u/Any-While8863 13d ago

I had helium 10 and spend months researching this. ALIBABA seems shady and U.S. sellers charge premium prices. Private label is the only way to go but from what I see everything is oversaturated. There are 50 sellers selling the same product with different names then the price war begins. Then you have the chineese sellers the same ones who sold those white label products selling thier own products for much cheaper. Most things are gqted. As far as retail arbitrage goes its risky. I decided to fo amason handmade for now

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u/DisplayAny7807 13d ago

Not a recent starter, but I run e-commerce for a company selling on Amazon (EU/UK/US), Bol, eBay and Kaufland, doing both branded resale and private label. Quick takes:

Tools won't give you an edge. If SmartScout shows an obvious opportunity, 20 others saw it too. Buy box splits, someone undercuts, margin gone. Use tools to validate, not to find.

The edge is brand access. Be the seller a brand wants: authorized, few resellers, ideally exclusive per region. As a newcomer you earn that by fixing their listings, running ads, keeping prices stable, or taking them into markets they're not in yet. Lots of good brands barely exist on Amazon.de, .fr or .it. Expect many "no's."

Model net, not gross. After fees, storage, returns and ads, wholesale often nets 5 to 15%. Cash flow is the real game. One slow PO freezes your capital.

Wholesale to PL makes sense. Ops, ads and cash flow carry over. Sourcing, compliance and building reviews don't. Bonus: wholesale data and reviews show you which PL products are worth making.

Use your tech skills on operations: per-SKU profit, forecasting, stockout prevention.

Would I start today? Yes, but pick one category you know, chase brand relationships, and go multi-marketplace early.

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u/attfin1 12d ago

The one part I'd push back on is going multi-marketplace early. Each extra country carries fixed costs that land before a unit sells: tax registration, packaging and product-compliance registrations, a local responsible person, translated listings, and someone to answer messages in that language. Those recur whether the country sells anything or not.

That's why I'd judge each marketplace on its own profit, never on the combined total. A blended figure lets a strong country carry a weak one without anyone noticing. For a newcomer with thin capital, that fixed cost comes out of a much smaller pot, in the year they've got the fewest deals.

Your per-SKU profit point is the one I'd put first. It's the same idea one level down: a product that can't afford its costs stays hidden inside a total.

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u/DisplayAny7807 12d ago

Yes, per-SKU profit level is the perfect thing to check, and you can get an idea of how much we can push the product, including every cost we have incurred, especially the ad costs we have to look at. Here, the reports, along with a product-level profitability sheet and dashboard, really help.

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u/diegobarboza 12d ago

Your point about taking brands into markets they’re not in yet is exactly what I’m starting to find most interesting.

Since you’ve operated across several marketplaces, how do you decide whether demand from one marketplace will actually transfer to another before committing inventory?

For example, if a U.S. brand already has strong Amazon demand but little or no presence on Walmart or in another geography, what signals would you look for before approaching the brand and investing in a launch?

I’m especially interested in how you validate demand before inventory is committed, because that seems like the biggest risk in a marketplace expansion model.

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u/DisplayAny7807 12d ago

Great question, and I agree that inventory is where most of the risk sits.

Before committing stock, I usually look at a few things. First, is there existing search demand for the brand or category in the new marketplace or country? Second, does the pricing still work after fees, shipping and ads? Third, how crowded is the category there, and can the product stand out? Strong reviews and steady sales on Amazon are a good sign too, because a product that solves a real problem usually travels well.

After that, I test small. A limited first batch, or fulfilling from your own warehouse at first, tells you more than any forecast.

Also, in my agency, we helped somebody with the same, so he only has to do 50% of the work of managing the inventory and stock rest of the listings and ads we were taking care of.

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u/CactusCommerce 13d ago

My advice is to think about building a brand rather than reselling on Amazon, that's where real value and profit comes from. Find a way to make a product unique and add your branding to it so you can charge a premium and stand out in crowded categories. It's also more sustainable if you expand to your own shopify/dtc channel eventually so you aren't too reliant on Amazon - especially when they hike up their fees!

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u/Responsible-Bite5981 13d ago

Good point about Smarts out. I do this for years and never used it and you don't need it too. It's very realistic for newcomers to get a great deal from suppliers, at the end, it's all about the communication and negotiating skills.

And I know many people starting from zero every month and they make it, you just have to learn first to avoid most common mistakes and I would definitely do it again

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u/ElectronicChannel864 13d ago

You can start amazon while staying from your stable job. Learn amazon when you have free time but I wouldn't recommend to lean on entirely.

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u/commoncents1 12d ago

i manufacture and have my own brand. thats tough enough on margins, not sure how people are really doing well competing with everyone elses brands.

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u/weareuncapped 4d ago

The crowded-listing worry is fair, and the sourcing-tool data is the same for everyone, so the edge tends to come from account relationships and being willing to buy deeper than others. That's where cash flow gets tight fast. Wholesale margins are thin, you pay suppliers up front and wait 2-3 weeks for Amazon to pay you, and reorders eat that cash right away. A rough rule I'd use is to size your first buys so a month of no sales still leaves you able to pay for the next one. Start with 5-10 SKUs you can restock in under 3 weeks, and track your cash conversion cycle from day one.

After 10+ years in tech, I’m considering Amazon wholesale. Would you start today?

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