If you've been into the internet space for quite some time now, you've probably noticed how online arbitrage has been the trend these days.
As I am an avid traveler, I try to do things with systems and setups. Now that I recently got into Amazon FBA as well gotten back into traveling, I needed to figure out a way to properly do arbitrage for Amazon.
Here is what the breakdown will look like, very simple.
- Download Helium 10 Chrome Extension
- Download BuyBotPro Chrome Extension
- Get an Amazon Educated Prep Service
- Go Shopping Online at Discounted Sites
This is pretty much the basis of online arbitrage.
In the last video that I uploaded on YouTube, I talked all about the tools I use for a successful online arbitrage process.
And in this blog post, I'm going to dig deeper and be more specific with the methods.
Before you get into online arbitrage, there are some terms that we need to discuss first.
What Is Online Arbitrage?
You can think of online arbitrage as a means of exploiting the price mismatch in two marketplaces.
Back before online selling wasn't a thing, entrepreneurs already had a strategy called retail arbitrage quite similar to online arbitrage.
Retail arbitrage is when you buy products from a retailer and sell them to customers at a higher price. The only difference with online arbitrage is that you get to sell these items wherever you are.
Some people often confuse online arbitrage with reselling. However, this cannot be considered as reselling because, in online arbitrage, you purchase items from retailers as an ordinary customer and not as a company or enterprise. When you grow getting a reseller license will be important.
What Is Amazon FBA?
When it's just your first time to get into online reselling, it's quite normal for you to think that everything is going to be easy peasy from now on. However, there is more to online arbitrage than waiting for all the profit to come oozing in your bank account.
The process is sort of the same as any other physical business. The only difference is that the exchange of funds and goods are done online.
When it comes to making money with arbitrage, time is really of the essence. This is what makes it so important to know how to locate your time wisely. You can always take care of everything on your own but let me just tell you that it's going to eat a lot of your time.
One of the best ways to be time-wise in online arbitrage is to acquire the services of a prep service company like KC Prep and Ship. They prep to the Amazon standards and then ship/distribute it to all the Amazon Fulfillment Centers.
Amazon FBA gives sellers more flexibility in how they do their business. It takes care of the storage, packing, and shipping of your products.
Other than that, you also benefit from carrying the name of Amazon in your products. This sort of gives your product a higher quality vibe which is good for marketing.
As for me, I didn't really start with online arbitrage from the beginning. When I first started, I did some retail arbitrage which really helped me become more hands-on with Amazon FBA business.
I did all the storing, packing, and delivering all by myself. When I finally got the hang of everything, I decided to try the online arbitrage route.
Now let me show you how I do online arbitrage...
The first thing I do is go to brickseek.com.
Before anything else, I'd like to tell you a thing or two about brickseek.com
If you're someone who prefers to purchase stuff from your favorite retail store, BrickSeek makes everything easier for you.
It's a site that helps you find the best deals in retail stores like Best Buy and Target. If you want to save more of your time, you can even decide to purchase the item there and then.
But you can also use BrickSeek for online arbitrage, helping you find discounted items in all one dashboard almost.
When you choose an item, you can go over to Amazon.com to see the price difference. Yup, just copy the title exactly and search. But there's more to online arbitrage than just looking at the price differences.
So for the next step, you're going to download two chrome extensions. Important.
Buy Bot Pro
The first thing you're going to need is the Buy Bot Pro chrome extension.
We all know that in the world of business, a lot of logic and analysis has to be done first before choosing to buy or sell a product.
For most resellers or arbitragers, you probably do most of the analytics in your head but to arrive at the perfect conclusion you need to be able to organize and write things down.
But since this can be difficult to do, the best way to be flexible and more efficient is to use Buy Bot Pro.
Buy Bot Pro makes automated deal analysis and buying decisions easy for you.
Just type how much you'll be buying the product for and click the "analysis" button. It automatically creates a breakdown of the product you are researching.
You'll see if the product will be a good item to sell as well as how much you are most likely going to profit from selling this particular product. Most important it will take into account if you are eligible to sell the item on Amazon.
Helium 10
Helium 10 is useful for its various tools that can help online entrepreneurs make a wise decision with their selling.
It can help you search for the right keywords needed to properly market your product. It also has a feature that ensures that your listings don't miss all the necessary keywords that can help your product reach your desired audience.
Helium 10 also renders charts and diagrams to help you understand the product trend more deeply. You can download the trial but if you want to use it for longer use, you might need to purchase a subscription.
Initial expenses may be the last thing on your mind when it comes to your online business but you'll see that it's totally worth it in the end because these two Chrome extensions can help you get better sales.
Helium 10 and Buy Bot Pro might do all the analysis work but what really matters at this point is how much time you are willing to put into searching for products that you can send to Amazon.
I will do some in-depth write-ups on these chrome extensions as well on this blog. Stay tuned.
