Online Arbitrage Business Overview Best Tips

Online arbitrage has changed a lot over the past few years. Because of this, I wanted to create a multi-part video series for you, if you are interested in online arbitrage, whether you are just a beginner, whether you are intermediate and have just got going, or whether you are advanced and taking massive action in your business. You may have even quit your job, then this is going to be the perfect series for you, because what we are going to do is create and go through this business model, from start to ultimately 7 figures in your business.

Kev started his business in June 2015. He first started with online arbitrage, and did pretty much what you did, where he went all in learning everything he possibly could, stumbling his way through trying to make things happen. Kev scaled his way up to around 6 figures within 6 months and quit his job in electrical engineering, after getting a degree.

Kev and his partner got themselves out into a warehouse 6 months later, and since then, they have not looked back. They have built the business, now have more operations, wholesale, now have a virtual team sourcing products continuously, Kev has outsourced himself and he has taken so much action.

What Kev has wanted to do is create a resource for you, which will allow himself to distill everything that they have done over the last 5-6 years, and put it in a package to allow you to go through each of these core areas. 

This first part of the series is going to be talking about the overview of the business, an overview of online arbitrage. I am going to share with you what the components are of this business model, everything which you need to know about this business model, and some fundamentals. In this series, we are going to leave no stone unturned.

Let us start with giving a little bit of an overview. What is the potential of online arbitrage?

If you are looking at starting online arbitrage, then where is the ceiling? If you are going to get started in a business model, if you are going to get started with online arbitrage, then what is the potential of Amazon FBA? Are you going to be able to quit your job? Are you going to be able to outsource the business? Are you going to be able to have the business working for yourself? And this is ultimately what I want to share with you first - the potential. So, if you are just getting started, if you are just at the beginning and you have just heard about online arbitrage, and you might be thinking to yourself, “This is something I could do”. You might be a very practical person and not mind putting in the extra work and time, getting your hands dirty, getting your face dirty and putting in the effort, because this is ultimately what it is going to take. 

There is so much potential. You can start thinking about expanding your business once you get into wholesale. You may start online arbitrage or retail arbitrage, then go over to wholesale and start going to trade shows, then you may start looking at putting some money into private labels, which is like the holy grail. But, the great way to start is online arbitrage. 

Would you like to learn more about the online arbitrage business model?

If yes, click the link below! 

Is Amazon FBA Possible Part Time 

In this video and blog post, we go through whether we believe Amazon FBA is possible part-time or not, after we received a great question from one of our viewers: "Hi I am Nacer I live in the uk. I am 17 this march 2021 ,and I am in college studying health and social care to then become a paramedic which I love to do but on the other hand I would like to become in the eCommerce industry for pharmaceutical distribution. My question is that could you do eCommerce on side of a full time career? Thanks."

7 Things Successful Amazon Sellers Do

This blog shares 7 things successful Amazon sellers do. Kev has had the opportunity to meet some great Amazon sellers and hear some amazing stories in interviews of these people having the courage and determination to take massive action in changing their life and their family's lives. Some have been able to quit their jobs and even became 6 and 7 figure sellers. Having all these amazing experiences Kev had wanted to collect them all up and think about some common things which they all do. So... What do they do?

Click above and find out!

The best way to start is by showing the outside of the warehouse. We moved here in 2020, after transitioning from our old warehouse, which we moved into in June 2016, 12 months after starting the online arbitrage business.

Moving into our old warehouse was a very significant moment for Kev and Kylie, because they had been starting at home. However, if you are wanting to get started, you can work from home, because Kev and Kylie had their first 12 months there, starting from home, Kev did everything he possibly could from home, from the materials, the labelling, the packing, the purchasing and the shipping. So, you can really build yourself up in this business. 

We are going to talk about your flow of processing products, because this is going to be a big thing when it comes to you building your business, being able to process your products. Because if you want to quit your job, when you want to get to the point where you have so many products and you are shipping thousands of products each month to be able to have the potential to quit your job. You are going to have to think about how you are processing products, so even when you are at home, it is really important to think about the sheets that you are using, the organisation, the admin and how you are using the documentations in terms of receipts, accountancy and invoices. All of these which we are going to be talking about within this entire series. It is something which you must think about. I am going to give you some of Kev's best advice so you can avoid the things which Kev didn’t. 

Always Think in Systems

If you have got cogs of a machine and they are all connected so that the machine can run, one cog will move so the other can run, then that cog will move so that the other one can run. 

So, if you think about this in terms of online arbitrage (OA), the 3 major cogs that you have, the 3 major systems that you have got in online arbitrage is:

1. Sourcing
2. Purchasing
3. Shipping

You want to source as much as you possibly can. So, wherever you are, whether you are in your home or you want to outsource to a prep service or move into a warehouse, whatever it is, we want to bring as many products, as many multiple sources of sourcing profitable products as we can. 

Do you want to learn more about this, then click below!

In this video, I talk about:

• Time
• Money 
• Space
• Products
• Strategy 

Do you want to read our blog post on sourcing? Click below!
https://www.systemisefulfilment.co.uk/blog/the-ultimate-online-arbitrage-sourcing-amazon-fba-guide

Then, you have got the whole purchasing process. As part of purchasing, you have to review products - find the products, review them, then ship them. 

Do you want to learn more in terms of purchasing?

Click below!

This video video includes a range of super simple hacks all the way over to the super advanced hacks which have helped me to save thousands in my business. 

I go over things like:

• CashBack Sites
• Voucher Codes
• Credit Perks
• Loyalty Cards
• Credit Availability
• Infantry Adjustments
• Shipment Reconciles 
• Vat

Do you want to read the blog post on purchasing? Click below!

https://www.systemisefulfilment.co.uk/blog/the-ultimate-online-arbitrage-purchasing-amazon-fba-guide

In terms of shipping, this could be your home, your warehouse, your shed, your garage, or a prep service. 

Do you want to learn more in terms of shipping? 

In this section, you are going to learn all things shipping - this includes:

• Boxes
• Pallets
• Material
• Resources 
• Shipping to Fulfilment Centres

Do you want to read our blog post on shipping? Click below!

All of this is a system. When we think about how we are going to build this business, you have got to see it as this. If you see it as this, then, when you start to build it from the fundamentals upwards, you will be able to see how everything fits together, because you will have teams in place for everything. It is very important for you to be able to visually see this.

Around the cogs, you have the fundamental, which is your Amazon Seller Central account. We are using Amazon FBA, which is a huge driver. Amazon FBA has so many advantages - the scalability, being able to ship thousands of products, there is the potential to ship hundreds of thousands of units to Amazon FBA. 

Amazon has got so much rapport with customers and they have got the trust. Amazon is absolutely everywhere and they have taken over the world. And this is why, when you think about online arbitrage, it is so important to think about what the fundamentals are.

So, when you think about the fundamentals, what you are doing is buying products low, then shipping to sell high. This is all. 

The reason we can buy low is, if you think about the sourcing, all the different ways you can source, you are looking for discount deals, 2 for 1s, 3 for 2s, you have got so many different things which can happen in the marketplace, because you have got Amazon FBA and stores. These are two separate marketplaces. This means, if there is a product in a store 

and they have the identical product on Amazon, there could be a scenario where you have a difference in price. So, you can buy low to sell high. You then have got your cost of goods plus the FBA fee, which is going to give you a specific value. Then, if you have the potential to see high enough to potentially the sell for. If your sell for is higher than your cost of goods and your FBA fee and everything else involved, then you have got the potential to make a profit. 

There are so many different systems within these cogs, and as business owners, we want to build the business and get it going without us. 

Basics and fundamentals of the business

Amazon Seller Central Account

You are going to need an Amazon seller central account. Depending on where you are, whether you are in the UK, US or anywhere else in the world, you will just open a seller central account. 

There are a lot of benefits of Amazon FBA

Would you like to learn some? Click the link below! 

Why You Should Start an Amazon Business Today

In this blog post and video, you will learn:

•  Why you should start an Amazon business
• Benefits that you will have if you decide to start an amazon business

Being able to use Amazon is amazing. Amazon have lots of different fulfilment centre's, which is why we can ship thousands upon thousands of products to Amazon, because they have got Amazon FBA. 

Would you like to start an Amazon FBA Business? Click the link below!
https://www.lifesuccessengineer.com/fba

A part of this, you are going to need some payment details and you're going to have to think about what this is to you - is it some sort of a side-hustle? Is it a business? Is it something you are going to want to incorporate? You are going to have to think all of this, because at some point when you are incorporated, you have limited company, or if you are self-employed, this is going to make a difference in terms of your account details.

You are also going to need some materials to start the shipping. 

There are a few different websites which you can use for this.

For example:

https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/

This website has kite packaging, different size boxes which you can use, different types of packaging materials, different bags which you can use with the warning labels, and just a lot of things which you are going to need.

 The other great thing you can do with kite packaging in terms of sourcing is that there are clearance sections, which always have things on offer, so you have things like half price, more than half price off, and you are making some huge savings from some of these items and it always changes and is always evolving. 

If you start to really work on your sourcing and streamline it, you can find lots of different products very quickly. After you do this, you can then compare these items, 

For this, you are going to need some tools. When you analyse any sort of item, Amazon give you the ASIN, which is an identification number, and there are tools such as KEEPA, which allows you to track the whole history of a specific item.

Here is an example of what the KEEPA graph looks like:

The graph shares with us everything that we need to know. It shares with us the history of price, if Amazon are selling it themselves, the seller rank, and tells us what the rank of that product is. 

When you are able to track a sales rank, you will be able to see what the performance of the sales are for a particular item, so this is why you must graph it over a period of time - you are going to want to look over this information over a period time, so that you can see what the stability has been of the price and what the sales rank has been. You can then see the jumps down and the step changes, seeing if the item went higher or lower.

This helps us so much when it comes to seeing a winner or a loser of an item.

This shares so much information with us, such as what the buy box is, what the price has been and so much more data.

Not only is there a lot of data ONLY on KEEPA, but there are also CHROME plug-ins. So, we will be talking more in depth in terms of tools in the next part of the series.

Again if you would like to learn more on this, please click the link!

Would you like to read more on this? 

With the different CHROME plug-ins, you can see what the sales rank has been on average, you can see what Amazon has been doing, what the list price has been, and you can see the buy box. 90% of sales on Amazon come from the buy box. 

You can get started, once you start your Amazon Seller Central account, as well as you start listing products, and you go through the process in listing different products in your Seller Central account. There may be scenarios of having to un-gate yourself, which has happened a few times over the past few years; you may used to sell a lot more than you sell now, and that is just the situation which we find ourselves in, but you just have to work yourself through. 

There are also other things which you can use; for example cash back sites like:
TopCashBack

Complete Savings

You can make a lot of money with just using cash back sites, Kev made over 10 thousand pounds worth of cash back additional bonus sales, just by making those purchases via online websites. Amongst all this, you need to really think about the admins. What Kev did was he created master sheets, which allows him to stay in control of what he is doing.

If you think about when you are building your business, you are going to want to capture as much information as you can about your business. Over time, Kev built a basic spreadsheet, which over time, became very comprehensive. He is capturing the name of the product he is selling, the ASING, the store where he is getting the items from, the buy for, the sell for, quantity to purchase, FBA fee preview, quantity received, the margin, the profit and so, so much more. All of this really helps when it comes to your business. 

Further reading: 

8 Considerations If you Are Going to Quit Your Job for Your Business

7 Hard Truths About Amazon After Speaking to 50+ Amazon Sellers

5 Hard Truths Why People Fail with Online Business