The Ultimate Online Arbitrage Purchasing Amazon FBA Guide

Kev calls this money hacks. This is you rinsing absolutely everything you possibly can from this online arbitrage business. In this blog post, I am going to share with you, exactly step by step all the different money hacks which you can introduce into your business, because you could be leaving money on the table. 

Since 2015, Kev has been building his Amazon business, to the point where he and Kylie were able to quit their jobs 6 months later, and then June 2016, they moved into a 2,000 SQ FT warehouse, and now have moved into a 10,000 SQ FT warehouse, where they now host events, take massive action, ship thousands upon thousands of products every single month, and each month they are shipping hundreds upon hundreds more. 

So, this is a multi-part blog post series, where we share with you, if you are interested in online arbitrage. 

This is now part 3. In the past 2 blog posts/videos, we have gone over the business model, the sourcing machine, and in this video, we are going to be talking all things purchasing and talking the money hacks. 

If you have missed the past two blog posts/videos, and you are interested in learning more about this business model, we definitely recommend you go back and read/watch them.

Here are the links:

 https://www.systemisefulfilment.co.uk/blog/online-arbitrage-business-overview-best-tips

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

If you think about the thousands upon thousands of pounds, which you ship out every single month, and if you are just getting started, then you are going to be spending hundreds upon hundreds of pounds in your business, so this means you need to rinse and you need to extract the absolute maximum. 

So, I am going to share with you, what Kev calls the money hacks. This is the way Kev sells his business and everything he has learned over the past couple of years. And these are some basic hacks and super advanced which we want to share with you, so there is everything here for everyone.

So...Let's start...

Money Hacks

So, what I am going to do, is share with you exactly what these are, so that you can start introducing these into your business. 

The first thing we are doing is we are buying low, to sell high. You already know this, because this is online arbitrage. This is buying from retail stores, online stores, and wholesalers, and making them available in another marketplace, which we call Amazon. There is a whole section of this, which we call purchasing. 

Purchasing

This is completely up to you, what you do with this information, but all I am saying is that there are multiple things that you can benefit from, if you were to look at these money hacks and take action at your own risk. 

So, what Kev suggests and what he has built his business on.

Credit 

You are purchasing products with credit. You may have credit cards, or your bank may have given you different cards - you are using credits. 

We then sell the product on Amazon. So, we are purchasing low with the credit, and now we are selling high with Amazon. Then what we do is disperse back into our account. This is then our bank account, our current account. 

After this, you then repay your credit. You pay with credit, you make the sale on Amazon, then you disperse back into your account to pay the credit. It is a cycle. 

And what happens over time, is it goes super high.

 So, you may, like Kev did, actually start with a £1000 credit card, and over time, recycle and recycle. Until, over time, the credit card companies give you 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, and in specific credit cards, you can start getting a ridiculous amounts of credit available. This is at your own risk! But, what you are doing is recycling money that you don't really have. It is credit that you are making and you are building this business around. This is a significant money hack, because you now have specific and different time-periods, there are different recycle periods in your credit, so as long as you can pay, you invest in your products, you get them to Amazon, you sell them, then get it back into your account to pay. Everything is looking good. 

Then what we do, is there are a number of things which you can take advantage of. 

1. CashBack Sites

You can use cashback sites, such as TopCashBack and Complete Savings. You can now get 10%+ on top of the purchasing which you are making. If you are buying low at 50% off, and now you are getting cash back as well, this is amazing. 

Do you want to learn more on CashBack sites?

 Then click the videos below!

2. Voucher Codes

What you do after this is have a look to see if you can find any voucher codes, and you may get some voucher codes with another possible 5-10% off, £5 pounds off etc. What you are doing is compounding the money which you are making from the same investment. 

3. Credit Bonuses 

Kev has what you call the Platinum American Express Business Card, and with this, you get points. You can use these for air miles, hotels and lounges. There are so many different things that you can use for these perks. 

4. Loyalty Cards

If you have got a relationship with these stores, and you are purchasing at these stores, then you can get into some sort of loyalty cards. They may send you vouchers, and they may even offer you £10 off your next order. Loyalty cards are super important and there are many different ways of compounding. So one order over time, you are getting cash back, you are getting perks on your cards, on your credit and your loyalty cards. There are so many things which you can do when it comes to this. 

5. Credit Availability 

Here you can do bank transfers, you can get that 0% interest. There is so much which goes into this money hack snowball which you are doing. 

Would you like to learn about credit cards within online arbitrage?

If yes, watch the video below!

Inventory Bonuses

1. Inventory Adjustments 

The first time that Kev did the inventory adjustments, he got over just 10 pounds worth of adjustments, which Amazon had made to his stock, and he wasn't reimbursed for. Inventory adjustments is a huge one, so make sure you look more into this.

2. Unfulfillable Products

So, with this, you have a bunch of different scenarios. You can get reimbursements, you can get your money back by asking for reimbursements. Don't take no for an answer, you send them anything that you need, the documentation, and you really get into Amazon, and you get them on the phone if you really need to.

3. Shipment Reconciles 

Make sure that you are getting back everything. If there is something going wrong with this shipment reconciles, get Amazon on the phone, get your money back, make sure that you are getting more than what you actually paid for, and see what you are getting disbursed.

4. VAT (Reduced)

Here in the UK, you have got 0% products, and you have got 5% products. It is super important that you manage these, and speak to an accountant, because this could be huge amounts of money. What Kev ended up doing is paying around £9,000 too much tax and he reclaimed it back, straight back into the bank account. 

So...These have been some money hacks...

Amazon Seller Central 

What you are going to want to do once a month, is check your inventory adjustments - this is so important. If you go onto your Amazon seller central, and you go into the report section, the fulfilled by Amazon and click onto the inventory adjustments, you can see that there are a bunch of inventory adjustments, which Amazon are making, in terms of really changing the quantities with the products which you have available - which is money. This is cash which you have, and Amazon are either misplacing it, and putting it in the wrong positions and transferring it - there are a whole bunch of different things which can occur. 

Learn more on seller central here!

But, you can see just from the last few days, that there a whole bunch of inventories disposed of, inventories misplaced, they have been damaged at the fulfilment centres and the condition is sellable - there are a lots of things going on, and they owe you money for it. 

You have got to get this money back, so what Kev recommends, is that you create cases on Amazon, sell support, where you say something like, "I have just checked my inventory adjustments, and look at all these different products". 

Online Banking

You are then going to want to set yourself up with some sort of online banking. You may have online banking, Quickbooks, or something like Sage. You really should speak to your accountant and see what they suggest, and see what works for you. The good thing is that there are different websites now, such as Link My Books, which is an automated Amazon accountant. There is also A2X, which links with Quickbooks from Amazon. With these, you can link your Amazon seller central account with an accounting software, and it allows you to get your accounting under control and a lot better.

You may want to compare everything - they all have different prices, and it all depends on how you want to set this up. If you are thinking more in terms of price, then Link My Books is most likely the best option for you. 

The great thing about the Link my books of the world, the A2X's of the world and the Sages of the world, is that it allows you to electronically link all your bank accounts, your credit cards, PayPal and more, and it gets everything in there. 

Cards

Going back to the American Express, this is a welcome bonus, and if you are interested in getting something like an American Express the platinum card, you can see that you get 40,000 membership reward points, when you spend £6000 in the next 3 months. If you are in online arbitrage and you are spending money, then you will definitely do this. The great thing with this is that you are granted access to all sorts of lounges around the world, and you get lots of different benefits - £1 for every purchase which you make, is one membership reward point. You also get lots of great cashflow management, 54 days payment period on purchases, which is great - nearly 2 months worth of purchases, which gives you chance to invest, put it into your stock, get the sales and get it back, depending on what your inventory health is. 

Well...Now all of this is over to you...

Thank you for taking your time to read through this blog post. I hope that you have learned something from this ultimate guide which is beneficial to you!