Is Importing Products To Sell On Amazon A Good Way To Make Money?

*This is a collaborative post on importing products to sell on Amazon

If you are looking for a way to earn extra cash with a side hustle or are thinking about setting up your own e-commerce store, you might consider selling products on Amazon an option. 

There are many ways to make money using online retail giant Amazon, from affiliate marketing to selling your own handicrafts but it’s also now easier than ever to launch your own retail business storefront on the platform. 

Of course, you can choose from a range of local or British manufactured products to sell on Amazon, but one of the best ways to make a healthy profit margin is to import goods. Here is a rundown on importing goods from overseas and selling through Amazon. 

Importing Products From Overseas To Sell Online

Selling your own goods online has many aspects to consider but the two major questions you first need to consider are: 

• Where are your products coming from? And how do you get them? 
• How and where to sell your goods

Let’s look at getting your hands on goods first

A large portion of successful online retailer now imports their products from countries such as China. Mainly China, actually and sometimes India. The reasons? It comes down to availability and cost. The selection of goods you can buy from China, directly from the manufacturer hands down beats Britain! 

With a huge range of products available, Chinese manufacturers also provide great value for money and contrary to popular belief – many high-quality manufactured goods are coming out of China these days. You just have to do proper due diligence and find a trusted supplier. 

Getting the goods here is also now more accessible than ever before with the advent of Less Than Container Load (LCL) Shipping. In a nutshell – shipping via sea freight from China used to be reserved for large businesses because to get goods over to the UK, you would need to import massive quantities and fill an entire shipping container. With LCL shipping, you only pay for a small portion of a shipping container, meaning you can order in smaller quantities and get your goods shipped over here for much less money. 

Consider your own product range

Once you have got to grips with the idea of importing your own products to sell online, you could even consider starting your own product range, having it manufactured in China and shipped over. Yes – it really is very easy to do! Most large Chinese manufacturers offer what is called a white labelling service – they will have a standard range of products that you can have slightly adjusted or branded up with your logo. There are also tonnes of great manufacturers that will work with you to design and create your very own products and bring them to life. 

Cheaper sea freight prices and the wide range of products you can import, really do make running your own online store a possibility within reach. 

Selling Your Imported Goods Online

We’ve established how easy it is to import products to the UK but how about selling them? 

There are multiple ways to sell your products once you have got them to the UK. You can set up your own retail website, use eBay, have a physical retail store, use social media, or, turn to one of the giants of online retail such as Etsy or Amazon. 

Amazon makes sense for many online retailers because of how popular the website is. If a person is shopping online at any one time more than half of them are going to be on Amazon. 

It’s also incredibly easy to set up your own storefront on Amazon, so you can still sell as ‘your brand’ and customers will know the products are from you, not Amazon. Amazon fees are more reasonable when compared to some other sites and it’s also less expensive than having to have your own website built. 

There is also the option to use Amazon’s Pick & Pack Service (FBA). This service means you import products from overseas, directly to one of Amazon’s warehouses, where their team will pick, pack and mail orders for you. 

The service saves you time and means you don’t ever have to handle any stock yourself. The downside is there is an additional fee for this service, so the cost needs to be offset against your profit margins. 

Altogether, the combination of LCL shipping to import goods and then selling them on Amazon has become a top money earner for ambitious entrepreneurs in the UK. What do you think? Ever fancied going into e-commerce?