Selling Private Label Products on Amazon: A Complete Guide
Have you ever thought about starting your own product brand? Believe it or not, you don’t need to be rich to have your own unique line of products. In fact, tons of ordinary people create their own brands and it’s a lot easier than you think.
These are called private label brands and using them to sell your own products is actually one of the best strategies for Amazon sellers. By offering items with unique features and branding you’ll reduce your competition and create a business that has a lot more growth potential.
If you’re curious about this strategy you’ve come to the right place. Below is our complete guide to selling private label on Amazon. We’ve included some tips and tricks to help you avoid common mistakes and put you on the path to success.
Table of contents
What is Private Label?
A private label product is a unique item that you sell under your own brand name. It could be a completely new product that you come up with yourself, or a new take on an existing item.
While coming up with a brand new product can be exciting, it’s a lot riskier since there’s no way to tell if there’s actually a market for it. So, what a lot of successful sellers do is look for popular products and then find ways to improve upon them.
Maybe there’s a popular item that sells really well on Amazon, but people commonly complain about one aspect of it. Now, imagine if you could sell a version of that product without that common issue everyone complains about. Even better, imagine this product with your own personal branding on it so people associated your brand with this new great product.
This is the power of Amazon private label. By employing strategy you can quickly expand your online business and corner the market for a variety of products.
What are the Benefits of Selling Private Label Products?
You may be wondering whether it’s worth it going through the trouble of creating your own products and brand. However, if you do it right you’ll enjoy a number of great benefits that will help you improve your income.
Customize Your Products: When you sell other people’s items you don’t have any say in what they look like or what features they have. That all changes when you have your own products. You can customize them however you like and add new features that will set you apart from other brands.
You Get to Build Your Own Brand: Having your own brand isn’t just cool, it’s also beneficial for your business. If you can build a strong brand with great products people will start to associate your brand with products they like. So, when you add more offerings to your inventory people will be more likely to buy them.
Less Competition: If you’ve ever sold anything on Amazon you know how annoying it is to compete for the buy box. But when you have your own product there’s only one person selling it and that’s you. Plus, if you create something unique that no one else offers people have to go to you to buy it.
Higher Revenue Potential: The result of all of the above benefits is that you’ll likely end up making more money. By creating unique products that no one else has and lowering your competition you’ll be able to generate more sales. There’s also the opportunity to add more products under your brand and grow your business that way.
So, while selling private label products may require a larger time and monetary investment in the beginning, the long-term benefits are more than worth it.
How to Get Ideas for Your Private Label Products
As we mentioned earlier, when it comes to private label items, the best strategy is to find stuff that is already selling really well on Amazon and simply improve upon it. So, before you come up with your private label product you need to start researching items on Amazon and find one that has potential.
Here’s what you need to look for in a product:
High Demand: You want an item that has a long history of good sales. This lets you know that there is a good amount of demand for it.
Low Competition: While creating your own product will help lower your competition, you still want to base your product off an item that not many other people are selling. This will make it easier for you to break into the market.
Good Profit Margins: It isn’t going to matter how many items you sell if you don’t make any money off each sale. Try to pick something that you can sell for three times your cost.
Potential for Improvement: There isn’t much point in creating your own version of something that’s already perfect. For example, there’s not much you can do to improve on books. Instead, look for items that are popular but could be tweaked to be even better.
Try to avoid more complicated items. Some examples of these include beauty products, beard oil, supplements, and electronics. If there’s an issue with these types of products it could negatively impact someone’s health or pose a danger to people. So, unless you have a lot of insurance it’s best to just steer clear of these sorts of things.
Now, you may be wondering how you’re going to figure all this out when looking at a product on Amazon. Luckily, there are some helpful tools that will allow you to quickly narrow down which items have the most potential.
AMZScout Web App
Amazon offers millions of products on their website, so trying to find the perfect item to sell can be a little overwhelming. Luckily, the AMZScout Web App makes finding products that meet all of your criteria extremely simple.
With the Web App you’ll be able to search Amazon’s entire inventory using a number of different filters, including category, seller type, rank, price, estimated sales, reviews, size, weight, and more (see below).
Just select the filters you want, then click the “Apply Filter” button to see the results.
This will give you a list of products that meet all of your requirements. From there, you can review your results and choose the products you’re most interested in selling.
AMZScout Pro Extension
Once you have a list of products generated by the Web App you’ll want to do a deep dive into each of them to see if they’re really worth selling. This is where the AMZScout Pro Extension is extremely useful.
To use it, first go to the Google Play store and install it in your Chrome browser. Once that’s done, go to Amazon.сom and enter the products you’re interested in into the search field. When the results come up, click the AMZScout logo in the top right corner of your browser to open the extension.
Once the extension is open you’ll have access to all kinds of useful data for the products listed, including average sales, price, rank, reviews, and more.
If you’d like to analyze whether the niche you’re interested in has real potential, click on the Niche Score tool. This score analyzes a niche based on demand and competition and gives it a score out of 10. If the niche scores a 7 or higher you know it’s worth pursuing and has the potential to make money.
You can also analyze individual products by looking at their Product Score.
Finally, the AMZScout Pro Extension gives access to product trends and history. This allows you to see how consistently an item sells and helps you identify whether or not it’s seasonal.
With the help of the AMZScout Web App and Pro Extension, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding items to base your private label products off of.
Sourcing Your Products
This is usually where most people hit a roadblock when it comes to developing their own private label items. A lot of people have ideas for new products, but when it comes to actually getting them manufactured they don’t know where to start.
However, there’s actually a fairly easy process to source your products and get them made. If you follow the plan below you’ll have your own private label product ready to list on Amazon in no time.
Search for Your Product on Alibaba: Once you’ve decided what you want to sell head over to Alibaba.сom and search for it there. Alibaba gives you access to thousands of suppliers who can provide private label items, so it’s by far the easiest place to look for a manufacturer.
Contact Suppliers: After you find suppliers on Alibaba that manufacture the type of products you’re looking to sell, reach out to them. Let them know what you’re looking for, what types of alterations you’re thinking of making to their existing products, and ask them whether your idea is actually feasible.
Get Samples: When you find a manufacturer who’s willing to make your idea a reality, have them create a sample and send it to you. You’ll have to pay a little money for this, but it’s definitely worth it as you’ll want to inspect the quality to ensure it’s up to your standards. If you’d like anything changed let them know before they start mass production.
Agree on a Price: Just like wholesaling, when you order from a manufacturer you have to buy in bulk. However, this also means your price per unit is lower. Most suppliers are willing to negotiate, so if you’re not happy with their first quote give them a counteroffer and see if you can work out a price that fits into your budget.
Shipping: Once your products are ready you’ll need to have them shipped to you. You can either have them shipped by sea or by air. Transporting them by boat is cheaper but will take a lot longer, whereas air freight is much faster but also more expensive (unless your items are smaller and lighter).
As you can see, when you break it down finding a manufacturer and getting your products made really isn’t that difficult. Just make sure to take your time, try out a few different suppliers and samples, and negotiate a good price for yourself.
Fulfilling Your Orders
The last thing you need to decide is how you’re going to fulfill your orders. You need a system in place to allow you to actually ship your products to customers every time they place an order.
While some sellers store and ship products themselves, this isn’t recommended for most sellers. Not only will your inventory take up a lot of space, but packing and shipping items can be extremely time-consuming.
For most sellers, we recommend the Fulfillment by Amazon program, or FBA for short. With this program, you’ll simply ship your entire inventory to Amazon and they’ll store it in their warehouse for you. They’ll also take care of packing and shipping duties every time you make a sale.
While you’ll have to pay extra for this service the convenience it provides is more than worth it. It essentially allows you to run a dropshipping business which is a lot more hands-off.
You can sign up for the program and get your FNSKU (the FBA identifying number for your product) in your Amazon seller central account.
How to Sell Private Label Products on Amazon
The process of selling on Amazon is the same for the most part. However, when you’re selling a private label product there are a few extra steps you have to take.
Once your set up your Amazon account here’s what you need to do to list your item on the platform and start selling:
Create Your Amazon Listing: Since your product is brand new there won’t be an existing listing for it. So, you’ll have to create one from scratch. Make sure to optimize your listing with high-quality images of your product, an enticing product description, and a list of all the product’s features and benefits.
Amazon Brand Registry Program: Although not mandatory, it’s a good idea to enroll in Amazon’s Brand Registry Program. This will give you access to a number of marketing features to help you promote your brand and will protect you from trademark infringement.
Marketing: Once your listing is live it’s a good idea to use some advertising to promote it. Amazon PPC ads are a great way to raise awareness of new products and will help you generate more sales while you’re still establishing your brand.
Tips and Tricks
The above information will provide you with the basic steps you need to take in order to start selling private label products on Amazon. To help you out even more, here are a few more additional tips and tricks to get you started on your journey.
Getting a UPC Code: In order to sell your product on Amazon, it will need to have a UPC code. Barcodes are actually easy to obtain and you can buy one from GS1. Just be careful of barcode resellers, as this is not a legitimate way to buy UPC codes.
Manufacturer Part Number: It’s also a good idea to get a manufacturer part number from your supplier. Although not required, this number is used in Amazon searches and could increase the visibility of your listing.
Designing a Logo and Packaging: When you sell your own private label product you’ll need to come up with your own branding and packaging. If you don’t know how to do this yourself you can hire a designer from sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and 99Designs. You should be able to get professional-looking branding for a reasonable price.
Ungating Services: Some items, like clothing, fashion, and other apparel items are restricted and you’ll need approval from Amazon to sell them. If you’re interested in selling these types of products look into the many ungating services available, as they can help you unlock these categories.
Patents: If your product is especially unique it may be eligible for a patent. By filing a patent you can prevent other sellers or another company from copying your design.
Conclusion
If you’ve always dreamed of having your own unique brand and products now is the time to make it happen. Selling private label items on Amazon is an excellent business strategy and anyone can do it. And once you establish your brand you can create multiple products to sell with it to grow your business even further.
Plus, with the help of the AMZScout Web App and Pro Extension, you’ll have no trouble continually finding ideas for your next great private label product.
