Where to Buy Products to Sell on Amazon: 12 Proven Sources
In our hyper-connected world, there are countless places to sell products. This means there are also tons of different ways to buy products. While traditional sourcing methods like partnering with a wholesaler are still common, other ways of buying products are gaining popularity among sellers.
In this post, we’ll show you where to buy products to sell on Amazon and how you can determine the right products to sell.
How to Decide What Products to Sell
Before you can buy products to sell on Amazon, you first need to decide what products you want to sell. Naturally, you want to sell something that will make you money. So, it’s important to find products that have good profit potential.
The best way to see if something can be sold for profit is to do product research. Research will give you an idea of how many sales a product gets, how competitive its market is, and what you can expect to make on each sale.
There are several ways to do Amazon product research. One of the most common methods is to use a research tool like the AMZScout Dropshipping, Arbitrage, and Wholesale Extension. This Google Chrome add-on will show you important stats for information for products as you browse the Amazon marketplace.
Here is a short guide on how to use the tool:
Step 1: Install the extension. If you are new to the tool, you’ll get a free trial with access to the full sales data. All you need to sign up for the trial is an email address.
Step 2: Browse ideas on Amazon and scroll through search results. You can start by searching for a niche you find interesting or you can take a look at the current best sellers.
Step 3: Launch the extension and check the data under each product. With the extension installed, you can see the product’s margin, FBA fees, listing quality, estimated sales, and the number of other sellers.
Step 4: Focus on high-margin products with few sellers. As you scroll through the results, take note of products that have margins over 60% and only a few other sellers.
Step 5: Open the product page and check the additional information in the Extension. When you go to a specific product listing, the tool will show you more stats including how many Amazon sellers there are and whether the product is in a restricted category. You want to look for items that Amazon doesn’t sell as they are hard to compete with.
Now, you may be asking, where to begin your search if you don’t have any starting ideas. In this case, you scout new potential products using the AMZScout Product database. The tool provides extensive data for the items listed on Amazon and you can search based on dozens of criteria to quickly uncover products that meet your exact standards:
Here is how you can use the tool to find hot selling products:
Step 1: Start a free trial and open the Database. All you need to sign up is your email address.
Step 2: Set your criteria or use the Product Selections feature. To search for products, use the filters to specify your desired criteria. You can filter based on a variety of attributes including estimated sales, price, and more. If you don’t know what criteria to use, you can use one of the preset Selections.
Step 3: Click Find Products. The tool will take a moment to load matching products. Once it does, you want to review the results. Next to each product, you can see all the data points that were available as filters.
Step 4: Take notes on the most interesting. As you scroll through the results, write down and save the products that catch your eye or that have strong performance numbers.
Step 5: Compare the product sourcing costs vs Amazon prices. Search for the products you saved on a supplier site like Alibaba and compare their prices to what you find on Amazon. Checking supplier prices will ensure that you can get the product cheap enough to sell for profit.
By completing the following steps, you’ll find strong products to sell on Amazon. If you want more insight into a niche, you can analyze it further with the AMZScout PRO Extension. The tool provides a Niche Score for each product category showing how profitable and competitive it is.
12 Places to Get Products to Sell
Now that you know how to do product research, let’s see where to get products for your business. Here are the 12 best places to buy items to sell on Amazon:
1. Online B2B Marketplaces
Online business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces like Alibaba are websites that connect product suppliers and manufacturers with eCommerce sellers. Like a regular online shop, companies list their products and sellers can place their orders directly on-site. B2B marketplaces are a great choice when you need to buy things in bulk or want to find international suppliers at low prices.
2. Manufacturers
Manufacturers are responsible for crafting all of the physical items that you see on Amazon or any other marketplace. Going directly to a manufacturer is a great choice when you want to create your own branded products and sell private label. With a manufacturer, you can make the product exactly as you like and you don’t have to deal with extra costs from middlemen suppliers.
3. Brand Owners
If you use the wholesale sourcing method, one of the best ways to find stuff to sell is to reach out directly to the product’s brand owner. Buying products directly from brands comes with the advantage of lower-priced items. This is because you don’t need an intermediary supplier that will sell the items at a high price. However, working with brand owners can also be more challenging as you often need individual approval before the brand lets you sell its products.
4. Dropshipping Suppliers
Dropshipping is a business model where you have suppliers ship products directly to customers. With dropshipping suppliers, you can find a wide range of products and you have the benefit of not having to pay for products upfront. You also don’t have to store your own inventory or fulfill orders, which can make successfully running your business a lot easier.
Note, you won’t be able to use a dropshipping supplier if you’re looking for products to sell on Amazon FBA. This is because you need to send the physical products to Amazon in order to use the logistics service.
5. Handmade Products
Amazon Handmade is a program where individuals can list and sell their handmade goods on the Amazon marketplace. Obviously, any handmade item will be constructed yourself. That said, you will need to source the materials to create your handmade items. The best place to go for these materials will depend on the type of product you want to make.
6. Brick-and-Mortar Stores and Local Retailers
One way to get products to resell on Amazon is to buy items at a local, physical store and then list them on the online marketplace. This process is known as retail arbitrage and it's an effective way to start selling established products without much investment. However, this method of finding products is time-consuming and difficult to scale.
7. Flea Markets and Garage Sales
Flea markets and garage sales are great for scooping used or unwanted items. Buying from a garage sale is similar to arbitrage but you can often find products at much cheaper prices. That said, garage sales have their limitations as you can’t predict how long or how many of a product will be available.
8. Craiglist
Craigslist is a classified advertisement website where users can meet to buy and sell online. While it is not a traditional place to source products, it can be a good spot to find some unique offers. That said, it can be hard to build a long-term business around products you find on Craigslist. Many listings on the site are one-time offers for single products.
9. Online Stores
With online arbitrage, you can buy and sell products from other online marketplaces like eBay and Walmart. Using online stores for arbitrage is less time-consuming than perusing physical shops, but it is still difficult to scale. Online arbitrage also tends to result in low margins, as your product cost is likely going to be higher than had you found it through any other channel.
10. Amazon Return Pallets
When a customer returns an Amazon product, the seller has the choice to have it disposed of, sent back to them, or liquidated. Goods that are liquidated end up on Amazon Return Pallets. Amazon has a very lenient return policy so many sellers get returns for items that are still in new or good condition. Many choose to simply liquidate these unused products so they end up on return pallets. Amazon sells its Return Pallets and they can be a good way to find products for cheap.
11. Auctions
Auctions are another place to find unique products not typically offered by other sellers. They can also be good for getting products at low prices. If you procure items with low bids, you can potentially sell them for a substantial profit.
12. Reddit
While not its intended use, it is possible for users to list product offers on the Reddit social media site. You can find these products in dedicated, product-focused threads or in the comments of normal threads. Like some of the others on our list, Reddit can lead to unique product ideas but it’s not scalable or predictable.
Conclusion
Knowing how to get products from the best possible source can go a long way toward your success. With the list above, you’ll be able to find any product that your business wants to offer.
