Oct 26, 2020
Nate and Alysha Jackson are former teachers turned seven figure Amazon sellers who know what is like to start from nothing. They started their business selling on Amazon nearly four years ago flipping everyday things they found at Walmart and Target. After selling over $180,000 in their first year, they were hooked. They are commonly referred to as “the Bra People,” since they have sold more Kohls bras on Amazon than their house is worth. Their end goal was to be able to be stay at home foster parents. However, they never lost that teaching bug but now, instead of teaching in the classroom, they continue to build an online community and support group for those wanting to get rid of debt, quit their jobs, and be financially free.
If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon, you’ve probably noticed that there are literally millions of sellers using this platform to make money. But how do they do it? It can seem really overwhelming. My guest today, Nate Jackson, is here to share all the details of how he and his wife built a seven figure business selling on Amazon.
We’re talking about Amazon FBA. If you’ve heard the term but still have no idea what it means, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. First and foremost, FBA stands for Fulfilled By Amazon and what that means is that the products are bought and sold by sellers but are held at Amazon warehouses for distribution.
Now there are several ways to manage you’re FBA account but the two biggest are what’s known as “white labeling” and “retail arbitrage.” White labeling is when you purchase a new product from a supplier and sell that product on Amazon. Retail arbitrage, on the other hand, is what today’s guest specializes in. That’s where you purchase merchandise from retail sellers at steep discounts and then sell them on Amazon for a profit.
Selling on Amazon with arbitrage, instead of being a brand who sells their items directly to consumers, requiring a high investment and high risk strategy, you buy something from point A and then sell it on point B, ideally yielding a profit vs what your cost was. This has a much lower risk factor as you are buying and selling 1 of 100 different things instead of buying 100 of 1 thing. Another great perk to mention of Amazon’s FBA program is the use of their warehouse space. When Nate began his journey as a seller, he and his wife lived in a very small apartment with no room to store items to box and sell himself. So instead of self storage, he would send everything he purchased to an Amazon warehouse and then as customers purchased the items from his seller account, Amazon would package and send those orders.
Getting Started Selling On Amazon
Getting started, Nate only used $100, which was going to be he and his wives date money for two months and was no small sum at the time, however, small enough to not truly dent their day to day should it not work out. Their small gamble was rewarded quickly when within a month they were able to double that money which they then used to go back and buy more product, sell that, double again, and so on, repeating the process for the first year before realizing they didn’t need to continue their day jobs and this side hustle on top of it.
When picking products, Nate uses the Amazon Seller App, an app only available to those who created and made an Amazon seller account. Using the app, you can go to any store and scan labels to see their selling history on Amazon. Using the given data, you can see how well a product has sold, how long it took to sell, at what price it sold, and what fees are involved in selling the item in order to best estimate your possible ROI. This is how Nate continues to pick items he knows will sell. TIP: It’s not what you think people will want to buy, it’s what people are buying based on the data.
Kohls became a very profitable place to find merchandise, especially bras. Nate said when it comes to certain things, like undergarments, people likely already have the one they want and often times when ordering online, just want to find the exact same thing so they can have more of what they already like. This is how Nate and his wife went on to sell more than double the price of their house in bras alone. Further helping them bolster profit when using Kohls, as well as other retailers, they utilize stacking of discounts such as X-percent off, Kohls cash incentives, Kohls credit rewards, as well as $10 off of $40 promotions, bringing their cost even lower and their profits even higher.
Nate went on to emphasize that though this job is not easy, it is simple. Within that first year, or the growth phase of their business, Nate was spending around two hours a night and around ten hours on the weekends buying and shipping products. He had his goal set on building a business, not just having a side income. Again, going to a store, scanning every item on clearance and using the apps data to determine if it was a worthy investment was a tedious task but it was simple work.
Nate does advise against going into this business if you’re someone who needs money right now. There is a building period and it does take time. It is an inventory business, you have to have an initial investment, however little or much, and then inventory to sell in order to turn profit. If you’re looking for a side hustle where you can grow something over time, this could be the gig for you. If you have time, patience, and are able to roll your profits back into the business for a time, this could be a great set up.
If you are interested in selling on Amazon, Nate is offering an exclusive discount for the Side Hustle Teachers community. You can get 10% off of his most popular course on flipping items from Kohls by going to sidehustleteachers.com/nate and use the code SIDEHUSTLETEACHER10.