3 More Ways to Increase Amazon FBA Arbitrage Sales

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Thrifters, retail and online arbitragers, I'm talking to you. Once you’ve sent your inventory in to an Amazon fulfilment centre, it’s not just a case of sitting and waiting for it to sell (as nice as that would be). Other work can be done. Many think that repricing is all they can do to trigger sales. Yes, it’s a big factor. If you’ve done all of your research properly, price tend to be the thing that catalyses more sales. However, there’s a lot more to it than that.

Here are three underused ways to drive more conversions for your FBA business:

1. Amazon Sponsored Ads

If you have products that you know there’s a demand for, but the search algorithm’s ignoring, you can spend a few pounds to drive more visibility to it. It’s the ideal way to quickly shift something you have a high quantity of, and you have a strong profit margin on. A well-targeted ad could trigger sales, helping you turn the stock over far quicker than if you were to leave it sitting there.

I’ve heard people laugh at arbitragers that use paid search, completely overlooking how cheap it can be to catalyse sales for the ASIN. Done well, it could be used to create a portfolio of fast-moving products in your inventory. Read up on PPC before you get into this, but the hands off automatic campaigns seem to do their job, without you having any keyword research at all.

If you enjoy having more control, head over to Keyword.io to get an idea what people search to get to your products. It's free.

Spent £0.05 to make a £39.99 product sell in 12 hours, after it had been sat in the inventory for 90 days. (Sale isn't showing yet) pic.twitter.com/erKVE79roF

— Chiino (@ProbablyBusy) 24 July 2017

2. Improve your keywords

Slow-moving inventory is as such because it’s #1 – too competitive, #2 – too expensive or #3 – has too few eyeballs on it. To resolve the latter, you need to get your SEO hat on. Keywords bring the traffic in, so it’s up to you to make adjustments to the listings which will bring in potential buyers. There are plenty of tools out there to help you do this. Although they’re mainly for private label and Kindle Publishing sellers, they are just as effective for online and retail arbitragers.

Ultimately, you’re doing Amazon’s/the brand your selling’s job here, but if it requires minimal effort and increases your sales, that’s all that matters. Again, Keyword.io is helpful for this.

3. Increase your prices

Believe it or not, being slightly above the current lowest Buy Box price can actually help you earn it. We all know by now that the lowest FBA offer tends to get the highest proportion of Buy Box visibility, but the algorithm also shares it with those slightly above it too. This technique only works on ASINs with low FBA competition (so not ones with 10 offers at the same price), but is a proven way to keep your listings in view of buyers, without sparking a repricing war with other sellers.

Undercutting the Buy Box price by a penny is always a bad move on Amazon. Remember that you can get the same results by going up instead of down.

Time for a Strategy Change?

Get creative with your Amazon listings. If a product isn’t selling as quickly as you want it to, you don’t have to drop the price. There are other ways to convert, without dipping too deep into your margins. For those constantly trialling new SKUs in new categories, you’re going to come across a few duds. After all, the broader your sourcing is, the quicker you’ll learn what does and doesn’t drive profit and turn over in a timely way. Once you’ve got that side on lock, these sorts of tactics can be used far less frequently.

Now go get that CVR up.