Hello Amazers!
We all know Amazon is one of the biggest companies of the world
and also a very popular online marketplace
But many sellers have forgotten an important fact about Amazon.
That is - Amazon started its journey with a very small online book selling store
Today there are millions of products on Amazon
But still,
book is the second most profitable category of Amazon.
And very big revenue share of Amazon
is generated by these books.
So, today I will tell you almost everything
related to book selling on Amazon.
Like how to sell books on Amazon,
Where can you purchase book from to sell on Amazon,
Which books will give you most profit,
Which books you should definitely stay away from,
Can you sell books on Amazon without GST,
Some secrets and tips,
and finally I will answer the golden question,
Is selling books on Amazon actually profitable?
My name is Sorabh! You are watching Amazing Marketer
Lets learn something new today.
Before moving ahead, make sure to subscribe to this channel
so that you don't miss any videos in future.
Now I have a question for you
Can you sell books on Amazon without GST?
Let me know in comments by typing Yes or No.
So lets start this video with some key facts.
Fact #1:
50% of book sales are controlled by Amazon.
Books is the second most profitable category on Amazon.
And Amazon is increasing its market share significantly year over year.
Fact #2: 83% Buyers are happy with Amazon.
Why?
Because customer service is the top most priority for Amazon.
If the customer is happy, he will purchase repeatedly from Amazon.
and that will make you good profit as well.
Fact Number 3: 86% of Amazon Sellers are profitable.
and 67% new sellers become profitable in the first year itself.
Now lets talk about how to sell books on Amazon.
If you want to sell books on Amazon and make a good side income,
then precisely, keep aside 1 Hr 57 Min per day for your Amazon business.
Why?
As per the research conducted by The Hustle,
to create a successful side income or side business, you require 11 hours per week.
That means approximately 2 hours per day depending upon whether you work 5 days a week or 6 days.
But if you are damn serious to sell books on Amazon, then I would suggest you keep aside 2 hours per day
for your Amazon Business.
And in these 2 hours focus only on selling books on Amazon.
So, to sell books on Amazon, first you will have to create an Amazon Seller Account.
for which I have already created a video.
You can see the link in i-card above or in the description below.
Next step is you have to list your books.
This will take you hardly 4-5 minutes
For this you will need the ISBN of the book.
And you will add this number in the Catalog section of your Dashboard
Almost all books are already listed on Amazon.
So, I don't think you will face any problem in this process.
Once you see your book in the search result,
first and foremost, you will have to select its condition.
You have 2 options for conditions on this page
That is New and Used
Once you select any option, you will click on Sell on Amazon
Amazon will refer you further to more details page
After that you have to give 3 primary informations
First, Price of the Book. Second, Quantity of the Book, Third, Condition of the Book.
And when you submit all 3 information on Amazon,
after that in some time, your books
will be listed on Amazon and ready to sell.
Before moving ahead, I will tell you about ISBN and acceptable conditions of the Books
Full form of ISBN is Internation Standard Book Number
This is a unique number which is given to every book
So in clear terms, every ISBN represents a book
This is usually of 10 digits or 13 digits
All the books
that have been published after 1 Jan 2007, on all those it is 13 digit unique number.
You will find this at the back of the book.
Now lets talk about what conditions of the book are accepted by Amazon.
Amazon usually gives 5 options
Option #1: New
As the name suggests, these books are absolutely new, unopened, unmarked
And its wrapping is also maintained
So, there is no wear tear on this book. This is a fresh new book
So you will list this type of book in New category
Option #2: Used-Like New
In this case, there can be slight wear and tear on the outside wrapping
But the original packing should be intact
There should be no damage on the book
There should be no marks or wear and tear of any kind.
So, you will list this type of book in Used-Like New.
Option #3: Used - Very Good
Those books that have been used less.
These are in readable condition. There is not much wear and tear
There should be no mark and no damage
and the book should be complete
You will put this book in Used-Very Good Condition
Option #4: Used-Good
Those books, in which wear and tear is beacuse of constant use
but the condition of book is ok.
There can be markings on the book
but the book should be complete.
Option #5: Used-Acceptable
Those books whose condition is very bad with lot of wear and tear
but the book is complete and there is no problem in reading it.
So, in these books, wear and tear is allowed,
markings are allowed,
corners could be torn,
scratches can be there,
but book should be such that there is no problem reading it.
So, you can list this type of book in this category.
Now lets talk about where you can purchase the book from to sell on Amazon
For this, there are basically 5 methods
Method #1: Scanning Method
This is one of the most popular method
In this, you scan the ISBN code of a book using the Amazon Seller App
The moment you scan the ISBN code,
immediately,
Price and Best Seller Rank of that book will appear.
On the basis of that you can decide
if you can make a profit by selling this book or not.
Although this method is effort intensive and hective, as scanning each and every book
its not an easy job.
Method #2: Online Arbitrage
This method is followed by most sellers, specially in India.
In this method, you purchase the books from any other online marketplace or website
Like India Mart, Trade India
Ebay
any other website.
And after purchasing from there,
after adding your commission, you resell that book on Amazon.
Method #3: Bulk Purchase / Wholesale
As the name suggests,
In this case, you purchase the books in bulk
that too at super low price
You can buy this type of books directly from publishers or wholesalers
In this case, you can make the most profit.
As you have purchased the book in bulk and at very cheap price.
Method #4: Sell your own books
This is one of the simplest method to start your Amazon book selling business.
Check at your home, which are those books that are gathering dust.
Which are those books that you have already read and will not use further.
In this case, you can sell everything - old text books, comics, novels
So this is a good method, in which, the books that you have already read, or are not required, or want to give to someone,
you can sell those on Amazon
to make a good enough profit
Method #5: Free Books
Yes, you can sell Free books also, on Amazon.
Where will you get these books?
These books you will find at websites like craiglist, Facebook marketplace or Facebook Groups.
Many sellers use these type of websites to discard their inventory.
But you have to a bit careful
because it is possible that,
the sellers who want to discard their inventory,
these books may be those that have not sold on Amazon.
so you will have to do some research
the books that you are thinking to sell and the books you are getting for free,
will that sell on Amazon or not.
Before going forward, one very important information -
Hear this information carefully.
You can use any of these 5 methods to purchase the books
But you have to remember one thing that whichever method you use to purchase the books, you must take the invoice with it.
Name of the book should be clearly written on that invoice.
On that invoice, the supplier details,
their name, contact details,
GST number, everything should be there.
This is very important.
so that you don't face any problems in future in your Amazon Business
Along with invoice, you should also have Brand Authorization Letter
If you don't have the brand authorization letter,
then try that you purchase the book from an authorized supplier.
because if you don't have the Brand Authorization Letter or Invoice,
then mark my words, the day Amazon audits your account,
it will be suspended.
So make sure, when selling on Amazon in any category
having brand authorization letter
and invoices is mandatory.
Now lets talk about which types of books sell most on Amazon.
Type #1: Text Books
If there is any Gold Standard in case of Used Books,
then no one can beat Text Books
These books are in demand throughout the year.
And sales of these books overshoot as the school and college exams approach.
At this time, students do not bother about the high price either.
And absolutely do not like waiting.
So you can make a good enough profit by selling Text Books
In case of Text Books, many people are also looking for 1st editions or older editions.
So if you have that,
then by selling it, you can make even more profit.
There is only one issue in this case
Sometimes, publishers brand gate these types or categories of books.
Brand Gate means
that any non-certified seller
can not sell used or new books
So this is a small issue with the text books.
Type #2 - Niche Books
Those books which are printed in less quantity
and part of large collection
These books can generate good profits due to lack of comepition.
For e.g., a long ago I have make a good profits
by selling Dungeons & Dragons books.
I simply bought it from eBay
& resell it on Amazon.
Type #3 - Comic Books, You can sell comic books on Amazon.
whether is single issue or graphic novel
you can make a decent profit by selling books.
and in case you have collectible issue then, you can obviously make more profit.
Type #4 - Non-Fiction
Non-fiction books perform well w.r.t fiction books
but that doesn't mean, fiction books are absolutely useless.
Based on my experience,
fiction books lose out its value
quickly w.r.t non-fiction books.
Type #5 - Hardcovers
The price of hardcover books are higher than paper books
and are more valuable.
so, obvoously you can make more profits by selling these.
Now, lets talk about books you should stay away from.
but before that, an important information.
If you want your amazon account or get your listing optimized
to be managed by Amazing Marketer team
or you want to get trained from me to grow your amazon business
then, do visit the Amazing Marketer website.
Now, let's get back to the topic, types of books don't sell well on Amazon
and you should stay away from.
Type #1 - Fiction
As I have mentioned, performance of fiction book is
poor w.r.t. non-fiction books
There are certain reasons behind it.
Reason #1
Fiction books have high print runs.
means
there are more copies in circulation.
So, if the quantity of books are high
then, competition will be high as well.
Reason #2 - After reading the fiction book, readers usually pass on the books or resell it
on the other hand, readers kept the non-fiction books to themselves
to refer again & again
Reason #3
The cover price of fiction book
is low w.r.t non-ficiton book
Type #2 - Cook Books
Cook books performs poorly on amazon.
Don't even think about these in your dreams.
The reason is might be Youtube and other video platforms where people like to see and learn about food
So, obviously it is easier to cook food by watching than reading.
So, this is the reason
or this might be the reason behind the poor performance of cook books.
Type #3 - Mass Market Paperbacks
Cook books perform poor on amazon but
here comes the worst, Mass Market Paperbacks
Why?
It has high print run means high number of copies in circulation
that ultimately leads to super high competition.
It has very low price.
I have seen many book sellers on Amazon to sell these books at a loss
So, stay away from these books.
Type #4 - Popular New Books
Any kind of new books
whether non-fiction, comic,
or any best seller
I would highly advise you
to stay away from popular newly launched books
why? Because you have to compete with Amazon itself.
and it's next to impossible to beat amazon in price.
So, it's better to stay away from newly launched books.
So, before moving to the next section,
let me answer one of the most important question which most of the sellers asked me on day-to-day basis
can I sell books withour GST number?
The answer is Yes, you can sell books without GST number on Amazon India
Books comes under GST exempt category
so you don't require any kind of GST number,
and you sell books without GST number.
Now, let me tell some secrets & tips related to book selling
Tip #1
Seasonality Matters
As we all know, sales increase on festivals and holidays.
Similarly, Books also have a busiest month.
Though books sell throughout the year.
but, upsurge has been observed in the month of November.
Might be due to christmas
Book sales boost on festivals like Father's day & Rakshabandhan
Tip #2 - Check BSR before selling books on Amazon
BSR - Best Seller Rank
This is one of the best method to decide
which book can be sold or not.
Most of the seller think, if the BSR is good
then they can sell more
However, it not always like that
Good BSR means book is popular
and high popularity means high competition
So, there are chances
that you might have to sell your books on reasonable profits
or neck-to-neck in which you hardly make any profit.
On the other hand, if the BSR is not good
then, there are chances
you might didn't get any single order
because demand of that book is obviously low.
So, here is the pro tip
if you want to choose BSR for any book
then always
select BSR from 10,000 to 2,00,000
This is the best range to start with.
Tip #3 - Maintain & list the book in the right conditions
If you are a avid reader or read lots of books
then try to maintain the condition of books
so that you can resell those books on Amazon
and make some profits.
Now, the answer of golden question
is selling books on Amazon profitable?
The short answer is, Yes, it can be worth it
The long answer is, Yes, it can be worth it if you do your homework properly
You have to follow each & every guidelines & policies
this includes
your pricing, your resource, your time, your effort
and your sweet spot in your niche
You can earn INR 200 or 2000 or 20,000 or even more
by selling books on amazon
Every body has different measurement of success
but I think
if you can create a side income or side business by just working 1 hr 57 min daily
so, it's not a bad deal
It is possible, from your side income, you might fund your next vacations
or you might purchase your next high end mobile phone.
and there might be chances if you work hard, you can convert this part time income into full time income
You may become 6-figure amazon seller or 7-figure amazon seller like me.
So, I would suggest, 2 hrs per day
you can easily take out for your amazon business
This is it in this video.
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And finally, Keep Selling Keep Smiling!