Kev Blackburn: Amazon FBA Wholesale (Top 9 Things to Know Before Starting This Biz)

So let's get started...

If you're new to this biz, FBA stands for Fulfillment by Amazon:

• You ship bulk inventory to Amazon Fulfillment Centers.
• As you sell products on Amazon, they ship them to the customer.

Below I'll review what Kev Blackburn says are the main points to consider if you want to be successful in Amazon FBA Wholesale.

And by the time you're done, you'll learn the Top 9 Things to Know Before Starting This Biz.

Amazon FBA Wholesale for Beginners – Top 9 Things 

Amazon FBA Wholesale for Beginners is an informative free video series. It especially helps you understand the basics of this business model.

Below, I break down the content and provide the Top 9 Things to Know.

# 1: Keep a Long-term Outlook

You should have a 10-year outlook when it comes to launching your FBA Wholesale business.

This is because there are important differences between Arbitrage, Wholesale and Private Label business models.

Arbitrage is a business-to-consumer (B2C) model. You are a reseller, looking for bulk deals online or at retail stores. It's often known as product flipping.

Wholesale, the topic of this review, is a business-to-business (B2B) model. You'll need to establish a relationship with a supplier, which takes time.

Private Label is a specialized B2B model and involves creating your own brand.

# 2: Establish a Real Business Operation

You must not look like a typical reseller. Actually, Amazon FBA should be just one leg of your wholesale biz.

To be taken seriously, you'll need a polished website and professional email address.

And it's best if you already sell product on your own website. This shows your company is a true e-commerce business.

These details let a supplier's account manager know you run a legit operation.

# 3: Have a Plan to Find Potential Suppliers

For prospecting, create a wholesale supplier shortlist.

Some industry trade show websites will display an exhibitor list. Search these lists for companies that may be open to new business.

Despite the recent pandemic, plan to start attending trade shows, because old-fashioned personal contact is still the best way to begin a relationship.

# 4: Open an Account with the Best Supplier

Before contacting your best prospects, build a strategy to present your business to that specific supplier, focusing on the value it will bring them.

Also, anticipate the questions your prospective suppliers will be asking.

In the end, always sell yourself as a full-scale e-commerce business.

Besides, you're not a true wholesaler until you've opened an account and executed an agreement.

# 5: Be Prepared before Placing a Wholesale Order

There are complexities in wholesale ordering that make it more difficult than finding a one-time bulk deal at a local big box store.

For instance, pay attention to minimum order quantities.

This will have a big impact on your start up costs, which I'll cover later.

In addition, if you change your mind, you can’t simply call back the supplier and tell them you're returning the order.

# 6: Learn how to Oversee the Supply Chain

Receiving large shipments is complicated.

In fact, receipt of the product is only the start.

You'll also need to consider warehouse operations and turnaround times.

Don't forget to devise a backup plan if your product doesn't sell. Because Amazon won't return or dispose of your inventory for free.

# 7: Compare Warehouse & Prep Service Options

Owning or leasing a warehouse is daunting indeed. You must have confidence in your business plan.

Alternatively, you can hire a prep service. This is what Kev Blackburn offers.

His operation will receive, inspect, prep, handle quality control, ship, store and fulfill bulk orders to Amazon.

Later, I'll provide more information on Kev's services and pricing.

# 8: Weigh the Pros & Cons of This Business Model

Overall, FBA Wholesale is a legit model that also has some drawbacks:

Pros

Cons

# 9: Why I Decided to Focus on Another Business Model

As I mentioned, I've had both successes and failures doing FBA Wholesale.

Going through those ups and downs, it made me consider the differences between this wholesale model and the lead generation model.

In lead generation, I can jump into any niche, rank a site and sell leads to the service providers.

On the other hand, with Amazon FBA, it's all dependent on product selection.

Even more, as I thought about it, I wouldn't have had the capital for FBA in the first place if I didn't have the financial foundation of my lead gen business.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, I have a few final thoughts for you:

• Pay attention to those substantial minimum order quantities. You'll be ordering cases, not units, and must be prepared to receive pallets.
• Remember you'll also need to store those large, bulk shipments.
• Also, you'll have to repackage those products yourself before shipping them to Amazon.

Kev Blackburn's prep service will do all that for you: His operation will receive, inspect, prep (bubble wrap, bag, label, etc.), handle quality control, ship, store & fulfill bulk orders to Amazon.

• At the time of this review, Kev's prep service offered the following pricing (for a Platinum Partner):
  • $270 per month membership fee
  • $0.60 per unit fee (covering all processing listed above)
  • $3.40 per box fee (covering all processing listed above)
  • Other fees (extended storage, Amazon returns, etc.) may apply
• The above amounts are approximate and converted from British pounds. Please contact Kev's prep service directly for official pricing information.
• Kev now has warehouses in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Conclusion: Can you launch an FBA Wholesale biz by viewing free videos?

I suppose you could – if you become obsessed with learning additional details on your own.

And if you plan to go the free route, Kev Blackburn certainly shares a lot of his knowledge. In fact, Kev's YouTube commenters give him big thumbs up.

Above all, Kev is sincere and presents information in a straightforward way. And that's why he makes it clear this free video series isn't a full-scale training.

Instead, Kev refers you to a paid course for full-scale training: Wholesale Academy by Larry Lubarsky. You can read more about it here.

But you need to ask yourself a more basic question: Should I pursue an Amazon FBA Wholesale business at all?

Why I Prefer Lead Gen Over FBA Wholesale

Personally, I have found local lead generation to be better than FBA Wholesale.

As I said above, Amazon is difficult to get started on with low levels of capital.

Anything below $10K is just wishful thinking because when you start your business, you'll spend:

And...if you decide you need more than Kev's free online resources, you'll spend another $1K-5K to purchase a full-scale FBA training course.

Why I don't do FBA Anymore

There you have a basic budget to start on Amazon and you're in the range of $10K-15K (depending on whether or not you decide to buy a course).

Certainly, you can apply for a loan.

But let's be real, who wants to do that?

With local lead gen, I don’t have a quarter of the expenses in contrast to FBA.

But my profits with lead gen have remained steady since 2015 (a lot steadier than my Amazon FBA biz).

This site above has been making me $2,000 per month since 2015.

Most importantly, there's hardly any maintenance, so I just keep building more of these sites.

In summary, here are the 6 basic steps of the lead generation process:

To sum up, both of my businesses have taken me a lot of work.

But my local lead gen business was much easier to scale to $52K per month.

Simply put, it's because of the process I learned through this course.

The way my local lead business works is that I generate leads for local businesses, giving them opportunities to make money helping the customer.