Is online arbitrage with Fulfillment by Amazon still viable?

[Bluefate]

Hi there,

So i'm looking into starting to sell on amazon. Whether it be fba or fbm, i'm wondering if it's still viable to do online arbitrage? If not, would it be viable to start with a budget of £5000 and buy products from wholesalers? Appreciate any advice

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

How can you do arbitrage via FBA?

 

[Pish_Pash]

How can you do arbitrage via FBA?

You buy something cheap, send it in to Amazon... then they post it out to Customers when it sells

Personally I don't think Arbitrage is workable/repeatable ...*unless* you happen to find something with significant potential profit (and hey, isn't everybody?)

My main concern would be ....is that Amazon will shut you down if any customer claims the product you sold was 'fake' *and* you can't show them valid Supplier Invoices (cos you got them from Dodgy Dave at the local Boot fair)...once your account is shutdown, that's goodnight Vienna.

 

[NewTime]

I went down this route 2 years ago.

It take a lot of time to understand it all and you realise what a machine Amazon is.

£5000 is no budget to do this.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

@Pish_Pash Hello stranger!

I know what it is, but when you add on the distribution costs (sending it to FBA, their processing costs etc) it makes traditional 'buy from supermarket and resell' generally unviable. Dispatching from home is different, but still marginal.

I am surprised by the amount of sites offering the get rich quick arbitrage solution, which, in the old days, we just called trading i.e. buy products in bulk and resell via various channels!