RMRB 1377 – Building an Amazon FBM Business Making $67K per Year in the Apparel & Accessories Niche

In this episode, Lauren talks to the seller of an Amazon FBM, Amazon FBA, and eCommerce business created in December 2017 in the apparel & accessories niche. Listen in to find out how the business makes an average of $67,940.00 per year in net profit, why the seller has decided to sell, the lessons learned from running the business, and much more.

Visit https://empireflippers.com/listing/97135 to learn more about this business.

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Transcript

Forget gurus. Forget anyone claiming to be an online business expert without going through the challenges of entrepreneurship themselves. The Real Money, Real Business Podcast is here to prove that the best insights in online business come from your fellow online business builders.

We dig into stories of entrepreneurs selling their businesses on the Empire Flippers Marketplace so that you can learn how they made their businesses profitable, how they overcame obstacles, and what lessons they learned in their online journey. If you want to take your business and your knowledge to the next level, you've come to the right podcast. Let's get started.

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Real Money, Real Business Podcast. We record these interviews so that potential buyers can learn more about the business and the seller to help them make an informed buying decision.

If you would like to learn more about this business, including details like what type of business it is, how much revenue and profit it makes, and all of the assets included with the business, simply visit empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and in the description. Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can click the link in the description to go straight to the listing.

So, without further ado, let's get into this interview.

First up, let's learn a little bit about you. Can you tell us about your background in building and running online businesses?

I started the business in 2017, selling on Amazon from nothing. We built a catalog of over 1,200 parent listings. I have a lot of experience in this segment on Amazon, researching current trends and sending the right products to Fulfillment by Amazon at the right time.

In our peak years, we would get about half a million dollars in sales a year from Amazon. Since I opened another business, we stopped sending products to Amazon and do only Fulfillment by Merchant. We have a lot of good SKUs that can be sent to Prime and bump up the sales instantly.

The business is very steady, the account is healthy, and we've been running it that way for years.

Why are you selling the business now instead of keeping it and growing it further?

I've been running this Amazon seller account since 2017, and I put all my time into it—six or seven years full time. I've been printing, shipping, and packing, and it was very, very lucrative. It was a very good business, and it still is, but my passion is in the automotive industry.

I recently moved to Texas and opened a new business, and that took most of my time. So instead of letting the business stay stagnant, I'd rather sell it and have somebody else grow it and give it the attention it deserves.

The business is really good. If you put your time and effort into it and you like doing it, you will see that it is already producing good results. I'm only putting about 15 hours a week into it right now. Taking it to full time, putting 30 or 40 hours a week into it, keeping up with the trends, uploading new designs, and sending your best SKUs to Amazon Prime could take the business back up to the higher numbers we did back in 2020 and 2021.

I'd rather see it go to a person who wants to put 100% of their time into it. This business was my baby. I made all of the designs myself, and I handled customer service myself. It's a really, really good business.

I don't want to say it's neglected, because I'm not neglecting it. I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do to keep it running, but the potential is huge for the right person.

Can you describe the amount and type of work that you do on this business to maintain it?

To maintain the business, there are things you have to do daily. You get into your office, shop, garage, or wherever you want to set up your shop. You open your Amazon seller account and see the orders that came in and have to be shipped out that day.

You look at your seller account and orders, buy the shipping labels directly from Amazon, and print them out. You see which orders came in and print the items, which is very easy. Usually, they're blank T-shirts, blank onesies, or blank hoodies. You pick up the design, which comes pre-printed as a decal or direct-to-fabric design. You heat-press it, peel it, fold it, pack it, put the label on it, and, at the end of the day, drop it off or set up a pickup from the post office, UPS, or FedEx.

So, that's the basic work you need to do to maintain it. Now, if you want to grow it, you will need to pick up the best SKUs. We have SKUs with over 400 positive, five-star reviews. We have a lot of holiday designs, Father's Day designs, and St. Patrick's Day designs.

You will need to pick the best SKUs, pre-print them, pack them, and send them out to Amazon Prime, and they will do the rest. As far as growing it even more, you've got to keep up with the trends. Whatever is trending right now, you can make a T-shirt design, sweatshirt design, or holiday design for it. The earlier you do it, the better.

If you pick up on a trend early and post it on the Amazon catalog, the algorithm will recognize you as one of the first. Your listing will show up in the search, and you will start seeing sales immediately for that item. The more you do that on a daily basis, the more you're going to grow your catalog and the more revenue you're going to receive.

You also have a lot of flexibility, since most of the designs are printed on the same blank apparel. For example, a design can be printed on a black T-shirt across the whole catalog. So, you don't have to invest in inventory or make a hundred of each design. You can just make a design and upload it.

Once the sales start to come in, you can decide, “Okay, this design is a winner. Let's send it to Amazon Prime.” Then you pre-print about five or six of each size, send them to Amazon, and keep replenishing the inventory. This gives you a lot of flexibility, since you don't have to sit on merchandise.

All of our merchandise is from the USA. We have an account with S&S Activewear. You can order your supplies and get them delivered the next day. It's very easy. You don't have to sit on merchandise, which gives you a lot of flexibility.

Other than that, customer service is key on Amazon. If any customer complains about the size not being right or the design not being to their liking, you have to address it immediately. You have to make sure you ship your stuff on time.

That is the number one thing with Amazon. You come in in the morning, see the sales that came in, and you have to ship everything that comes in before 2 p.m. on the same day. That's the number one thing you have to do to run the business.

If you were to keep this business, what are some of the ways you would try to grow it?

If we were to keep the business, obviously we would replenish all of our Fulfillment by Amazon inventory. Again, we have a lot of good SKUs that are already proven in the Amazon catalog. We would just print them and ship them back to Amazon Prime.

The difference in sales is huge when you have a Prime item versus Fulfillment by Merchant. On top of that, we would keep uploading new designs and keeping up with the trends. We would make sure to send Amazon the correct products in the correct season.

For example, for St. Patrick's Day, we have a lot of designs that are very good. Usually, we would send them to Amazon in early February or even late January, so Amazon can receive them, check them in, and have them ready to sell about a month before the season.

That way, you have a lot of inventory with Amazon and can make sure you sell it during the correct season. The same goes for Father's Day, Mother's Day, and Christmas. Just keep up with the trends, make new designs, keep shipping to Amazon, and that's it.

Right. What would you say are the biggest risks with this business that buyers should be aware of?

I don't see a lot of risk in the business, because it is set up in a way that allows you to keep expanding your catalog without investing a lot of money.

A typical business might want to sell a product, such as a cell phone case. They have to buy the inventory for that specific cell phone case. If a case for a new phone comes out, they have to buy more. They might say, “Okay, I'm going to buy 100,000 of this case and 50,000 of that case,” and that's going to cost them a certain amount of money. When a new phone comes out, they have to buy more cases.

So, to expand and grow that type of business, you have to invest money into products. This business is set up differently. You can keep expanding your catalog without buying the actual products. All you need is your blank apparel, which you use across your entire catalog.

On top of that, you need to create a design and make it into a decal, which is very inexpensive. It costs about 25 cents per decal. You can order anywhere from one to a hundred to a thousand decals. It's very, very cheap.

You can keep growing the business, expanding, and putting time into making new designs without putting a lot of money into it. Then, when you have a winner, you can say, “Okay, this design is really good. I want to send Amazon Prime about 100 pieces of it. Let me pre-print them.”

That is when you actually put some money into it, but the design is already proven. It's already showing you that it's going to sell, so you don't have to invest in advance and hope that you're going to sell it.

Financially, the business is very, very good. It gives you the flexibility to grow without putting a lot of money into it.

As far as risk, there is always risk when selling on Amazon. Amazon is always changing its rules and regulations, and there are always new things that you have to keep up with. There are risks involving shipping times, customer service, and returns. There is always risk when selling on Amazon.

But if you have some experience with Amazon and know the basics, this account has been running since 2017, and we have never had an issue. Never. No deactivation, no problems. You just have to keep up.

You have to read the new rules and regulations, read the forums, and make sure you know what you're doing. Most importantly, you have to ship your products on time.

If you're getting Fulfillment by Merchant orders, you have to ship them on time. If you're getting orders and don't ship them on the same day they come in before 2 p.m., you will quickly get deactivated. You have to keep up with the basics of Amazon, and you're going to be fine.

How much support are you willing to offer the buyer who acquires this business?

Like I said before, this business is really my baby. I started it when I was in a bad spot in my life, and it enabled me to open my new business, which is really my passion.

I'm willing to offer a lot of support. I can do a week of on-site training where I go to your location. I'll show you how to run the account, how to print, and how to pack. I'll give you all the tricks and information that I learned over the years to keep the business running and grow it.

I will show you how to handle FBA shipments, customer service, how to make new designs, and how to research new designs. I'm going to give you all of the information I have learned, which took me many, many years to learn.

Other than that, I'm always available over the phone. You can give me a call, and I will gladly help you with whatever you need.

Are you open to negotiating something like an earn-out agreement?

No, I would not be open to that. I'm looking for a clean sale for the agreed amount. Once the sale is done, I have no control over the new buyer or how they run the account or what they decide to do with it.

Once you take over the account, you have the responsibility of maintaining it and keeping it in good standing. I will not be able to control it, so I'm not comfortable with that payment structure.

Okay, final question. If you had to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer, why is your business worth buying?

It's worth buying because you are getting into Amazon with a proven catalog that is immediately going to generate revenue for you. You don't need to build it from scratch.

We have a lot of SKUs that are ranking well and selling daily. During the holiday season, we have a lot of winners that sell very well. Going into an account with positive feedback on Amazon, a proven account that has been running for years, and a large catalog of products gives you the ability to immediately start generating revenue and building the business.

Opening a brand-new account is going to take you months and months before you start seeing any revenue. I did it, so I know what it's like. In the beginning, you're not seeing any sales, and it's hard to keep up. Especially nowadays, there is a lot of competition.

You're going into an account that is proven and brand-protected. You're getting a trademark on the brand name. Nobody can hijack your SKUs, so you always have the Buy Box. There are no other sellers selling the items, and everything you keep uploading will work the same way.

You create a new design, upload it, and you're the only one on that listing. You're never going to have to worry about somebody hijacking your listing. So, there are a lot of advantages to coming into an already-proven seller account.

All right, everyone, thanks for listening. To learn more and see if this business is still for sale, head over to empireflippers.com/marketplace and search for this business's listing number, which you can find in the video thumbnail and description.

Or, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the link in the description to go straight to the listing. Once you've unlocked this listing, you'll find everything you need to know about this business.

Thanks for joining us. See you next time.