20 Amazon Business Ideas to Help You Make Money Online

Amazon is the largest online marketplace on the globe, and profitable Amazon business opportunities abound.

If you're considering starting your own business, you really can't go wrong building a business on Amazon, the world's leading online retailer.

There are Amazon business opportunities to fit every budget, and plenty of resources on this website from Amazon affiliates, FBA, retail arbitrage, and more.

Why Start an Amazon Business?

The main benefit of starting an Amazon business is glaringly obvious: it's the biggest online marketplace in the world.

As of June 2021, Amazon received over 2.45 billion monthly visits around the world.

On top of that, there are over 200 million Amazon Prime members, and 2021 Prime Day sales reached a whopping $11.79 billion dollars.

On top of Amazon being the biggest online marketplace on the globe, there are multiple business opportunities and business types you can start that relate to the platform.

From zero-cost Amazon business opportunities to fully-fledged physical product-selling companies, the business ideas are almost endless.

20 Best Amazon Business Ideas to Start ASAP

Whether you want to start an Amazon business with no investment up-front or you're ready to go all-in, here's a list of 20 great Amazon business opportunities to start ASAP!

1. Start an Amazon FBA Business

FBA stands for “Fulfillment by Amazon”, and it's pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

As an Amazon FBA seller, you have your own business selling physical products through Amazon, but you don't have to worry about storing or shipping the products.

FBA is one of the most popular Amazon business opportunities out there because it's low-cost to start and can be highly profitable. All you need is around $500 for the initial inventory.

There are plenty of articles on this website about Spencer's incredible successes with Amazon FBA, which you can read here.

To start, first you should choose a niche or find profitable products.

We recommend JungleScout to see how well competing products are selling on the platform. NichePursuits readers get a discount!

Next, you sign up for an Amazon Seller account and ship your products to the warehouse they select for you, and you can begin selling!

When customers purchase your product on Amazon, it will be packaged and shipped directly from the Amazon warehouse.

This enables your customers to get Prime shipping and Amazon also handles the returns for you. It's a win-win!

2. Start a Retail Arbitrage Business

Retail Arbitrage is an FBA-type business opportunity. With this type of business, you are a 3rd-party seller on the platform and you source your inventory yourself through local retail stores.

You can focus on one niche or sell a variety of products, it's up to you.

It works like this:

• You go shopping at local retail and department stores like Walmart, Target, TJMaxx, etc
• Using a scanner app, scan discounted products to see what they're selling for on Amazon
• Purchase the products with a wide profit margin (ie they're selling for more on Amazon than your purchase price + shipping)
• Ship the product to Amazon's warehouse to sell for profit

To start, you need a few hundred dollars to purchase your starting inventory.

3. Self Publish Books on Amazon KDP

KDP stands for “Kindle Direct Publishing”, which is Amazon's publishing platform. You can self-publish e-books, paperback, and hardcover books, without providing anything other than the book content and cover images.

This is a great Amazon business opportunity! It requires little to no money to get started, and you don't even have to be a writer. You can hire a writer on a website like Fiverr and get started immediately!

Here's a broad overview of self-publishing on Amazon KDP:

• Choose a niche, do market research, and plan your book
• Write your book (or have it written for you) and title it
• Have your book proofread and edited
• Design a cover or hire a designer
• Choose a price, upload your book, write your description, and start selling!

The process really is as simple as that.

If you're starting an Amazon KDP business on a low budget, you can save money by writing the book yourself and hiring a low-cost designer using a platform like Fiverr.

Since your book cover will be a key factor in helping to sell your book, hiring a designer should be something you spend money on unless you're a designer yourself.

Everything else can be done on your own if you're on a budget!

4. Sell Low or No Content Books with KDP

Low and no content books are books like notebooks, journals, and planners. You can sell low and no content books on KDP and easily make them yourself.

The process for selling low content and no content books is very similar to the process for writing books to sell on KDP.

This process involves choosing a niche, doing market research, designing the book interior, choosing a cover, uploading, and titling your product.

5. Affiliate Marketing with Amazon Associates

The affiliate marketing program with the Amazon Associates Program is one of the most popular Amazon business opportunities. The Amazon Associates Program is easy to join and doesn't require any money to get started.

To have the most chance of success, we recommend starting your own niche website. The cost to start a niche website is around $10/yr for a domain name and around $5/mo for hosting.

As an Amazon Associate, you can promote any product on Amazon with a special affiliate link. Anytime someone purchases the Amazon product through your affiliate link, Amazon pays you a commission.

Amazon commission percentages range from 1% – 10% depending on the product category. While that might not seem like a lot, it can really add up!

6. Start a Product Photography Business

If you have an eye for photography or product display, starting a product photography business or even just a stock photography business might just be the best Amazon business opportunity for you.

Many Amazon sellers without the resources or skills hire product photographers to showcase their products in a variety of ways from showing off the details to lifestyle photography and more.

If you already have the camera gear, costs to start a product photography business for Amazon sellers will be minimal (and we have a list of photography business name ideas if you'd like some help brainstorming).

Learn more about starting a product photography business from Expert Photography here. 

7. Start an Amazon Delivery Service Partner Business

Did you know you can start your very own Amazon package delivery business? This is called the Amazon DSP program, or Amazon Delivery Service Partner program

If you want to start a full-fledged Amazon package delivery business complete with your own fleet of delivery drivers, you can.

The startup costs come out to around $10,000. On average, you will manage between 20 – 40 leased Amazon delivery vans and a team of drivers that deliver packages 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

This is a legitimate Amazon business opportunity that you set up with Amazon directly, but it's not for the faint of heart!

8. Become an Amazon Flex Delivery Driver

If starting an entire Amazon delivery business with a whole fleet of vehicles and drivers sounds overwhelming, you can still make money as an Amazon delivery driver yourself.

The Amazon Flex program is like an Uber or DoorDash for Amazon packages.

This is a gig-style business where you use your own vehicle and set your own hours to drive as an Amazon package delivery driver.

The process of getting started is simple. Requirements include being 21 or older with a valid driver's license and a mid-size to large vehicle.

The pay ranges from $18 to $25 an hour and this can be a pretty decent side hustle if you live in an area that needs Flex drivers.

9. Start an Amazon Virtual Assistant Business

If you'd rather be behind the scenes, consider starting an Amazon Virtual Assistant business.

Amazon Virtual Assistants can help busy Amazon sellers in many ways. Sellers can often find themselves overwhelmed with the day-to-day tasks of running an Amazon business. Here are some tasks you can do as an Amazon Virtual Assistant:

• Product research
• Competitor analysis
• Product listing optimization
• Product sourcing
• Customer service
• Inventory management
• Creating content and graphics for brand-building
• Social media marketing
• Amazon advertising
• Amazon SEO

If you'd rather create a service-based business instead of running your own Amazon store or business, becoming an Amazon Virtual Assistant is a viable and legitimate option.

10. Start an Amazon Product Copywriting Business

Product descriptions and stellar copywriting are crucial components of selling a product.

How many times have you seen an Amazon listing with a jumbled description, obvious non-native English, or spelling and grammar atrocities?

Great copywriting can take a potential customer from product consideration to sold in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Amazon copywriters work with sellers to write high-converting product titles and descriptions.

Copywriting is an art and something you'll need to learn by studying things like the best copywriting websites or have previous experience with to be successful .

11. Start an Amazon Seller Consulting Business

If you have experience with your own Amazon business and want to help other sellers have success, consider starting an Amazon Consulting business.

This Amazon business opportunity isn't for the inexperienced. To truly help other Amazon business owners succeed, you need a proven track record of success as an Amazon seller.

Learn what businesses look for in an Amazon consultant here.

12. Start an Amazon Liquidations Business

Did you know you can buy pallets of Amazon returns online (we even created a whole guide on how to buy Amazon returns)? Buying Amazon returns, sorting them, and reselling them is an amazing Amazon business opportunity.

When customer returns are sent back to Amazon, not all of them are relisted or resold. Sometimes brands sell the products through liquidators. This means you can buy an entire pallet of customer returns to keep or sell for yourself.

Pallets can cost anywhere between $1,000 to $10,000 or more.

Popular liquidators include:

• Bstock
• 888 Lots
• Liquidation.com
• BULQ
• BoxFox

Once you receive your pallet, inspect each item and get to work selling items that work or are in great condition!

You can start an online store, sell through local marketplaces, or even start your own Amazon FBA business.

13. Start an Amazon Handmade Business

Amazon Handmade can be equated to the Etsy… of Amazon.

Amazon Handmade is for artisans selling handmade goods. But, instead of selling online through a platform like Etsy, you get the mega-exposure of the Amazon platform.

To sell with Amazon Handmade, you'll fill out an application, decide if you'll handle fulfillment or let Amazon handle it through FBA, and then start selling.

With Amazon Handmade, you get access to more buyers than Etsy, but the seller fees are higher. However, since the market is so much larger, it can definitely be worth it.

14. Start a Niche Product Review Website

One of the best Amazon Business Opportunities in our opinion is starting a niche product review website.

Sign up for the Amazon Associates program, choose a niche, and start writing product reviews, case studies, and more!

Amazon Associates can earn anywhere between 1% to 10% on qualifying purchases, depending on the category.

Affiliate marketing doesn't cost much to get started at all. You're looking at start-up costs of around $10/year for a domain and $5/month for hosting – easily doable on any budget.

15. Build and Flip Amazon Websites

To take an Amazon affiliate website one step further, you can also build profitable Amazon affiliate websites and flip them for a significant profit.

A typical fair selling price for a website is between 24 to 32 times the total monthly earnings.

So if you have an Amazon affiliate site earning $500 per month, you could reasonably sell the website between $12k – $16k.

The best part? You can easily replicate this over and over again.

16. Start an Amazon Seller Software Business

If you have a problem-solving mind and are keenly aware of the needs of Amazon Sellers, consider starting your own Amazon Seller Software business.

Greg Mercer started JungleScout after wanting an easier way to aggregate Amazon listings. It has now grown to be one of the top Amazon Seller software in the world.

While you might not create the next JungleScout, if you have an Amazon Seller problem and haven't found software that can help, consider having one developed yourself.

Chances are that if you have a problem, other sellers do too. If you hit the nail on the head, starting an Amazon software business can be a highly profitable venture.

17. Start an Amazon Plugin Business

Amazon plugins like the ones used on WordPress affiliate websites aim to make affiliate marketing and selling on Amazon easier for WordPress users.

If you have an idea for a plugin that doesn't exist yet, consider hiring a designer to bring it to life!

18. Start an Amazon Print on Demand Business

Did you know Amazon actually has its own Print on Demand platform? Merch by Amazon is Amazon's print-on-demand platform where you can remotely sell products you design on T-shirts.

This is an Amazon business opportunity that's actually pretty easy to get started, you don't even have to make your own designs. You can easily hire a designer on Fiverr and get started right away!

19. Start an Amazon Dropshipping Business

There are a few different ways you can start an Amazon dropshipping business.

You can dropship from Amazon to eBay, you can dropship from your own home doing an FBM or fulfilled by merchant model, or you can dropship from wholesalers on the Amazon platform. If you want to avoid the FBA method of selling on Amazon, dropshipping might be the way to go.

20. Start a Private Label Business on Amazon

To take your Amazon FBA business one step further, you can start an entire brand through Private Labeling.

Private labeling is a business method that involves finding wholesale products from manufacturers and creating your own brand around the product. You brand the products, the product boxes, and labels, instruction manuals, etc. Then you list the products for sale on Amazon and position yourself as a brand.

10 Profitable Amazon FBA Niches

Here are some of the most profitable niches for selling with Amazon FBA.

• Pet Care and Supplies
• Baby Supplies
• Tools
• Gardening
• Office Supplies
• Electronics
• Solar Energy
• Camping and Outdoors
• Apparel
• Automotive

Is Starting an Amazon Business Worth It?

There are so many different types of Amazon business ideas and there truly is something for everyone. In our opinion, you really can't go wrong starting a business or side hustle related to the largest online marketplace in the world.

Whether you're looking for low-cost online business ideas or want to take on something as big as starting your own delivery fleet, creating a business around Amazon can be an incredibly profitable way to make money online, and the mega-marketplace online store doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon.

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