How to Sell on Amazon for Free: The Beginner’s Guide

Do you want to earn passive income? How would you like to be able to make money while you are asleep? Learn How to sell on amazon and make money. Everyone would love to be able to do this. However, not everyone knows how to do it properly without risking their capital. If you want to know how to sell on Amazon for free, then you are on the right track.

Starting a business is one of the most reliable ways to earn passive income, and if you have considered doing this recently, you must have also thought of how much money you would need as a starting capital. 

Building a successful Amazon business takes a lot of investment in time and money and the initial costs may seem daunting. But you don’t need all the money in the world to start, you can sell on Amazon for free and invest in your business as it grows. Wondering what you can do with little to no financial investment? Here’s how to go about it.

How to Sell on Amazon for Free

Can you sell on Amazon for free? Of course, you can! If you sign up as an Individual Seller on AMZN, there is no monthly fee that you have to pay. However, you need to pay AMZN $0.99 for every product sold. You also don’t have access to some of the volume-selling tools that AMZN provides to those who sign up as professional sellers.

Are you interested in learning how to sell on Amazon for free? Since it is a free platform, anyone can create and register an account anytime. However, selling with or without money upfront involves these four steps:

Step 1: Find a free product that you can sell

If you want to start selling and making money, then the best way is to start with what you have. Using what you have (Free products or possessions) to get what you want (money) is not impossible. but first, you have to look around you and find the perfect product.

How to Get Free Products 

Remember, the goal is to start the business for free or with minimal costs. This is why we want to know how to sell on Amazon for free in the first place, right? So, to sell a product, you have to choose one with little or no upfront costs. Below are some ways to find free products to sell:

• Free products in your possession: The best way to sell for free on AMZN is to find free products around you. Let’s be honest; every household has its clutter. These could be unopened gifts, barely used items, and so on. Instead of leaving these items lying around and gathering dust, you can get them to make money for you instead. Put them up for sale.

These items can range from kitchen equipment, used books, electronics, and any other item you already have. Surprisingly, if these items are popular, you may sell them off earlier than you expect. If you can figure out how to sell on Amazon for free, sourcing these products will be easy.

• Consider Handmade: One of the questions that artisans ask is “how to sell on Amazon handmade” or “how do I apply for Amazon handmade”. If you are a crafter or artisan, you can handcraft your products and sell them on AMZN Handmade. With AMZN Handmade, the cost of your goods is solely based on the materials you used to make them. Just click this link to get started on AMZN Handmade.

• Check out Merch by AMZN: If you are a designer or artist, you can sell for free using Merch by AMZN. This allows designers to upload their original designs for branded merchandise to the platform. When a customer places an order, AMZN handles the production, shipping, and customer service.  You don’t have to pay a fee to join. Also, there are no out-of-pocket or upfront costs since it produces branded merchandise. All you need is time and creativity.

Step 2: Create a Free Amazon Seller Account

So the next questions are, “how do I apply for Amazon” and “how to sell on Amazon for free”, right? Amazon allows you to list products for free. All you have to do is choose the Individual Seller plan. This plan costs nothing upfront. You only have to provide the required details and you can become an AMZN seller. However, AMZN takes away $0.99 for every successful sale you make.

Related: Amazon Seller: Individual vs Professional Selling Plans

How to create a free seller account

Now you know how to sell on Amazon for free, right? But how about creating your account? They offer you two selling plans if you want to create a seller account on the platform. These are the Individual and Professional Selling Plans. They charge a $39.99 monthly flat fee for the Professional Selling Plan. The Individual Selling Plan, on the other hand, has no monthly flat fee, it is free to create.

So, if you want to create an account for free, you must sign up for an Individual Seller account. The best part is you can always upgrade to a Professional Selling Plan when your business has grown considerably.

To create an Individual Seller account, take the following steps:

• Open sell.amazon.com on your web browser.
• Click on the ‘Pricing’ drop-down menu and select ‘Compare selling plans’

Source: AMZ Store | Build Your Ecommerce Business

• It will lead you to a table comparing both Individual and Professional Selling Plans. At the bottom, you can choose which of the Selling Plans you want to sign up for.

Source: How Much Does it Cost to Sell on AMZ? | Pricing Calculator

• A faster alternative, if you’re not interested in viewing the differences between both selling plans, is to scroll down to the bottom of the home page on sell.amazon.com. You’ll see a link asking you to sign up as an individual seller. Click the link and begin the process.

Create Your Product Listings for Free

Over 166 million products are available on AMZ. Because of this, whatever you want to sell will likely be on the market. To sell the product, you only have to add your offer to an existing listing.

How to add a product listing for free

AMZN has a vast database of products when you combine its offerings with that of third-party sellers. Virtually any product you can think of can be found on this website. This makes product listing easier by a stretch.

If you are not listing a product manufactured under a private label or a handmade product, you do not have to create a new product listing. All you have to do is add your product offer to an existing listing.

To match an existing listing, first, open Seller Central. Find the existing listing to which you want to add your offer, and then copy the ASIN. Next, click the inventory drop-down menu and select “Add a Product”. Then paste the ASIN. An alternative method is to search for the existing listing using the Product Name or UPC and choose the identical item. Select “New” as the condition of the item you are selling, then click “Sell this Product”. 

On the “Offer” page, fill in the required fields:

• Price – you should consider setting the lowest possible price. it usually suggests a price that would make yours the lowest price. 
• Quantity – how many copies of the product item are available for sale? If more than one, input the total. If only one, leave the field blank
• Condition – indicate ‘new’ if the item is new. And if it is a used product, use their terms and conditions guidelines to determine its quality.
• Fulfillment Channel – choose your fulfillment channel. How do you intend to ship customers’ orders? You have two options which we’ll discuss below.

Once you’re done filling in all required fields, click the “save and finish” button and your listing will be created within about 15 minutes.

Order fulfillment and shipping

Once all this is done, the next thing to do immediately after you make a sale is to fulfill orders and ship goods to the customers. So, the next question you should be asking is “how do I fulfill orders from customers?”

Once you have set up your seller account, you must consider what fulfillment option you would like to use. Amazon offers two fulfillment options; Fulfillment-by-Merchant (FBM) or Fulfillment-by-Amazon (FBA). 

Here’s how both options work.

• Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM): Sellers are responsible for storing and managing their inventory. When a customer places an order, sellers pick, pack and ship the order to the customer themselves. Sellers also handle customer service functions, such as returns and refunds. 

• Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): handles storage, fulfillment, and customer service on behalf of the seller for a fee. After a seller secures his products, he ships them to a warehouse or Fulfillment Center. They will store the inventory in their warehouse until a customer places an order. When an order is placed, an assigned worker picks, packs, and ships the product item(s) to the customer. After the sale, it handles customer service and takes care of refunds and returns. 

Although you can sell on AMZ for free, it is impossible to ship orders for free. Whatever fulfillment method you opt for has its costs. If Amazon is fulfilling orders on your behalf under the FBA model, you have to pay FBA fees. These fees are:

• Fulfillment fees: These are fees charged for picking and packing orders, shipping and handling customer service, and product returns. Fulfillment fees are based on the size and weight of the product.
• Monthly inventory storage fees: This fee is charged on all items stored in the fulfillment center and is calculated based on the volume of your inventory.

FBA sellers may incur additional costs apart from these, however, these are the basic FBA fees that you’re likely to incur. Check out this post for a more comprehensive review of Amazon FBA fees.

If you’re fulfilling orders under the FBM model, you must pay packaging and shipping costs. However, you may be able to escape inventory storage costs if you’re keeping your items in your house or garage.

Using FBA is the better option if you are trying to minimize costs. Because of its advanced logistics infrastructure, the shipping costs are way less than if you handle the shipping yourself. Besides, the fulfillment fees are deducted from your account balance. This way, you don’t have to deal with out-of-pocket costs for shipping products to customers.

So, while FBM sellers don’t pay any fee, what it costs them to package and ship products themselves may ultimately be more than the fees FBA sellers pay. Since you’ll mostly incur excessive fees on shipping if you opt for FBM, here are a few tips to help you cut down on shipping costs.

• Sell small and lightweight products: Shipping costs depend on the size and weight of the product item. If the product is small and light, the shipping costs will be lower than if the product is big and heavy. This is particularly beneficial if you use FBA.

• Make use of packing materials in your possession: Chances are you already have packing materials that you never threw out, such as cardboard boxes. If they are still in good condition, you can reuse them to package your products instead of buying new materials. Additionally, you can use the packing materials they came with, such as shredded paper, bubble wrap, packing peanuts, and air pillows. Ensure you remove old labels before you use them.

How Much Does it Cost to Sell on Amazon?

Selling on Amazon for free sounds possible on paper, but in reality, it isn’t. You may be able to start your business for free, and even put up listings at no cost, but when it comes down to it, Amazon does charge certain fees. The good thing is that most Amazon seller fees are deducted after a sale, so you won’t need to worry about upfront capital.

So, can you start an Amazon business for free? Absolutely. But you will have to pay certain fees when you start making sales.

If you intend to start your business with little money, you need to find a way to reduce expenses where possible. However, there are two major fees you will need to deal with regardless of the business model you choose.

Amazon Referral Program (Amazon Associates Program)

Take advantage of the Amazon Referral Program to earn some money while selling for free. By referring other sellers to Amazon, you can receive referral credits, which can be used to cover your selling fees or other expenses. But in order to utilize this you will need a platform to actually make money, for example a blog or website to promote products.

Referral fees

Referral fees are commission-like fees that Amazon charges sellers for every sale. So, when you make a sale, Amazon deducts a certain percentage depending on the product category, but it usually ranges anywhere from 8% to 45%, although it falls between 8-15% for most categories.

Individual per-item fees

These are flat-rate fees that you have to pay as an individual seller for every item sold. This is different from the monthly subscription fee of $39.99 paid by sellers with Professional accounts. The individual per-item fees are pegged at $0.99 per item.

The referral and individual per-item fees are only taken out after you make a sale, so you don’t have to worry about trying to raise startup capital to pay these fees. Once you know how to sell on Amazon for free, calculating the costs of these referral fees should be a priority.

How to Know if a Product is Profitable

Now that you know how to sell on Amazon for free, the next thing to do is calculate profitability. You should not just decide on a product to sell based on your personal preferences. You need to ensure that the product you choose will sell and make you a profit. This is important because making a bad product choice can be bad for you if you are just starting.

Here are a few tips to help you find the most profitable products to sell:

Use the Best Sellers Rank

The Best Sellers List is a compilation of the top-selling items on the site. Every single product 166 million-product database gets a place on this list, these products are then scored using the Best Sellers Rank (BSR). Every product listed in a category has its own Best Sellers Rank.

The Best Sellers Rank indicates how many sales an item is getting in a particular category. The BSR fluctuates based on the performance of other products in the same category. 

Finding out how to sell on Amazon for free is not enough. You also need to know if your product will sell well or not. A product’s BSR helps you know how many sales you will get in a month if you list that product. This, in turn, shows how profitable the product is. A lower BSR will mean better sales for a product. With a BSR of #1, a product might sell more than a few thousand units per month, whereas one with a BSR of #100,000 might only sell a few hundred units in the same period.

Before you source products and list them in your store, you need to check the product’s BSR. To find the BSR, open the product page and scroll down to the product details segment, under the Product Description. If the BSR is low, you should consider adding your product to the listing.

You can manually check the BSR of product items using the search engine or the Best Sellers page. However, there is a more efficient time-saving option: Zonbase. Zonbase is an all-inclusive software suite of solutions to help sellers with business processes. With the Zonbase Chrome Extension tool, you can get information about products while searching directly on the website. You are not only learning how to sell on Amazon for free but also how to find the top products to promote.

If you have a product in mind, type a keyword related to the product idea in the search box, and after the search results appear, run the Zonbase Chrome Extension. It will give you data about the products on page one, including their respective Best Seller’s Rank and sales history, and you can view them at a glance.

Use ZonBase to estimate profitability

Once you have selected products with well-performing BSRs, you need to know how many sales the product makes in a month. With a third-party sales tool like the Zonbase Sales Estimator tool, you can view accurate sales data about a product, such as how many units the item sells in a month.

All you have to do is type the product’s ASIN in the box, and the tool will bring up an estimate of the product’s monthly sales. With this tool, you don’t just focus on how to sell on Amazon for free. You also focus on how to make money by studying historical sales data.

Calculate how fast the product will sell 

Now that you know the average number of monthly sales your product makes, you need to break it down to the number of times that product sells in a day. This will give you an idea of how fast you can sell that product. It is not enough that you understand how to sell on Amazon for free. You also need to calculate your potential profitability.

To do this, all you have to do is divide the average number of monthly sales by 30. ( This is the average number of days in a month)

So if the average monthly sale of a product is 600, 20 units are sold in a day. This means your chances of selling that product are quite high on the first day you list it for sale.

Tips for Selling on Amazon Successfully

You can start selling on Amazon for free, but if you want to make your time on the platform worth it, you have to put effort into making consistent sales. Here are a few tips to help you make sales on Amazon and grow your business.

Do Market Research

Before you decide to sell any product on Amazon, make sure you have carried out in-depth market research to know what products your target audience is interested in. Assess the competition, see what products are doing well for your competitors, and find ways to make your product better. This will also give you a good idea of what product price works best and what types of products you should focus on.

Use Relevant Keywords

It’s not enough to use keywords in your listings, it is actually more important to ensure you use keywords or search terms that your audience is likely to use when searching for your product. Be sure to use these keywords in your listing titles and descriptions. This will help your products show up in more search results and make it easier for potential buyers to find you.

Take Professional Pictures

When selling on Amazon, it’s important to take professional-looking pictures of your products. How else will you capture customer attention and make them purchase your products? Attractive product images give buyers a better understanding of what they are getting, thus making it easy for them to make purchasing decisions.

Provide Great Customer Service

Amazon shoppers are used to excellent customer service, so it’s important to make sure you are providing the same. Respond to inquiries quickly and be as helpful as possible. This will help to build trust with potential buyers and increase your sales.

Monitor Performance and Adapt

Track your sales performance using Amazon’s seller dashboard and adjust your strategies accordingly. Analyze which products are selling well and focus on promoting them further. Continuously improve your listings, respond to customer inquiries promptly, and provide excellent service to build a positive reputation on the platform.

Conclusion

Can you sell on Amazon for free? Absolutely! Anyone can leverage the limitless potential of AMZN and start making money on the eCommerce platform. And contrary to what you may have heard, you don’t have to break the bank to do that.

Now that you know how to sell on Amazon for free, all you have to do next is find the best products to sell on the platform. Once you apply these few tips we’ve shared, you are ready to promote your product at no cost. When you learn how to sell on Amazon for free, choosing the right products should be the next priority. You can always reinvest your profits to expand your business after some time.

And with a seller software like Zonbase at your disposal, you can be sure your business will quickly grow beyond your imagination.