How to Sell on Amazon Without Inventory – Step by Step Guide
Everyone has at some point bought something on Amazon. It’s the most popular marketplace in the world. But did you know that anyone can sell on Amazon? And you can sell products without having to hold inventory.
In this article, we’ll walk you through different options for selling on Amazon – Print on Demand, dropshipping, and the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program. Read on for all the information you need to start your own profitable business.
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Your Guide on How to Sell on Amazon Without Inventory
OK, so how to sell things on Amazon without inventory? Let’s go through the most popular and effective methods, so you can make an informed decision on what suits you and your business, as well as your goals and budget.
Print-On-Demand
Print-on-demand is a natural addition to any dropshipping service – it adds customization and solves some shortcomings of the dropshipping model.
POD works similarly to dropshipping – the sellers act as middlemen between customers and manufacturers.
Customers order products from an online store, which is then sent to a fulfillment center. The manufacturers customize blank products and then handle inventory and shipping right after receiving the order from the sellers’ online store.
Selling products with print-on-demand is the best way to sell customized merchandise without worrying about inventory management. However, POD products have slightly higher retail prices than wholesalers’, so sellers must often reduce their profit margin to be competitive on marketplaces like Amazon.
As POD products are printed only after ordering, it’s also more eco-friendly.
How it works:
- The seller partners with a print provider or POD service such as Printify or Merch by Amazon.
- Sellers design and customize products and list them on an online store.
- Customers purchase products. The order is handled online and sent to the manufacturer, who prints the customized designs, packs the merch, and takes care of the shipping process.
Pros and Cons of Print on Demand:
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Learn more on how to sell shirts on Amazon without inventory in our blog.
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Selling Digital Products
Selling digital products is the favorite business model for many Amazon sellers as it provides passive income and avoids any hassle with inventory.
The most popular way to do it is by offering digital versions of books, but this category can also include downloadable audiobooks, printables, art prints, and music.
You can sell eBooks on Amazon via Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). The program allows you to sell uploaded books digitally or via POD. While the POD option requires upfront costs, selling eBooks with KDP is more affordable and returns royalties of up to 70% for publishers.
The return on eBooks will depend not only on the book’s quality but also on the marketing, as you will depend on your efforts to make the work well-known.
Be sure to comply with the strict Amazon eBook guidelines, which include standards for book covers, formatting, content, and metadata. It goes without saying – plagiarized content results in a ban from the Amazon platform.
Also consider selling digital art and earning royalties as Amazon creates pages and prints designs onto several products. If that’s what you want to do, the best option may be to make your art and apply to the Merch on Amazon platform.
Getting approved for the MBA platform may take weeks or even months. You’ll be required to send a preview, website, or portfolio with your products, and still Amazon may refuse your subscription. If that occurs, refine your designs and don’t give up, as the earnings from royalties can generate steady passive income.
Check out the MBA guidelines to avoid rejections – images should be RGB, less than 25 MB, and have a printing size of 300 DPI. Low resolution and watermarked images will be rejected. Content promoting hatred, intolerance, and other illegal activities, will also be refused.
Music can be sold at Amazon via several platforms, including the Amazon proprietary TuneCore and DistroKid. The services distribute and promote songs on several platforms – including Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, and TikTok.
Tunecore doesn’t offer Digital Rights Management (DRM) and doesn’t allow artists to sell covers, not the case on Distrokid, which may be a more profitable, flexible, and secure option.
- Amazon TuneCore charges $9.99 for a single and $29.99 for an album.
- DistroKid plans start from $19.99 per year for unlimited songs and albums.
How it works:
- Vendors willing to sell digital products can opt to offer eBooks at KDP, digital art at MBA, or music with TuneCore or DistroKid.
- The seller creates the required accounts in the mentioned platforms and awaits approval when needed.
- Once the subscription process is concluded, digital products are prepared for eCommerce selling and uploaded to the platforms.
- Buyers purchase and download the items immediately, and, depending on the platform, the funds are sent to your bank account via payment gateways.
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Dropshipping
Dropshipping on Amazon is one of the most popular choices for people looking to begin selling without holding physical inventory.
You don’t have to hold your own warehouse space as all the merch will be processed and stored at a third-party fulfillment center. After someone purchases the merch in your store, the order is sent to the suppliers, who will pack and ship the product to your final customer.
A dropshipping solution lets you sell through many sales channels, from a standalone site to marketplaces, but requires special attention on the marketing side as the competition is stiff.
When you add print-on-demand to your dropshipping model, you’ll find it easier to overcome customization issues and gain a competitive advantage.
How it works:
- Sellers do product research and look for dropshipping suppliers around the world that provide the merchandise they want to sell.
- Then sellers prepare listings with the goods in a marketplace, online store, or Amazon storefront.
- Next comes a marketing strategy to get the products in front of customers.
- Customers then purchase the dropshipping website’s products.
- The dropshipping supplier sends the products to the final customer.
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Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
Fulfillment by Amazon is a service that lets sellers send their products to an Amazon fulfillment center, which will handle packaging, shipping, and any other logistics.
The products can be shipped to Amazon’s warehouse directly from your residence or a storage facility.
The Amazon FBA platform is a popular place for many sellers dealing with retail arbitrage. That means sourcing products from retail stores at discounted prices, sending them to be processed at Amazon’s fulfillment center, and profiting by reselling the merchandise at higher prices.
Also, FBA is the best path for selling to Amazon Prime customers.
How it works:
- Vendors/Sellers sign up to an Amazon seller account with an individual ($0.99 per sale) or professional (a monthly fee of $39.99) plan and set up their Amazon FBA business.
- When creating listings, sellers specify that they sell using FBA inventory.
- The FBA Amazon seller sends the products to a fulfillment center according to the Amazon guidelines for packing and shipping.
Pros and Cons of Fulfillment by Amazon:
When sending products to the fulfillment centers, an FBA seller should precisely follow Amazon’s guidelines on shipping, packing, and preparing labels.
The fees may add up with time, especially storage fees.
Amazon FBA sellers must keep an eye on stock levels as there are no low-stock warnings, and they have little control over pricing and fees (they’re also subject to market fluctuations).
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Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) or Third-Party Logistics
Vendors opting for Amazon FBM (Fulfillment By Merchant) handle inventory, packaging, shipment, and customer services by themselves.
Using Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM) requires the vendors to dropship items or use third-party inventory solutions, as your merch will not be stored and processed by Amazon fulfillment centers.
Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) assist in managing inventory, including storage and shipping.
3PLs are different from dropshipping suppliers or print providers. They collect, inspect, and pack products and provide warehouse storage and shipping services.
Most also deal with customer returns when necessary.
Much of an FBM business’ success depends on their partnerships. Before diving into the model, thoroughly research your target audience and find reputable third-party solutions.
Check to see if the third-party solutions’ services cover your business needs, especially shipping to the desired locations.
How it works:
- Sellers opt to sell as an Amazon dropshipping store or use 3PLs to handle logistics and fulfillment.
- Sellers create their storefronts on Amazon and sell products.
- The dropshipping supplier, print provider, or 3PL will handle the logistics when customers purchase products.
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Sell on Amazon With Printify
Even though there is no native integration for Amazon with Printify, you can sell POD products created with Printify by using other Printify integrations or third-party solutions.
US Amazon sellers sourcing products from Printify need a GTIN exemption. Get yours with help from Printify’s Support Team.
Here are some ways to sell customized products from Printify using an Amazon storefront:
Wix Stores
Adding Amazon as a sales channel in a Wix store lets you sell dropshipping products sourced with Printify and POD in an Amazon store.
The option is currently available for Amazon accounts from the US, UK, Australia, and India.
First, integrate your Wix account with Printify and publish merch from Printify on your Wix site. These products are synchronized with Printify and can be edited on Printify or Wix.
If you don’t have a Wix site yet, check our detailed guide on creating a Wix store.
Go to the Wix dashboard, Sales Channel, then choose Amazon.
To ensure Printify automatically fulfills your products, choose Self-fulfillment under the option of automatically restocking Amazon inventory.
Check out for more details on the Wix sales channels configuration at Amazon as a Wix sales channel.
- Pricing – Wix business plans start from $34 paid monthly
Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce – Codisto
In case you have an online store with Shopify, Bigcommerce, or WooCommerce, consider integrating them with Amazon via the plugin Omnichannel for WooCommerce: Google, Amazon, eBay & Walmart Integration by Codisto.
Codisto syncs eCommerce websites with Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Google and allows sellers to sell products from online stores directly on the marketplaces. That means Printify products published in online stores can be sold at Amazon and managed from an online store.
Download the plugin at Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce App stores.
Pricing:
- Codisto – 14-day free trial. Plans from $29, paid monthly.
- BigCommerce – from $29.95, paid monthly
- Shopify – from $29, paid monthly.
- WooCommerce – Free. Hosting from $1.99 per month, domain name from $0.99 per year.
Etsy, eBay, Squarespace, Shopify, and WooCommerce – Trunk
Sellers with Shopify and WooCommerce websites have more than one option to sell Printify POD products on Amazon. Trunk by Square is a service that offers multi-channel integrations between several platforms.
Trunk is one of the best options to integrate with Amazon for Squarespace store owners. In addition to the mentioned platforms, Trunk also lets users integrate stores from marketplaces such as Etsy and eBay with Amazon.
To create a Trunk account, go directly to their homepage or look for the extension at the Square App Marketplace.
Squarespace users can integrate their stores in Settings on the Extensions page. Search for Trunk in the search bar, enable the extension and connect with the Trunk account.
Pricing:
- Trunk – from $35 paid monthly
- Squarespace Business and eCommerce plans – from $33 paid monthly
Order Desk
Last but not least, Order Desk by SparkWeb Interactive is a multichannel integration service that connects hundreds of eCommerce platforms, including Printify, Amazon, all the website builders mentioned so far, as well as some others.
Create Printify and Order Desk accounts, and log in to both.
Within Order Desk, look for Manage Integrations in the left-hand menu. You can choose Printify directly from the main page or narrow down your search using the Print on Demand tab.
Click on Printify, then Connect to Printify, and then allow Order Desk access to your account. Then return to the Manage Integrations page and choose which platform to connect using the search bar or by scrolling through the main page.
After connecting your Amazon account, manage the online store configurations in the Settings menu, including inventory and order fulfillment.
The process might look overwhelming to first-time entrepreneurs, but Order Desk delivers quality customer service to assist with any issues.
Pricing:
- $20 paid monthly and $0.25 per order.
Conclusion
Now you know how to sell on Amazon without inventory using different methods, from Print-on-demand with Printify and partners, to Amazon FBA and FBM. We also took you through the various plugins, platforms, and eCommerce builders that make it possible to source products for selling on Amazon without holding inventory.
All that’s left is to pick the business model that works for you, do your product research, and create a thriving online business at your own pace. Remember, you can count on Printify to sell products with your Amazon business, giving you a smooth and very profitable experience.
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Written by
Andris Mucenieks
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