How to Boost Your Online Arbitrage Margins

In the world of Amazon FBA,  buying inventory at the lowest possible cost is crucial. The vast majority of sellers who try and fail at Amazon do so because they aren’t leveraging all the methods that are out there for you to get cheaper inventory. This article lays out your comprehensive guide on using various discount methods to boost your Amazon profit margins significantly:

Places like Kohl’s or Walmart are stuffed full of profitable items you can sell on Amazon for yourself. But the real key to making sure these items stay profitable is by using as many of these discount methods as possible.

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1. Sales

Start by checking ongoing sales. Any time the baseline price of an item is lower than normal, it makes all the discount methods below even better.

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2. Coupons

Use free Chrome extensions like Capital One Shopping or websites like RetailMeNot to find applicable coupons, adding another layer of discounts to already on-sale items.

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3. Join Loyalty Rewards Programs

Many online stores offer loyalty programs where you earn points with every purchase, which can be converted into discounts on future purchases, lowering your average cost price.

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4. Sign Up for Email Discounts

Many e-commerce websites offer a discount for first-time email registrations. Use this method to get immediate discounts on purchases. This can be looped infinitely using a catchall email or by adding a “+(whatever you want). For example, if your email is youremail@boxem.com, youremail+123@boxem.com would send that coupon code to your original email

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5. Buy Discounted Gift Cards

Websites like Raise.com sell gift cards at less than face value. Purchasing these can further reduce your inventory costs when combined with other discounts.

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6. Optimize Cash Back 

Use cashback websites such as Cashback Monitor to find the best cash back rates for your purchases. This method indirectly reduces your buy costs by returning a percentage of your spend.

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7. Tax Exemption Programs

If applicable, register for tax exemption on purchases made for resale. This directly cuts down on the cost by eliminating sales tax. It’s not available on most websites for for-profit companies, but you can also leverage specific advantages your state might have. For example, grocery is tax free in many states and clothes are tax free in states like PA.

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8. Use Prep Centers in No-Tax States

Leverage prep centers in states with no sales tax to further reduce costs associated with inventory processing and shipping to Amazon. Any time you ship an order to one of these states, you can save time and money by paying less money than the sales tax would have cost for someone else to ship it to Amazon for you.

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9. Leverage Customer Service

Sometimes, simply asking the customer service for a discount can give you unadvertised savings, it sounds dumb, but trust us on this one.

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10. Utilize High-Return Credit Cards

Use credit cards that offer high cash back percentages on purchases to further enhance savings, effectively reducing your overall expense. These would be cards like CapitalOne Spark, which offers 2% back on everything.

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11. Merchant Fulfill Directly (FBM)

For items that can sell quickly, use the Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM) option to avoid waiting periods involved with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), speeding up cash flow.

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12. Network and Build Relationships

Build relationships with store managers and vendors to get insider information on deals, bulk buying opportunities, or clearance sales, which can lead to substantial cost savings.

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The more of these you apply to your purchases, the more likely they are to stay profitable! Be sure to bookmark this article and come back to it as you make your first purchases for profitable items. Run through this list to make sure you’re making as much profit as possible.

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