When you think about selling on Amazon, books are the first products that spring to mind – right?
And with good reason; Amazon is the biggest bookstore in the world. It’s a great place to buy and sell books.
But Amazon is more than just a place to start a business selling books. You can also sell lots of other products there too. So let’s look at a few ideas…
19 products you could start selling on Amazon today… and not a book in sight!
Baby: All kinds of toys, clothing, care and feeding products.
Clothing: All kinds of clothing and accessories. Men’s section is currently much larger than the women’s section.
Car and Motorbike Parts: Accessories, tools and spares. The same sort of thing you would find in Halfords.
Computing: Computers and laptops, accessories and software.
DIY & Tools: Plumbing, electrical, tools, accessories. There are even some building materials!
DVD: Massive section, both new and used.
Electronics: Small electronics, such as laptops, tablets, cameras, satnav, MP3 players, phone accessories.
Health & Beauty: Cosmetics and particularly strong on electrical beauty. Male and female.
Home & Garden: Various products, but a lot of kitchen equipment and gifts. Also seasonal lines.
Jewellery: Very popular section, mainly fashion jewellery and accessories.
Lighting: Fairly small niche section.
Music: Massive section, all the main kinds of recorded music. Downloads are also sold.
PC & Video Games: Caters for all games platforms.
Shoes: Fairly small section, mainly popular fashion brands.
Sports & Leisure: Fitness, golf, cycling, team sports etc.
Toys & Games: New and used toys. Very seasonal. You can only sell pre-Christmas in this category if you sold in the category earlier in the year – so think about next Christmas now.
VHS: A mixture of classics on VHS tape and second hand tapes.
Video Games & Software: Mirrors the PC and video games section.
Watches: Small niche section, mixture of cheap fashion watches and used high quality watches.
(*Note that only professional sellers can sell in some categories. Some types of product require prior approval from Amazon too. See Amazon.co.uk’s help site for the latest details on this before you commit to selling anything new.)
In many cases you can sell used products as well as new… which opens up further possibilities for your Amazon business.
Bear in mind that just because a product can be sold on Amazon doesn’t automatically mean it will be a big success. You need to try and figure out if there is a demand for it from Amazon buyers. Consider what competition there might be – from other sellers as well as Amazon themselves. And look at what your selling and delivery costs will be too, to help you work out your profit margins.
One last thing: When you sell other non-book products on Amazon you could be moving into uncharted territory to some extent. So, once you’ve come up with a new product idea it’s sensible to take things slowly and do a bit of experimenting before jumping in with both feet. There’s no guarantee that it will work… then again you might discover the next big Amazon product success!