Are You Leaving Profits On The Table?

Amazon is the largest online marketplace in the world, which creates a lot of opportunity. This opportunity can attract a lot of entrepreneurs and some bad actors which can lead to well established brands putting pressure on Amazon to protect their brand and profits.

In response to this, Amazon have restricted or "gated" new accounts from selling certain brands and from selling within some product categories. The good news is that you can get those restrictions removed. The bad news is that nobody knows the exact formula Amazon uses to remove restrictions, but we do have some specific requirements outlined by Amazon.

As you can see from the image above. Amazon requires sellers to go through an application process in order to sell certain brands and to sell within certain product categories like DVD's and music.

The application process is simple and just requires a valid invoice from a wholesaler of the specific item you're trying to remove restrictions on. Once Amazon accepts your application, you'll be able to sell that brand or sell in that category indefinitely. 

Unfortunately, providing Amazon with a valid invoice is no guarantee that you're going to have the restrictions removed. The Amazon selling community has figured out a few tips that will help your application get approved.

A quick way to know if you're gated in a specific category or gated from selling a brand is to navigate to your seller central dashboard, select inventory from the menu, then select add a product from the drop down. Once you're in the add a product area you can search for the item by ASIN, UPC, or product name and see if your account has any restrictions.

You will know your account has restrictions because you'll see a big blue button that says 'Apply to sell'. You can see if you're restricted by brand or by category by pressing the 'Show limitations' drop down menu below the blue button.

As a book seller, you're going to be sourcing in places that will almost always have used DVD's, Blu-rays, and Music CD's. 

Getting ungated in the movies and the music categories will allow you to maximize profits from a sourcing stop. The profit margins and accept rates are just as good as books and you can get ungated in both the music and movies categories from a single purchase order if you strategically include both CD's and DVD's in the order.

We used Alliance Entertainment for our wholesale order. They will require you to have a state issued reseller certificate and they have a minimum order of $1,000. We have no affiliation with this company.

We found it impossible to find any profitable items to resell when browsing the Alliance Entertainment catalogue, so we only used their service to get ungated and then sold the items we purchased on Ebay to recoup most of our investment.

New book sellers are eager to diversify their income into movies and music but will have to wait until their account matures before they can apply to get ungated.

In the meantime, book sellers can use a consignment service such as Restricted Inventory to start profiting from Dvd's, Blu-Rays, games and music. Restricted Inventory will take your items and list them under their account, then split the profits from the sale with you 50/50. 

Some tips before you get started

Keep in mind that ScoutIQ does not have the option to download a database for movies and music, so you will only be able to scan on live mode.

You will also have to set the triggers for each category. You can find the option to do this by logging into your ScoutIQ dashboard, navigating to triggers, then all media. You will now be able to see the option to create your triggers. Please see screenshots of the triggers we use below.

Checking to see if Restricted Inventory will take your item before you buy it is very important. They have minimum profit margins and so what lights up as an accept in ScoutIQ might not be something Restricted Inventory wants to take. 

In order to check if Restricted Inventory will take your item, all you have to do is login to their dashboard, navigate to 'send more inventory', and then scan in the item like you would do on ScoutIQ. If they are accepting the item then it'll automatically be added to a shipment and you'll get to see what your potential profit will be right away. Don't forget to subtract your buy cost!

Sometimes a buy back company like sellbackyourbook.com will buy your digital media for more than you would have made selling it on consignment. Always take note of what they're offering for an item and remember to subtract your buy cost. 

ScoutIQ makes it easy to know what SBYB is offering for an item. All you have to do is ensure you have the wholesale integration set to on. You'll find the option to do that by opening the ScoutIQ app, navigating to settings, and then scrolling down to the bottom.

See the screenshot below to know where the SBYB offer will appear.

The articles within this blog contain all the information you'll need to start and run a successful book selling business. 

If you'd like a more user friendly way of accessing the directions to starting a book selling business then download the free ebook below.

If you'd like to join a community of students that have gone through the training, then join our Facebook group.