Posted on September 16th, 2022

Retail arbitrage is the process of going into stores, buying discounted products like in the image above, and then selling those same items at a higher price point on other marketplaces. For the most part, on this site, we will be using Amazon.com as our marketplace to sell.

Why Does Retail Arbitrage Work?

Amazon is a very trusted website. People trust Amazon to sell quality products at a fair price. They also trust Amazon to deliver products quickly and efficiently. This makes Amazon an ideal place to find great deals on products. Also, Amazon has some of the highest traffic online, and that puts more eyes on the items you sell

What Stores Can You Shop at?

There are many stores that you can shop at, basically, all of them. As long as you can physically scan the barcode of an item, you can buy it to sell. At some point, you'll have enough knowledge that you could walk into a gas station and find products that would make a profit on Amazon. Because of the "chain of custody" issues you may run into, I would only shop at national or regional stores, not your mom and pops local grocery store.

Can You Make Any Money Doing Retail Arbitrage?

Can you make any money doing retail arbitrage? The answer is yes, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Many ask how I do what I do, and many ask, " How do you know what will sell to make a profit? Do you just guess and cross your fingers, hoping to find something?" Absolutely not! This is a data-driven business; if you buy products for any reason other than the data behind your searches, you will end up with many bad purchases. There are many factors in deciding what to purchase, but if and when you do, there are almost limitless products you can find and sell on Amazon to make a profit. To answer the question of making money, when I first started, I just wanted to make enough money to cover a cell phone bill of $50. I have replaced my and my wife's income using the retail arbitrage model.

What's the Catch?

There is no catch. If you can find and purchase items locally at a low enough point, through various resources and sell them at a high enough point (considering all fees involved) on Amazon, you have the potential to make a profit.