Can I start selling on Amazon with $100?
Have you ever dreamed of launching your own online business but feel held back by limited funds? You’re not alone. One of the most common questions among aspiring entrepreneurs is: Can I start selling on Amazon with just $100? The short answer is: Yes, it’s possible, but it comes with a few caveats and plenty of strategy. In this article, we’ll explore how to stretch $100 to start selling on Amazon and what to expect as you build your business.
Understanding the Amazon Seller Landscape
Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world, which makes it an attractive marketplace for sellers. Fortunately, Amazon offers several types of seller accounts, including an Individual Seller Account that allows you to list products without a monthly subscription fee. Instead, Amazon charges a $0.99 fee per item sold, plus additional selling fees based on product category.
This structure makes it more accessible for people with smaller budgets to begin selling without needing a costly upfront investment. But how far does $100 really go?
Breaking Down a $100 Budget
Let’s examine a possible scenario of launching your Amazon business with a $100 budget:
- Individual Amazon Seller Account: $0 per month (pay-as-you-sell model)
- Product sourcing: $50 – for purchasing a small batch of low-cost items
- Shipping and packaging: $20 – to send products to customers or to Amazon FBA
- Logo/branding & listing photos: $10 – using free tools or low-cost freelancers
- Miscellaneous fees: $20 – includes Amazon referral fees and potential returns
This budget is very tight and leaves little room for scaling or mistakes. But if you’re resourceful, this can be enough to test the waters.
Choosing the Right Business Model
When you’re starting out with limited cash, choosing the right selling model is critical. Here are some low-cost options:
- Retail Arbitrage – Buy clearance items from local stores and resell them on Amazon. This works well with small budgets as you can buy products for under $5 and potentially sell them at a profit.
- Online Arbitrage – Similar to retail arbitrage, except you’re sourcing clearance or discounted items from other online retailers to sell on Amazon.
- Used Books – Selling used books from thrift stores is a low-cost entry point. Many sellers get started by picking up books for $1 or less and reselling them on Amazon.
Private Label or wholesale models, while lucrative in the long-term, usually require a larger budget (several hundred to thousands of dollars) and are not advisable for a $100 startup.
What You Will Miss Starting with $100
While you can certainly start with $100, it’s important to understand the limitations:
- You will have limited inventory, which affects your ability to scale quickly.
- You won’t have a budget for professional product photography or marketing.
- You may need to reinvest all profits just to grow at a stable pace.
However, what you lack in capital, you can make up in creativity, hustle, and patience.
Tips to Make the Most of Your Budget
If you’re ready to dive in with $100, here are some smart strategies to maximize your chances of success:
- Start with what you know – Look around your own home for unused items you can list on Amazon to generate initial profit.
- Study the Market – Use free tools like Amazon’s Best Seller Rank and Keepa to evaluate whether a product will sell.
- Keep reinvesting – Don’t take profits out too early. Reinvest them to grow your inventory.
- Consider FBM – Fulfilled by Merchant saves you FBA fees and gives more control over your cash flow early on.
Final Thoughts
Starting an Amazon business with just $100 is not only possible—it can be the foundation of a profitable side hustle or even a future full-time business. The keys are diligence, smart buying decisions, and reinvesting your profits. While your growth may be slow initially, small steps can lead to big wins over time. Many successful Amazon sellers started with very little and scaled up methodically.
So if you’ve got $100, a strong work ethic, and a hunger to learn, you’re already on your way to becoming an Amazon seller. Happy selling!