Amazon FBA UK Business Still Worth it in 2019 + Dom’s Brand Blueprint

May 21, 2019

Amazon FBA has been operating since 2006, is it still worth it? I discuss if you should be getting started in 2019 and exactly HOW to get started if you decide to, using Dom’s Brand Blueprint.

I hope this insight is helpful – let me know in the comments if you would like some further explanation on anything or have any more questions.

Let’s get right into it.

Just starting? Here’s some other Amazon FBA guides to get your teeth into:

Is the Amazon FBA business model still relevant?

Yes, the business model is still relevant. A lot of people still make a lot of money, a lot of people still want 1-day shipping and a lot of people still don’t want to mess around packing and sending their orders.

I see no reason why the model should weaken in the near future, as all the fundamentals still hold relevancy. However, the way in which the model is used most successfully has shifted in the last 13 years.

I create brands and sell product lines within these brands predominantly using the FBA system. This is the only way to build a profitable business in today’s (Amazon FBA) market as an individual or small company.

Unfortunately, adding a logo to a generic product and reselling it is no longer going to allow an early retirement. Below, I outline how you should go about the process in 2019.

Dom’s Brand Blueprint

Keeping it as short and to the point as I can, I’ve talked about it before, but as a reminder, you must follow these 4 steps:

Find a niche
Build your brand
Generate an audience
Pitch products to said audience

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be particularly difficult. Yes, it takes longer than just buying and reselling a garlic press with a logo, but it is reasonably easily achieved if you know HOW.

Whether you are using the Amazon FBA business model or not, this strategy is largely the same for any products-based business.

However, too many people are trying to succeed by completing the steps backwards…

The product should not come first!

The most revolutionary and amazing product will remain on the shelves collecting dust if no one knows about it.

So now we are speaking the same language, here’s a framework to follow to get your brand started. First things first:

1. Find a niche

The biggest mistake here is usually starting too wide. This means targeting the outdoors sports market for example. Our brand needs to be specialist (read: demonstrate expertise) to gather any trust or respect from our customers.

Instead look for more specific markets.

Narrow down outdoor sports to water sports. Narrow down water sports to stand up paddleboarding. You could even go deeper than that if the market demand is there (perhaps in the US).

Keeping it as basic as possible, use keyword data, Google Trends and the autocomplete function in both Amazon and Google to validate a chosen niche.

So, you’ve identified your niche, now…

2. Build your brand

Create some brand identity, make a logo, make a tagline, make a short brand story, set up a website, set up social pages Facebook/Instagram/YouTube etc.

Can’t use photoshop to create a logo? Use YouTube to learn how, or pay someone on Fiverr to do it for you very cheaply.

Never made a website? WordPress is the easiest platform to use, it’s really quite simple. Again, use YouTube to learn how. Use JustHost to buy a .com domain and hosting for cheap.

Ok, now we’ve got a website and some social pages. Next is getting some eyeballs – the process is really this simple.

3. Generate an audience

Ideally, create informative YouTube videos for your audience, then create a blog post with the video embedded. This maximises cross pollination. Don’t try to sell your audience ANYTHING, just add value and help them as much as possible.

Camera shy? Pay someone to do the talking for you.

If you don’t fancy that, you can always just create written blog posts on your WordPress website. Every time you make a post, post it on all your social media platforms as well. The key is to consistently push out content – even if it’s just once a week, make a commitment.

Use Facebook Ads to create competitions to gather interest and email addresses. Allow users to enter the competition in exchange for their email address. Prizes should be closely related to the products you wish to sell in future.

It can take some months to acquire a reasonable audience that reads your blog, watches your YouTube videos and subscribes to your email list. However, you must commit to the process and not give up! This is where people lose interest – don’t let this be you!

4. Pitch products

Now you have a brand and an audience interested in your niche. Research and develop a product that solves a problem in your niche. Think about what your customers would like to buy – what would YOU buy?

Not sure? Ask them!

Hold polls, hold competitions, look at the statistics of your blog posts – what subjects get the most interest?

Release your product on Amazon, email your email list when you do. Create a blog post when you do, let everyone know.

This should get you some early sales (the hardest part), help the Amazon ranking algorithm and abolish the need for any launch tools or outrageous PPC spend.

You will now have traffic coming from your website to buy your products AND traffic coming organically from Amazon.

Continue to create brand content and repeat the process introducing new products to the market.

Parting thoughts

Is Amazon FBA worth it still in 2019 ? Yes absolutely it is.

I appreciate this has been a quick canter, but hopefully this acts as a bit of a roadmap and allows you to see the steps involved in launching a successful product on Amazon FBA UK in 2019. I always find that a rough plan helps me to move forward and achieve the end state.

A few considerations:

The Amazon FBA business model is still relevant, the underlying fundamentals have not changed.
Largely due to increased competition, basic private labelling is now redundant and will not have you rolling in a bed of gold in 6 months’ time.
Create a brand to build a business with longevity.
The product should not come first.
Think niche, brand, audience, product. In that order!
Try to enjoy the process or you won’t see it through.

A reminder of more Amazon FBA articles to get your teeth into:

Take care,