Selling on Amazon with FBA

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given.

The claim

These are examples of the claim, copied from our collection of 46 tweets on this method¹. View counts are as collected on 6 October 2026. Dates are worked out from each tweet’s ID number. This page judges the method, not the people who tweeted.

“My student Stephen hit $25k/mo profit with Amazon FBA (as a college kid)”

@flips4miles, 17 July 2023, 51,964 views¹

“The fastest way to start earning online is Amazon FBA

I ran up $4k my 1st month and ended 2023 with over $1M in sales”

@7FigSaykho, 6 June 2024, 113,630 views¹

“I’ll easily make over $100,000 this month with my Amazon FBA business

Not revenue, but pure PROFIT”

@KtHUSTLES, 1 March 2023, 41,270 views¹

“I’ve sold nearly $4,500,000 on Amazon FBA the past 2 years flipping name-brand products.”

@flips4miles, 24 June 2023, 34,745 views¹

Each of these tweets goes on to offer a video or training in return for a reply. We quote only the part that states the income. The tweets with many views date from 2023 and 2024; the tweets from 2026 in our collection each have under 1,000 views¹.

What the scheme is

You sell physical products in Amazon’s store. With “Fulfilled by Amazon” (FBA) you send your stock to Amazon’s warehouses, and Amazon stores it, packs it, ships it and handles returns, for a fee on every unit³.

There are three ways to get products, and they need different amounts of money.

• Private label. You have a product made, usually abroad, and sell it under your own brand.
• Wholesale. You buy an existing brand’s goods in bulk from the brand or its distributor and resell them.
• Arbitrage. You buy discounted goods from shops (“retail arbitrage”) or websites (“online arbitrage”) and resell them on Amazon at a higher price. The most-viewed account in our collection refers to this model: it speaks of “flipping name-brand products” and offers training on “Amazon Online Arbitrage”¹. We did not see the training.

There is a real product and a real customer here. Amazon says more than 75,000 independent sellers passed $1 million in sales in its store in 2025¹². The question is what is left after costs, and how many sellers reach the figures in the tweets.

The arithmetic

Step 1: sales are not profit

Most of the big numbers in the tweets are sales (the money customers paid), not profit (what the seller keeps). Of the 30 most-viewed tweets, seven quote a sales figure, four quote a profit figure, and two say “first $10k” without saying which¹.

Step 2: what Amazon takes on each sale

• The account. A Professional selling plan is “$39.99 / month”. The alternative Individual plan costs $0.99 per item sold².
• The referral fee. This is Amazon’s commission. Amazon says: “For every item sold, you’ll pay a percentage of the total price or a minimum amount, whichever is greater.”² It is 15% in many categories and 8% to 15% in most, with a minimum of $0.30 per item in most². Check your own category.
• The fulfilment fee. This is the charge for picking, packing and shipping each unit. Amazon’s public FBA page names the fee but prints no dollar amounts; it points to a calculator³. Its detailed rate pages would not open for us. SellerApp, a seller-software company, gives the rate from 15 January 2026 for a “large standard” size product priced $10 to $50 and weighing 12 to 16 ounces as $4.60 per unit; a “small standard” item of that weight is $3.91 to $3.96⁴. Across standard sizes up to 3 pounds in that price band the range is $3.32 to $6.67⁴.
• Storage and other charges. SellerApp gives storage as $0.87 per cubic foot per month from January to September and $2.40 from October to December, and a fee of $0.27 to $1.71 per unit for spreading incoming stock across warehouses⁴. Amazon confirms a further charge on old stock: “Charged monthly for all items stored in a fulfillment center for more than 181 days”³. It also charges for some returns and for removing or disposing of unsold stock³.
• Changes in 2026. Amazon’s own statement says: “In 2026, FBA fees will increase by an average of $0.08 per unit sold, or less than 0.5% of an average item’s selling price”, from 15 January 2026, after no increase in US referral and FBA fees in 2025⁷¹. Its detailed rate table still did not open for us, so the per-unit rates above remain SellerApp’s⁴. CNBC reported in April 2026 that Amazon then added a 3.5% fuel and logistics surcharge from 17 April, and moved some US sellers to being paid seven days after delivery instead of after shipping⁷⁰. Slower payment means a seller needs more cash to keep stock coming.

A worked example (our estimate). Take a $25 kitchen item weighing 12 to 16 ounces. The referral fee is 15% of $25 = $3.75². The fulfilment fee is $4.60 for a large-standard item⁴. Together that is $8.35, which is 33% of the price. For a small-standard item the two fees come to about $7.70, or 31%. This is before the cost of the product, shipping it to Amazon, storage, returns and advertising.

Two outside estimates of the total. Marketplace Pulse, a research firm, wrote in February 2023: “Amazon is pocketing more than 50% of sellers’ revenue - up from 40% five years ago.”⁵ It broke this down as a 15% referral fee, 20% to 35% in FBA fees including storage, and up to 15% for advertising, from accounts supplied by a sample of sellers⁵. It added: “The fees pay for services that wouldn’t be free elsewhere either.”⁵ The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in a lawsuit against Amazon filed in September 2023, alleges that the fees “force many sellers to pay close to 50% of their total revenues to Amazon”⁶. That is an allegation, not a court finding. The case is pending: it has not been tried, and Amazon is contesting it⁷⁸. We did not read Amazon’s reply to this allegation. The trial was set for 9 February 2027, and in December 2025 both sides proposed moving it to 29 March 2027⁷⁸. We did not see the court’s answer to that proposal. Amazon disputes the Marketplace Pulse figure as well: CNBC reported in April 2026 that the company called it inaccurate because the findings “conflate fees with the expense of optional services that some sellers purchase from the company”⁷⁰.

A first-year discount, mostly for brand owners. Amazon advertises, for brands new to its store, “over $50,000 in automatic referral-fee waivers for your first year” and “10% back on your first $50,000 in branded sales”². An earlier version of this page said the conditions would not open. They are readable on another Amazon page, which gives the full offer: “10% back on your first $50,000 in branded sales, then 5% back through your first year until you reach $1,000,000”⁵⁷. So the headline sum is mostly the 5% part. To collect all of it a seller needs about $1 million of branded sales in the first year (our sum: 10% of $50,000 is $5,000, plus 5% of $950,000 is $47,500, total $52,500). The brand must be enrolled in Brand Registry, Amazon’s programme for brand owners, within six months of the first listing⁵⁷. On our reading, a reseller of other companies’ goods does not qualify for this part. Brand Registry needs a registered or pending trademark⁷³. A summary of Amazon’s seller help page, which we could not open ourselves, adds that the seller needs a Professional plan and that the bonus is credited against referral fees⁷⁴.

The same Amazon page lists smaller first-year benefits for new FBA sellers: a $400 credit towards the fee for spreading incoming stock, free storage and returns for some new products, advertising credits of $50, $200 and $1,000 matched to spend, and a $200 credit for Vine, Amazon’s review programme⁵⁷. We did not open the detailed terms of each benefit.

Step 3: advertising

A new private-label product has no reviews and no ranking, so sellers pay Amazon to show it in search results. Ad Badger, a company that sells ad software, publishes averages from its own customers’ data. It reports an average “ACOS” of 30.67%⁷. ACOS is ad spend as a share of the sales that came from ads: about 31 cents of advertising for each dollar of ad-driven sales.

Its table for January to August 2026 gives a cost per click of $1.22 and an ad cost per sale of $10.99 across all categories, and $0.88 and $7.72 in Home & Garden⁷. On our $25 kitchen item, $7.72 is 31% of the price (our sum). The source is not fully consistent: its text says 11.72% of clicks end in an order and its table says 11.1%⁷. Clicks have become dearer: Ad Badger says the average cost per click was $0.71 before 2020, and gives a low of $1.02 for October 2025 and a high of $1.32 for June 2026⁷. It says the rise is now slowing⁷. This is the company’s own customer data and is not audited.

Not every order comes from an ad, so the share of total sales spent on ads is lower. Marketplace Pulse says resellers often spend under 5% of sales on ads and private-label sellers often over 10%⁵.

Step 4: what is left

The margin is the share of sales that ends up as profit.

Sellers’ own answers. Jungle Scout, a company that sells software to Amazon sellers, surveyed sellers between 1 December 2023 and 3 January 2024; 1,064 had a live listing⁸. Their reported profit margins:

The middle seller (the median: half do better, half worse) falls in the 11% to 15% band, on our reading of the table⁸. Jungle Scout also gives an average margin of 21% for small and medium sellers⁸. An average is pulled up by the best results, so it sits above the middle seller.

Amazon’s own guidance. A July 2026 Amazon article gives “Wholesale and reselling: 20%–40% gross margins, limited by supplier pricing” and 40% to 60% for private label¹⁵. Gross is before Amazon’s fees and other costs; net is after everything. It adds: “Many ecommerce businesses aim for a net profit margin in the range of 10%–20%, though results vary widely.”¹⁵

An example from one of the tweets. A June 2022 tweet in our collection offers a free arbitrage “lead”, meaning a tip on a product to buy and resell: buy at $10.77, “Sell on Amazon -> $27.6”, “ROI ->33.89%”¹. The text of the tweet does not define ROI. If it means profit divided by product cost, the profit is $3.65 per unit, 13% of the sale price, and the other $13.18, or 48%, would be fees and other costs (our estimate).

By model. Jungle Scout’s 2023 survey splits some answers by model⁶⁵. The answers are self-reported, they come from sellers who were still selling, and the number of sellers asked in each model is not given.

The same page says 49% of wholesale sellers work more than 20 hours a week, and 35% of private-label sellers were profitable within six months⁶⁵. So wholesale and private label have the most sellers above $5,000 a month and need more money. Arbitrage is the cheapest to start and the smallest. All of these are sales, not profit.

One practitioner’s rule. The founder of an agency that sells services to Amazon sellers told CNBC in 2023 that product cost should be 30% of the price or less, and that most successful sellers should aim for a profit margin of 10%⁶⁹. That is one person’s opinion, not a measurement.

The survey is the only measurement here, and it is self-reported. Amazon’s 10% to 20% is what online shops in general aim for, not what Amazon sellers get, and the tweet is one example. We use 10% to 20% below. Resellers working on Amazon’s quoted gross margins may make less, and the survey predates the fee changes of 2026⁴⁸.

Step 5: the sales the claim needs

Sales needed each month = profit wanted ÷ margin. These are our sums. Units assume a $25 product and a 30-day month. The last column is the share of sellers in the Jungle Scout survey who report monthly sales above that level⁸.

“$25k/mo profit” therefore needs about $1.5 million to $3 million of sales a year (our sum: $125,000 and $250,000, each x 12). At the same 10% to 20% margins, “Over $100,000 this month” in profit would need $500,000 to $1 million of sales in that month (our estimate; we do not know that seller’s margin).

Amazon says “Independent sellers in the U.S. averaged more than $375,000 in annual sales in Amazon’s store” in 2025¹². That is about $31,000 a month (375,000 ÷ 12). So “$25k/mo profit” needs four to eight times the average US seller’s sales (our sum).

Step 6: how many sellers get there

The survey. Monthly sales reported by the 1,064 sellers⁸:

So 48% sold $1,000 a month or less, and that is sales, not profit⁸. About 2% sold more than $100,000 a month. Jungle Scout’s summary says 19% pass $10,000; the bands add up to 18%⁸.

The survey’s average is far above its middle. Jungle Scout writes: “Considering the average profit margin of SMB sellers, 21%, new sellers are averaging $2,451 per month or $29,412 in annual profits”, on average sales of $11,671 a month⁸. SMB means small and medium businesses. A few large sellers pull that up: the middle seller sold about $1,000 a month. The claim of $25,000 a month is about ten times the survey’s average profit (our sum).

The survey can mislead in both directions. It is self-reported, and people who gave up are missing, which flatters the picture. But it reached a software company’s audience, who look smaller than Amazon’s own average seller: about $140,000 a year in the survey against more than $375,000 at Amazon⁸¹². Large sellers may be under-counted. Treat the 2% as a rough guide.

A second measure, from tracked storefronts. Marketplace Pulse estimates sellers’ sales from public storefront and feedback data. In July 2025 it wrote of “43% of all U.S. marketplace sellers generating $100,000 or more annually, compared to a global average of 19%”⁴⁸. The article does not define the base. Elsewhere the firm counts a seller as active if it received at least one feedback review in a year⁴⁹, and we assume that is the base here. $100,000 a year is about $8,300 a month. That is far above the survey, where about 18% reported more than $10,000 a month⁸. We read both at source and could not reconcile them. The bases differ: one is the Amazon.com sellers the firm tracks, which we take to be those still active, and the other is people who answered a software company’s survey. Both count sales, not profit, and both leave out sellers who stopped. The 43% is a research firm’s estimate, not Amazon’s figure. An earlier version of this page had only the survey, so it probably understated what active sellers on Amazon.com sell.

Amazon’s figures. More than 75,000 sellers passed $1 million in sales in 2025, up 36% from more than 55,000 in 2024¹²¹³. Amazon does not say whether this count is US-only or global. Amazon also says more than 11,000 US sellers grew their sales more than tenfold in 2025, without saying from what starting size¹²¹⁴, and that new sellers made more than $18 billion in sales in 2025, without saying how many new sellers there were¹². So the top group is real and growing. But the $375,000 is an average that very large sellers pull up, and it is sales, not profit. Amazon gives no median, no count of the sellers it averaged over, and no share that are profitable¹²¹⁴. Amazon’s report for 2023 says more than 10,000 sellers passed $1 million in sales for the first time that year, again without saying whether that is US-only⁵⁶.

Most accounts are not active. Marketplace Pulse counted over six million seller accounts in March 2021 and wrote: “The number of sellers that had enough activity on the platform to get at least one feedback review in a year is only a million.”¹⁶ A feedback review is a customer’s rating of the seller. That is about one in six. The figure is five years old and uses reviews as a stand-in for sales. Newer counts from the same firm: active sellers worldwide fell from 2.4 million in 2021 to 1.65 million at the end of 2025, and to under 1.56 million by May 2026⁵²⁵³. On Amazon.com they fell from 584,000 in January 2025 to 500,000 in March 2026⁶⁴. The 2.4 million for 2021 does not match the “only a million” quoted above; we did not reconcile the two. The firm also says over 30% of registered accounts never make a sale⁵¹.

Most new sellers make a sale; most do not last. An earlier version of this page said we had found no survival figures. Marketplace Pulse has them. It found that “over 73% of sellers who registered in the past 12 months” on Amazon.com went on to make sales, against 38% in Germany, 32% in the UK and 16% in Canada⁵⁰. It adds that a first sale does not predict staying⁵⁰. On staying, it wrote in April 2025: “Less than 8% of all seller registrations before 2019 remain active today. That number climbs with time due to the recency of account creation but still sits below 20% for sellers registered as recently as 2022. Less than 30% of those who registered in 2023 are still active.”⁵¹ “Active” again means at least one feedback review in a year, so this is a stand-in for selling, not an Amazon figure.

Fewer people are starting, and each active seller gets more visits. Marketplace Pulse counted 165,000 sellers who listed a first product on Amazon.com in 2025, down 44% from 2024 and the lowest since its count began in 2015⁵³. American sellers were 16.3% of them, against 70.8% in 2016, and Chinese sellers 59.9%⁵³. That is about 27,000 American sellers (our sum: 16.3% of 165,000). Visits per active seller rose 31% between 2021 and 2025, and a further 25% in the following year to 3,544 a month; for US sellers the last rise was 19%⁵². The firm reads this two ways at once: “The bar for execution has never been higher, but for those who clear it, numerical competition has never been lower.”⁵³ It also writes that the marketplace “is increasingly challenging for casual, side-income sellers, yet disproportionately rewards sophisticated businesses with capital reserves”⁵³. Those two sentences are its interpretation, not a measurement.

Sales are concentrated. In 2019 Marketplace Pulse found that of the more than 500,000 sellers on Amazon.com that received a feedback review in a year, 8,620 (“only 1.6% of sellers”) received half of all reviews¹⁷. A 2026 estimate from the same firm is more concentrated. It says 7,760 sellers, 1.6% of about 500,000 active sellers on the US marketplace, make half of an estimated $300 billion of US third-party sales, down from 15,000 sellers in 2023⁴⁹. About 20% of active sellers make 90% of the sales⁴⁹.

The top is hard to enter, but not closed. In July 2026, 6.3% of the top 10,000 sellers on Amazon.com had registered in the previous eighteen months, and “68.6% of today’s top sellers held the position a year ago”¹⁸. Sellers based in China were 55.9% of the top 10,000, up from 42.5% in July 2020¹⁸. The same article says 26.9% of the top 10,000 registered between 2022 and 2024¹⁸. With the 6.3%, about a third of the top 10,000 are under five years old (our sum), and the article says these entrants are increasingly factory-direct sellers from China¹⁸. Time still counts, but less than it did. In April 2025 over 60% of the top 10,000 had registered before 2019, and nearly 10% in the previous two years⁵¹. By July 2026 it was half¹⁸. The firm now writes: “Longevity has gone from the defining characteristic of the top to one attribute among several”¹⁸. An earlier version of this page gave only the 60%. As of January 2024, more than half of US marketplace sales came from sellers older than five years, and about 5% from sellers who had joined in the previous year⁵⁵.

Step 7: the money needed up front

Stock must be bought before it can be sold. In Jungle Scout’s survey on starting costs, 14% of sellers started with $500 or less, 9% with $501 to $1,000, 16% with $1,001 to $2,500, 23% with $2,501 to $5,000, 18% with $5,001 to $10,000 and 17% with more than $10,000⁹. So 58% started with more than $2,500. (A second Jungle Scout page gives 16% for the lowest band⁸.)

Arbitrage is the cheap and quick way in. Among arbitrage sellers, Jungle Scout reports “about 26% did so for less than $1,000” and 10% for less than $500, and that 25% launched in under a month against 14% of private-label sellers¹⁰. A second Jungle Scout page, using its 2023 survey, gives 49% of retail arbitrage sellers starting with under $1,000⁶⁵. The 26% and the 49% do not match; they may cover different groups, and we did not settle it. Of sellers who began with $500 or less, “66% turned a profit in less than six months”⁹. The survey does not say how big that profit was.

Stock at large volumes (our estimate). Take sales of $200,000 a month, which is one tweet’s stated $2.4 million for 2022 divided by twelve (our sum)¹. If goods cost 40% to 50% of the sale price (the arbitrage example in Step 4, from a different account, is 39%), about $80,000 to $100,000 is tied up in stock at any time if stock turns over once a month. Both figures are our assumptions. That money is usually built up by reinvesting sales, not paid in at the start, but it is money at risk. This is not an estimate of any seller’s actual results.

Step 8: running costs

Besides the $39.99 Amazon plan², sellers usually pay for research software. On the vendors’ own price pages: SellerAmp, a common arbitrage tool, costs $19.95, $29.95 or $49.95 a month; Jungle Scout $29, $49 or $129 a month; Helium 10 is listed at $129 or $359 a month, with its cheaper plan shown on 7 October 2026 at $99¹⁹. Our estimate: the Amazon plan plus one entry-level tool is about $60 to $70 a month ($39.99 + $19.95 or $29). A seller with $500 of monthly sales at a 15% margin makes $75 before those bills.

What the tweets leave out

In the text of the 30 most-viewed tweets we found no figure for margin, fees, advertising cost, the money tied up in stock, units sold or hours worked¹. We read only the text of each tweet: attached images, videos and the later posts of threads were not viewed, and they may give such figures. One tweet mentions money going out: an anecdote about buying about $5,000 of clearance stock¹. The most-viewed tweet opens a thread, which we did not view, by saying that starting “doesn’t have to break the bank”¹. That is true for a first batch of arbitrage stock¹⁰. Larger volumes keep far more money in stock, as Step 7 shows.

A few 2026 tweets in our collection, from small accounts, make the cautious case: that high sales alone do not make a product worth buying, and that selling on Amazon can be a real business but takes patience¹. Each had fewer than 20 views when collected¹.

What people who tried it report

Individual reports are thin in this section. Reddit refused us on every attempt, so we have no forum threads and no first-hand write-ups of failure. A later search found two press accounts in which the news outlet reviewed revenue documents; both are successes and are in “The upside” below. What follows here is survey, platform, broker and regulator data.

Most who stay say they are profitable, on small totals. In the Jungle Scout survey, “the majority (58%) said they were profitable within the first year”⁸. But 47% had made under $25,000 in profit over the whole life of their Amazon business, and 13% answered “don’t know”⁸. About 14% reported lifetime profit above $500,000⁸. In the margin table, 13% were not profitable⁸.

It is part-time for most. 71% of surveyed sellers said they spend under 20 hours a week; about 18% spend more than 30⁸. The survey does not show which of them earn well.

Costs have been rising. Jungle Scout surveyed nearly 1,500 sellers in January 2025: 38% named higher shipping costs as a problem, 34% the rising cost of goods and 32% growing advertising costs¹¹. In April 2026 more than 700 sellers with about $14 billion of combined revenue stopped advertising on Amazon for a day, in protest at the fuel surcharge and the payment changes described in Step 2⁷⁰. They belong to Million Dollar Sellers, a paid membership group⁷⁰.

Large sellers are split. Marketplace Pulse surveyed 181 marketplace sellers with more than $2 billion of combined revenue, so these are large sellers, not beginners⁵⁴. It found 23% growing both revenue and margins, 31% growing revenue with flat or falling margins, and 38% it calls “distressed”⁵⁴. 47% said their margins were lower than a year earlier; 49% named marketplace fees and 46% advertising as the main pressure⁵⁴. The sample is small and self-reported, and we read the summary article, not the full report.

Broker-listed profits exist at every size. Empire Flippers, a broker that sells online businesses, says “Businesses must have a SOLID track record of at least 12 months of revenue/earnings”²¹. On 7 October 2026 its Amazon FBA page showed 77 listings with stated net profit from $22,546 to $2,155,401²¹. We read these as yearly figures, because each asking price is about the profit times the stated multiple. That is about $1,900 to $180,000 a month. The middle listing made about $11,500 a month, 62 of the 77 made under $40,000 a month, and the middle margin was about 20%, in a range of 4% to 49% (our sums)²¹. The middle listing first made money in 2020. The listings change daily and the broker earns a commission. The broker’s head of marketing said in a 2020 interview that its vetting team rebuilds each seller’s profit and loss statement from the seller’s books and traffic data⁵⁹. That is the company’s own description, not an audit standard.

One account can be closed. Aterian, a US-listed company that owns several product brands, made about 86% of its 2025 revenue through Amazon and warns investors: “Amazon has the right to terminate or suspend our ability to sell on its platform at any time and for any reason”²². It lost about $19.0 million on revenue of about $69.0 million in 2025, and puts most of the fall in revenue down to new tariffs²². This is one company with the costs of a stock-market listing. It shows dependence on the platform, not a typical seller’s results.

One long public test. Jungle Scout launched five products in public and passed $1 million in total sales by early 2020; it gives no profit per product²³.

Buyers of paid programmes. The only outcome data we found is from FTC court cases against companies that sold Amazon training or ran Amazon stores for clients. These are the programmes a regulator chose to take to court, so they show the worst cases, not the typical one. We found no outcome data, good or bad, for ordinary courses or mentoring. The figures are the FTC’s allegations; the cases, and how each ended, are listed in the table further down. These cases concern the companies named in them only. We found no regulator action against any account quoted or named on this page, and we do not suggest any connection.

• Training and coaching. Of Amazing Wealth System, which sold workshops and coaching, the FTC alleged in 2018 that “most, if not virtually all, purchasers do not earn the advertised income”, and that some tactics taught broke Amazon’s rules and led to suspended accounts³⁶. Of Sellers Playbook, the FTC alleged in 2018 that it advertised earnings such as “$20,000 a month” and that “Few, if any, consumers achieved these results, and most lost money.”³⁷ That case was settled in November 2018 without a trial⁸⁰.
• Stores run for the client. The Ascend Ecom complaint says that of 74 known clients with Amazon stores between January 2021 and May 2024, “approximately 19% of clients’ stores had no sales at all”, and a further 23% took in less than $5,000 in sales³⁹. The Click Profit complaint says that, as of mid-2024, of 230 stores about 14% had no sales, about a third had under $5,000 and the median had about $14,000 in lifetime sales; after Amazon’s fees about 21% earned nothing, about a third under $2,500 and the median about $7,200⁴⁰. It adds: “Amazon has blocked, suspended, or shut down around 95% of Click Profit’s stores”⁴⁰. The Ecom Genie complaint says that of 238 known clients of an earlier company named in that case with Amazon stores, about 76.5% had total sales under $10,000⁴².

What the rules allow now

Amazon’s binding seller policies sit on pages that need a seller login, and they would not open for us. The quotes below are from Amazon’s public pages and from regulators.

Private label is allowed. The seller owns the brand and carries the risks of importing. The United States ended duty-free entry for parcels worth $800 or less on 29 August 2025³²; we did not check whether that has changed since. An FTC rule from August 2024 “prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment”³⁴. The US product safety regulator ruled in July 2024 that Amazon was a “distributor” of defective products sold through FBA³³. Amazon has challenged that ruling. A law firm’s summary says Amazon sued the regulator in a federal court in Maryland in March 2025⁷⁹. We found no decision in that case, which is not proof that there is none. The ruling does not remove the seller’s own responsibility.

Wholesale is the reseller model Amazon describes with approval. It tells sellers to check that products are authorised for resale and to “Avoid products from prohibited sources like auctions”²⁴.

Arbitrage is partly allowed. Amazon writes: “Note that some forms of reselling aren’t permitted in the Amazon store”²⁵. The public page does not say which. Dropshipping, where a supplier ships straight to the customer, is allowed “as long as you’re the seller of record”, meaning the business named on the sale and responsible for it²⁸.

Resellers share one product page. Jungle Scout warns arbitrage sellers: “you’re constantly competing for the Buy Box with other resellers”, and a page can have ten or more sellers¹⁰. The Buy Box is the “Add to Cart” button; one seller at a time gets the sale. It also says a brand “that doesn’t want resellers” may file a counterfeit claim¹⁰.

Resellers must now label every unit. Until 2026 Amazon could pool identical units from different sellers in its warehouses, which is called commingling. Amazon announced in September 2025 that it “is ending commingling within Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)” and that brand owners “will no longer need to apply an FBA sticker to products that have a manufacturer barcode”⁷⁵. A trade article, citing an Amazon forum post we could not open, says the change took effect on 31 March 2026 and that resellers, meaning sellers without a brand role in Brand Registry, “must now apply Amazon barcode stickers to every unit, without exception”⁷⁶. That adds work or a preparation cost to each unit for arbitrage and wholesale sellers.

Many brands are “gated”. Gated means you need Amazon’s approval before you can list them; getting approval is called “ungating”. Amazon says: “If a product requires approval before you can sell it in the Amazon store, you’ll need a purchase invoice from a manufacturer or distributor, or a letter from the brand authorizing you to sell their products.”²⁴ The invoice must be dated within 180 days, show at least 10 units and match the name and address on the account²⁴. A shop receipt is not on that list. One tweet in our collection offers “a list of 1800+ brands you can get ungated in today”¹. We did not see the list and say nothing about its accuracy; approval is Amazon’s decision in each case. A seller-software company’s guide says Amazon also rejects shop receipts when it asks a seller for proof of supply after a complaint, and wants invoices dated within 365 days⁷⁷. That is a vendor’s account, not Amazon’s own page, which would not open for us. The 365 days belongs to a different procedure from the 180 days above.

Access can be withdrawn and stock removed. Amazon’s seller FAQ says: “If a product is part of a brand, your ability to list and sell it in the Amazon store may also depend on your relationship with the brand.”²⁶ Stock already bought can then be stuck. Amazon’s report for 2024 says it “identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of more than 15 million counterfeit products worldwide”²⁷. The report gives no figure for stock removed in error.

Selling is not anonymous, and tax applies. Under US law a marketplace must check the bank, tax and contact details of any seller with 200 or more sales and $5,000 or more in revenue in 12 months, and must “suspend any future sales activity” if they are not supplied within 10 days²⁹. The US tax authority says: “No matter the amount of reported payments, if you receive payments for selling goods or services, you must report all income on your tax return.”³⁰ In the UK, trading income above a tax-free allowance of £1,000 must be declared, platforms report sellers who make 30 or more sales a year or receive about £1,700 (2,000 euros) or more, and VAT registration is required above £90,000 of turnover³¹.

Rules for people who sell the opportunity. In the US, some offers count in law as a “business opportunity”. A seller of one who quotes earnings must give buyers a written statement at least seven days before payment, including “The number and percentage of your buyers who got at least that result”³⁵. The FTC’s guidance says: “it’s illegal to make an earnings claim unless you have written materials on hand that back up what you’re saying.”³⁵ Whether an ordinary course or mentoring programme is covered depends on its terms; we did not settle that for any seller.

Who makes money from it

The accounts that tweet. Of our 46 tweets, 31 ask the reader to reply, comment or like, and usually to follow, to receive something free by direct message: a guide, a video, a list or a training. Those 31 hold 79% of the recorded views (929,858 of 1,176,947)¹. Two accounts wrote 26 of the 46 tweets in our collection and hold about 78% of its recorded views¹. The collection reflects what we searched for; it is not a sample of everything any account posts. In all, 38 of the 46 tweets carry some visible offer, on our own labelling¹. Eleven older tweets have no view count.

In the text of the tweets we found no price for a paid product; attached images, videos and threads were not viewed. Several tweets say the free item usually has a price: “$39”, “$99”, and in one case a price in pounds¹. One says “I could sell it for $697”¹. We did not open these accounts’ sales pages, so we have no information about what they sell or at what price. One tweet from May 2022 says of an e-book: “I’ve never done this before and it has brought a decent amount of revenue in!”¹

Replies, likes and follows grow an account’s audience, and that has value to the account whether or not readers succeed. That is the only gain we can point to, and it does not show the claims are untrue: Amazon says more than 75,000 sellers passed $1 million in 2025, so seven-figure sales are not implausible in themselves¹². We did not check any income claim, so we do not say that any is untrue.

Amazon. It is paid from the first month and the first sale, whether or not the seller profits². Its 2025 results show about $172.2 billion of revenue from third-party seller services (commissions, fulfilment and shipping fees). That is our sum of the four quarters in the release: 36,512 + 40,348 + 42,486 + 52,816 = 172,162, in millions of dollars⁴³. Amazon also publishes its own training: “Seller University is a free educational resource”⁴⁴.

Tool companies and those who refer customers. The self-serve tool plans cost about $20 to $359 a month¹⁹. Helium 10 pays a referrer “One hundred percent (100%) of the first payment received for each monthly subscription”²⁰.

Course sellers. Amazing.com sells training and software for building a brand on Amazon and on a seller’s own web shop. It charges “$59 a month billed annually, or $99 month to month”, with refunds within 14 days, and says: “Member results vary and should not be considered a guarantee of financial success.”⁴⁵ Amazing.com is a different company from “Amazing Wealth System” in the FTC table below; that case does not involve Amazing.com³⁶. The Wholesale Formula says its students’ sales figure of $1,057,143,592 comes from a December 2020 survey sent to 4,782 members, of whom 960 answered⁴⁶. That is sales before costs, from the 20% who replied.

Sellers of ready-made stores, and the regulator’s cases. The most expensive product here is a store that a company sets up and runs for you. It is a different product from a course or a mentor, and it is where most FTC action has been. As said above, these are the cases a regulator chose to bring, not a sample of the trade. The cases whose results we read ended in court orders the defendants agreed to, without a trial, so no court ruled on whether the FTC’s allegations were true. The figures and quotations in this section are the FTC’s. The Sellers Playbook order says the defendants “neither admit nor deny any of the allegations”⁸⁰; we did not read the other orders for that clause. In the later cases part of the money judgment was suspended, meaning not collected, on the basis of the defendants’ stated inability to pay³⁸³⁹. These cases concern the companies named in them only. We found no regulator action against any account quoted or named on this page, and we do not suggest any connection.

In the Automators case the FTC wrote: “most lost significant amounts of money, and Amazon and Walmart routinely suspended, blocked, or terminated the stores that defendants operated for their clients for repeated policy violations.”³⁸ Its complaint says of the coaching arm: “Automators does not track the results of its coaching clients, and virtually none of them make the advertised amounts and most do not recoup their investments.”³⁸

The upside

People do build real businesses on Amazon, and the evidence for that is stronger than the survey alone suggests. Two limits apply to almost all of it. The figures are sales, not profit. And they describe sellers who stayed.

What the top groups sell. These are Marketplace Pulse’s estimates from public storefront data, not Amazon’s books.

• About 51,000 sellers on Amazon.com pass $1 million in sales a year⁴⁸. With about 500,000 active sellers on the US marketplace⁴⁹, that is about one in ten (our division, from counts published seven months apart). So the top tenth of active sellers starts at roughly $1 million of yearly sales.
• About 9,000 sell more than $5 million a year⁴⁹. That is just under 2% of active sellers (our division), so the top hundredth starts somewhat above $5 million.
• The 7,760 sellers who make half of all sales average nearly $20 million each⁴⁹.
• Worldwide, the firm counts over 100,000 sellers above $1 million, up from 60,000 in 2021⁴⁸. Amazon’s own count for 2025 is more than 75,000¹². The two do not match and we did not reconcile them.
• Of the million-dollar sellers on Amazon.com, 57% are Chinese companies and 39% American⁴⁸.
• Over 800 sellers pass $1 million a year with a single product, about 500 of them between $1 million and $2 million⁶¹. That is 1.6% of US million-dollar sellers, and nearly three-quarters of them operate from China⁶¹.

No platform or research firm publishes profit for these groups. At the 10% to 20% margin used in Step 4, $1 million of sales would leave $100,000 to $200,000 a year (our estimate).

What surveyed sellers say they have kept. In the Jungle Scout survey, 30% reported lifetime profit above $50,000 and 10% between $100,000 and $500,000⁸. 58% said they were profitable within a year: 22% of all respondents inside three months, 16% in three to six months and 20% in six to twelve⁸. These are self-reported, from a software company’s audience, and from sellers who had not quit.

The best outcomes we can document. “Verified” below means a third party saw documents. It does not mean the profit was checked.

Some notes on these. The Stall Mates founders started with $14,000 for 100,000 units that took nine months to sell, had a failed crowdfunding campaign and a product line they dropped after spending about $75,000, and after about 12 years in business take $100,000 salaries, not counting distributions or bonuses, the article says⁶⁷. It sells through Amazon, and also through online retailers such as Walmart⁶⁷. Mr Corey ran it for about 20 hours a week beside a teaching job⁶⁷. Ms Woo started with $1,000 of savings, on a product built from her own professional training⁶⁸. An earlier version of this page also mentioned a crowdfunding campaign; the cited article does not, so that is removed. CNBC, which reported both, sells its own side-hustle courses and advertises them in the article⁶⁸. Hero Cosmetics is an extreme case and says nothing about typical results. Amazon’s own reports name successful sellers too, such as a hitch maker in Indiana that passed $5 million of revenue in 2025¹². Those are examples the company chose, they are existing manufacturers, and nobody checked them.

Every verified outcome here is a seller’s own brand. We found no verified result for an arbitrage or wholesale seller. Arbitrage is the model the most-viewed account in our collection refers to¹.

What a working business sells for. On the broker’s page the middle asking price was 2.6 times yearly net profit (our count)²¹. A business making $100,000 a year would be listed at about $260,000 (our sum). That is an asking price, not a sale price. A Marketplace Pulse article relays a co-founder of Thrasio, a company that bought Amazon brands, saying it began by paying 2 times yearly earnings and paid 7 times at the 2021 peak; Thrasio later filed for bankruptcy protection in the US⁶³.

A realistic good result in the first year or two (our judgement). No source gives the share of first-year sellers who reach any sales level. What the evidence supports is this.

• A first sale is normal. 73% of sellers who registered on Amazon.com in the previous 12 months made one⁵⁰.
• Turning a profit in the first year is common among sellers who stayed to answer a survey: 58%, and 22% inside three months⁸.
• Still being active about two years later is not common. Fewer than 30% of sellers who registered in 2023 were active in April 2025⁵¹.

So a good result for a competent beginner is to be among those still selling and reordering after two years, with sales of a few thousand dollars a month. At $5,000 a month and a 10% to 20% margin that is $500 to $1,000 a month of profit (the first rows of the table in Step 5). Among surveyed sellers of all ages, about 29% reported sales that high⁸.

The best early result we can document is far above that: listing #95008 in the table, with about $96,000 of stated yearly profit sixteen months after its first sale⁵⁸. That is a 43% margin (our division), far above the 11% to 15% of the middle surveyed seller⁸. It is a best case, and sixteen months is not a first year. Of the 77 broker listings, 20 first made money in 2023 or later, with stated yearly net profit from $24,037 to $896,959 (our count)²¹. Only businesses good enough to sell are listed, and a young listing may belong to an experienced operator.

What it takes to compete

Selling on Amazon is a real retail business. What fails the arithmetic is the idea that a beginner reaches $10,000 to $25,000 a month in profit quickly and on a small budget. The evidence points to these things that the sellers who get there have.

1. Years, not months. In April 2025 Marketplace Pulse called longevity “the strongest predictor” of success⁵¹. Half of the top 10,000 sellers in July 2026 had registered before 2019, down from over 60% in April 2025¹⁸⁵¹. As of January 2024, more than half of sales came from sellers older than five years⁵⁵. The two press accounts above took about 11 years on Amazon and about five⁶⁷⁶⁸. 58% of surveyed sellers said they were profitable within a year, and 13% were not profitable when asked⁸. Those who quit were not asked.
2. Buying well. Our estimate, by model. A reseller who advertises little gives Amazon nearer 35% to 40% of the price (15% referral, 20% or more for fulfilment and storage⁵), so the product must reach Amazon’s warehouse at about 40% to 45% of its selling price to leave 20%. A private-label seller who advertises gives Amazon nearer 50%⁵, so the product must arrive at about 30%. That matches the agency founder’s rule of 30% or less⁶⁹.
3. Money you can afford to lose, and cash to wait. Most surveyed sellers began with more than $2,500⁹, and 61% of private-label sellers spent $2,500 or more⁶⁵. Stock that does not sell is charged storage and then costs money to remove³. Since 2026 some sellers are paid seven days after delivery, so stock must be funded for longer⁷⁰. Marketplace Pulse’s reading is that the marketplace now rewards businesses “with capital reserves”⁵³. Money alone is not the divider, though: in Jungle Scout’s 2020 survey, million-dollar sellers “spent roughly the same amount of money to launch” as the average seller⁶⁶. That is money to launch; the cash needed to keep stock and advertising going grows with sales (Step 7).
4. For private label: a brand, reviews and advertising skill. The first-year bonus and, for branded goods, Vine need Brand Registry, which needs a registered or pending trademark⁵⁷⁷²⁷³. Vine, which gives products to reviewers, is free for up to 2 units of a product, $75 for 3 to 10 units and $200 for 11 to 30⁷². Advertising costs about $7.72 to $10.99 per ad-driven order on Ad Badger’s figures⁷. Ms Woo’s own words: “you have to be really savvy with advertising campaigns, SEO and staying on top of the new features on each platform”⁶⁸. SEO means getting a listing to rank in search. The product must also compete with factory-direct sellers¹⁸. We did not price a trademark, photography or freight.
5. For wholesale: a real supplier with invoices²⁴. In the 2023 survey, 61% of wholesale sellers sold over $5,000 a month, 58% had margins under 20% and 49% worked more than 20 hours a week⁶⁵.
6. For arbitrage: time, every week. Jungle Scout notes that finding stock has to be redone constantly and supply is uneven, so income follows hours¹⁰. Because resellers share one product page, a deal that many people have been sent stops paying quickly¹⁰. Since 31 March 2026 each unit also needs its own sticker⁷⁶. In the 2023 survey, 62% of retail arbitrage sellers sold under $5,000 a month⁶⁵.
7. More than one product. In Jungle Scout’s 2020 survey, 59% of million-dollar sellers had more than 50 listings against 31% of all sellers, 74% were private label, and 46% had launched within six weeks against 35%⁶⁶. That survey is old and self-reported. Single-product sellers above $1 million are 0.15% of active US sellers⁶¹.
8. Not depending on one account staying open. A listed company that sells through Amazon tells its investors Amazon can suspend it at any time²², and brand access can be withdrawn²⁶.

Amazon’s own claim about strong first years. Amazon says sellers who use its New Seller Guide in their first 90 days “generate approximately 6x more first-year sales on average”⁵⁷. The guide lists automated pricing, Sponsored Products ads, FBA, Multichannel Fulfillment, deals and coupons, and for brands also Brand Registry, Vine, Sponsored Brands ads and A+ Content⁵⁷. This is Amazon’s internal figure for its 2023 financial year in the US store⁵⁷. It gives no base rate, Amazon sells the services involved, and better-prepared sellers are the ones likely to use them. An earlier version of this page called the guide “five-step”; Amazon’s page does not.

What surveyed sellers of all ages report (our estimate). About half sell $1,000 a month or less⁸. At a 15% to 20% margin that is $150 to $200 a month of profit or less, before tool subscriptions. The 18% or so above $10,000 a month would make $1,500 to $2,000 or more⁸. These are sellers at every stage, including many who have sold for years. We found no sales or profit figures for first-year sellers alone; a first year is more likely to sit below these numbers than above them.

How to tell early which side you are on. These checks are our judgement, built from the figures above.

• Work out one unit before buying any. Selling price, minus the referral fee, the fulfilment fee from Amazon’s calculator, the product cost and shipping to Amazon²³. If under 15% to 20% of the price is left before advertising and storage, the product is unlikely to make money.
• Watch how fast the first batch sells. Stock still in the warehouse after 181 days costs extra³.
• Do not read much into a first sale. 73% of new US registrants get one⁵⁰. Reordering the same product at a profit is the better sign.
• Check you are allowed to sell it before you buy it. Gated brands need a distributor or manufacturer invoice, not a shop receipt²⁴.
• For private label, track ad cost per order. On a $25 product, $25 minus $8.35 of fees minus $7.72 to $10.99 of advertising leaves about $5.70 to $8.90 for the product, freight and storage (our sum)²⁴⁷. If the ad cost per order is more than what is left on a unit after product cost and fees, each advertised sale loses money. That only makes sense while the ads are also lifting unadvertised sales.
• Watch the margin, not only the sales. Among large sellers surveyed in 2026, 31% had rising revenue with flat or falling margins⁵⁴.
• Ask anyone selling mentoring what number and percentage of their students reached the figure in the tweet. US rules require that of covered sellers³⁵.
• Be most careful with offers to build and run a store for you for a five-figure fee. That is the version regulators have closed down repeatedly^38394041.

What we did not verify

• Searches were limited. The first pass had no search tool at all. A second pass on 7 October 2026 ran 27 web searches, only on the upside and on what it takes to compete. Every other source was reached by opening a known or guessed address, so sellers, reports and recent changes may have been missed in the other sections.
• People who tried it. We have no first-hand accounts from forums and no write-ups of failure. Reddit refused us on every attempt, and a 2019 article in The Atlantic about buyers of Amazon courses refused us. The two press accounts are successes; CNBC reviewed revenue documents only, and the profit and salary figures are the founders’ own⁶⁷⁶⁸. Both articles refused us when we tried to open them again on 7 October 2026, so their figures stand as first read. How much of Stall Mates’ 2025 revenue came through Amazon is not confirmed.
• What the tweeting accounts sell and what it costs. X refused us, and most link and shop pages returned errors or were empty. One link page opened, only through a reader service (r.jina.ai)⁴⁷. It showed two links to free items and no price, on 6 and again on 7 October 2026. We did not follow the links, so we do not know what is offered after sign-up, and we have no source showing that any account quoted here sells anything.
• The tweets’ income claims. We did not check any of them. We read the tweets from our collected copy, not on X, and did not see their images, videos, threads or guides, so anything said only there is missing from this page.
• Amazon’s detailed fee tables. The pages returned only menus. All per-unit fulfilment, storage and incoming-stock figures come from SellerApp⁴. We read Amazon’s own statement of the average 2026 increase⁷¹, but not its rate table. The low-stock fee, returns thresholds and storage limits for new accounts were not obtained.
• Amazon’s binding policies. The seller agreement, the dropshipping policy, the rules on which kinds of arbitrage are banned and the brand approval pages need a login. Amazon’s powers to hold a seller’s money and close accounts and its insurance requirement are known to us only from memory, so they are not stated here as facts.
• Exact quotes. Many pages were first read through a tool that extracts or summarises text. For the final check the disputed figures were re-read in the pages’ own text or in the complaint documents. Quotes and figures about named companies were opened again on 7 October 2026 in sources²⁰,²²,³⁶ to⁴²,⁴⁵,⁴⁶,⁴⁷,⁵⁸ and⁶³. The two CNBC articles⁶⁷⁶⁸ refused us that day, and the tweets were compared with our collected copy, not with X. Other quotes were read through a tool that extracts text and may differ slightly from the original.
• Results by model and by age. The per-model figures are from one self-reported 2023 survey with no sample size per model⁶⁵. We found no survival figures by model, and no share of first-year sellers who reach any sales level. A claim that sellers who follow Amazon’s launch steps are “5.2x more likely” to reach $100,000 in first-year sales was seen only in search results, so it is not used.
• The survey. The income figures are from December 2023 to January 2024. The page mentions both “nearly 2,000” people surveyed and 1,064 with live listings; we did not confirm which base each table uses. The 2025 and 2026 income tables are behind a sign-up form.
• Marketplace Pulse’s estimates. The seller counts, survival shares and sales tiers are that firm’s estimates from public storefronts and feedback reviews, not Amazon’s figures⁴⁸⁴⁹⁵¹. We did not find its method page. Its one million active sellers for 2021¹⁶ and its later 2.4 million for 2021⁵³ do not match, nor do its 100,000 million-dollar sellers and Amazon’s 75,000¹²⁴⁸. The “one in ten” and “just under 2%” shares are our division of counts published seven months apart. The 43% above $100,000 a year and the survey’s 18% above $10,000 a month were not reconciled⁸⁴⁸.
• Amazon’s averages. No median, seller count or profit figure is published, and the report pages show no publication date. The 2024 average ($290,000) is not labelled US-only as the 2025 one is¹³.
• Broker listings. That the Empire Flippers figures are yearly is our inference from the price multiples. The counts, the 2.6 multiple and the 2023-or-later count are our own from the page on one day²¹. A researcher also reported a middle profit of about $149,000 for the 20 young listings and that 10 of them exceed $250,000; those two figures do not fit together, so neither is used. The checking method is the company’s own account from 2020, and its current vetting page did not open⁵⁹. For listing #95008 the earnings detail behind the “Verified” mark needs a login and was not seen⁵⁸. Whether young listings belong to first-time sellers is unknown.
• The FTC cases. We read press releases, case pages and five complaints. The agreed orders were not read, except the Sellers Playbook order⁸⁰. The money amounts in the Ecom Genie orders, whether the court approved the Ascend order, and how much money reached consumers in the later cases were not checked. An eighth FTC case from 2024, about stores outside Amazon, was left out.
• Two legal matters. We saw the proposal to move the FTC trial to 29 March 2027, not the court’s order⁷⁸. We found no ruling in Amazon’s case against the product safety regulator⁷⁹.
• Profit at the top. No platform or third party gives profit for the top tenth or hundredth of sellers. Every such figure on this page is sales.
• Arbitrage and wholesale successes. We found no verified result for a seller using either model. Figures seen only in search results, such as shares of arbitrage sellers earning a given amount, were not traced and are not used.
• The two large sales. For Hero Cosmetics the filing confirms the price and sales⁶⁰; that it began as one Amazon listing rests on the founder’s statement⁶¹, and we did not confirm its founding year. Zesty Paws was read only in trade press, through a reader service⁶².
• Amazon’s new-seller benefits. The terms page for each benefit was not opened, so who counts as a “new seller” and which products are eligible is unconfirmed⁵⁷. The six-month and Professional-plan conditions on the help page come from a search summary⁷⁴.
• Costs to compete. A US trademark, product photography, freight and a full private-label launch budget were not priced at source.
• Rules for resellers in 2026. The sticker rule and the rejection of shop receipts come from a trade article and a vendor’s guide, not from Amazon’s own pages, which would not open⁷⁶⁷⁷.
• Large-seller survey. Only the summary article of the 181-seller survey was read⁵⁴.
• Other regulators and courts. State authorities other than Minnesota, the UK, the EU, private lawsuits and criminal cases were not searched. We did not search regulator or court records for the accounts quoted on this page; none appears in the FTC cases we read.
• Tariffs, sales tax and VAT in detail, rules outside the US and UK, and some tool prices (Keepa’s page did not load; Helium 10 also sells a larger plan from $1,499 a month).
• Whether the people named have seen this page. The people and companies named here were not contacted.

Sources

“Read at source” means we opened the page itself on 7 October 2026. “Secondary” means we read an article or summary about the source, not the source itself. “Estimate” means our own sum.

1. Does It Pay collection of 46 tweets on this method, collected 2026-10-06; individual tweets linked above. Read from our collected copy on 2026-10-07, not from the live tweets. Counts by label and sums from tweet figures are estimates.
2. Amazon, “Pricing” for sellers. https://sell.amazon.com/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The worked $25 example is our estimate.
3. Amazon, “Fulfillment by Amazon”. https://sell.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
4. SellerApp, “Amazon FBA fees” (rates effective 2026-01-15). https://www.sellerapp.com/blog/amazon-fba-fees/ . 2026-08-05. Secondary: Amazon’s own rate pages did not open.
5. Marketplace Pulse, “Amazon Takes a 50% Cut of Sellers’ Revenue”. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazon-takes-a-50-cut-of-sellers-revenue . 2023-02-13. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
6. Federal Trade Commission, “FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power”. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power . 2023-09-26. Read at source on 2026-10-07. An allegation; the case is pending, see⁷⁸.
7. Ad Badger, Amazon advertising benchmarks. https://www.adbadger.com/blog/amazon-advertising-stats/ . Published 2026-03-10, last updated 2026-09-10; table data January to August 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
8. Jungle Scout, “How much do Amazon sellers make?”. https://www.junglescout.com/resources/articles/how-much-do-amazon-sellers-make/ . 2024-07-22 (survey 2023-12-01 to 2024-01-03). Read at source on 2026-10-07. Sums across bands and sales needed are our estimates.
9. Jungle Scout, “How much does it cost to sell on Amazon?”. https://www.junglescout.com/resources/articles/how-much-does-it-cost-to-sell-on-amazon/ . 2024-02-23. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
10. Jungle Scout, “Amazon retail arbitrage”. https://www.junglescout.com/resources/articles/amazon-retail-arbitrage/ . 2024-04-04. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
11. Jungle Scout, “State of the Amazon Seller 2025” landing page. https://www.junglescout.com/resources/reports/amazon-seller-report-2025/ . 2025 (survey 10 to 27 January 2025). Read at source on 2026-10-07; the full report was not read.
12. Amazon, 2025 Small Business Empowerment Report. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/amazon-2025-small-business-empowerment-report . Covers 2025; publication date not shown. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
13. Amazon, 2024 Small Business Empowerment Report. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/amazon-2024-small-business-empowerment-report . Covers 2024; publication date not shown. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
14. Amazon, seller statistics page. https://sell.amazon.com/blog/amazon-stats . Dated 2025-07-14 but shows full-year 2025 figures, so it has been updated since. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
15. Amazon, “Calculate profit margins”. https://sell.amazon.com/blog/calculate-profit-margins . 2026-07-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
16. Marketplace Pulse, “Amazon Reaches Six Million Third-Party Sellers”. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazon-reaches-six-million-third-party-sellers . 2021-03-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
17. Marketplace Pulse, “Marketplaces Power Law”. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/marketplaces-power-law . 2019-01-16. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
18. Marketplace Pulse, “China Won Amazon’s Top 10,000, America Kept Its Top 100”. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/china-won-amazons-top-10000-america-kept-its-top-100 . 2026-07-09. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
19. Tool price pages: https://selleramp.com/pricing/ , https://www.junglescout.com/pricing/catalyst-plans/ , https://www.helium10.com/pricing/ . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Combined monthly costs are our estimate.
20. Affiliate pages: https://www.helium10.com/affiliates/ and https://selleramp.com/become-a-selleramp-affiliate/ . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
21. Empire Flippers, Amazon FBA businesses for sale. https://empireflippers.com/amazon-fba-businesses-for-sale/ ; listing rule from https://empireflippers.com/sell-your-business/ . Listings as shown on 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07. Monthly figures, the middle values and the yearly reading are our estimates.
22. Aterian, Inc., Form 10-K for 2025, US Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1757715/000143774926009285/ater20251231_10k.htm . 2026-03-23. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
23. Jungle Scout, “Million Dollar Case Study”. https://www.junglescout.com/million-dollar-case-study/ . Undated; figure as of early 2020. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
24. Amazon, “How to find wholesalers”. https://sell.amazon.com/blog/how-to-find-wholesalers . 2025-08-20. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
25. Amazon, “Make money on Amazon”. https://sell.amazon.com/blog/make-money-on-amazon . 2025-08-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
26. Amazon, seller FAQ. https://sell.amazon.com/learn/faq . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
27. Amazon, 2024 Brand Protection Report. https://trustworthyshopping.aboutamazon.com/2024-brand-protection-report . March 2025. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
28. Amazon, “What is dropshipping?”. https://sell.amazon.com/learn/what-is-dropshipping . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
29. Federal Trade Commission, guidance on the INFORM Consumers Act. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/INFORMAct . Undated; law in force from 2023-06-27. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
30. Internal Revenue Service, “Understanding your Form 1099-K”. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/understanding-your-form-1099-k . 2026-06-28. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
31. UK government guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-to-tell-hmrc-about-your-income-from-online-platforms (2025-02-13), https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-goods-or-services-on-a-digital-platform (2025-09-22), https://www.gov.uk/register-for-vat (undated). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
32. The White House, fact sheet on suspending the de minimis exemption. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-is-protecting-the-united-states-national-security-and-economy-by-suspending-the-de-minimis-exemption-for-commercial-shipments-globally/ . 2025-07-30. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
33. US Consumer Product Safety Commission, ruling on Amazon as distributor. https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2024/CPSC-Finds-Amazon-Responsible-Under-Federal-Safety-Law-for-Hazardous-Products-Sold-by-Third-Party-Sellers-on-Amazon-com . 2024-07-30. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
34. Federal Trade Commission, final rule on consumer reviews and testimonials. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials . 2024-08-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
35. Federal Trade Commission, guidance on the Business Opportunity Rule. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/selling-work-home-or-other-business-opportunity-revised-rule-may-apply-you . Undated guidance (about November 2011). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
36. Federal Trade Commission, Amazing Wealth System (defendants include AWS LLC and FBA Stores LLC). https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/03/ftc-action-halts-large-deceptive-business-opportunity-scheme (2018-03-23) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2020/08/ftc-sends-refunds-totaling-more-91-million-customers-defrauded-deceptively-marketed-amazing-wealth (2020-08-11). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
37. Federal Trade Commission, Sellers Playbook. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/08/ftc-state-minnesota-halt-sellers-playbooks-get-rich-scheme (2018-08-06) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2020/04/ftc-sends-more-1-million-refunds-victims-online-selling-scam (April 2020). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
38. Federal Trade Commission, FTC v. Automators LLC (S.D. Cal., 3:23-cv-01444). Complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/1-Complaint.pdf (2023-08-08). Press releases: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/08/ftc-action-stops-business-opportunity-scheme-promised-its-ai-boosted-tools-would-power-high-earnings (August 2023) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/02/ftc-action-leads-ban-owners-automators-ai-e-commerce-money-making-scheme (2024-02-27). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
39. Federal Trade Commission, FTC v. Ascend Ecom (C.D. Cal., 2:24-cv-07660). Complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2423023ascendecomcomplaint.pdf (2024-09-09). Press release: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/06/ftc-case-leads-order-banning-ascend-ecom-its-owners-business-opportunity-marketing (2025-06-23). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
40. Federal Trade Commission, FTC v. Click Profit (S.D. Fla., 1:25-cv-20973). Complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/ClickProfit-20250303-Complaint.pdf (2025-03-03). Press releases: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/ftc-acts-stop-click-profit-online-business-opportunity-has-cost-consumers-least-14-million (2025-03-18) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/08/ftc-case-against-e-commerce-business-opportunity-scheme-its-operators-results-permanent-ban-industry (2025-08-25). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
41. Federal Trade Commission, FBA Machine / Passive Scaling (D.N.J., 2:24-cv-06635). Case page: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/x240032-fba-machinepassive-scaling-ftc-v . Complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/Complaint-FTCvFBAMachine-et-al.pdf (2024-06-03). Press release: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/07/ftc-obtains-permanent-ban-e-commerce-business-opportunity-scheme-operator (2025-07-30). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
42. Federal Trade Commission, Ecom Genie / Lunar Capital Ventures (S.D. Fla., 1:24-cv-23976). Case page: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/ecom-genie (last updated 2025-07-17). Complaint: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/01-Complaint%28markedsealed%29.pdf (docketed 2024-10-16, announced 2024-10-28). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
43. Amazon.com, fourth-quarter 2025 results. https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2026/Amazon-com-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-Results/default.aspx . 2026-02-05. Read at source on 2026-10-07; the yearly total is our estimate, summed from the quarterly table.
44. Amazon, Seller University. https://sell.amazon.com/learn/seller-university . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
45. Amazing.com. https://www.amazing.com/ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
46. The Wholesale Formula, earnings disclaimer. https://www.thewholesaleformula.com/earnings-disclaimer . Survey of December 2020. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
47. Link page for @7FigSaykho. https://linktr.ee/7figsaykho . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07, on the final read through the reader service r.jina.ai because the page refused a direct request.
48. Marketplace Pulse, article on sellers above $100,000 and $1 million a year. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/100000-million-dollar-amazon-sellers . 2025-07-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The firm’s estimates; shares of active sellers are our division.
49. Marketplace Pulse, article on the top 1.6% of sellers making half of third-party sales. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/top-16-of-sellers-drive-50-of-amazons-3p-gmv . 2026-02-12. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
50. Marketplace Pulse, article on new sellers’ first sales by country. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/us-is-amazons-most-beginner-friendly-marketplace . 2025-05-29. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
51. Marketplace Pulse, article on veteran sellers and how many registrations stay active. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/veteran-amazon-sellers-increasingly-dominate . 2025-04-10. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
52. Marketplace Pulse, article on traffic per active seller. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazons-least-competitive-marketplace-is-now-everywhere . 2026-05-14. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
53. Marketplace Pulse, article on new seller launches in 2025. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/amazon-seller-registrations-hit-decade-low-in-2025 . 2026-01-15, updated 2026-04-24. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The count of American sellers is our estimate.
54. Marketplace Pulse, Seller Index results 2026 (summary article). https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/the-marketplace-pulse-seller-index-results-2026 . 2026-04-02. Read at source on 2026-10-07; the full report was not read.
55. Marketplace Pulse, article on sales by seller age. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/long-time-sellers-drive-half-of-amazons-3p-gmv . 2024-01-10. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
56. Amazon, 2023 Small Business Empowerment Report. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/small-business/amazon-2023-small-business-empowerment-report . Covers 2023; publication date not shown. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
57. Amazon, new seller benefits and New Seller Guide page. https://sell.amazon.com/grow . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07. The $52,500 total is our estimate.
58. Empire Flippers, listing #95008. https://empireflippers.com/listing/95008/ . Listing as shown on 2026-10-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
59. Website Planet, interview with Empire Flippers. https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/empire-flippers-interview/ . 2020-09-29. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
60. Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Form 10-K for 2022, US Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/313927/000095017023003066/chd-20221231.htm . 2023-02-16. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
61. Marketplace Pulse, article on single-product sellers above $1 million. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/the-single-product-millionaire . 2025-09-04. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
62. Just Food, report on H&H Group’s purchase of Zesty Paws. https://www.just-food.com/news/hh-group-continues-pet-food-push-with-zesty-paws-deal/ . 2021-09-08. Secondary: trade press read through the reader service r.jina.ai; the buyer’s filing was not read.
63. Marketplace Pulse, article on Amazon brand aggregators. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/death-by-valuation-the-amazon-aggregator-autopsy . 2025-10-09. Secondary: it relays a Thrasio co-founder’s statements.
64. Marketplace Pulse, article on Amazon and its sellers, with active seller counts for Amazon.com. https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/the-paradoxical-dependence-of-amazon-its-sellers . 2026-04-16. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
65. Jungle Scout, Amazon business models. https://www.junglescout.com/resources/articles/amazon-business-models/ . 2024-03-09, modified 2025-04-10 (2023 survey data). Read at source on 2026-10-07.
66. Jungle Scout, State of the Amazon Seller survey report 2020. https://www.junglescout.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/State-of-the-Seller-Survey.pdf . 2020-02. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
67. CNBC Make It, report on Stall Mates. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/07/stall-mates-high-school-business-teacher-side-hustle-brings-in-millions.html . 2026-04-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07, through the reader service r.jina.ai because the page refused a direct request.
68. CNBC Make It, report on Jenny Woo and Mind Brain Emotion. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/07/how-jenny-woo-built-lucrative-amazon-side-hustle-mind-brain-emotion.html . 2024-03-07. Read at source on 2026-10-07, through the reader service r.jina.ai.
69. CNBC, report on the cost of selling online. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/11/building-an-online-sales-success-story-is-getting-complex-and-costly.html . 2023-11-11. Read at source on 2026-10-07, through the reader service r.jina.ai.
70. CNBC, report on sellers’ advertising boycott and Amazon’s payment changes. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/amazon-sellers-boycott-ads-payment-changes.html . 2026-04-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07, through the reader service r.jina.ai.
71. Amazon, update to US referral and FBA fees for 2026. https://sellingpartners.aboutamazon.com/update-to-u-s-referral-and-fulfillment-by-amazon-fees-for-2026 . 2025-10-15. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
72. Amazon, Vine. https://sell.amazon.com/tools/vine . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
73. Amazon, Brand Registry. https://sell.amazon.com/brand-registry . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
74. Amazon Seller Central help page on new seller incentives. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/201119120 . Undated page. Secondary: the page did not load; read as a search-result summary.
75. Amazon, announcement of the end of commingling in FBA. https://sellingpartners.aboutamazon.com/amazon-announces-new-tools-to-help-sellers-save-time-and-money . 2025-09-17. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
76. PPC Land, report on the end of FBA commingling. https://ppc.land/amazon-ends-fba-commingling-on-march-31-what-really-changes-for-sellers/ . 2026-03-24. Secondary: it cites an Amazon forum post that would not open.
77. Aura, guide to Amazon invoice requests. https://goaura.com/blog/amazon-wants-your-invoices-how-to-respond-and-what-actually-passes . Undated page. Secondary: a seller-software company’s account of Amazon’s practice.
78. MLex, report on the proposed trial date in FTC v. Amazon. https://www.mlex.com/mlex/articles/2420780/us-ftc-amazon-propose-pushing-back-antitrust-trial-to-march-2027 . 2025-12-10. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
79. Foley & Lardner, summary of Amazon’s case against the Consumer Product Safety Commission. https://www.foley.com/p/102l0bh/the-cpsc-and-amazon-navigating-a-shifting-regulatory-landscape/ . 2025-08-26. Read at source on 2026-10-07.
80. Federal Trade Commission, Sellers Playbook settlement. Press release: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2018/12/defendants-sellers-playbook-get-rich-scheme-settle-ftc-minnesota (2018-12-03). Case page: https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/182-3116-sellers-playbook . Amended stipulated order: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/182_3116_sellers_playbook_-_amended_stip_final_order.pdf (entered 2018-11-20). Read at source on 2026-10-07.

Corrections

If you are quoted or named on this page and think something is wrong, want your reply shown beside it, or want to be removed, write to [email protected]. We aim to reply within 14 days, and always within one month. Factual errors are corrected with a dated note here. A sentence that is seriously disputed comes down while we check it.

Change log:

• 2026-10-07: wording about named accounts and companies reviewed; inferences about the tweeting accounts were removed, the FTC material is marked as allegations settled without trial, and the Sellers Playbook outcome was added.