If you are an OA (online arbitrage seller) or RA (retail arbitrage seller) you will have come up against the dreaded “GATED” issue. This is where you can’t sell an item because you are gated in a particular category or brand.
Ungating without an invoice (Free)You can simply click the “Request Approval” button and see if Amazon will allow you to ungate without any further information, which does work a lot more than you would expect.Now, we don’t know exactly what criteria Amazon uses to allow some people to Auto Ungate and not others but we think it is based around how long you have been as a seller, your revenue, and a few other seller performance scores.
Ungating with an InvoiceMost sellers will need an invoice from a legitimate wholesale supplier, distributor or manufacturer in order to ungate certain categories, ASINs or brands.Now, you will see a lot of people selling “Ungating Courses”, where they tell you what to buy from somewhere but these can be very expensive and with a little effort you can do it for free.Another problem people face is that when they are looking for these suppliers, they are looking for profitable products like they do with retail arbitrage sourcing and the same sales volume, which can be hard to find.
How to Find What You Are Ungating In?When you request to ungate and you are not auto-approved, like the image above, you will see a screen like the following image.In the red circle, you will see if you are ungating in an ASIN, Brand or Category. In this image, we are requested to ungate in the category “Beer & Wine”
Ungating Yourself with an Invoice – Top Tip to Effectively Do It for FreeMost people currently try to find wholesalers where they can buy the product to ungate and then make their normal ROI, for example, 30% but this can be hard to find. Our top tip is don’t worry about trying to make your ROI, as you already know you can make the ROI when you start buying from retail sources. With this in mind, simply try to find a supplier who can supply you the product(s) that meet the same ASIN, Brand or Category (See below) that you can resell due to high sales volume and that you will get your money back ASAP. Then the moment you buy from the supplier, you can get ungated and then simply sell your products as quickly as possible and then start buying the profitable items from your retail sources, because you are now ungated. This way you can effectively ungate for free.
What to Look for When Ungating ASIN, Brand or CategoryASIN – This will always be a 10 digit ASIN code, if you see this on the invoice screen, you will need to buy that product and only that product.
Brand – If you see the brand name on the ungating list, review the wholesale supply for all of the products it sells under that brand name. You can then buy another ASIN, request to be ungated using that other ASIN and then get the Brand ungated and now sell what you wanted. PS Before you by the other product, do check Amazon show the same “Brand Restriction” when you try to ungate.
Category – If you see a category name on the ungating list, review the wholesale supply for all of the products it sells under that same category. You can then buy another ASIN, request to be ungated using that other ASIN and then get the category ungated and now sell what you want. PS Before you by the other product, do check Amazon show the same “Category Restriction” when you try to ungate.
How to ungate for next to free:
- Find the product ASIN, brand or manufacturer you want to ungate in.
- Try to automatically ungate.
- If you are refused, find a supplier of that product by Searching Google for the brand name + Wholesaler Distributor. For example: “Lego Wholesaler Distributor”.
- Review the supplier details. You should be able to easily find a telephone number, company name, company business number, VAT number and address, otherwise, Amazon is unlikely to accept their invoice. Wholesalers will not allow you to order without an account and will most likely hide their prices until you sign in.
- Review the suppliers’ products and find another product in the same ASIN, Brand or Category (See above) that sells quickly on Amazon. Don’t worry about making a profit. Simply aim to make a small profit or breakeven. You only want to buy and resell the product to ungate.
- Purchase at least 10 products as requested by Amazon for ungating.
- Ask the supplier for the invoice and submit to Amazon to get ungated.
- Sell your new products on Amazon to get the money back but now make the profit from new Online and Retail Arbitrage products you can now buy, being that you are ungated!
Here are two Wholesale Suppliers we have used to get ungated, that you can use.
MX Wholesale – https://www.mxwholesale.co.uk
Jones Wholesale – http://www.joneswholesale.co.uk