In this article, we will talk to Clear The Shelf and share his advice with new Amazon sellers.
Today, I’m super excited to show you someone I’ve been following for a while but who has also been on the scene for a long time: Chris Grant or otherwise known as Clear The Shelf. He’ll be sharing today any advice he has for new sellers from having taught 3,500 people from the Online Arbitrage challenge.
If you’re in any way interested in learning what this giant in the OA industry has to say, then read away!
Who is Clear The Shelf?
He is Chris Grant and runs a blog called Clear The Shelf, which is his tag for most social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, etc. He has been selling on Amazon for over 10 years and on eBay even longer just about reaching 18 years.
When he first got into Amazon, he wanted to learn as much as he could about everything he could get his hands on, as information and knowledge were few and far in between back in the day.
Befriending both of the people who were creating content about the space opened avenues to learn more about the market through the connections he made along the way.
What does his life look like now?
Though getting into teaching, he still continues to sell on the side. Without divulging too much about his current bank statements and finances, he continues to say that his sales on Amazon, pay all of his bills.
Selling on Amazon is fun, he states. Finding and sourcing a good product gives a great dopamine hit. Though it seems to be the case for him with selling, he has come to learn that helping people is.
The moment that fully cemented him in his pursuit of helping people was back in 2022. It was the first time someone had sent him a photo; it was a picture of their child walking. Thanking Chris that thanks to his help, he was able to become a part of that special moment.
How does he divide his time between selling and teaching?
He spends 20% of his time selling. Amazon is simple but not easy. Buying low, selling high. There are always tough parts to the business, and you learn that through time. While Clear The Shelf spends the other 80% teaching, creating different software, and coming up with new ideas while trying to have a fair amount of thinking time to come up with new ideas.
Different types of software he made
Chris has created around 7 or 8 pieces of software, his first one was named RevROI which was a simple chrome extension that allowed you to view different discounts and cashback deals. He created some software based around Amazon, also creating IP Alert which really hit a nerve within the Amazon community and it did really well, up to this day, he does his fair share of work ensuring that the software still runs smoothly and is well updated.
What is the online arbitrage challenge?
There are several courses online about learning Online Arbitrage, but there hasn’t been a shortage of them. The OA challenge isn’t even his first try at creating a course about the subject. The problem is as he soon realized that people seldom take the course once they actually buy it.
He wanted to create a course that implemented a different tactic that allowed the student of the course to be motivated in finishing the course. Instead of having a compilation of videos, he wanted to make the course feel like a challenge. That was the start of the OA challenge which has been a total success.
Allowing the course to be an interactive live learning experience has helped a considerable amount of individuals become dangerous online arbitrage-sourcing individuals in the market
How long has the OA challenge been running?
It is currently in its third year, coming upon its 9th cohort. He had skipped Q4 the last year, only being able to do 3 of them this year he will be sure to make and reach all four.
What advice and lesson can he give to aspiring sellers?
Before diving in too deep with what he can teach, he states that first, you have to truly understand what online arbitrage really is. Which can be easily summed up as “buying low, selling high”.
Amazon has empowered any individual to become a small target or Walmart on their platform, the reason this business model works so well is that there will always be discrepancies in the market. Online arbitrage is something that will stay.
You need to be aware of the ground rules of Amazon, you wouldn’t want to inadvertently endanger your business due to ignorance of the rules of the e-commerce platform. After these fundamental lessons, you have to learn about Keepa, so you can make a wise purchasing decision.
After that, you’ll just have to pay some Amazon tuition in the form of inventory, whether it’s one unit or a thousand units, it’s all going to depend on how comfortable you are, but there’s no wrong way to do it as long as you keep putting a placing one foot in front of the other.
What should people be careful about?
Make sure you vet your sources. For example, Clear the Shelf is happy to buy from Walmart and then sell on Amazon. However, Walmart is growing its third-party marketplace. I need to be sure not to buy from a third-party seller on that platform. As when you buy from Walmart, you can’t be sure where your item was sourced, Amazon may not accept those invoices.
Make sure that things match. When you sell most items at a certain amount, like let’s say 18 ounces, then you get a product that is the same but is 19 ounces, most consumers would not be mad about that extra ounce, but the point is; someone will. It may seem like not a big deal, but to Amazon, it is a huge red flag when your product doesn’t match the listing.
8 things I learned from Clear The Shelf about Reselling on Amazon
I interviewed Chris Grant, also known as Clear The Shelf, an Amazon seller, and a good teacher. He shared some strategies, tricks, and tips to help you start your own Amazon business.
What will you say to people who’ve tried the course, but have yet failed to make any profit?
It’s easy to say that you want a business, but it’s more difficult to spend your hard-earned money with only just the prospect that it might have a return on your investment, also could just be a bust.
That is difficult for a multitude amount of people. Entrepreneurs are always working in unknown territory, their futures are very volatile and uncertain. That is the same in any business. Once you realize and accept that it’s okay to be comfortable with being uncomfortable then the game becomes a heck of a lot easier.
What can you say to people who have tried but want to give up?
There are 6 million people selling on Amazon, and out of those 6 million accounts, only 2 million of those are active, while that seems a pretty large number, comparing that to the multitudes of consumers and buyers on Amazon that number is actually fairly small.
Amazon US has got billions of page hits every single month, Amazon sellers sell 7,000 items per minute as a collective. If you go and actually look at everything ranked under 500 on Amazon without Amazon actually selling, there are a million cases where the prices actually went up in the past 90 days.
There are still tons of room for new Amazon sellers, while also not having a shortage of new things to sell.
Is Amazon oversaturated?
There is room to grow, we’re just now getting to a point where online e–commerce is 20 to 21% of all retail sales in the US. Every time a particular vertical hit 21% we tend to see a “hockey-stick” growth because you’ve just hit that tipping point. The best days, he says, are ahead of us, because people are finally getting to a stage where they are comfortable and fluent in buying online.
What is the future of Amazon for Clear the Shelf?
He thinks that the future of Amazon and e-commerce, in general, is bright. Nowadays, we see e-commerce grow more and more, and of course, Amazon too because currently, they are the market leader. For him, Amazon is trying to consolidate and conserve money to go back to the “Day 1” of Amazon back in the day. So, with that Clear the Shelf said that Amazon will continue to grow for at least another decade. We can see that Amazon is doing its best to tie their customer closer to the Amazon ecosphere. We see it when they buy NFL streaming rights, show original programming, and more. Amazon is trying to grow its sphere of influence and it really ties all back, wanting to get the consumer back to the platform to get what they need.
It is an interesting time to be an e-commerce seller because everyone wants a slice of the pie. And being Amazon sellers, we can be beneficiaries of that.
Why do they care about small sellers?
Amazon being a big-scale supplier, can only supply so many things.
First party; Amazon selling themselves; selling the product themselves. They’ve got to buy the product, stock it, and ship it around the country. And can realize the profit when the product sells.
Amazon needs small-time sellers to fill in the gaps. Maybe you are someone who makes handmade products or someone who finds products that are rare. Simply, products that Amazon cannot get a hold of.
As big of an enterprise as Amazon is, it could not source all products that are listed on its marketplace. It is where Amazon sellers come in and provide regional or rare products that are not on Amazon’s listing.
Scale you business like Clear The Shelf!
The best platform to contact him would be on his Twitter. You can also learn more about him and the endeavors his business has been taking on his website.
After learning about the journey of Clear The Shelf, and still want to learn more from other Amazon sellers. We got you! Check out our previous articles about Romer the Roamer, Raiken Profit, The Gravy Train, Scott Needham, Checkmate Flips, Fields of Profit, Gavin Sweeney, Jonny Smith, Soros, and lastly, Flips4Miles, to know more about online arbitrage and their Amazon journey.