In this article, let’s learn more about Drew FBA and his journey.
I'm super excited to bring you an interview with someone who I followed for a while, who also made $2,000,000 last year at the age of just 24 doing online arbitrage. I'm interested to learn more about this and what it's like to actually be making that amount of money at such a young age.
If you’re interested in learning more about this and finding out how amassed such a considerable amount of money at his age, then this article is for you.
Topic Rundown:
Who is Drew FBA?
Drew has been selling on Amazon for about two and a half years now. He had started selling seriously on eBay about 3 years ago and then things grew for him at an exponential rate after he graduated college.
Started making more and more money, learned about Amazon, learned about that opportunity, and then got hooked on it from there. He has just been slowly growing up his business until this point. Currently making $150,000 stable monthly in sales right now and that's where he’s looking to stay and then pump out the seasonal times and take it from there.
Why not a job related to his degree? Why Amazon?
He had a bit of a problem with authority. Drew didn't like having a boss, liked to do things his own way. Believing he was always the smartest one in the room and that my way was the right way, whether that'd be right or wrong. I don't know, but I noticed that I can make way more money being on my own than I could, you know, working $50,000 a year marketing job and, or being a sales guy somewhere, so I just ended up making a little of money there and I just got hooked on it completely because I was my own boss and I got to make my own schedule.
Drew FBA’s operation
Drew makes use of one prep center and it's all OA. Doing most of the sourcing himself now. He’s actually got a VA from Fast Track FBA, a sourcing VA who he says was really great at her job. That’s the big value that's provided there is that Fast Track FBA vets people so hard that you have these great personalities that come into the business.
Although the sourcing was done all by him. He just offloaded admin tasks to her slowly. She's getting paid the same, and she's benefiting his business more. So, right now it's just Drew and her and she does all the admin stuff while he does the sourcing and they ship to the prep center and that's about it. It's a pretty simple operation, really.
Tax-free prep center?
Yes, it’s tax free in Montana. the arbitrage there between, if you pay 6% sales tax or you pay 10% sales tax, there's a very low threshold you have to get to make up for that with your prep center costs. So if your prep center is only charging a dollar, and it's tax-free, it's barely even there for you to just make more money, actually, send it to the prep center and pay them instead of buying it and sending it to yourself.
Sales tax is a really big part of it and when you're doing it, in some retailers, you can get a pass on the sales tax, but in most of them you can't. So it's a nightmare.
Why did he turn his sourcing VA into an admin VA?
When he got her working for him, he was doing 60% of the work on leads, and then her leads were doing 40%. Things became increasingly more difficult when he tightened up his buying criteria and didn't spend enough time hands-on with her. That was when he decided that he’d just spend more time sourcing.
Drew has a big network now that sends him leads, which he returns in kind. So, that helps out a lot as well. So, he replaced her with just a bigger network. Now that he has created a social media account that allows him to talk to more and more people. It just makes it a lot easier to get those people that will share leads with you and share information with you and so on and so forth.
How did he tighten up his buying criteria?
Before he decided to make the change, he would take a 30% ROI minimum, pretty just standard, but he was doing a lot of clothing and shoes and didn't understand the return aspect of that kind of stuff. So the 30% ROI was actually very, very low ROI. Nowadays he takes a lower ROI if it's a non-returnable item, and then up it to 50, 60% ROI minimum if it's shoes, if it's clothing because he understands those returns are gonna come in, understands that some are gonna get removed. That was the biggest reason for tightening things up.
Drew didn't want to make her have to understand all that stuff because it is complicated. His time was better spent just figuring it out for himself and just tightening things up.
Why does he share leads?
If you have people that you talk to, they're very knowledgeable and they have a lot to gain from it and you have a lot to gain from it. It's a very even playing field that you're not giving somebody information that has less information to give back to you, or they're not giving you information when you don't have a lot to provide for them. If there's an even playing field, it's very easy to share those leads because things are even. No one's trying to take from anyone else and inherently it makes it a better relationship overall.
Having a very abundance mindset in life in general. There's a lot out there, especially if you're just sharing it with one person that you trust. One-on-one, you're not going to take the price on each other. You're not going to try to undercut each other and things like that. But on top of that, it all comes out of abundance. You gotta think there's way more out there than just what you think there is. There's always something to move toward if something dies out.
8 Things I learned from Drew FBA About Reselling on Amazon
DrewFBA is a seven-figure Amazon seller at a young age of 24. With almost 3 years of experience selling on Amazon, DrewFBA shares with us how he sources and his strategy with setting purchasing criteria. We also learn his business goals moving forward.
How does Drew FBA spend $20,000 weekly?
75% are new deals. Hypothetically, you want all these replenishable deals, but those are harder and harder to come by. When there's a really good obvious price, a lot of people usually find it.
This is a business where you have to move fast. You have to get in; you have to get out. You have to make sure you're getting it for the cheapest price and you're doing things like that. So replenishments are 5 to 10% and the last 10% left will be from other people.
How long does Drew FBA source?
Probably 15 to 20 hours per week. That could be broken down. Maybe he'll source for five hours a day and then he won't even get on the computer for a day. So, probably just 20 hours spread out throughout the week.
How much does he usually spend per order?
Around $500 to $1,000. Drew FBA usually doesn't buy over 10 of anything unless it's just a really good deal. He chooses to spread himself pretty wide. He learned that from Trader Soros. So if he has to buy three of something, he doesn't mind buying three. If the order's $70, he'll buy a $70 order. Maybe it takes me too much time, but learning the lessons you get from that type of thing is worth way more than the money.
You're just accumulating all this data for making these small purchases like this, and if you do it enough, you just end up compiling tons of purchases like this into your spending.
Does he focus on a specific category?
Drew has a mindset of always going into it with somewhat of a mission. If a site has a sale, he'll really dive into that sale. So things like that will happen. Then he uses Keepa product finder a lot. Those are his two main methods of just looking at website sales and then Keepa product finder. Going in with specific criteria today or brand, going to look at this website and not stopping until you find something there or learn about the general gist of what's going on with that. Whatever you’re looking at at the time. Try to create a mission. The hours that you’re putting in, his two hours, could be worth someone else’s eight hours because he’s focused on what he’s doing instead of just being on his phone and getting distracted.
What are his problems?
The largest problem is removed inventory, whether it be shoes or anything. They're just completely destroyed inventory, or even if it's slightly used, or sometimes somebody will send something back brand new, and for some reason, Amazon sends it back to you. Maybe the package has a little scratch on it, you know, whatever the criteria are. He had let that accumulate over time. So he doesn't know how much money he has sitting in debt inventory right now, but it's probably 50 or 60 grand just sitting in a storage unit.
What advice would he give to beginners?
Framing your expectations correctly. Amazon is the easiest business to start, but it is one of the hardest ones to get good at because it's such a competitive environment due to being so easy to start. So, framing your expectations of this is 100% possible, but you're going to have to put the work in, especially if you want to make a lot of money per year. It's not simple. It's not. There's a lot more that goes into it and you're just gonna have to really like to get down there, get nitty gritty with it. It's difficult to start, and it's a large learning curve to get to where you need to go. But just stay consistent.
For most of the basic stuff, stay consistent, frame your expectations correctly, and know that you're probably not gonna make a $10,000 profit your first month. You're gonna have to build up there and there's a lot for you to learn. Get an inherent network with as many people as possible. Learn as much as possible and then build up from that and know that it's a long journey, and that journey moves way faster than you think it will.
Grow your business now!
After learning from Drew FBA, and still want to know about his journey. You can follow his Twitter account and Instagram account. He said that if you want to contact him; he responds to Instagram more.
Learn more from successful Amazon sellers. Our previous articles feature experts in online arbitrage, including Romer the Roamer, Raiken Profit, The Gravy Train, Scott Needham, Checkmate Flips, Fields of Profit, Gavin Sweeney, Jonny Smith, Flips4Miles, Clear The Shelf, Oliver Flips, Taylor Jones, 1000 ASINS, Soros, FBA Makayla, Samara, Nathan Hirsch, FBA Boys, Casey – Kick Flips and lastly, Carter Maxwell. These experts in online arbitrage have shared their Amazon journeys and valuable insights, providing you with a wealth of knowledge to draw from. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep crushing it on Amazon.