2018 was absolutely brutal for brick and mortar retail businesses. Several companies closed their doors and went out of business.
Several retail stores closed down
Sears announced it is was closing 188 stores even after being saved in the last ninth inning from total bankruptcy with 5 billion dollars in last minute funding.
Best Buy closed 257 of its retail locations but remains in business.
Other companies aren’t as lucky.
Toys-R-Us, founded in April 1948 seventy years ago, declared bankruptcy and went out of business closing over 735 stores.
We learned this past week that Payless Shoesource will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and close all 2300 locations after being in business for 63 years.
Sadly, thousands of employees now have to find another job.
Did these businesses close because people are buying less? Absolutely not.
When one door closes another door opens
Overall, the economy is doing well and people are buying more “stuff” than ever.
So, what happened?
The retail landscape changed, and with that change comes new opportunities.
While all of these other businesses were closing up shop, Amazon was experiencing record growth and investing in itself like no other company in history.
After doing a “measly” $48 billion in 2011, the company was able to scale its business and did five times that in 2018, raking in $233 billion in sales.
In 2019, Amazon expects to do well over $300 billion. That’s larger than the GDP of 75% of the countries in the world!
What’s even more impressive than the tens of billions of dollars Amazon is growing each year is their rate of growth. It seems nothing can slow this company down.
The best part of this growth is that YOU can take advantage of it right now and get in on the action.
Create a side hustle by becoming an Amazon drop shipper
I always encourage people to get a side hustle. Acquiring a second source of income is always a good idea.
All of Amazon’s hard work over the past decade has created a great opportunity for anyone looking to start their own business.
With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), they can help you build your business.
FBA is a service available to you when you sell on Amazon.
The costs of starting a business leveraging a company like Amazon is much less than you might think. Depending on the product you want to sale, start-up costs will set you back only a few hundred dollars.
Amazon makes being a drop shipper as easy as possible. You don’t have to worry about storing inventory in your home, packing boxes, and mailing product to customers. With FBA, you store products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and they will pick, pack, ship, and handle customer inquiries.
Amazon has several websites and videos to explain how FBA works.
If you require more help and would like to better learn the ins-and-outs of dropping, enroll in one of the many classes on Udemy for $9.99. This will take the guesswork out of what to do. You’ll be able to learn from someone that already done it.