Two weeks. That is all the time that passed between Alston sending his first private label product to an Amazon warehouse and holding $391 in sales. Not in a course screenshot, not in a testimonial from somebody’s success story, in a real seller account that you can watch him pull up on screen.
Alston Godbolt started his Amazon FBA private label journey in the summer after watching other people talk about their results. He spent months negotiating with suppliers in China, waited for products to be manufactured, waited for a boat to cross the Pacific, waited for Amazon to check everything in, and then waited again while Amazon spread inventory across its warehouses. By the time he sat down to film this video, his products had been technically available for about two weeks. He had 17 orders and $391 in revenue on the scoreboard. Here is exactly what happened and what it means for you.
What You’ll Walk Out With
- A clear definition of Amazon FBA and why it appeals to people trying to make money online
- The three types of Amazon FBA sellers and the real difference between wholesale, private label, and retail arbitrage
- The true timeline from placing your first product order in China to your first Amazon sale (it is longer than most people think)
- How Amazon’s three ad types work and how Alston used them to get his first 17 orders
- The exact numbers: $391 in revenue, $160 in ad spend, 17 items ordered, and what a 2-to-1 return on ad spend means in this context
- An honest look at why Alston is not yet profitable overall and what he plans to fix
- A step-by-step framework for your first private label product decision
- Not sure which online business is right for you? Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find your match in two minutes
What Amazon FBA Actually Means
FBA stands for Fulfilled by Amazon. When you sell through FBA, Amazon handles the logistics: storing your products in their warehouses, picking and packing each order, shipping to customers, and processing returns. They also handle the tax calculation side of things. Your job as the seller is to set your price and run ads if you need to drive visibility to your listing.
The reason this model attracts so many people is that Amazon is the largest e-commerce website in the world. Customers come to Amazon already searching for a solution. Alston frames it simply: if you want to make money online, you just have to link problems to solutions, and Amazon is the platform where that transaction already happens at massive scale. The two-day Prime shipping guarantee also makes customers more willing to buy from a seller they have never heard of before, which matters a lot when your listing is brand new with no track record.
The Three Types of Amazon FBA Sellers
Not everyone on Amazon does FBA the same way. Alston breaks the model into three categories and is clear about which one he chose and why.
Wholesale sellers buy brand-name products in bulk from distributors and resell them on Amazon under the existing brand listing. The product already has reviews and search history. Competition is usually other sellers on the same listing, so it becomes a pricing game where margins get squeezed over time.
Private label sellers source a generic or customized product from a manufacturer, put their own brand name on it, and create a brand new listing on Amazon from scratch. This is what Alston does. The upside is that you own the listing entirely, so you are not competing with other sellers on the same page. The downside is that you are starting from zero reviews, zero sales history, and blank search ranking. Every customer has to decide to trust you with no social proof at all.
Retail arbitrage sellers buy discounted products from physical stores or online retailers and resell them on Amazon at a higher price. This model requires less upfront capital but offers no brand ownership, is difficult to scale, and requires constant hunting for profitable deals.
Alston chose private label because of the margin potential. Buying directly from a manufacturer in China in bulk means he acquires inventory at a lower per-unit cost than wholesale or retail arbitrage would allow. He then sets his own price on Amazon and owns the listing long term. The trade-off is time. Private label requires patience before you see a single dollar come in.
The Real Timeline From Order to First Sale
This is the part that catches new Amazon FBA private label sellers completely off guard. Alston started planning his journey in the summer. His products did not become available to purchase on Amazon until late October. Here is where all that time went.
He placed his order with a Chinese manufacturer approximately 60 to 70 days before filming this video. The manufacturer needed 30 days to produce the products. After production, the items were loaded onto a cargo ship. Ocean freight from China to the United States takes about 35 days. That is already 65 days before the products even touch American soil, and the clock has not started on the Amazon side yet.
Once the shipment arrived, it had to clear customs. Then Amazon checked it in on October 17th. But being checked in does not mean available to buy. Amazon then needs to verify that all the information Alston provided in his shipment plan matches what actually showed up. After verification, the products have to be dispersed to Amazon fulfillment centers across the country. The reason Amazon can promise two-day delivery to any Prime customer anywhere in the United States is that inventory is pre-positioned in regional warehouses close to buyers. Getting into all of those facilities takes additional days.
Alston’s products became available to sell around October 23rd, about a week after check-in. By November 3rd, he was confident that most of his inventory was checked in and available across the network.
As he puts it in the video, it is a lot of hurry up and wait. You have to wait for the product to be made in China. You have to wait for the boat. You have to wait for customs. You have to wait for Amazon check-in. You have to wait for warehouse distribution. If you are expecting fast returns from Amazon FBA private label, this timeline is the first reality check the model hands you, and it is a significant one.
Pricing Strategy When You Are Brand New
Alston is selling his product for $25.99 and is clear that this is below his target price. His intention is to raise it to somewhere between $30 and $34 once he has more reviews and a stronger track record on the platform.
The reasoning is straightforward. A brand new seller with zero reviews asking the same price as an established seller with hundreds of reviews is asking customers to take on more risk for no benefit. Competing on price is how you get your foot in the door when you have no credibility yet. Once reviews accumulate and buyers begin trusting the listing, the price can go up. The unit economics improve with scale and reputation over time, so the lower launch price is a deliberate short-term move, not a permanent margin sacrifice.
How Alston Got His First 17 Orders: Three Amazon Ad Types Explained
Amazon’s paid advertising platform works on a cost-per-click model. Unlike Facebook ads where you pay per impression whether or not anyone clicks, and unlike YouTube where payment is also impression-based, Amazon charges you only when a customer actually clicks on your ad. You do not pay to show up on a search results page. You pay when someone decides to investigate your listing further.
Alston ran three types of campaigns at the same time.
Auto campaigns let Amazon pick the keywords based on what you have entered into your product listing and what Amazon’s algorithm determines your product matches. This is a solid starting point for new sellers because you do not have to know which keywords convert yet. Amazon figures that out for you, and you can harvest the winning keyword data later to build better manual campaigns.
Manual campaigns let you choose your own keywords and set individual bids for each one. This gives you control over where your money goes and what search terms you are paying to appear for. Alston plans to eventually cut the keywords that are not getting clicks or converting into orders from his manual campaigns, but only after he has enough data to make a confident call.
Competitor targeting ads show up on a competing product’s detail page. If a shopper is looking at a similar product in your category, they might see a sponsored post from you trying to redirect that attention. Alston ran these to show up in front of buyers who were already in buying mode for something in his category, which is one of the highest-quality placements available because the intent to purchase is already there.
He had been running all three for less than a week at the time of filming. He noted that 108 clicks had come through. He is waiting one to two more weeks before trimming underperforming keywords, which is a patient and data-driven approach. A keyword that looks weak in week one might convert well in week two as the campaign stabilizes and Amazon’s algorithm learns more about your product.
Not sure if Amazon FBA is the right online business for you?
Take the free two-minute quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find the model that fits your skills, schedule, and starting budget.
The Real Numbers: 14 Days of Selling on Amazon
Here is what Alston’s seller account showed when he pulled it up on screen during the video.
Since October 23rd when his products became available, he had 17 items ordered. Total revenue came in at $391. One customer returned a product, and Alston noted that Amazon does not give sellers good information about why returns happen, so he could not identify a specific reason. The average sale price is around $25, which lines up with his listing price of $25.99.
On the advertising side, he generated 108 clicks. His ad spend came in at approximately $160. His advertising cost of sales was 61.69 percent. Advertising cost of sales is the ratio of ad spend to the revenue those ads generated directly. If you spend $100 in ads and make $200 in ad-attributed sales, your advertising cost of sales is 50 percent. Most established Amazon sellers aim to get this number between 30 and 40 percent. At 61.69 percent, Alston is spending more on ads relative to what those ads are generating than he wants to long term.
However, not all 17 sales came from paid advertising. Some came from organic conversions, meaning customers found the listing through Amazon search without clicking on an ad. Alston calls this a positive signal. It tells him his product images and listing copy are doing enough of the work that some buyers feel confident purchasing without needing an ad to bring them over.
Looking at return on ad spend overall, every dollar he has put into advertising has returned roughly two dollars in revenue. A two-to-one ratio on a brand new listing with zero reviews in the first two weeks of being live is a number Alston says he is satisfied with. The direction is right even if the margin is not yet where it needs to be.
Honest Drawbacks
The results look good on the surface, but Alston is transparent about what the numbers do not yet show.
He is not profitable yet. Revenue of $391 does not mean $391 in profit. The initial product purchase from China cost real money. Freight shipping cost real money. Amazon charges referral fees on every sale, typically around 15 percent of the sale price depending on the category. Amazon also charges FBA fulfillment fees per unit based on size and weight. When you account for all of those costs, early-stage private label sellers are typically running at a loss or close to breakeven for the first several months. The goal in the first weeks is to prove that the product sells at all, not to bank profit.
The advertising cost of sales needs to come down. At 61.69 percent, the advertising spend is eating into margin at a rate that is not sustainable. Alston’s plan is to wait for more data and then cut the keywords that are consuming budget without producing orders. This is standard Amazon PPC management, but it takes time and patience.
No reviews means pricing is constrained. Because the listing is brand new, Alston cannot yet charge the $30 to $34 he eventually wants. Every dollar of discount he offers to compete with listings that already have reviews is a dollar of margin he gives up. Getting those first ten to twenty reviews is critical to unlocking better conversion rates and making price increases sustainable.
The timeline is genuinely long. Most people who talk about Amazon FBA online show the revenue screenshot without showing the four-month runway from deciding to try it to making the first sale. If your finances or patience cannot handle a 60-to-90-day gap between your initial investment and your first dollar in, private label Amazon FBA will be a hard road to stay on.
Step-by-Step Framework for Your First Amazon FBA Private Label Product
Based on everything Alston walked through in this video, here is the sequence a first-time seller would follow to replicate this approach.
- Research the product first. Look for something that solves a clear problem, has steady demand on Amazon, is small and light enough to keep per-unit shipping costs manageable, and has a price point of $20 or above to leave room after fees and advertising costs. Avoid anything with massive competition from established brands that already dominate the first page.
- Find and vet a manufacturer. Most private label sellers start on Alibaba. Request samples from multiple suppliers, evaluate quality, and negotiate on price, minimum order quantity, and customization options like packaging with your brand name and logo. Do not order at scale until you have held the sample in your hands.
- Run the unit economics before you order. Add up the product cost per unit, freight cost per unit (ocean freight is far cheaper than air freight at volume), Amazon referral fees, FBA fulfillment fees per unit, and an estimate for advertising cost per unit sold. If the math does not work at a price customers will actually pay, find a different product before you commit capital.
- Build your Amazon listing before the inventory ships. Write your title, bullet points, and product description with the keywords customers search for. Upload high-quality product images. Do this while your order is in production so the listing is ready and optimized by the time inventory arrives at Amazon.
- Create your shipment plan and send to Amazon FBA. In Seller Central, set up a shipment plan. Box, label, and ship your products to the Amazon warehouse address Amazon assigns. Budget 60 to 70 days from order placement to the day your product appears available for sale if you are using ocean freight from China.
- Launch your ad campaigns on day one of availability. Start with an auto campaign to gather keyword data. Add a manual campaign for the keywords you already know are relevant to your product. Consider a competitor targeting campaign to show up on similar product detail pages. Monitor results daily but do not make major changes for the first two weeks.
- Optimize over time using real data. Cut non-converting keywords after you have at least two to four weeks of data. Pursue early reviews through legitimate channels. Raise your price incrementally as reviews accumulate and conversion rates improve. Reorder inventory before you run out completely because stockouts damage your search ranking and force you to start rebuilding momentum from scratch.
Find Your X
Amazon FBA private label is one real path to making money online. Alston’s two-week results prove that the model works for people who go in with honest expectations about timeline and initial investment. But it is not the only path, and it is not the right fit for everyone. It requires upfront capital, patience with a long setup window, and the willingness to run at a loss or near-breakeven for months before the numbers start working in your favor.
If you are not sure whether Amazon FBA fits your situation, your skills, or your starting budget, take the free two-minute quiz at finder.platformproof.com. It will match you to the online business model that fits your actual starting point, not someone else’s highlight reel.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money do you need to start Amazon FBA private label?
Most private label sellers need at least $2,000 to $5,000 to cover their first product order from a manufacturer, freight shipping from China, Amazon account and category fees, custom packaging with their brand, and initial advertising spend. Going in with less than this makes it difficult to order enough inventory to generate useful data while still covering the full range of costs involved.
How long does it take to start making money with Amazon FBA?
Based on Alston’s experience, expect at least 60 to 90 days from the time you place your first product order to the time you make your first sale when using ocean freight from China. Manufacturing typically takes about 30 days, ocean shipping takes about 35 days, and then Amazon needs additional time for check-in and inventory distribution across its warehouse network.
What is advertising cost of sales and what is a good target for a new seller?
Advertising cost of sales is the percentage of ad-attributed revenue you spent on advertising to generate it. If you spent $100 in ads and made $200 in sales directly from those ads, your advertising cost of sales is 50 percent. Most sellers aim for a target of 30 to 40 percent once campaigns are optimized. A new seller in the first weeks, like Alston at 61.69 percent, will typically run higher because the campaigns are still in the data-gathering phase and have not been pruned yet.
What is the difference between private label and wholesale on Amazon?
With private label, you create your own brand and listing from scratch using a product you sourced and customized. You own the listing entirely and control pricing. With wholesale, you buy an existing brand’s products and sell them on that brand’s existing Amazon listing, competing with other sellers on the same page for the buy box. Private label offers more long-term brand value and control but requires more upfront investment and involves higher risk because you are building from zero.
Do you need reviews before you can start selling on Amazon?
No, you do not need reviews before your first sale. Alston got 17 orders with zero reviews. But having no reviews does make it harder to convert shoppers and forces you to price lower than you eventually want to in order to compete with established listings. Getting your first ten to twenty honest reviews is one of the most impactful things you can do in the early weeks of having a listing live.
What is the difference between Amazon FBA and retail arbitrage?
Retail arbitrage is when you buy discounted products from physical stores or online retailers and resell them on Amazon at a higher price. You do not create a brand or a new listing; you sell on existing listings. It requires less startup capital than private label but offers no brand ownership, is harder to scale, and requires constant sourcing of profitable deals. Private label requires more upfront investment but gives you a business that compounds over time as your listing builds reviews and ranking.
Does Amazon charge you for sending products to their warehouse?
You pay to ship your products to Amazon’s fulfillment centers, yes. The freight cost from your manufacturer to Amazon’s warehouses is your expense and varies based on weight, volume, and whether you use ocean freight or air freight. Once your inventory is at Amazon, they charge FBA fees per unit sold to handle storage, picking, packing, and delivery to the customer. These per-unit fulfillment fees depend on the size and weight of your product.
Is Amazon FBA private label still worth starting in 2024?
Based on Alston’s results, there is still real opportunity. He found a product, got it live, and made 17 sales in two weeks on a brand new listing with zero reviews and modest advertising spend. The market is competitive but it is not closed. The sellers who struggle are usually the ones who expect fast results and quit when the first month does not show overall profitability. Thorough product research, honest cost modeling before you order, and patience while the listing builds momentum are what separate the sellers who make it from the ones who give up too early.
Read Next
If selling products online interests you but you want to see how a different platform compares, Alston also tested selling AI digital products on Etsy, which has a much shorter setup timeline and a lower barrier to entry than Amazon FBA.
Read: How To Sell AI Digital Products On Etsy
Sources
- YouTube video: “I Tried Selling On Amazon For 14 Days | How To Make Money Online With Amazon FBA” by Alston Godbolt (alstongodbolt.com)
- Amazon Seller Central, Fulfillment by Amazon overview (seller.amazon.com)
- Amazon Advertising, Sponsored Products and Sponsored Display campaign documentation
Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.