How to Clearance Shop & Earn a Full-Time Income

Are you looking for a way to make extra money from home for your family?You have come to the right place!Today, I want you to meet my friend, Jessica Larrew, from The Selling Family.She is going to tell you all about how selling on Amazon.com has become a family business for her and her two favorite guys.Jessica has been selling on Amazon for over 5 years and has helped thousands of others add income to their own families using the techniques she’s mastered over the years.In this post, Jessica shares how buying clearance items pays their bills!How cool is that?!?  Read below to find out how she does it and how you can too!If you are thinking right now, “YES, PLEASE! I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS,” then sign-up for her free 7-day course right now!

How We Replaced TWO Incomes Selling On Amazon

 Before I had kids, I had a dream of being a stay-at-home Mom and being able to homeschool. I also wanted to retire my husband, Cliff, from a job he hated.Those are two pretty lofty goals, but I’ve been able to accomplish them both!The mission to bring my husband home took less than two years from the time I set my mind to do it. And the other, to homeschool my son, has just happened.The only way I could do either of these was to work for myself and establish a flexible schedule. And I actually had the flexible schedule — but only because I had been laid off.In 2008, I was let go from the same company Cliff was working for… but instead of finding another job, I replaced my income by selling new and used goods on eBay.It was a ton of fun! I’d find deals at yard sales or through my couponing skills and resell them for a profit.But when I set the goal to bring Cliff home, I found that it would take a lot more time because I had to pack and ship every order myself. I was making about $1,500 a month in profit, but I was going to need to make a lot more than that for him to retire.About that same time, I learned about selling on Amazon and decided to try it. After starting with books, I moved on to something called “retail arbitrage” — finding a product in a store that you can sell for a higher price on Amazon.I started using the Amazon platform and their Fulfillment By Amazon program (FBA).That move made all the difference in my business. Instead of me fulfilling every order, Amazon’s employees would handle all of the customer support and order processing for the items I was selling.I suddenly had a lot more time because I didn’t have to personally ship out 10+ orders by myself. And it was great to have Amazon store products at its warehouses, so I wasn’t limited by space, either.

Making Bank In Clearance Aisles

One of the places that catapulted me to success was clearance aisles.I started out buying products on clearance at drug stores and reselling them on Amazon. That meant I’d go to places like CVS and Rite Aid each week to scope out what items had been reduced to 75 percent off.I have an app on my phone called “Amazon Seller” that I can use to scan the barcode of a product and the app will tell me how much that item is selling for on Amazon, and even calculate how much I would make on it after fees.So I would buy things like Norelco Electric Razors for $25 and resell them for $75 or more. The best part was, if I found them at one store, they were bound to be found at another.I also did well selling vitamins and lotions, finding them for $5 and selling them for $15 or more.I learned as I went that there are other advantages to shopping clearance aside from low prices.One important one is that you’ll sometimes find discontinued products. These are items that a manufacturer might not be making anymore, or maybe it’s a seasonal product (like pumpkin spiced flavored whatever!).In either case, there are bound to be customers who love the item and need to have it. When it’s no longer available at their local retailer, they’ll look online for it.The buyer is excited to find the product in stock online and is willing to pay a premium. So they’re happy to have found their favorite product, and you make a profit. Win-win!Less than a year after switching to the Amazon FBA system and buying my inventory from clearance aisles, my husband was finally able to join our son and I at home! We now have a thriving business selling products on Amazon and earning more than $3,000 a month in profit (we earned over $30,000 just in November/December!)

Lifestyle Goals

One of our biggest goals has been to have our business work around our family’s schedule rather than the other way around, and I’m proud to say we’ve done that.In August, I was able to accomplish my long-time goal of homeschooling my son, Aiden, who will turn 6 soon.The first few years, Aiden went to a private preschool and then a public T-k (transitional kindergarten, a step between Pre and Kinder). We decided we would start homeschooling this year for Kindergarten.So with homeschool now in the mix, we spend the mornings doing school, and then work in the afternoons a few days a week.  Aiden is at the point where he really “gets” that we do have to work and actually likes to help while we are processing inventory at home. He unfortunately doesn’t enjoy the shopping for inventory part, though!So if you’re a fan of bargain hunting and clearance shopping, selling on Amazon could be a great way for you to add an extra income stream for your family.

Want to test it out?

I would love to help you explore this option!I often suggest that people interested in selling on Amazon start by scouring their own homes for product. It’s always surprising how many brand new products we have around the house that haven’t been used for one reason or another.Check out your kitchen cabinets, board game closet, your kids’ game room and the baby closets to discover what you never ended up using.Then look those items up on amazon.com to see how much they are selling for. If they are selling for more than $15, send them into the warehouse and test the waters.Many people find that they have a few hundred dollars worth of things that could be sold on Amazon. I recommend focusing on brand new items for all categories except for books. If you have gently used books you can send those in as used as well.For a more visual idea of what you will be doing in this process, you can check out this post about getting started as an Amazon FBA seller.I also have a free 7-day email course that will walk you through the process of getting started on Amazon.  You can sign up here to get our free 7-day email course.  I look forward to spending the next 7 days with you!I’ll also be hanging out in the comments section, so make sure to say hey :)