How to use gadgets to improve your Amazon Profits

By Sharon Fussell, April 24, 2013

I do like gadgets, especially when they make life easier.

Things are a lot different now technology-wise to when I first started selling books on Amazon.

In many ways, it’s an easier process now. In fact it’s incredible to me that you can now check a books worth while you are actually in the charity shpo or jumble sale. No more wasting money on books that end up being added to the 1p catalogue.

That’s just one boon that new technology has presented the Amazon seller with. There are many other gadgets available now that help create a more profitable Amazon business.

Check out these useful gadgets you can use to make life a little easier when listing books to sell on Amazon.

Here are my favourites…

Barcode Scanner I love my USB barcode scanner. It’s on a stand and you just swipe the barcode from the item you are selling – in this case, a book – across the laser. This imports the number into Amazon’s search engine, and in seconds the book information comes up, thereby speeding up the listing process. They can be bought fairly reasonably if you buy a used product from eBay.

Laser Printer No need to buy an all-singing all-dancing model. You can often pick up second-hand models fairly in expensively.

A black and white laser will do the job, and to save money, try and buy a printer where it’s possible to buy a replacement compatible ink cartridge, in stead of branded cartridges which are usually very expensive. A laser printer saves loads of time and turns out a professional packing slips quickly and quietly (for FBA selling, laser printers are required).

Label Maker Such a small simple thing but this really does save a huge amount of time. As well as labels with the buyers name and address, you can also create other labels such as a ‘this book belongs to’ sticker. These can be used to cover previous owners’ names and other markings like prices written on the inner cover page.

Smart Phone We invested in a 3G Blackberry and it is fabulous. We have full use of the Internet whilst out and about. It certainly makes life easy when checking up ISBNs in charity shops or car boots.

A smart phone with access to the Internet can save you money because you can use the information gleaned to buy or discard books. You can also look up videos and DVDs which do not have ISBNs by taking a photograph of a barcode using an appropriate app.

Internet access on your phone is also useful to keep in touch – we have access to various email accounts, so if a customer contacts us, we know straight away. We also know which items have been dispatched and if we want to, we can find out how many sales we have on our Amazon account when we are away from the main computer.

With such relatively inexpensive gadgets so widely available, you’re really missing out if you don’t utilise them to the full.