Welcome to my review of Zen Arbitrage, a web-based software that will help you find cheap books that you can buy and resell for a profit on Amazon.
Unlike some of the other Amazon arbitrage tools, Zen Arbitrage focuses exclusively on finding cheap books to resell.
I have always been interested in selling on Amazon via the arbitrage model, it is how I got started in this whole make money online venture. Although that part of my journey was not a success, largely down to my own failings and also using tools that were not very good, I have always thought that if I stuck it out a bit longer, I may have succeeded.
Amazon arbitrage is a good business model and there are a lot of people making a healthy and even lifestyle-changing income from it.
If you have the right tools and guidance along with the correct mindset, selling on Amazon via the arbitrage model can be very lucrative.
Zen Arbitrage Review
Before I get to the actual review of Zen Arbitrage, I want to say a couple of things about the founder of this arbitrage software.
His name is Paul Valley and he has been an Amazon FBA seller for over a decade and is the most published author on selling books on Amazon.
He created the software to solve problems he had while selling on Amazon via the arbitrage model. He seems like a very down to earth guy and offers personal support via his Zen Arbitrage Facebook group.
So, what exactly does Zen Arbitrage do?
It is a sophisticated, yet simple to use Amazon book arbitrage software. Basically, the software will find you cheap books on Amazon that you can resell at a higher price on Amazon!
That may seem like a strange concept and you may wonder how anyone could make a decent earning running a business based on this model.
Even I was a sceptical at the beginning, not with the arbitrage model but with the buying and selling on Amazon model.
However, as I learned more about this system and saw the results people were having, I was kind of angry with myself for not finding out about this software when I was trying to run an Amazon arbitrage business.
How Does Zen Arbitrage Work?
Before I tell you how Zen Arbitrage works (it’s not very complicated) I need to tell you about the two types of people who sell on Amazon. You will then better understand how Zen Arbitrage works and why it works well for those who follow the instructions inside the membership area.
Basically, there are two types of sellers on Amazon, there are those who pay Amazon a monthly fee to stock and deliver their products, these people are called FBA sellers, FBA stands for Fulfilled By Amazon.
There are also sellers who fulfil their own orders, they don’t pay Amazon any monthly fee because they stock and ship their own products. These sellers are also known as FBM or fulfilled by Merchant.
FBA sellers can get their products delivered to their customers in 1-2 days thanks t0 Amazon Prime, while FBM sellers usually take a longer time to fulfil their orders.
Consumers will usually take the option of the faster delivery times, even if it is a little more expensive plus FBA sellers are always the top results when people search for a product on Amazon
Add to the fact that most prices from FBM sellers are much lower than those selling via FBA and yet most consumers either don’t see these products because they are not high enough on the search results or ignore them because of their longer delivery times. You start to see how Amazon book arbitrage can be a lucrative business model to run.
You find cheap books that are being sold by FBM sellers and then list them for a higher price as an FBA seller. However, doing this manually will be very time consuming and not an efficient way to run a business.
This is where Zen Arbitrage comes in, this online tool will help you find profitable books on Amazon more quickly.
It’s a great piece of software and is very simple to use, although looking at its dashboard, it looks very complicated. However, if you follow the fantastic tutorials within the Zen Arbitrage membership area, you will see how simple it is to use.
What I like about this software, other than the fact that it works, is that the data you are provided with is very easy to understand. The software has a great user interface and is easy to navigate, it may look overwhelming at the beginning, but trust me, after you have been through the training, you will be uncovering book arbitrage opportunities very quickly.
So, from the image above, you can see there is a lot of data to sift through, however, as the training will show you, you don’t have to look at every data point, just the ones that will determine if the book will make you a profit or not.
For example, I did a simple search for textbooks from the publisher O’Reilly with a sales rank of 750k or better and I got the following results:
After watching some of the training, the main data you will need to focus on to determine if a book will be worth buying or not are the following:
- Used price – The lowest price for a used book from an FBM seller
- New price – The lowest price from an FBA seller for a new book
- Amazon price – The price Amazon is selling the book for
- FBA price – The lowest price FBA price for the book (new or used)
- Average Amazon seller rank
The Amazon sales rank is one of the main data points that will tell you how quickly a product will sell, the lower the number the faster a book will likely sell. For this reason, it is advised to start with an average rank of 500k or lower, I searched for books with an average of 750k as I believe if a book has the potential to sell within a week, it’s worth purchasing.
There are also various filters you can apply when you are searching for arbitrage opportunities, the training covers how you should initially use these filters, but they are easy to understand and playing around with them will give you an idea on how to adjust these filters that will result in the best opportunities.
A couple of cool features in the search results is the profit calculator, which will allow you to quickly see your net profit after all the Amazon fees.
Zen Arbitrage Marketplace
One thing you have to understand about running an arbitrage business is that even if you are using an awesome tool like Zn Arbitrage, it still takes a while to find profitable arbitrage opportunities.
If you don’t want to spend one or two hours a day sourcing for profitable books to sell, the Zen Arbitrage Marketplace may be the solution you are looking for.
This is a marketplace where other members of Zen Arbitrage will sell you leads of profitable book arbitrage opportunities they have found.
In other words, for a small fee, you can skip the research phase and just purchase profitable book leads from other members.
This is probably the quickest way to make money with Zen Arbitrage and perfect for those who just don’t want to spend hours researching because of time restraints or maybe they just don’t like sitting in front of a computer for a couple of hours.
There are hundreds of leads and from what I have observed, each lead costs between $1-$4 and you get access to all the data for these books including the estimated profit you could earn, average rank, the cost and the number of available copies.
Why would people sell profitable leads when they could make much more money actually selling the books? This is answered in the member’s areas but one of the main reasons is because some people just want to make a quick buck as soon as possible.
They don’t want the hassle of purchasing the books, prepping them, sending them into the warehouse and then wait a week or two before they are sold. This may apply to you as well, if you just want to make a few bucks every day, you can sell leads on the Zen Arbitrage Marketplace or you can do a combination of both.
Its really up to you how you want to utilise this fantastic feature and it does provide another way to make money with Zen Arbitrage.
Zen Arbitrage Tracking
This is another very useful feature of Zen Arbitrage, you can keep track of the books you have purchased and the sales that you have generated directly within the Zen Arbitrage software.
Zen Arbitrage Training & Support
One of the best features of Zen Arbitrage is the sheer number of video tutorials and guides that you get access to as soon as you become a member. It can be quite overwhelming if you just mindlessly scroll through the training area, because there is so much training material to go through. Fortunately, when you get started, you don’t have to watch everything to understand how to use Zen Arbitrage, there are a few quick start video tutorials that will help you get up and running as quickly as possible.
You also get access to the Facebook group which is very active, you can network with other Amazon sellers, get tips and advise and also the owner is active within the group, so if you need help, you can ask him directly when he is available.
Overall, the training and support is very good.
Zen Arbitrage Pricing
The software costs $97 pm and you get a 14-day free trial that will allow you to test it risk-free.
It may seem a little pricey, but I reckon it is worth it, especially with how well the software works, the support and training you get plus the regular updates are made to the software.
However, please remember that there are other costs with running an Amazon FBA business. There is the monthly Amazon FBA fee of $39.99 and the referral fee they charge every time you make a sale.
So, realistically, to start an Amazon arbitrage business, you should have at least a couple of hundred dollars to start with.
Final Thoughts
Zen Arbitrage is a very impressive piece of software, if you are interested in starting an Amazon arbitrage business, you should definitely give this software a try. I honestly did not realise how profitable book arbitrage on Amazon could be until I found out about Zen Arbitrage and decided to research it further.
Not only is the software great, but the owner also seems like a down to earth guy who is always willing to help.
You also get fantastic training material and top-level support, I wish I had known about this software when I was doing Amazon arbitrage, I believe my journey would have turned out very differently.
One thing I must add is that Zen Arbitrage only works with Amazon.com and not any other Amazon marketplaces. If you live outside of The USA, you can still sell on Amazon but you will need to use a service that will receive your books, prep them and then send them to the Amazon warehouse.
Fortunately, Zen Arbitrage does provide this service, so if you live outside the USA, Zen Arbitrage is still suitable for you.
Click on the button below for a free 14-day trial of Zen Arbitrage.