I sold my Amazon store at the age of 28 and achieved financial freedom

In 2014, 23-year-old Robert Oliver had just graduated from college. Unwilling to work from nine to five, he chose to start his own business.

He believes: "Compared to the risks of starting a business, I am more afraid of waking up every day and feeling the emptiness of time passing by. "

At that time, the DTC model had just emerged and selling products through social media was a new thing. Oliver keenly realized that starting his entrepreneurial journey through Amazon was a good choice.

At the beginning, combining his professional knowledge, Oliver chose to start with sports supplements and created his own brand Genius Brand.

Later, the product category was gradually expanded to the entire health category, and annual sales increased from US$1.5 million to US$30 million. According to Oliver, this is because more than 80,000 Prime users search for pre-workout supplements on Amazon every month. If 20% of them can be successfully converted into their own customers, it will be enough to make a big business.

However, doing business on Amazon can sometimes be expensive, as the platform charges sellers a referral fee (6%-15% of the sales price) for each item sold, as well as monthly inventory and fulfillment fees.

The secret to making a healthy profit is to harness the power of algorithms or, as Oliver puts it, “run a series of weird micro-experiments.”

“You have to be obsessed with the algorithm,” he stressed. Amazon will tell you where the money you spend on each click is going — it comes down to conversions, reviews, titles, and other little details.

In 2019, Oliver sold his brand to a Georgia-based private equity firm for an eight-figure sum, achieving financial freedom.

According to Grand View Research, the North American dietary supplement market size was $50 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.6% between 2021 and 2028. Therefore, this market segment will continue to attract the attention of the capital market in the future.

When 28-year-old Oliver left the brand he founded, he did not choose to lie down just because he had achieved financial freedom. Instead, he immediately invested in his next entrepreneurial project - creating a functional coffee brand.

This time, he did not choose to rely entirely on Amazon, but instead made a multi-platform layout. In January 2023 alone, the brand has generated sales of $355,000.

According to Oliver, his small goal is to achieve annual sales of 100 million US dollars, but from the current perspective, there is still a long way to go.

In fact, Oliver is like many Amazon entrepreneurs. He chose this path because he hopes for more possibilities and does not want to live a life with a foreseeable end. Although he faces a lot of pressure, he still grits his teeth and perseveres, hoping that all Amazon employees will reap good results in 2023.

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Entrepreneurship