The Easiest Way to Start Amazon Dropshipping From Scratch (Exactly What I Did)

Four years ago I was a broke university dropout with no job, no income, and nowhere to fall back on. I spent months figuring out Amazon dropshipping the hard way — cold calling suppliers, placing test orders to verify shipping times, wasting time on dead ends that should've taken days, not months.

My current students don't go through any of that. Here's what changed.

What Starting Looked Like in 2022 vs. Now

When I started in 2022, finding suppliers alone was a months-long ordeal. I cold-called and emailed hundreds of suppliers with a less than 10% success rate. Most of them had never heard of the dropshipping model. Many thought I was trying to scam them. The ones who were willing to work with me — I had to place test orders to verify their handling times and shipping speeds before I could trust them.

I had 12 hours a day to throw at this. You don't. You probably have 1–2 hours per day, maybe 7–14 hours per week.

Here's what's different now:

Suppliers — There are now hundreds of domestic suppliers that actively work with Amazon sellers. They understand the model. They're set up for it. Using a structured email script, you can vet and lock in a viable supplier in under an hour. My students use a specific email template that gets a 90%+ response rate because it approaches suppliers as a partnership rather than a personal request.

Product Research — I used to spend countless hours sifting through thousands of products manually, hoping to find something I could actually sell. Now, AI does the heavy lifting. The right ChatGPT prompts can generate more product ideas in 30 minutes than I could find in a full day of manual research.

Systems — I had no SOPs, no tracking dashboards, no product checklists. I figured everything out by making expensive mistakes. My students get the systems upfront, so they're operating correctly from day one.

The Supplier Checklist

Every supplier you use needs to pass these checks:

Domestic only — US suppliers for the US marketplace, Canadian for Canada. No AliExpress, no Alibaba. Overseas suppliers mean 2–4 week shipping times. That kills your account health.

Single-unit orders — No minimum order quantity (MOQ). You need to be able to order one unit at a time.

Fast handling — 1–3 days from order to shipment confirmation

Total shipping under 7 days — Handling time + transit time combined

Brand-name products — Not generic, unbranded items. You want products from established brands that people already know and trust.

No invoices in shipments — If a customer receives a box and sees a receipt showing your $50 supplier cost on a product they paid $100 for, that's a problem.

30-day return policy — Amazon gives customers 30 days. Your supplier needs to match this.

One reliable supplier is worth more than ten sketchy ones. Don't spread yourself across 15 suppliers trying to maximize options — build depth with 3–5 good ones.

The Product Research System

Product research is not one thing — it's two.

Brand research comes first. This is identifying which brands Amazon will allow you to list (ungated brands). Your job is to find brands you have permission to sell before you do any pricing analysis.

Product research comes second. Once you know which brands you're ungated in, you go to every supplier in your network, search that brand name, and look for price discrepancies — products where the supplier price is lower than the Amazon selling price.

The tools you need:

IP Alert — Tells you if a brand is reseller-friendly (green checkmark = safe to list) or known for filing IP complaints (red warning = stay away). One-time fee of $99.

AMZ Scout — Shows you the Best Seller Rank (BSR) for any product. Lower BSR = faster sales velocity. Target products with a BSR under 500,000.

ChatGPT — Use structured prompts to generate brand and product type ideas within specific categories. Not for picking products — for ideation and market mapping.

The profitable product checklist:1. Well-known brand (people recognize it)2. At least 2 other third-party sellers on the listing (indicates it's safe to list)3. IP Alert shows green (reseller-friendly)4. BSR under 500,0005. No brand or manufacturer selling directly on the listing6. Price gap between supplier cost and Amazon selling price (after 15% referral fee)

What Momentum Looks Like in Real Time

First sale usually comes within 20–30 listings for most students. That's when the snowball starts.

By month 3, students in the program are typically generating $10,000–$50,000 in monthly sales. The people on the higher end aren't working more hours — they're executing the system more consistently.

MJ: single mother of four, homeschooling — $58,000 in 4 months

Nicholas: $16,000 in sales over 30 days

Erica: $33,000+ in one month while working a full-time remote sales job, putting in 1–2 hours per day Monday–Friday

None of these people had prior e-commerce experience. None of them had hours to spare. What they had was a structured system and the discipline to work it consistently.

The One Thing You Actually Risk

Here's what you actually risk when you start an Amazon dropshipping business: time.

You're not risking money. You don't buy products before they sell. If something doesn't sell, you lose nothing. Your only cost is the $39/month Amazon Professional Seller account fee.

Compare that to:

Amazon FBA: $5,000–$10,000 upfront in inventory

Shopify dropshipping: $2,500–$5,000 testing ads

Real estate: $20,000–$100,000 in down payments

Traditional business: $50,000–$100,000+ in overhead

The downside is capped. The upside is open-ended. That's an asymmetric bet that makes sense.

The only barrier is actually starting. The rest is execution.

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If you want the complete system — the supplier email scripts, the AI prompts, the product research checklist, the daily workflow, and one-on-one coaching — apply to the Leading Digital Ecom mentorship program.

[Apply to the Mentorship Program →]