Ever wish you could get a piece of the Amazon pie?

Corey Ganim banked $3.2 million in sales last year selling other people’s products on the e-commerce giant’s platform.

And he didn’t have to deal with the massive upfront costs and headaches of manufacturing his own products.

Corey got started in early 2019 and went full-time with his unique wholesale business model by mid-2020.

He’s since built a multi-million-dollar business buying brand-name inventory at wholesale prices and reselling it on Amazon at a profit.

In this episode, Corey shares his best tips and insights featured in his book, The 5 Pillars of Amazon Wholesale and his free Wholesale Challenge training.

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The Appeal of Wholesale

There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon—watching YouTube channels like WatchMeAmazon’s online arbitrage videos. A few important things, though, drew Corey to the wholesale model.

In late 2018, he was getting burned out on the retail arbitrage hustle. It was a grind finding one-off products that usually weren’t replenishable inventory he could buy again.

That’s when he discovered wholesaling’s compounding potential:

buy $5k in profitable inventory
sell it
and now you have $6k

Lather, rinse, and repeat.

But it’s not just about the math. As Corey says, to succeed, you have to be able to sell suppliers on letting you purchase their products, negotiate favorable terms, and persistently follow up.

Product Selection Criteria and Competitive Analysis

When evaluating potential wholesale products to sell, Corey looks for three main criteria:

Have existing FBA seller competition – proves there is already demand for the product
Not sold directly or dominated by Amazon – they’ll undercut prices aggressively.
Existing demand with solid sales per month – this justifies stocking and selling the product.

By meeting these criteria, you narrow Amazon’s huge catalog to products with good competition and sales volume, making wholesale distribution profitable.

Start With What You Know: Go Niche

Amazon has so many products that it can be difficult to know where to begin. Corey recommends starting with what you already know and understand.

“If you’re a car enthusiast, well, chances are, you’re probably going to find a lot of opportunities in that automotive category.”

For those without niche interests or expertise, he suggests choosing a main category and going extremely niche within it. “Choose a category automotive, and then find a subcategory within automotive that you can start to learn. So for example, spark plugs,” Corey explained.

You’ll be surprised how many spark plug brands are selling well on Amazon.

Tools/Tech

Having the right tools makes the research process much more efficient. A few of his most-used:

DS Amazon Quick View – free Chrome extension that shows competition on product listings
Amazon Listing Pages – Amazon displays estimated monthly unit sales for many listings
Seller Amp – Chrome extension that calculates your buy cost, fees, and profit after Amazon’s cut. $20/month
Keepa – tracks price history and competition
Seller Snap / Aura – Automated repricers. Seller Snap is around $500/month. Aura has a $27/month “starter” plan.

With these tools, Corey can quickly evaluate wholesale inventory opportunities using his three criteria before buying.

Minimum Sales Price and Order Volumes

The next question is—how much do you need to sell and how much profit do you need to make for a wholesale product to be worth going after?

Corey is not a fan of rules like “It must have 200 units in sales per month” or “I need at least 30% ROI.” He instead judges based on how much money a product could make in a month.

“So if I know that I only buy products and I’m expecting to make, say, $250 in profit per month, then if I can do the math based on estimated sales times my dollar profit per unit, if that’s greater than $250, then I buy it,” Corey explained.

His first “test” orders target 1-2 weeks of supply and lower sales volumes. This small commitment lets him test the product and numbers before investing more.

Finding and Contacting Potential Suppliers

Photo from wholesalechallenge.com

Corey’s preferred method is going directly to the manufacturer, and he goes for the phone every time, as he finds it gets better results.

The worst way to start a conversation is to say, “Hey, I’m an Amazon seller and I want to buy some of your products. Can you send me pricing?” That will get you nowhere fast, or even get you hung up on.

These brands get tons of requests from unprofessional Amazon sellers looking to make a quick buck. You need to differentiate yourself.

Instead, spend 2-3 minutes researching their product list first.

Then when you call, say, “I have 3 products specifically from your brand that I’m looking to purchase. I know the exact quantities that I want to buy, and I have a price in mind that I’m willing to pay. So if we can come to an agreement on that price point, then I can get you a purchase order today. So would you mind sending me over your dealer application?”

This makes you sound like a serious buyer who knows what they’re talking about—increasing your chances of getting a “yes” from the supplier and starting a good relationship with them.

Amazon Wholesale Startup Costs?

For those looking to get started with Amazon wholesale, one of the biggest questions is: how much capital is required? Corey recommends budgeting $5,000 – $10,000 for your initial inventory investments.

“Let’s say you’re starting off with $5k for inventory. Take that $5k, spread it out among 5 different suppliers, 5 different purchase orders, and 5-10 products per order. So you’ve got $5k spread over, let’s say, 50 different products.”

This lets you test more than one product-supplier combination while keeping your risk of losing money low.

Profit Margins

I asked Corey of the $3.2M in sales, how much actually flowed through to the bottom line.

After paying himself a 6-figure salary, the business netted 4.8% last year, or roughly $153,000. 

Including his personal salary, the business made at least $250k. 

“A healthy wholesale business is operating in the 5-8% net margin range,” he explained. “Ten percent net is crushing it.”

Licenses and Registrations

Starting as an Amazon wholesaler has fewer regulatory requirements than other business models.

The main requirements are:

Business Entity – for most, this will mean registering an LLC to operate under
Employer Identification Number (EIN) – this acts like a “social security number” for your business
Business Bank Account – you’ll need to open a dedicated business bank account, for which you’ll need that EIN
State Reseller/Retailer Registration – to avoid paying sales tax on your wholesale purchases (since your customers will pay it on the Amazon end), you’ll need to register with your state’s revenue department as a retailer

It’s simpler to do wholesale on Amazon compared to other online selling methods because there are fewer rules to follow to sell certain products.

Once you have the necessary registrations sorted out, you can start right away.

Automating Your Pricing with Repricer Tools

These third-party software platforms will change your Amazon listing prices to stay competitive and increase sales.

“So that way I’m not having to log into my Amazon account every hour and adjust my price by a dollar. My repricer is doing it for me automatically while I sleep.”

Corey uses the premium Seller Snap solution, which starts around $500 per month. While expensive, he said the software’s advanced repricing algorithms more than pay for themselves in additional sales.

For those on tighter budgets starting out, Corey suggested the newer Aura tool, which recently launched a $27/month “starter” plan for sellers doing less than $10,000 per month in revenue.

One way this business tool can help you make more money is by saving you time from having to change prices manually all the time.

The Logistics of Getting Inventory to Amazon

The next big problem is getting that stock ready and into Amazon’s fulfillment centers. There are two paths sellers can take:

Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) – think of this like how you’d sell on eBay, packing and shipping individual orders yourself as they come in
Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) – you ship all your inventory to Amazon upfront in bulk shipments. Then Amazon handles picking, packing, and shipping individual units to customers.

FBA has higher fees but unlocks Prime badging and generally higher sales conversions. It is also scalable because you do not have to handle each order yourself.

Given the sales volumes he operates at, FBA is Corey’s preferred approach. To deal with this, Corey hires prep centers—companies specialized in preparing products according to Amazon’s strict inbound policies—to handle fulfillment tasks.

Mistakes and Surprises

Corey’s inconsistency in the past has been his biggest mistake.

“If I’ve learned anything in the years of selling on Amazon, our business does the best when we’re consistently buying profitable inventory,” Corey admitted. “So whenever we’ve taken our foot off the gas, that’s when things start to slow down and fall off.”

But when they’re proactive, on top of their game, and consistently ordering profitable inventory, that’s when things continue to grow.

What’s Next for Corey?

After steadily growing his wholesale business for more than 5 years, Corey wants it to make between $5 and $8 million a year.

“So just continuing to scale what it is that we’re doing. In fact, about a year ago, I started posting content very heavily on Twitter at first. Now LinkedIn and YouTube, my podcast, I’ve got all these different media outlets that I’m trying to grow as well.”

With his VA staff handling supplier outreach, product research, and other operational tasks, Corey can remain focused on the highest leverage activities — negotiating deals, placing orders, and nurturing supplier relationships.

Corey’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Be consistent.”

Episode Links

coreyganim.com
The Amazon Wholesale Podcast
Corey on YouTube
The 5 Pillars of Amazon Wholesale
Wholesale Challenge
WatchMeAmazon
DS Amazon Quick View
Seller Amp
Keepa
Seller Snap
Aura

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Getting paid to take pictures of your receipts may be one of the world’s easiest ways to make extra money.

It won’t make you rich, but the income can add up, especially if you use multiple receipt scanning apps. 

And if you’re comfortable sharing your purchase data with one, it’s not that big a stretch to share the same information across a few different apps.

I compiled this list based on:

My personal experience with receipt scanning apps
App store reviews
Feedback from the 50,000-member Side Hustle Nation community

Ready? Let’s do it!

App Name
App Rating*
Minimum Receipt Value
Max. Receipt Value
Estimated Annual Earnings**

Fetch Rewards
4.8 ⭐
$0.02
$3.00
$10-25

Swagbucks
4.4 ⭐
$0.02
$0.15
$5-10

Ibotta
4.8 ⭐
$0
$5.00+
$20-$100

ReceiptPal
4.5 ⭐
$0.06
$0.06
$10-25

Receipt Hog
4.7 ⭐
$0.025
$0.10
$10-25

CoinOut
4.6 ⭐
$0.01
$0.05
$20-36

Pogo
4.9 ⭐
$0.01
$0.05
$5-10

*Apple App Store rating at press time.

**Many of these apps have other ways to earn. For the purposes of this table, I’ve only estimated the earning power from the receipt scanning portion of the app.

1. Fetch Rewards

The Fetch Rewards app is a favorite of mine because it’s super easy. You earn points by snapping pictures of your grocery receipts, which you can cash in for gift cards.

Each receipt is worth at least 25 Fetch Rewards points, worth around 2 cents.

Plus, if you purchased any products from Fetch’s 300+ partner brands, the app will automatically credit you bonus points. For example, we’ve earned bonus cash back for buying:

Annie’s macaroni and cheese
Jif peanut butter
Mott’s fruit snacks
and more

This is stuff we would have bought anyway, so it feels like getting free money by scanning the receipt into Fetch.

You can cash out once you earn 3000 points. Fetch has a variety of gift card rewards to choose from, including popular options like:

Amazon
CVS
Kroger
Nike
Nordstrom
REI
Target
Walmart
Whole Foods
and more

You can also choose to donate your earnings to charity if you prefer.

Pro Tip: Use referral code FETCH300 when you sign up to get 300 free bonus points added to your account.

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is primarily known as an online survey app, not a receipt scanning app, but they do pay you for pictures of your receipts. 

Most grocery, warehouse club, drug store, and dining receipts are worth $0.02, and receipts from select clothing retailers pay $0.15 each.

Swagbucks makes this list because the app has so many other ways to earn, including getting paid to play mobile games. The company has been around since 2008 and has paid out over half a billion dollars to users!

At press time, the app had a 4.4-star rating from over 110,000 reviews on the Apple App Store.

Join with our referral link to score a $10 sign-up bonus.

3. Ibotta

I still use Ibotta every week to check for extra cash back on our grocery purchases.

The drawback is you still have to scroll through each store’s listing and choose the products you bought. Then, you snap a picture of your receipt and watch the cash back hit your account.

Sometimes you’ll find the things you bought turned out to have a big offer on them. For example, I’ve earned as much as $5 back on a single item (some kind of protein bar from Costco). 

The most common offer I redeem is a $0.10 “any grocery item” offer. Simply scan your receipt from the participating store and you’ll see the credit.

But what’s frustrating is a lot of your shopping trips will have zero value in Ibotta. You’ll spend the time selecting the store and scrolling through the offers only to end up empty-handed.

Still, according to the app, Ibotta Savers who use the app every month earn over $130 a year! (You can cash out via gift cards or PayPal.)

In my experience, that seems a little high, but Ibotta is definitely still worth checking. 

4. ReceiptPal

With ReceiptPal, receipts are worth about $0.06 each, the highest among the apps we tested.  Depending on your shopping habits, that could add up to $10-25 a year.

You can cash out your ReceiptPal points for an Amazon gift card or a gift card to other select retailers. There is no option to redeem for PayPal credit, bank deposit, or Venmo or Zelle transfer.

The biggest drawback is you’ll need to give ReceiptPal access to your email before you can cash out. 

Another thing to be aware of: your points expire if you forget to upload a receipt for 90 days.

Check out our full ReceiptPal review to learn more.

5. Receipt Hog

Receipt Hog is another receipt-scanning app, where our independent app tester reported earning $25 a year. 

The points you earn in the app are based on the total amount of each receipt:

Less than $10 = 5 coins
$10-$49.99 = 10 coins
$50 – $99.99 = 15 coins
$100+ = 20 coins

It takes 1000 coins to earn $5, so every coin is worth $0.005 (half a cent). If your your average receipt is worth 10 coins, that would be $0.05 —better than many on this list.

Here’s our full Receipt Hog review for more.

6. CoinOut

CoinOut won’t replace your day job, but could pay you up to $36 a year for uploading your shopping receipts.

The app first appeared on Shark Tank in 2017 and originally only worked with certain merchants. Now you can earn from receipts from any store.

CoinOut is available on iOS and Android. 

When you first sign-up, your account will be at the basic Bronze level, and receipts are worth 10 coins ($0.01) each. But as you use the app more, every receipt is worth more.

On top of that, CoinOut has several bonus options that can help you earn more coins.

It’s easy to use and you can cash out for an Amazon gift card as soon as you earn your first $3 worth of coins.

Check out our full CoinOut review to learn more.

7. Pogo (iOS)

Pogo is an interesting newer cash back app, with several different ways to earn.

On the receipt scanning side, each receipt you upload is worth $0.01, with bonuses for sharing multiple receipts in a week.

But you can earn more with Pogo by sharing your location and credit card transaction data.

For example, you’ll earn $0.07 worth of Pogo points as you go about your day and approach certain stores. I’ve gotten these location bonuses at Target, Safeway, Costco, Fred Meyer, and others.

The other easy way to earn bonus cash back with Pogo is by linking your bank account and credit card transaction history. Each credit card purchase shared earns an additional $0.01-$0.10 apiece.

The only downside is you have to remember to open the app occasionally to hit the “claim” button next to each of them.

You can cash out your Pogo points once you’ve earned 3,000 points ($3) to PayPal or Venmo.

Based on my results so far, I expect Pogo to be worth around $5-20 a year.

Check out my full Pogo app review to learn more.

Choosing The Best Receipt Scanning App for You

While ReceiptPal paid the most for each receipt on average, Ibotta can earn you the most cash back if you buy the right products.

Since most of these apps make money by selling your shopping data, if you’re going to use one, you might as well use them all. The incremental time it takes to scan a receipt into multiple apps is minimal, and can translate into maximizing your cash back from every purchase.

Still, it’s important to remember than even when you add up the results from all the apps, the total income is unlikely to be a lifestyle-changer for you. 

I’m all for collecting all the easy, free money out there, but you’ll need to turn your attention to higher paying side hustles if you’re really trying to make an impact on your budget.

Alternatives to Receipt Scanning Apps

Receipt scanning apps are examples of apps that pay you real money, under the broader category of monetizing your data.

Caden (iOS)

I’m earning around $10 a month in passive income with Caden, an app that pays you for your data.

The app itself is a little slow and buggy, but may be worth those small headaches for super easy automatic earning power.

At press time, it was iOS only. Check out our full Caden app review to learn more.

Flip Products for Profit

Since you’re already maximizing the value of every dollar you spend, you might be good at finding items to flip for a profit.

How this side hustle works is you go bargain hunting at local stores, garage sales, thrift shops, or Facebook Marketplace, and resell those products at higher prices.

For example, Stacy Gallego broke down how she was earning thousands of dollars a month flipping products like motorcycle sidecars, skateboards, and even Sleep Number Beds.

Remote Bookkeeping

If keeping your own receipts in order is more than just a hobby, maybe you could offer the service to others. Bookkeeping is usually one of the first roles a business hires for, and can pay $60 an hour or more.

Here’s a free training on how to get started.

Grocery Delivery

As a savvy shopper, you probably already know your way around the aisles of your local grocery store. That knowledge can help you become an expert Instacart shopper and get paid to delivery groceries. 

For example, Kevin LaCombe reported earning $10,000 in his first 6 months as an Instacart Shopper–all on the side from regular 9-5.

You can choose which orders to accept based on the estimated earnings and delivery distance. 

Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.