Why 99.9% won't make it on Amazon

Are you on Amazon for “passive income”? 

Cute. Because the only thing passive about FBA is how fast your profits disappear if you stop paying attention.

• Steal your competitors’ sales this season 🎯
• Confident you’re not in the 99.9%? 😏
• Thought of the Day 🍴

SELLER CONFESSIONS

An Amazon seller (OP) confessed: Amazon's grind hits harder than new sellers expect, 99% won't make it past the first phase.

According to OP, too many beginners think Amazon is a side hustle that magically turns into a six-figure empire. In reality, it’s more like a slow, expensive grind through customer complaints, account warnings, and endless policy shifts.

🎡 Amazon’s not a lottery ticket

OP wasn’t trying to kill ambition, just illusions. 

• Unrealistic expectations. A few YouTube videos or a $500 course doesn’t make you an entrepreneur.
• The passive-income illusion. Everyone wants “hands-off money” without the years of hustle.
• Gurus profit more than students. Thousands buy courses; maybe one out of a hundred succeeds. 🤓
• Amazon is tougher than ever. OA/RA sellers face daily Section 3 suspensions, brands are gating harder, and support feels like Russian roulette.
• Real success takes years. Seven figures isn’t a quarter-year sprint, it’s a multi-year climb.

As OP put it, “If you’ve got grit, patience, and zero quit, it might just work.”

🧭 The honest bottom line

Veteran sellers piled on with their own reality checks.

• Passive income is a myth. FBA takes constant work, the only thing “hands-off” is your bank balance if you ignore it.
• Margins are thinner than they look. In today’s market, $2 net per unit is a win.
• It’s a long game. Expect 8–12 months before meaningful profit shows up. 🗓️
• Adapt or die. Sellers who survive policy whiplash and competition never stop learning.
• Only a few make it. Rough estimates say maybe 1–2% truly thrive after three years.
• Originality still wins. Handmade, brand-first, or niche creators can still carve sustainable income.

The consensus? Amazon’s not impossible, it’s just merciless to the unprepared. Treat it like a business, not a shortcut, and it’ll reward you eventually. Treat it like a side hustle, and it’ll chew you up. 😋

TOGETHER WITH STACK INFLUENCE

🎁 Get Ahead This Holiday Season - Rank #1 on Amazon Like Lenny & Larry’s

Most Amazon sellers feel it this time of year:

Ad costs spike. Rankings stall. Conversions flatten.

That was Lenny & Larry’s story before turning to Stack Influence - the platform that automates influencer collaborations at scale.

Instead of pouring more into ads, they sent their Protein Pretzels to 1,560 verified Micro-Influencers who:

1. Bought the product on Amazon (real purchase, verified sale)
2. Shared honest reviews & social post.
3. Created UGC that could be repurposed everywhere

The result?

• 🚀 11× monthly sales (from 1,024 → 11,316 units)
• 📈 BSR rank jump: #9,536 → #864 in Grocery
• ⭐ 525 organic reviews (4.3 avg.)
• 👀 2.3M impressions + 82K engagements

Now imagine that kind of organic growth before the holiday rush.

With Stack Influence, you can:

• 📦 Gift your products to real customers & influencers
• 🤖 Automate collaborations from A–Z (save 175+ hours monthly)
• 📸 Generate unlimited branded UGC with full rights
• 📈 Boost rankings through authentic, verified Amazon traffic

This holiday season, skip the ad wars.

Stack Influence helps brands outrank competitors and multiply recurring revenue before December even starts.

🎄 Get 10% OFF when you launch your campaign this month

See how it works here

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Most sellers lose to expectations, not competition. The market rewards those who see it for what it is, not what they wish it were.

BITES OF THE WEEK

• Future-proof Marketing: 12th Annual Digital Marketing for Financial Services (DMFS) NY Summit is happening this fall 2025.
• Holiday Hustle Playbook: Download the Winning the 2025 Holiday Shopper: Insights for Advertisers and Retailers Dive now!
• Retail Media Remix: Ex-Amazon Ads evangelist Jeff Cohen unpacks AI, data, and the evolution from retail to commerce media.
• Commerce Summit November: Web Summit Lisbon 2025 dives into ecommerce’s next wave, from social shopping to next-gen payments.