Want to sell on Amazon without renting a warehouse or filling your spare room with boxes? You can, and it is easier than most dropshipping guides suggest. With Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), Amazon stores your stock in its fulfilment centres, ships orders to your customers and handles returns. In this guide I show you the three methods sellers in our community use to sell on Amazon without inventory at home: online arbitrage, wholesale and retail arbitrage. You will also learn why we advise against dropshipping, what print on demand and KDP can do, how to manage your stock levels and which costs to expect.
Key takeaways
Selling on Amazon without inventory means in practice: you buy branded stock, send it to an Amazon fulfilment centre and Amazon handles storage, shipping and customer service. The three proven methods are online arbitrage (from around €10,000 starting capital), wholesale (from around €20,000) and retail arbitrage (from around €5,000), or the equivalent in pounds. Arbitrage sellers in our community typically work with 10 to 15% margin. Dropshipping is only allowed on Amazon under strict rules and is a poor choice for most beginners.
What does selling on Amazon without physical inventory mean?
Without inventory does not mean without products. It means someone else handles storage and logistics. With Fulfilment by Amazon, your stock sits in Amazon's fulfilment centres and Amazon packs, ships, answers customer questions and processes returns. This is the route we recommend. A prep centre receives your deliveries, checks and labels the goods and forwards them to Amazon, so you never have to touch the products. With dropshipping, a supplier ships straight to your customer, which Amazon regulates strictly. With FBA you sell without your own warehouse but keep control over stock, pricing and margins.
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA): how it works
1. You send stock to Amazon. In Seller Central you create a shipment, print labels and send the boxes to the assigned fulfilment centre.
2. Amazon stores and sells. Your offers carry the Prime badge, which boosts your chances of winning the Buy Box.
3. Amazon ships and handles returns. Orders are packed and shipped automatically, and Amazon handles customer questions, returns and refunds. With Pan-European FBA and Remote Fulfilment you can also sell into EU countries without stock in each one.
Order fulfilment and customer experience
Amazon customers expect Prime shipping and reliable delivery. With FBA, Amazon's fulfilment centres handle order fulfilment, customer inquiries and returns, which keeps your seller metrics healthy and customer satisfaction high. Shipping delays, which quickly damage an Amazon seller account, are largely out of your hands. You focus on sourcing and pricing, Amazon focuses on the customer experience.
Do you have to buy inventory upfront?
Yes. With arbitrage and wholesale you purchase upfront inventory, which is exactly what makes the model work: you control product quality, product availability and your product's selling price. Dropshipping promises low startup costs without buying inventory upfront, but in exchange you give up control and profit margins. Our advice is to keep upfront costs under control by starting with a budget that fits the method, not by skipping inventory altogether.
Method 1: online arbitrage without inventory
With online arbitrage you buy branded products cheaper from online shops and resell them on Amazon for a profit. You order from the shop, have it delivered to you or a prep centre, and from there it goes straight into an Amazon fulfilment centre. ProfitPath Supplier Search compares 1,000+ UK and EU shops with Amazon every day, Price Alerts flag new deals automatically and Reverse Search finds offers for brands you already sell. We recommend around €10,000 starting capital. The basics are in our Amazon online arbitrage guide.
Method 2: wholesale without inventory
With wholesale you buy larger quantities directly from a wholesaler, distributor or manufacturer. Many wholesalers deliver straight to a prep centre or even labelled to Amazon, so you manage the flow of goods without handling them. With the Wholesale Scanner you upload price lists and instantly see what makes money on Amazon. Platforms like Qogita (affiliate link) or eany (affiliate link) make it easier to start. Plan for around €20,000, because wholesalers have minimum order values. More in our guide to wholesale on Amazon.
Method 3: retail arbitrage without inventory
With retail arbitrage you buy in stores such as Argos, Boots or Currys and resell on Amazon. A scanner app like ProfitGo checks the barcode in store. You label the goods at home or drop them at a prep centre and send them to Amazon within days. A table to pack on is all the space you need. From around €5,000, retail arbitrage is the best way to learn. More in our Amazon retail arbitrage guide.
Prep centres: your temporary warehouse
A prep centre receives your deliveries, checks for damage, applies Amazon labels, packs and ships to fulfilment centres, usually charging per unit. Look at location, turnaround time, experience with Amazon requirements and transparent pricing.
The methods compared
| Online arbitrage | Wholesale | Retail arbitrage | Dropshipping | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buying | Online shops | Wholesalers, manufacturers | In store | From supplier after the sale |
| Storage | Amazon FBA | Amazon FBA | Amazon FBA | At the supplier |
| Starting capital (our advice) | from €10,000 | from €20,000 | from €5,000 | low |
| Delivery to customer | Prime | Prime | Prime | often slow |
| Risk with Amazon policies | low | low | low | high |
| Our recommendation | Yes | Yes | Yes, to start | No |
Inventory management: how to manage inventory without a warehouse
Even without your own inventory space, good inventory management matters, because FBA makes you pay storage fees monthly plus a surcharge for aged inventory. Traditional inventory management is replaced by Seller Central reports, but the logic stays the same: only buy what sells within a few weeks, check the inventory age report every week, clear slow movers with coupons, price cuts or a second channel like eBay, and plan Q4 early, when demand and storage fees rise at the same time. Which marketplace fits which stock? See eBay vs Amazon.
Dropshipping on Amazon: allowed, but not recommended
Amazon only allows dropshipping under clear conditions: you must be the seller of record on all packing slips, invoices and packaging, remove any supplier branding or branded packaging from third party suppliers before shipping, and handle returns yourself. Buying from another online retailer and having that supplier ship directly to your customer is explicitly prohibited, and breaking these rules can cost you your selling privileges. Even with reliable suppliers, dropshipping suppliers often ship from abroad and cannot compete with Prime delivery, you never see the goods, margins are thin because every seller gets the same prices, and late deliveries quickly hurt your account health. Is dropshipping illegal? No, but breaking Amazon's policy puts your account at risk. FBA gets you the same result, selling without a warehouse, with far less risk.
Digital products, Amazon Merch and Kindle Direct Publishing
There are other inventory-free ways to sell on Amazon. With print on demand, including Amazon Merch on Demand, you upload designs for custom merchandise such as T-shirts, and products are made only when a customer places an order. With Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing you publish e-books and paperbacks, and Amazon prints each copy on demand. Selling digital products such as e-books is fully inventory-free. All of these need creative work, product research and a lot of marketing, and they are separate business models. If you want to make money selling products from established brands, FBA and arbitrage are the better choice.
Set up your Amazon seller account and start your ecommerce business
Register your business with HMRC, then create an Amazon seller account in Seller Central with ID, bank account and card, and pass identity verification. Choose the Professional plan at £25 a month excl. VAT, or the Individual plan at 75p per item sold. Enable FBA, find profitable products with online arbitrage, wholesale or retail arbitrage, for example among the best brands for online arbitrage, check brand restrictions with our Amazon ungating guide, buy, send to Amazon directly or via a prep centre, and keep an eye on price, Buy Box and sales rank.
Costs and fees at a glance
| Cost | What you pay |
|---|---|
| Selling plan | £25 a month excl. VAT (Professional) or 75p per item (Individual) |
| Referral fees | Usually 7 to 15% of the selling price by category |
| FBA fulfilment fee | Per unit, by size and weight |
| Monthly storage fees | By volume, higher in Q4 |
| Aged inventory surcharge | For stock stored for a long time |
| Prep centre (optional) | Usually per unit |
Your exact profit after all fees is shown by ProfitGo right on the product page.
How much can you make with Amazon FBA?
It depends on capital, time and sourcing. Arbitrage sellers in our community typically work with 10 to 15% margin, so €10,000 in sales leaves around €1,000 to €1,500 profit. On our reviews page one seller reports scaling from around 9k to over 35k in monthly sales within three months, another made around £4,000 profit in one month from ProfitPath deals alone. Results like these are not guaranteed. Is Amazon FBA still worth it in 2026? I answer that in this video:
FAQ
Can you sell on Amazon without inventory?
Yes, without your own warehouse. With FBA, Amazon stores and ships your stock. You still buy products, but you never need storage space of your own.
Is dropshipping allowed on Amazon?
Only if you are the seller of record on all documents, remove supplier information and handle returns yourself. Buying from another online retailer that ships directly to your customer is prohibited.
What is Amazon FBA?
Fulfilment by Amazon: you send stock to an Amazon fulfilment centre and Amazon handles storage, shipping, customer service and returns.
How much money do I need to start?
Our advice: from €5,000 for retail arbitrage, from €10,000 for online arbitrage and from €20,000 for wholesale.
Can I sell on Amazon as a private individual?
Occasional private sales are possible. But if you regularly buy to resell for profit, you are trading and need to register as a business and use a professional selling plan.
How much are Amazon storage fees?
They depend on the volume of your stock and the season, and rise in Q4, with a surcharge for aged inventory. Current rates are in Seller Central.
Is Amazon FBA still worth it?
Yes, if you start with a model that fits your capital and run the numbers on every deal. It is the simplest way to sell on Amazon without your own warehouse.
Conclusion: no warehouse, but a plan
Selling on Amazon without inventory is easier than ever in 2026, not through dropshipping but through FBA. With online arbitrage, wholesale or retail arbitrage you buy branded stock, send it to Amazon and let Amazon do the rest. Pick the method that fits your capital and run the numbers on every deal. All Amazon business models are compared in arbitrage vs private label. Our free Q4 Ungating Playbook shows the 50 brands worth unlocking now, and ProfitPath comes with a 14-day free trial.
