Arbitrage, Wholesale, Private Label or Dropshipping: Which Amazon Business Are You Actually Starting?

Everyone arrives at Amazon asking "what should I sell?" It's the wrong first question. Selling on Amazon isn't one business. It's at least four different businesses that happen to share a website — and they differ completely in capital, daily work, risk, and whether what you build is worth anything in three years. Most people who fail didn't pick a bad product. They picked a business they didn't actually want to run. In this episode: • Retail and online arbitrage — the cheapest way in, and the honest description: a treasure hunt that pays, but never compounds • The Australian problem nobody mentions — the arbitrage playbooks people watch were filmed in American shops with far deeper clearance runs • Wholesale — repeatable and stable, but you're on someone else's listing competing for the buy box with everyone else who got approved • Private label — the only model that builds an asset you can sell, and the only one where getting it wrong means owning a container of it • Dropshipping, and the distinction that gets accounts banned: it IS permitted if you're the seller of record with your name on the packaging and you handle returns. Buying from another retailer and having them post direct to your customer is not • Why retail arbitrage itself is fine, but the retailer-ships-direct version isn't • Four questions that actually tell you which model suits you • Why nobody is choosing forever https://amzproductlauncher.com.au Follow the show so the next episode lands automatically. Startup capital figures quoted are ranges reported by United States sources in US dollars, indicating relative scale between models rather than a budget for an Australian business. Nothing here projects what any model will earn — results vary enormously and plenty of sellers in every model do not succeed. Amazon's policies, especially the drop shipping policy and category gating, change regularly and differ between marketplaces; Seller Central is always the authority. General information only, not legal, tax or financial advice.