What Running 12 US Amazon Businesses Taught Us
Most Amazon advice is opinion. This is data. Across 12 US LLCs we help operate, doing a combined $2.14M in GMV, we pulled the numbers that actually move the needle for sellers importing from India: what prep and storage really cost, how many returns can be recovered, and which single habit saves the most money. You are welcome to cite any figure here with a link back.
$2.14M GMV across 12 US LLCs, roughly $178K average per business.
60 to 70% of returns are inspected and resold rather than written off.
Drip-feeding FBA from a US buffer was the biggest single cost saver.
Flat costs: $0.75/unit prep, $0.50/cu.ft storage.
What's in this guide
The dataset
These numbers come from 12 US limited-liability companies we help run for sellers who mostly manufacture or source in India and sell on Amazon and Walmart in the United States. Combined, they did about $2.14M in gross merchandise value. All fulfillment runs through one owned US warehouse, which means we see the real, comparable cost of prep, storage, freight and returns across every business rather than one seller's anecdote.
12 US Amazon businesses at a glance
Source: Think14 operating data
What the average business looks like
Averaged out, each business does roughly $178,000 in GMV. That is the band where a serious side operation becomes a real business, and also where logistics decisions start to make or break margin. The spread is wide: the strongest performers are several times the average, and the common thread among them is not a magic product but disciplined inventory and cost control.
Where the money actually goes
After Amazon's own referral and fulfillment fees, the biggest controllable costs are prep, storage, freight and returns handling. We price prep at a flat $0.75 per unit and storage at $0.50 per cubic foot with no minimums, which makes the numbers easy to compare across businesses. The pattern is consistent: sellers who let inventory pile up inside FBA pay far more in storage and surcharges than sellers who hold bulk in cheaper warehouse space. The fee that hurts most is almost always the avoidable one.
Returns: the recoverable 60 to 70%
Returns are where a lot of margin quietly dies, and where most sellers simply give up. In our book, 60 to 70% of returned units are inspected, regraded and resold rather than scrapped. On a business doing six figures, recovering two-thirds of returns instead of writing them off is a meaningful swing in annual profit. The key is having returns come back to a floor where someone actually opens, checks and re-lists them, rather than vanishing into Amazon's removal process.
Returns recovered, not written off
60 to 70% of returned units are inspected, regraded and resold rather than scrapped, protecting margin that most sellers lose entirely.
Source: Think14 operating data
The habit that saved the most
If we could give a new seller only one instruction, it would be this: do not send your whole shipment to FBA. Hold the bulk in a US warehouse and drip-feed FBA in batches sized to your sales velocity. Across the book, this single habit did more for margin than product selection, ad tweaks, or price changes. It keeps FBA storage low, avoids aged-inventory surcharges entirely, and protects your IPI. It is unglamorous and it works.
What we would tell a new seller
The businesses that do best are boring in the right ways. They prep to spec so nothing gets rejected. They keep only a few weeks of stock in FBA. They recover returns instead of writing them off. They keep clean records so reimbursements and taxes are never a scramble. None of that requires a special product, which is exactly why it is reassuring: the controllable levers are the ones that matter most, and any disciplined seller can pull them.
These figures are drawn from our own operations and are yours to reference. A link back to this page is appreciated if you cite them.