u/ggballas

Link to Amazon store:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/HighmarkCollective/page/CCD0D505-ACBB-4A56-A2D5-E8F52BE77C7B

Christian themed gifts, with the best selling SKU being a baptism gift set.

* $51k revenue/mo

* $16k on manufacturing/shipping (COGS)

* $12k FBA fees

* $7.7k Amazon referral fees (15%)

* $1.2k PPC adspend

* PROFIT - $14k (~27% margin)

They have two primary products -

* A "Baptism gift set" (gift given for a Baptism) - 65% of sales

* A "Bible verse jar" (jar filled with verses from the bible for different moods/inspirations) - 19% of sales

* Some other smaller products as well

How do they reach such a high margin with these ? What's the strategy ?

"Baptism gift set":

* A bundle of products - bought together for the Baptism occasion

* It being strictly a gift prompts people to spend more - given that it's a nice and thoughtful set (preferable to the competitors) - even if the price is higher (it's a $37 set - adding just $5 over the competition is already an increase 13% to the profit margin)

* It's not a commodity ! But rather a 1-of-1 sort of product (competitors are not strictly comparable to one another, it all depends on customer's preference and willingness to spend)

* 29% profit margin

"Bible verse jar":

* A design-based product - cards cost close-to-nothing to produce but people are willing to pay more for a good design

* A design-based niche often leads to high margins

* The other products in the niche charge lower prices (some get more sales) - but this one still seems to be getting a decent amount of sales at the higher price point ($19)

* 19% profit margin

How much does it cost to start a similar business ?

* "Baptism gift set" - ~$1200 for 100 MOQ, then $1k for a month of ads (on Amazon) - depends on which keywords you target

* "Bible verse jar" - ~$700 for 100 MOQ, then $1200 for a month of ads (on Amazon) - depends on which keywords you target

How I estimated the figures:

* Revenue = Amazon's "X+ bought in past month" for each ASIN, aggregated

* COGS = founders' own admission - they were on Shark Tank Vietnam

* Adspend = price-per-click * search-volume * estimated-CTR, aggregated for all the search terms they bid for

Sources: Keepa, Similarweb, Jungle Scout, Meta/Google ad library, and Alibaba for COGS estimation

Link to Amazon store:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/KALOTOYS/page/FF229FCD-8280-4B7B-A122-76F630638BD0

Wooden Montessori toy boards for children. Recently (March) introduced personalizable boards (with kid's name) - this is what accounts for the big jump in sales in recent months - almost double revenue (this and back-to-school month)

* How do they get such high margins ? Manufacturing (except personalization) is produced in Vietnam (founders are Vietnamese). The product's value being in its design rather than in its material cost results in a high margin.
* Their designs are unique and plenty (370 SKU's, but only 30 of them are making 50+ sales per month)
* Revenue figures taken from Amazon's own "X+ sold in past month", while COGS/operations figures taken from founders' interviews (they pitched on Shark Tank Vietnam)
* COGS/unit (according to founders) - $4/unit (the personalizable ones are probably more, no data into how much it costs them to personalize in the US)

Getting into such a business shouldn't be that expensive but would require some luck (to get a popular design at first that would allow you to continue producing). Assuming 100 MOQ in China - that's $400 per designs. If we include PPC for launching (see below how I calculate that, figure here taken if we try to launch on just some of the keywords) - I estimate $200/mo.

The more designs you produce at first the more likely at least one of them will sell well.

How I estimated the figures:
* Revenue = Amazon's "X+ bought in past month" for each ASIN, aggregated
* COGS = founders' own admission - they were on Shark Tank Vietnam
* Adspend = price-per-click * search-volume * estimated-CTR, aggregated for all the search terms they bid for

Sources: Keepa, Similarweb, Jungle Scout, Meta/Google ad library, founders' interview and Alibaba for COGS estimation

Another design-based product brand with crazy margins.

White Mountain - link to Amazon store:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/WhiteMountain/page/11B7CEE8-2B3A-4DB1-AF22-23E84DEBE8AD

* $700k monthly revenue on ~40% margin (!), spending $30k/mo on ads (Amazon and Meta/Google)

* ~85% of rev from Amazon, rest from own website

* Costs just $3 to produce and ship (COGS per unit) but sells for $20

Design-driven products are the way to go IMO.

How I estimated the figures:

* Revenue = Amazon's "X+ bought in past month" for each ASIN, aggregated

* COGS = manual estimate from suppliers on Alibaba

* Adspend = price-per-click * search-volume * estimated-CTR, aggregated for all the search terms they bid for

Also taken into account:

* sales from their website (negligible)

* Meta and Google ads (non-existent)

Sources: Keepa, Similarweb, Meta/Google ad library, Alibaba for COGS estimation

Yet another store that I see whose primary product is a design-based product having insane margins.

Link to Amazon store:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/ViroraMahjong/page/4A0A7D98-7080-4361-B521-99580CAC73B7

* $170k monthly revenue on ~40% margin, spending $8k/mo on PPC
* First launched Nov 2025
* No advertising or significant social media presence outside of Amazon
* People simply buy their product at a higher price than the competitors because they have GOOD DESIGNS
* Competitors sell at ~$90 but they are able to sell at $200+ - because people like their designs

In short - design-driven products are the way to go (there are a few other strategies as well IMO, this is the one that's worked for us personally, and I see it all over).

How I estimated the figures:
* Revenue = Amazon's "X+ bought in past month" for each ASIN, aggregated
* COGS = manual estimate from suppliers on Alibaba
* Adspend = price-per-click * search-volume * estimated-CTR, aggregated for all the search terms they bid for

Also taken into account:
* sales from their website (negligible)
* Meta and Google ads (non-existent)

Sources: Keepa, Similarweb, Meta/Google ad library, Alibaba for COGS estimation, custom skill to pull all of these together

Yet another store that I see whose primary product is a design-based product having insane margins.

Link to Amazon store:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/ViroraMahjong/page/4A0A7D98-7080-4361-B521-99580CAC73B7

* $170k monthly revenue on ~40% margin, spending $8k/mo on PPC
* First launched Nov 2025
* No advertising or significant social media presence outside of Amazon
* People simply buy their product at a higher price than the competitors because they have GOOD DESIGNS
* Competitors sell at ~$90 but they are able to sell at $200+ - because people like their designs

In short - design-driven products are the way to go (there are a few other strategies as well IMO, this is the one that's worked for us personally, and I see it all over).

How I estimated the figures:
* Revenue = Amazon's "X+ bought in past month" for each ASIN, aggregated
* COGS = manual estimate from suppliers on Alibaba
* Adspend = price-per-click * search-volume * estimated-CTR, aggregated for all the search terms they bid for

Also taken into account:
* sales from their website (negligible)
* Meta and Google ads (non-existent)

Sources: Keepa, Similarweb, Meta/Google ad library, Alibaba for COGS estimation, custom skill to pull all of these together

case study on an FBA business I've been digging into. numbers are from verifiedmargins.com/brand/spitehouse

• It's a gag card game - design based product, cheap to manufacture and ship, but people will want THIS SPECIFIC card game if they're into it (if the idea catches)
• ~$90k/mo revenue, ~28% margin, ~$25k/mo profit
• 16 ASINs, different variations of the game for different audiences (and catching seasonality - e.g. a "dad" variation for father's day)
• First listing was ~jan 2025
• created easily-replicable content on IG/tiktok (easy idea, but gotta do the leg work consistently to actually get the content up) - free organic traffic

bottom line - this is what I tell everybody - if you want to succeed as a private label seller (IMO the best selling tactic on amazon or anywhere else) - you gotta create products whose value is their design (in this case the value of the cards is the game that's printed on them, not the cardboard itself). that's how you avoid getting copied by china. they also did the legwork on social media. I wouldn't say it's strictly necessary for amazon (we're not doing it), but it might be essential for this particular type of business.

for context - I'm a 9 year seller on Amazon doing $1MM/year on 40% margin across 3 brands - we're doing the same kind of strategy as this card game.

* This is 95% Amazon and 5% Shopify
* We have a few brands, but the biggest one by far is in the toys and games cateogry
* We have a specific strategy that works for us in terms of finding products - I wouldn't say there's one way to win on Amazon (or in any other business) - this is what worked for us
* We've been in the business for over 8 years
* I'd say we crossed the $1M ARR ~3 years ago
* Have been launching new products non stop, most fail, some succeed
* Had bureaucracy issues with Europe - that cut out our revenue by ~40%, but we made up for it with new products
* More new products coming in - could potentially double our revenue 🤞