How Online Arbitrage Works
You browse online retailers for products selling below their Amazon price. When you find a match, you buy the product online, have it delivered to your home or directly to your prep centre, and then send it to Amazon FBA. The margin between your purchase price and the Amazon selling price (minus fees) is your profit.
Where to Find Deals
Most UK online arbitrage sellers regularly check the clearance and sale sections of major retailers. Argos clearance, Boots offers, Amazon Warehouse deals (yes, you can buy from Amazon and resell on Amazon), Debenhams, John Lewis outlet, and retailer-specific deal pages all produce opportunities.
Deal sites like HotUKDeals can alert you to price drops, though be aware that deals posted publicly will attract more competition. Browser extensions like Keepa and tools like BuyBotPro or Tactical Arbitrage can automate parts of the research process, scanning retailer websites and flagging products that meet your profit criteria.
The Online Arbitrage Workflow
A typical OA session involves checking your go-to retail websites, running any automated scanning tools, and manually evaluating the products that look promising. For each potential buy, you check the Amazon listing — number of sellers, BSR, price history over the last 90 days, and fee breakdown.
Once you have confirmed the numbers work, place the order. Many OA sellers have products delivered directly to their prep centre, which saves time on the receiving and shipping side. At Precision, we receive stock from our clients' online purchases regularly — it streamlines the whole process.
Key Differences from Retail Arbitrage
Online arbitrage is more scalable because you are not limited by what is on a local shop's shelf. You can buy from retailers across the country and have everything shipped to one location. It is also easier to do part-time — you can source for an hour in the evening from your sofa.
The downsides are that deals go fast (other sellers are scanning the same sites), shipping costs from the retailer eat into your margins, and you cannot physically inspect the product before buying. Returns from online purchases are also more hassle than putting something back on a shelf.
Tools for Online Arbitrage
Tactical Arbitrage is one of the most popular tools — it scans retail websites in bulk and flags products meeting your criteria. It is a paid tool but saves enormous amounts of manual searching time. BuyBotPro analyses Amazon listings and gives you a quick profit/loss verdict. Keepa is essential for price history analysis.
A virtual assistant (VA) can also help with OA. Many sellers train VAs to do the initial scanning and shortlisting, then review the results themselves before purchasing. This scales your sourcing capacity without scaling your personal time.
Cashback and Stacking Deals
Smart OA sellers maximise their margins by stacking discounts. Use cashback sites like TopCashback or Quidco when buying from retailers. Pay with a cashback credit card for an additional percentage back. Use discount codes where available. These small percentages add up across hundreds of purchases per year.
Getting Started
Start by picking three or four online retailers and spending an hour going through their clearance sections with the Amazon Seller app or Keepa extension open. Do not overthink it — the best way to learn is by doing. Your first few purchases might not be home runs, but they teach you what to look for and what to avoid.
Online arbitrage is one of the most flexible and scalable sourcing methods for Amazon FBA. Combined with a prep centre handling the logistics, it lets you build a genuine business from your laptop.