A complete guide + how Arbitrage Hero makes the process radically easier
Reverse sourcing has recently become one of the most effective ways for Amazon FBA sellers to find profitable products, especially now when traditional online arbitrage (OA) has a lot of competition. If you’ve spent any amount of time doing online arbitrage manually, you’ve probably noticed this pattern:
- You scan popular retail sites
- You run searches
- You find a few good leads
- Then… hundreds of other sellers jump on the same products
Reverse sourcing flips the entire workflow on its head.
Instead of trying to discover opportunities from retailers first, you start with what is already selling well on Amazon, and you trace it backwards to find where those products come from, which sellers carry them, and which stores keep them in stock at a good price.
It’s a smarter way to source. But only if you do it correctly.
Most new sellers do reverse sourcing incorrectly — and waste hours clicking into stores, storefronts, Keepa charts, or going down rabbit holes.
In this guide, we’ll walk through:
- What reverse sourcing is
- Why it works
- The biggest mistakes sellers make
- How to do it step-by-step
- When reverse sourcing beats traditional product sourcing
- And how Arbitrage Hero’s Reverse Search tools + Chrome Extension automate the most painful parts of the process
If you want real workflows, examples, and strategies you can use today, you’re in the right place.
What Is Reverse Sourcing?
Reverse sourcing (sometimes called reverse sourcing OA or reverse searching) is a method where you:
- Start with a profitable ASIN on Amazon
- Analyze that ASIN’s sellers, sales history, and competition
- Find out where those sellers buy the product from
- See if you can source it cheaper (or with better availability)
- Decide if it’s a viable arbitrage or wholesale opportunity
Instead of browsing retail websites for possible deals and hoping they sell well, you begin with data:
Products that already have proven sales.
This removes a huge amount of guesswork.
Why it works so well:
- It’s easier to find sources for products that already sell
- You eliminate 90% of false leads before you even start
- You can spot replenishable inventory (replens) faster
- You see real competition and real pricing, not estimates
- It’s more predictable and consistent than scanning random stores
Reverse sourcing isn’t new. Experienced OA sellers have utilized it for years, but it has recently become the go-to approach for sellers who prefer stable and repeatable sourcing.
Why Most Sellers Fail at Reverse Sourcing
Reverse sourcing sounds simple: pick an ASIN → find the store → buy → profit.
But most sellers hit a wall because they do one or more of these common mistakes:
❌ Mistake 1: Picking ASINs too randomly
New sellers jump into Amazon, choose any product with a few sellers, and try to reverse trace it.
Without criteria, you waste time on:
- private label listings
- hazmat
- super low ROI products
- stuff with barely 1–2 sales a month
❌ Mistake 2: Assuming all sellers buy from the same place
Experienced storefronts might source from:
- wholesalers
- distributors
- bundles they create
- seasonal clearance
- regional stores not visible online
- or exclusive relationships
Blindly chasing a product can lead to many dead ends.
❌ Mistake 3: Confusing “in stock” with “profitable”
You might find a store selling the product, but:
- shipping is too high
- price is unstable
- Keepa shows big drops
- Buy Box rotates unpredictably
- Amazon jumps in occasionally
Reverse sourcing is not about chasing availability — it’s about chasing repeatable profit.
❌ Mistake 4: Using poor tools or doing everything manually
Manual reverse sourcing works… but:
- It’s slow
- It’s inconsistent
- It requires too many browser tabs
- You have to Google every variation
- Prices change constantly
- Competition jumps fast
That’s exactly why tools like Arbitrage Hero exist — to automate all of this repetitive work.
The Right Way to Do Reverse Sourcing (Step-by-Step)
Below is the actual workflow used by experienced OA/Wholesale sellers.
This is not theory — it’s the exact process seasoned sellers follow to find replenishable winners.
STEP 1: Start With the Right ASINs
The biggest misconception is that reverse sourcing begins on Amazon.
It doesn’t.
It starts with a curated list of high-quality ASINs.
There are a few ways to get ASINs worth reverse sourcing:
✔️ 1. Look at storefronts of strong OA sellers
Find storefronts with:
- 300+ active listings
- A range of categories (not private label)
- Stable seller history (1–3 years minimum)
- Many mid-priced items ($12–$40)
- Products with steady sales ranks
These sellers often work with OA/wholesale suppliers.
✔️ 2. Use Keepa product lists
You can track:
- trending items
- frequently bought items
- price-stable items
- items with consistent volume
- items without Amazon on the listing
✔️ 3. Use Arbitrage Hero’s Reverse Search Tool
Inside AH, you can take:
- ASINs
- storefronts
- or files of ASINs
and run a Reverse Search against hundreds of stores.
This eliminates random guessing and ensures you’re only working with ASINs that already have history.
STEP 2: Check if the ASIN Is Worth Your Time
Before you search stores, answer these basic questions:
✔️ Does it sell at least 25–40 units/month?
Lower than that → low replen flow.
✔️ Does Amazon avoid the listing?
If Amazon jumps in occasionally, avoid it.
✔️ Are there 3–15 sellers?
Too many sellers = race to bottom.
Too few = likely private label.
✔️ Is BSR stable?
A sharp drop might be a temporary sale.
✔️ Is the Buy Box stable?
Frequent rotation? Good.
Single seller dominating? Bad.
✔️ Does the ROI make sense?
Target:
- ROI 25–40% for OA
- ROI 10–20% for solid replenishable items
- ROI 50%+ for clearance or high-risk items
This filtering cuts 80% of the junk ASINs right away.
STEP 3: Search All Store Variations
This is where beginners fall apart.
A product might exist under:
- slightly different titles
- store-specific SKUs
- bundles and multipacks
- seasonal variations
- hidden categories
- regional inventory
Searching “exact product name” won’t work.
What a pro seller does:
A real reverse sourcing pro will search every variant:
- “Branded Product Name 12oz”
- “Brand Flavor 12 oz”
- “Brand Pack of 2”
- “Brand multipack 24oz”
- “Brand SKU 123456”
- image recognition
- UPC search
- store-specific synonyms
This is where Arbitrage Hero dramatically reduces work.
STEP 4: Check Every Potential Store
When reverse sourcing manually, sellers typically check:
- Walmart
- Target
- Walgreens
- CVS
- HomeDepot / Lowes
- Office Depot
- Michaels
- BigLots
- Instacart stores
- eBay
- Brand websites
- Regional chains
- Discount sites
- Grocery stores
But the challenge is obvious:
❗ There are too many stores to check manually.
Even with experience, checking just one ASIN takes:
- 10–15 store visits
- multiple search variations
- checking stock
- calculating shipping
- checking cashback options
Multiply this by 50 ASINs → you lose an entire day.
How Arbitrage Hero solves this
Arbitrage Hero’s Reverse Search:
- automatically searches 100+ supported stores
- checks all product variations
- compares price + stock
- calculates profit, ROI, fees, placement fees
- ranks results so best leads are at the top
- saves hours of manual search
This is why many AH users say Reverse Search alone is worth the subscription.
STEP 5: Confirm the Match (Avoid Wrong ASINs)
Even when you find a product in a store, you must confirm:
✔️ The pack size matches
Single vs multipack errors are common.
✔️ The ounce/ml/size is identical
Many products look identical but differ slightly.
✔️ The flavor/scent/variation is correct
Especially in groceries & beauty.
✔️ UPCs match (if available)
UPC is not always required but always helpful.
✔️ Keepa shows historical stability
One-day price drops = bad sourcing.
With Arbitrage Hero:
You can verify UPC, size, pack count, dimensions, images, and historical charts directly in the extension or platform.
This reduces mis-matches dramatically.
STEP 6: Calculate True Profit (Including Placement Fees)
Most sourcing tools miss one key factor:
Placement fees can destroy profit.
Amazon introduced placement fees that:
- vary by size and category
- change depending on warehouse routing
- can eat up $0.50–$3 of your profit
- often turn “great” deals into break-even deals
Arbitrage Hero includes:
- FBA fees
- shipping
- referral fees
- storage
- placement fees
- add-on costs (prep, inbound shipping, multipack costs)
So your reverse sourced products show real profit, not theoretical profit.
STEP 7: Decide If It’s a Replenishable or One-Time Opportunity
Reverse sourcing shines when used for replens:
- Products that sell consistently
- Available from large retailers
- Stable price
- No Amazon interference
- Moderate seller count
If you can source it repeatedly, the value skyrockets.
One-time wins are fine…
…but replenishable items build long-term cash flow.
The more you do reverse sourcing, the easier it becomes to recognize patterns:
- certain brands rarely go out of stock
- some categories rotate like clockwork
- consumables outperform hard goods
- multi-packs often produce better margins
- unpopular flavors sell steadily with low competition
Arbitrage Hero’s tracking tools help you monitor replenishable deals over time so you don’t need to re-check them manually.
STEP 8: Track Storefronts for New Opportunities
Here’s where pros separate themselves from amateurs.
Reverse sourcing isn’t just about finding one product.
It’s about finding:
a good storefront → then extracting ALL their profitable ASINs.
Strong OA sellers often:
- sell similar categories
- use similar suppliers
- follow similar pricing strategies
- replenish regularly
If you identify a seller sourcing from Walmart or Target or niche websites, you can reverse source their entire catalog.
Arbitrage Hero automates this with:
- storefront analysis
- bulk ASIN imports
- reverse searches on large lists
- filtering by ROI, profit, stock, seller count, etc.
A single storefront can give you dozens of long-term products.
Where Arbitrage Hero and the Chrome Extension Change the Game
You can absolutely do reverse sourcing manually — and many top sellers did for years.
But it is:
- slow
- repetitive
- error-prone
- easily disrupted by price changes
- hard to scale
Arbitrage Hero speeds up the entire process by automating the boring work.
Here’s what AH does:
1. Reverse Search 100+ Stores Instantly
Manually searching even 10 stores for one ASIN is exhausting.
AH checks:
- product pages
- search pages
- categories
- alternative SKUs
…and does it automatically.
2. Chrome Extension Overlays Real Data While You Browse
On Amazon pages, you instantly see:
- ROI
- profit
- seller count
- BSR history
- estimated sales
- fees
- placement fees
- competing seller stock
- competition levels
This means you don’t even need to switch tabs.
3. Reverse Storefront Tool
Paste a storefront → AH finds:
- all their ASINs
- all profitable ones
- reverse search availability
- potential replenishment items
This is one of the most powerful tools for scaling OA.
4. Automatic Matching (Image + Title + UPC + Keywords)
Instead of relying on weak text matching, AH uses:
- fuzzy matching
- product attributes
- multipack logic
- UPC linking
- weighted scoring
- image similarity checks
This dramatically lowers match errors.
5. Full Profitability Calculation (Including Placement Fees)
Many tools ignore placement fees.
AH includes:
- inbound shipping
- placement
- FBA
- referral
- size tier
- oversize adjustments
- variable cost components
So you know the real profit.
6. Speed
A manual reverse sourcing session might take:
- 3 hours → 10 decent leads
With Arbitrage Hero, you can find:
- 20–50 leads in under an hour
- sometimes 100+ if you run bulk storefront searches
Time is your most valuable resource.
This is where Arbitrage Hero shines.
Realistic Reverse Sourcing Workflow Using Arbitrage Hero
Here’s how a typical user works:
Step 1: Gather ASINs
- Find interesting products on Amazon
- Or pull a storefront
- Or load keepa data
- Or import your own list
Step 2: Run Reverse Search
Click “Reverse Search” → AH checks 100+ stores → returns results ranked by profitability.
Step 3: Verify Matches
Use the extension or platform to confirm:
- pack size
- size
- variation
- UPC
- price history
Step 4: Check Competition + Profits
Arbitrage Hero overlays real numbers → you instantly see:
- sales
- FBA fees
- placement fees
- ROI
- profit
- expected competition
- Buy Box stability
Step 5: Add to Sourcing List or Replens List
Store it inside AH for tracking.
Step 6: Re-check regularly
You can quickly revisit all your past finds without repeating all the manual research.
Is Reverse Sourcing Worth It Today?
Absolutely.
Reverse sourcing is:
✔️ More consistent
✔️ Less competitive
✔️ More predictable
✔️ Easier to scale
✔️ Better for replenishable products
✔️ Perfectly suited for Arbitrage Hero’s toolkit
Traditional OA is not dead — but reverse sourcing has become the smarter, more strategic workflow for sellers who want predictable income.
If you’re tired of scanning random stores hoping to find a gem, reverse sourcing will feel like a breath of fresh air.
