Online arbitrage vs. private label

I’ve done private label twice in the past and both times it went well at first but then became a race to the bottom with ruthless Chinese competitors undercutting on price.

My mistake was that my products were not original, customized or patented, and the differentiation was exclusively “branding” and bundling.

Now I’m looking into online arbitrage, as it seems much less risky, with the main variable being capital.

If you identify a good arbitrage opportunity, the numbers work so you can make profit at the buy box price, then chances are that product will sell and you just need to buy a bunch of it and list it.

In your opinion, is online arbitrage a better, more reliable and overall less risky mode than private label?