Want to Learn How to sell on Amazon? Here's the Information You'll Be Needing
If you have a thriving ecommerce store or just begin to establish your own brand, you've probably considered the advantages and disadvantages of selling products on Amazon.
Traditionally speaking, you'll keep the most money and create more equity in your business by building and maintaining an online store on your website. With all the technology that makes multi-channel selling more effective and lucrative and profitable than ever, you can do both simultaneously and quickly expand your audience.
If you're looking to test at selling your products on Amazon or want to know a bit more about what's involved, we're going to guide you through selling on Amazon as well as what you'll need to do in order to begin.
A brief introduction to Amazon's marketplace
Amazon is the most popular e-commerce retailer in the world with the most likely being in it is the largest in U.S., where 70% of the adults are Prime members. About 56% of eCommerce sales across the U.S. happen on Amazon, and it has about 200 million monthly active app users. Based on their own statistics approximately 7400 items are sold every minute in the U.S.
Amazon also ships to over 130 countries, so if you're looking for global ecommerce customers, this is the most efficient and effective means to reach a wide global audience.
Ready? Let's look at the things you should be aware of to make a sale on Amazon.
Different types of Amazon seller accounts
There are two primary types of seller accounts on Amazon: Individual and Professional.
A majority of online businesses seeking a steady revenue stream and growth will want to select the Professional version, because the Individual version charges an amount for each sale, but the Professional one charges a flat per month fee.
Other selling costs are also a part of the equation. each type of account has to pay, but we'll discuss those later.
A step-by-step guide to setting up your Amazon seller account
Amazon has produced a lot of information to assist merchants create accounts and start selling. If you'd like to look through their documentation to get started, start on this webpage. We've simplified the process to the following basic steps:
1. Make an account to sell
Beginning with your Amazon accounts is easy as signing up. First, you'll create your username and password, and follow the steps from there.
2. Choose the Professional Selling Plan
Next, choose the seller account type you want to use. As mentioned already, you'll want to pick the Professional plan if you expect to expand your business through Amazon. In sales terms, if you plan to sell over 40 items a month, you want the Professional plan.
Amazon will likely not be your only ecommerce platform or marketplace. And it probably shouldn't be, because there are several benefits to creating your own online shop using . However, Amazon lets you expand into new markets that you couldn't reach very quickly with your own shop.
3. Enroll in Brand Registry
Amazon provides the Brand Registry service, which is required to utilize prior to constructing your online store. You can also take advantage of various other tools and features on Amazon's platform, including seller protections and Amazon Ads. You can also get an additional 5% of the sale of your brand.
4. Utilize this Stores Builder tool to create your online store
Once you've registered, have the option of using the Stores builder tool and its drag-and drop features to design your store. There are three designs that you can choose from, and after selecting the one that you prefer, you'll have the ability to upload products and start creating pages.
You can adjust the tiles to arrange product images, videos, descriptions, or any other information to make the most sense for your store.
In order to get there, you'll also need an official trademark registered in the country you're enrolling from, along with an emblem.
5. Design your product listing and then begin to sell
After you've selected your template in hand, you'll be able to begin by using the page manager to include category pages for your products, add categories, design a homepage as well as any other pages you want to include as an element of your Amazon shopfront, to generate sales.
There are specific image size requirements that you must meet, as well as a limit of 200 characters per description, which is plenty.
"Perfect Launch," or the "Perfect Launch"
Amazon is known to promote the concept of a "Perfect Start" for brand new sellers This means that you meet five objectives within the first 90 days of creating your seller account. Those five tasks are:
- Enroll in Brand Registry
- Create A+ content on your pages for products
- Create Fulfillment by Amazon (we'll cover this later)
- Automate your price using Amazon's machine-learning technology.
- Make ads for sponsored products, coupons, or deals
Doing all this within those first few days result with significantly higher results, in accordance with their studies and that's the reason they have called it the"Perfect Launch".
After your store is established it is possible to use your brand's analytics data to create product bundles and pairings that people will want. This increases sales, and enables you to package multiple items in the same package.
Improve product listing for Amazon
Amazon's site operates much like an engine for searching. Users can enter search terms in order to search for products, and Amazon will show them products that align with their search.
This is what needs to determine your method of creating the product listing and improving the product details page.
Keywords that are search-friendly
Make use of keywords consumers might be searching for and that pertain to your products. Put them in your titles and product descriptions. Make use of variations or other keywords in the event that you have more than one method people might describe your product. Make use of models numbers and GTINs, and SKUs.
Informational descriptions and specifics
Get really specific in your descriptions and information Particularly for items which have a wide range of variants, like sizes, colors, and tastes.
Also, use bullet points to make your listings easier to comprehend, and focus on benefits in addition to product attributes. Benefits refer to outcomesWhat can this product benefit me? What is the problem it addresses? What needs do I have which this product will meet and what is the best way to meet this need? It is important to address these sorts of questions in your descriptions of the product and bullet points.
Great product images
Understanding Amazon's fees
Like I said earlier it is really only two options to pick from.
The Individual plan is priced at 99 cents per transaction. Everything you sell online with this plan costs you 99 cents.
The Professional plan is $39.99 per month, with unlimited sales. The idea of selling a minimum of 40 items per month comes from. However, even if you're sure if you'll be able to sell 40 products in the first month, you must still choose the Professional plan if dedicated to making it one of the most important aspects of your online business and hope to increase that number in the future.
If you wish to market on Amazon, show up in the Buy Box or sell items that are restricted to certain areas (and they are numerous of these) as well as use sophisticated selling tools, you'll need to purchase an Professional account.
Amazon is also liable for a variety of selling costs that are dependent on your arrangement with Amazon. They also charge a variety of additional fees based on your arrangement with.
Referral fees
The two plans both charge a referral cost for every sale made, and the fees vary from 3% up to as high as 45 percent in certain cases. The majority of the fees you pay for referrals range in the range of 8-15%. This is quite typical for the online marketplaces.
You can also view a variety of other charges, including referral fees on diverse categories of product here.
Storage and fulfillment fees
If you involve Amazon for any of your shipping, packaging, or other fulfillment activities There will be charges for it too, which is determined by the size and weight. If you only use Amazon to deliver packages, you'll be charged based on both those factors.
There are also fees for using Amazon's warehouses for storing your items. You might want to think about this due to additional advantages we'll go over in a moment. Most important is the fact that you are able to offer two-day shipping for your customers under the brand name.
In the months of October and December, storage charges triple that of the other nine months, due to the holiday time.
Fulfillment options - FBM, SFP, FBA
Like we said it is important to determine the best way to manage the process of fulfillment.
You may choose to process every order yourself, which is known as "fulfillment by merchant" (FBM). You can also use seller fulfilled prime (SFP) which is a unique service offered to experienced Amazon sellers that you can't utilize if you're only starting out. Additionally, you have the option of using Fulfillment by Amazon that is the one they want for you to try which is loaded with incentives.
Fulfillment by merchant
The fulfillment service offers you the highest degree of control over the process. You can manage the order, pack them for shipping, then place them into your home or warehouse location. If you're doing dropshipping which Amazon permits, you'll likely choose dropshipping.
The downside of FBM is that you can't take advantage of being an Amazon Prime seller, which offers a host of advantages.
If you decide to take extra care in your packaging process, you may find this to be a more beneficial option regardless of whether it means fewer people order from you because of the longer shipping time.
Seller Fulfilled Prime
In this case, you maintain your inventory at your own warehouse, but Amazon manages the shipping process by using the carriers of their choosing.
But, you won't be able to use this until the time you are in your Amazon store opens:
- Offers premium shipping choices
- Ships over 99percent of orders in the same day.
- Cancels orders with a rate of less than 0.5 percent
- Utilizes Amazon Buy Shipping Services for 99percent of purchases
- Uses shipping methods that support the weekend delivery
- Completes successfully a trial period
Get more details about the specifications.
Fulfillment through Amazon
Amazon customers are awestruck by Prime Day, and all related to Amazon Prime. As mentioned earlier, about 70% of U.S. adults have Prime memberships. So, anything you can make to attract these members is beneficial in terms of sales volume.
If you select FBA the store you have chosen to FBA Amazon business will receive an Amazon Prime Badge. If customers are searching through Amazon, they can choose to filter their results based on the stores that have an Prime Badge. If you don't have this, you won't be listed in results for those with this option.
For those shoppers who don't filter their searches however, they'll still be able to be able to see the Prime logo beside your listing, if you're employing FBA.
Also, with Prime Badges it is possible to provide Amazon Prime's complimentary 2-day shipping and also the free shipping general. Amazon is responsible for packaging, delivery, returns and issues with customer service.
FBA also allows you to use Amazon's machine-learning technology to assist with inventory management, which helps to plan for future customer demand so you don't procure either too much or not enough stock.
It costs more to use Fulfillment through Amazon However, you'll get more than that, plus some of the work of running an ecommerce business is taken from your hands by having the optimized Amazon fulfillment center.
So, it's a good choice for those who value the savings in time and effort and don't want to deal with shipping or storage. If you'd rather handle that things yourself in order to save money but you're not sure, FBA isn't the best choice for you.
Wait -- inventory?
If you're only beginning to get started in your venture the inventory aspect is one that you've probably not thought very much.
The amount of inventory is influenced by a variety of factors which will differ depending on the business. These include as:
- The number of channels you're selling your products on
- The rules of your industry
- The types of products that you offer
- Your business's size
The more channels you're utilizing The more items that you'll market. In terms of inventory, that makes it difficult to track all of it.
As an example, let's say you've got a warehouse a stock of 50 for one particular item, and you sell 30 of the same items via Amazon over the course of over a month. It feels great, and you plan to restock your supply with another 50.
However, what happens if you're selling your products on your store and you sold 20 more items the following month using that particular platform. Your inventory will be full, and if sales increase at all the next month then you'll require more than 50.
This is a simplified example since sales aren't always happening at once. But it demonstrates how important it is to continually monitoring your supplies and the speed at which they're selling, as well as the ways they're selling Each of these may have different fulfillment processes.
Also, you must factor in items that could be perishable, items that aren't selling anymore, and high storage costs.
Whatever you're selling, you'll require a method for tracking all of this. Below is more info from Amazon about the management of stock.
Customer service, and maintaining an excellent rating for sellers
When you begin to learn how to sell on Amazon and other platforms, you'll discover it's somewhat more challenging than it is with the own online store. However, you must develop procedures to offer customer service at a high standard to get excellent seller reviews.
The first step is to include your product descriptions to answer as many questions as you think customers might ask.
The second is to use high-quality images as well as other images to help customers to see and understand the products they're purchasing.
3. Respond positively to all reviews regardless of the reviews that you receive, even negative ones. This shows you are aware of your clients and want to deliver the best possible service.
Last but not least one, at Amazon you can use an application called Brand Follow that is a way for customers to follow you even if they don't buy items on their first visit. Anyone who chooses to follow you will get notified of your product updates which gives you a chance to recapture their business.
Sell your products on Amazon and build your future on
With , you can benefit of endless flexibility, complete control, and powerful capabilities and all this without having to pay charges through the platform. Plus, you won't have to worry about competing services appearing right next to yours!
The ability to sell on several channels lets your reach the maximum proportion of your customers and get them to in the place they're. It offers a range of multi-channel extensions which allow you to connect your online store to Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Facebook, Pinterest, and much more.