With more than 197 million people around the world visiting Amazon a month, attracting customers on amazon should be a simple task. It can be a great way to expand your customer base while bringing in an extra stream of revenue. However, while Amazon makes selling on ecommerce look easy, exploring new channels of selling and measuring up to the competition can be time consuming, frustrating, and yield little return. We’ll help take some of the stress off. Here are the 6 things you need to start selling on Amazon.
1. Do Your Research
Don’t make the mistake of putting your product on Amazon just because you think that’s where your customers could shop for your product. To make sure you’re making the right decision, we recommend doing research in the following areas:
- Look at similar products and see if and how they are being sold on Amazon, eBay, and other retail major outlets.
- Do keyword research on Amazon to see what terms show products like yours front and center. Amazon SEO operates separately from Google, so you want to optimize based on Amazon’s algorithm and relevant terms.
- Research monthly costs and what Amazon fees look like for your product. You can view Amazon’s Fee Schedule to get an idea.
Setting up and maintaining Amazon takes time and resources, so make sure it’s worth the return on investment.
2. Figure Out Logistics
The biggest one to focus on here is how you want to fulfill orders. Do you have a warehouse and a team that can fulfill orders that come in? If you do, great! You can skip on to tip #3.
If you don’t, you might want to consider Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). You just send the product to Amazon, and they handle everything from fulfillment to returns. All you have to do is make sure to send them product when inventory runs low. This option, however, does incur additional fees. If you want to pursue FBA, make sure you take the fees into account when creating a cost-benefit analysis.
3. Setup a Brand Registry
If you have an established brand, we highly recommend applying to become part of Amazon’s Brand Registry. Being part of Amazon’s Brand Registry gives you full control on how your brand is presented on Amazon, meaning more room for optimizations that can help drive conversions and potentially increase traffic and sales. Additionally, being a part of Brand Registry also:
- Gives better listing management, meaning more accurate data for your customers
- Protect your brand by proactively removing any suspected infringement or inaccurate product data
Allows you to report suspected violations easily and efficiently.
4. Setup Seller Central
You’ve done your research and added your brand to the Brand Registry. Now it’s time to start selling! Seller Central is where you manage products, inventory, fulfillment, and any customer service needs. There are also reporting capabilities and a responsive customer support team.
Pro Tip: Make sure the email you use for your Seller Central account is one that you check frequently as Amazon sends email notifications regarding product and inventory status along with account security notifications.
5. List Your Products
Now to the exciting part, listing your products! The information you place here is what your customers will see on Amazon, so make sure your descriptions are accurate and your product photography is up to date.
In most cases, your product or products must have a unique identifier such as a UPC, an ISBN, or an EAN. Amazon uses these to identify the exact item you’re selling. If you match a listing that is already on Amazon, you won’t need to provide a unique identifier since it already exists on the platform.
In addition to your UPC, ISBN, or EAN, here’s some equally important information that goes into each product listing:
- SKU
- Product title
- Product description and bullet points
- Product images
- Search terms and relevant keywords
Pro Tip: Make sure your product images meet Amazon’s requirements. Images must be at least 500 x 500 pixels (increase the size to 1,000 x 1,000 for high-quality listings) and set against a plain white background. The product should fill at least 80% of the image area.
6. Continuously Optimize
So your product is on Amazon, but that doesn’t mean you’re done! If you have a set it and forget it mentality, then your products won’t do so well. Amazon listings need to be continuously optimized. Set time in your day to go through your listings to review Product Titles, Images, and Product Descriptions. Look at how competitors are doing to see how you can improve. Keeping Amazon listings updated and optimized helps you stay in the Buy Box and keep you at the top of relevant search results.
To Summarize
Selling on Amazon can be daunting, especially when it’s so new. Just make sure you have all of your ducks in a row. Stick to your strategy, but be willing to change it if something is not working. If you still feel overwhelmed, contact us! We are happy to help you get you and your product going on Amazon.
