If a business wants to start selling things online, it can’t just ignore Amazon. Since its start 25 years ago, Amazon has grown into the biggest online store in the country. Every month, more than 197 million people use their devices to get to Amazon.com.
Also, Amazon’s share of the US ecommerce market reached 49% in 2018, which is equivalent to 5% of all US sales. For comparison, this is more than the total sales of its top three competitors, eBay (6.6%), Apple (3.9%), and Walmart (3.7%).
So, it’s clear that Amazon is the leader in online sales, and it’s not slowing down any time soon.
So, why does Amazon do so well as a business? What makes so many Amazon sellers want to sell on Amazon and so many Amazon buyers want to buy on Amazon? Also, why do so many people want to start selling on Amazon instead of any other kind of online store?
Let’s look at Amazon’s history to see why it’s so good at attracting buyers and sellers.
The History of the Amazon Brand
When Amazon started in 1995, it only sold books on its website. So, in its first month, Amazon could send books to more than 40 countries. But the following things made it the best e-commerce business on the market right now.
Progressive Mindset
Amazon’s success is mostly due to the new technology and ways of doing things that the company uses. Take the Echo, a very cool voice-control device from Amazon.
Echo lets you play music, find out about your favorite sports teams, and even check the weather by just saying a few words. The ecommerce giant put a lot of money into this groundbreaking technology, which led to amazing results.
Amazon’s approach to being different might not always work. But the Echo’s success shows that innovation can have a big effect on how well an e-commerce business does.
Helping out customers
Amazon has made a number of useful tools because it wants to give the best customer service possible. So, customers can use them to keep track of their packages and make shopping easier for them.
Amazon’s Customer Service team has won several awards for how hard they work to keep problems from happening and solve them quickly. One of Amazon’s main goals is to be the company with the best customer service in the world. Also, the brand’s efforts to reach this goal have paid off.
Social media is another way that this e-commerce business makes sales and raises the bar for its customer service. Amazon uses social media to help deal with complaints from customers.
So, they can help them build a strong group of loyal fans who will help promote their brand.
User Experience
Any online business that wants to sell products quickly needs to be good at identifying products and product categories. As a result, Amazon has a whole UX team made up of experts in user research, interface design, and web development.
The product managers and executives at Amazon work with these experts. They help Amazon e-commerce businesses by giving users an easy-to-use interface and a professional selling plan.
Reviewing the basics
Now, let’s get to the main question: “How do I sell on Amazon?”It might not be easy to sell things on Amazon. But it shouldn’t be hard to start an Amazon store either.
Now, let’s talk about how you can use your brand to sell online as an Amazon seller.
Seller Central
After you sign up to sell on Amazon, you’ll be able to use your Seller Central account. So, think of Seller Central as your main tool for selling on Amazon.
Also, you can do the following with it:
- Check your stock and update your listings.
- Download custom business reports and save templates you use often
- Use tools to track seller performance
- Track the daily sales of each item you sell on Amazon.
Putting up your first item for sale
Before you can sell something on Amazon, you have to make a product listing. Depending on how you plan to market your products, you can sell them in different ways:
- Individual sellers are those who sell one item at a time.
- Who allows mass uploading and third-party sales for professional sellers?
After you successfully list it, both B2C and B2B customers will be able to buy it. As a result, you can quickly reach more people with just one account and no extra costs.
How to Get on the List
Items often need a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), which can be a UPC, ISBN, or EAN. Their purpose is to tell Amazon exactly what you’re selling. But if you match a listing, you won’t have to give a product ID.
Still, if you want to sell a new product on Amazon, you might need to buy a UPC number or ask for an exemption.
In addition to the product ID, the following are some important parts of every item listing:
- SKU
- Name of the item
- The item’s description and bullet points
- Images of the goods
- Key words and search terms that are relevant
How to Sell Things on Amazon
To start selling on Amazon, the first thing you need to do is choose a selling plan. You can set up your seller account on Amazon with more than one selling plan.
So, if you want to know how to sell on Amazon, you have to choose between two plans:
Individual Amazon Seller Account
The following things are true about each Amazon seller account:
- It costs $0.99 per item sold, plus other fees.
- If an Amazon seller wants to sell less than 40 items each month,
- For Amazon sellers who still have to decide what they want to sell,
- For people who don’t want to use Amazon’s more advanced tools
Account for Professional Sellers
Here are some things about the professional seller account:
- The monthly subscription fee is $39.99, and there are also selling fees.
- For a seller on Amazon who wants to sell more than 40 items per month,
- For a company that wants to advertise,
- If a seller wants to be in the top spots on product detail pages,
- Brand owners who want to use advanced tools for selling, like APIs and reports,
- Sellers who want to sell items in categories that aren’t allowed
The plan for the professional seller account lets the sellers:
- Try selling in more categories through your Amazon account.
- To save time, make bulk pricing.
- Feeds, charts, and reports can be used to keep track of inventory.
- Get the best spot you can on product category detail pages
- Integrating APIs can help salespeople do their jobs better.
- Choose delivery costs for items that are not media.
- Use the options for advertising on-site to bring in customers.
- Offer free shipping on your campaigns.
- Add more users to your business account.
Amazon also charges referral fees for each product you sell. This is only a small amount of the total income. But it might be different for each type of product.
Choosing a Plan for Selling
When you decide to sell on Amazon, you can become one of two types of sellers.
- Resellers: These third-party sellers choose products that are already on the market, do retail arbitrage, and then sell them through their Amazon seller account.
- Owners of Brands: This seller is selling their own brand on Amazon. Also, they put their own names on the products they sell. So, when customers buy a seller’s own products, they get a unique experience.
Amazon also has a number of free tools that can help you start your own site or brand. Once you sign up for the brand registry, you’ll be able to use some special tools to help you sell on Amazon.
Some of the benefits of the brand registry are the following:
- 5% of the first $1,000,000 you make from sales of your own brand
- Up to 30 trustworthy reviews of one product are available on Vine for free (a $200 value).
- Up to $2,000 worth of Transparency coupons for free.
Tools
A+ Subject:
With A+ Content, businesses can use photos and rich text on the Amazon detail page. This helps bring out the story of the brand and the features of the product. So, this could help with conversion and maybe even bring in more traffic and boost sales.
Stores:
Stores is a free, self-service area on Amazon that is dedicated to a certain brand. Here, advertisers can collect content that encourages, informs, and leads people to the brand’s product listing.
Advertised brands:
Sponsored Brands can help shoppers quickly find product recommendations by using personalized pay-per-click ads. When they do market research on Amazon, they also help people find and interact with a brand.
Analysis of a brand:
Now you can get the information you need for your own purposes. So, use demographics, stronger data, and combined search terms to make smart decisions.
Getting Your Brand Going
Once you know how you’re going to sell your product, you can launch your brand. Amazon has a strategy tool for this called “The Perfect Launch.”
For a new Amazon seller account to get going quickly after its first day, the first 90 days are very important. So, this plan is made up of the five points below:
Brand Registry
With the Amazon brand registry, you can use a set of tools to help you sell. There is automatic protection and useful search tools among these. This also helps you find and report infringements, which helps you protect and stand out with your brand.
A+ Content
Use A+ Content on Amazon’s product description pages to draw attention to your company and product information. Next, you can do research on the product to find different versions of the same product. You can also look at the brand content and product set-up that has been improved.
Use the “Manage Your Experiments” tool later on in your product research to do A/B testing to improve conversion.
Fulfillment by Amazon is a service that Amazon offers.
Before we talk about how to sell on Amazon, you need to know about the newest part of this business. The Amazon FBA is the name for this part.
Amazon has started the FBA service to meet the needs of Amazon sellers, whose needs are growing all the time. Amazon FBA stands for “Fulfillment by Amazon.” It also refers to the way the company stores your items in the Amazon warehouse.
Next, it manages the stock at the Amazon warehouse so that it can process your orders and help customers. But Amazon sellers must sign up for a seller account before they can start selling on the site.
The seller must then add FBA to their Amazon account in order to use the FBA service. As an Amazon seller, it’s important to set up your professional seller plan the way the ecommerce company tells you to.
If they want to, new sellers can connect their product listings and inventories to the Amazon platform. Next, an Amazon seller can send goods that are ready to be shipped to the Amazon warehouse.
In November 2018, in Szczecin, Poland, the rising sun shines on the Amazon Logistics Center.
Advantages of FBA
As an Amazon seller, you won’t have to deal with the steps for keeping track of inventory, packing orders, and sending them out. With this method and Amazon’s reliable FBA platform, you may be able to start selling internationally. Also, if you buy more than $25 worth of books or $49 worth of other things, shipping is free.
Also, if you are eligible for Amazon Prime, you can get free one- or two-day shipping on everything you buy. The Amazon FBA price is pretty low compared to other Amazon fulfillment centers.
With Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Amazon will pick, pack, ship, and take care of customer service for your products. In the meantime, you can store your items at one of the many fulfillment centers Amazon has around the world.
With the help of FBA, you can grow your own Amazon business, reach new customers, and get Prime members with your offers.
Prices Set by Computer
If you use an automated pricing tool, your chances of being the Featured Offer may go up. This helps you change your sales rank and rates quickly and automatically in comparison to your competitors.
While you are centralizing other parts of your business, choose the Amazon listings you want to join. Also, set limits on your prices and let Amazon help you keep your prices competitive every day of the week.
Advertising
Sponsored Products ads only pay when people click on them. They show up in relevant search results and on product pages. So, you can make it easier for people to find your products.
Use relevant keywords to make your search results and product pages more visible. Run promotions or offer discounts to help people buy more.
When compared to other sellers, sellers who get Perfect Launch usually make 6.3 times more in their first year than other sellers.
Your first account to sell on Amazon
With your customer account, you can start selling on Amazon. If you don’t have a business email, you can create a separate account to sell on Amazon using your business email.
To be able to sign up to sell on Amazon, you must have the following:
- A personal Amazon account or an email address for a business
- The credit card that might work overseas
- Getting to know the government
- A number to call for tax information
- A bank account. This should be the account where Amazon can send your money from sales.
Seller Central
Amazon Seller Central is a tool that was made to help sellers. Also, sellers can log in to Amazon Seller Central to check on the status of their Amazon transactions.
You can also manage your stock, change prices, see how your account is doing, and talk to selling partner support. So, Seller Central makes it easier for people to sell on Amazon and gives them more control over their sales.
So, if you want to make your user experience better, Seller Central is the right tool for you.
The Amazon app for phones
With the Amazon Seller app, you can use your phone to run your business. Among these are:
- Tracking sales
- Getting orders done
- figuring out what to sell
- responding to customer questions
- Taking and editing good pictures of products
- Making lists of products
Selecting Your Good
What can you sell on Amazon? The counter for the answer changes depending on the brand, category, and product.
For some classes, you must have a Professional seller account. You can still sell some without it. Also, some categories have items that can’t be sold by third-party sellers.
You might be worried about how many things there are on Amazon. Which of the 12 million or so things Amazon sells will give you the best return on your money? Clothing? Cooking utensils? Skiing equipment?
Lucky for you, deciding what to sell on Amazon and how to sell it is not as hard as you might think. Most of your research can be done for free on the site.
But you should try to choose a product that has little risk and a good return. So, let’s start by looking at some of the most popular items on Amazon to get some ideas.
Amazon makes a list of the best-selling books and changes it every hour. It includes gadgets, books, and video game consoles, among other things.
Here are a few of the top picks right now:
Books
Books are one of the most popular things to buy on Amazon. This is because traditional book stores are still closing down. Classics from the past, best-sellers, and new books are often on sale for even less than $20.
Books are a good choice for sellers because they can usually be bought in large quantities. Then, you can put them back on Amazon and make a good profit.
Wearables and add-ons
Clothing, Shoes, and Jewelry is likely one of the most popular categories. But it is also a place where there are too many products. So, you need to make sure you can offer something unique at a price that is competitive.
People don’t buy expensive name-brand items from Amazon. Instead, they look for deals. Simple sleeveless tank tops and high-waisted tights are some of the most popular things right now, and they all cost less than $17.
So, keep this in mind if you want to sell your product fast.
Electronics and other gadgets
Two of the most popular gadgets in the world are the Fire TV Stick and the Echo speaker with Alexa (which costs around $50). We know this because they are shown on Amazon’s page for electronics. This is a possible field if you can buy a lot of gadgets at once.
Toys
Some of the most-played video games on Amazon may surprise you with how easy they are to play. For example, the first deck of Monopoly, which costs $6, is the third-most expensive item.
Most toys sell well if they are already popular or have been sold in a lot of them. Play-Doh is one of the best-selling toys in a 10-pack, for example.
You should not only look at the products that do well on Amazon, but also at the categories that do well. Here are the three most popular markets on Amazon and the Marketplace, in order:
- There were 64.3 million sales of goods for the home and kitchen.
- 33.4 million clothes, shoes, and other items were bought.
- Sales of tools and home repair goods added up to $11.1 million.
Choosing Your Product
It’s important to look at the number of items available, how much they cost in bulk, Amazon seller fees, shipping options, and prices. This will give you more information to help you decide. A two- or three-pound item, for example, can save money on shipping.
You should also think about things that won’t easily break when being moved and weighed. So, you should also make sure that your product fits with the ways you can ship it.
The prices of most Amazon items are between $10 and $50. So, you should choose things you can sell for less than that range and still make money.
You can choose your product in one of the four ways listed below.
Research Amazon Products by Hand
If you want to learn about what people buy on Amazon, you should start by looking at the best-selling items in a certain category. This might help you figure out what you want to sell. Then, once you’ve looked into a class and its subclasses, you should ideally pick a specialty to focus on.
While looking at Amazon’s list of best-sellers, you can also take a look at the “Customers also bought” section. This helps get suggestions for goods that go together.
Next, make a list of the things you want to buy. Later, use Google Keyword Planner to see if there are any searches for those things, which could indicate how much demand there is for them.
Look for a hole in the market
Just doing a natural search on Amazon might show a gap. For example, “women’s leggings” returns almost 100,000 results, but “cycling leggings women pink” returns only 1,000 results.
Even though this is a simple example, sometimes you need to narrow down your product search. This is a very important step in finding a place to stand out on Amazon.
There are a lot of people selling leggings right now, but it’s possible that the website doesn’t have a certain design, color, or type of legging.
Also, keeping an eye on customer feedback from the market your product is meant for could help you find a market gap. Even if there are already a lot of products that are the same as yours, you may find that buyers aren’t happy with the brands that are out there. So, they want something you can give them.
Look for things that aren’t as popular.
It can be very difficult to stand out from the crowd and make the sales you want. This is mostly true if you’re trying to sell something that has more than 100,000 search results.
The good news is that it’s not hard to find a less competitive niche within a larger market. So, it makes it easier for people to find your product when they search for it. Also, because they had to use a more specific keyword to find your product, they are probably more likely to buy it.
Let’s say you want to sell cookbooks as an example. A search for “cookbooks” turns up almost 70,000 results.
On the other hand, there are only 3,000 hits for the search keyword “Cookbooks for rapid pot cooking.” The keyword “Cookbooks” is more specific and has a better chance of being a best-seller in this area.
So, if someone searches “Cookbooks,” they could be looking for anything from “Kiddie cookbooks” to “Holidays cookbooks.” However, if they search “cookbooks for quick pot cooking,” they are more likely to like what you have to offer.
Use the Best Sellers Rank to find categories with at least three results.
A high BSR shows that people want the product a lot. This is important because Amazon’s Best Sellers Rank (BSR) looks at how many times an item has sold recently and in the past. But it’s not a good sign if only one item in a category has a high BSR and none of the other products are best-sellers.
Let’s say, for example, you want to sell sports equipment. But you find that there is only one item with a high BSR in the “soccer balls” category. On the other hand, more research shows that the first page of the “basketballs” category has several of the best-selling items.
This is a good sign because it means there is more than one “best” product. Also, it shows that the user wants to look into more than one choice before making a choice.
At the end of the day, you want to see a product with a higher BSR because it shows that there is a market for it. But you also want to see high BSRs for other items in the same category. This is because it shows that your product still has the chance to do well.
When putting the finishing touches on your product
There’s no doubt that selling things on Amazon can bring in a good amount of money. Still, if you want to do well there, you must be able to sell unique goods at reasonable prices and have few competitors.
It’s not a good idea to sell on Amazon just to sell on Amazon. This is because there are too many products on the market. So, it’s more difficult than ever to stand out. Instead, you should make sure you have something valuable to offer.
If you already know what you want to sell, you can use the tips above to fine-tune your approach. Choose a target market within a larger demographic group later.
If you don’t have a product in mind, start with the basics. Ask things like, “What are the most-used search terms on Amazon?” and “What products make the most money?”
Last, think about similar products that the customer might find more interesting or useful. Also, don’t choose things that are already on Amazon once you have a list from keyword research.
The lists of product details
First, you must list your products in Seller Central. In addition, an item listing has:
- A product ID tells people exactly what you’re selling. A GTIN, UPC, ISBN, or EAN is one example. You can ask GS1 for a UPC code or get one from them directly.
- You can make an SKU or a product ID to keep track of your stock.
- Information about the offer, such as the price, the condition of the goods, the amount available, and the delivery options
- The title, brand, category, description, and pictures of the product
- Customers will find your product through search terms and keywords.
If another seller has already put the same product up for sale, you will match an existing listing. This means that some details, like the identifier for the product, will already be set. But if you are the first seller to offer a product, you will make a new listing.
So, you will need to add a new product identifier and other information.
The page about the product
A “product detail page” will show what your offer is all about. So, on the product detail page, customers can find out everything they need to know about a certain product.
When a product is sold by more than one seller, Amazon puts the information from each offer on a single page about the product. Details can be added to the pages by the sellers who sell the goods. If not, they can ask for reviews if the information on the page is wrong.
Think about joining the Amazon Brand Registry. You can have more control over product detail pages that use your brand name with this free service. Also, it helps if you sell your goods under a trademark that is registered.
Title
You can use up to 200 characters, with the first letter of each word capitalized.
Images
500 x 500/1,000 x 1,000 to improve the quality of the listing
Variations
Different sizes and colors
Bullet Points
Key features and benefits are summed up in a few words.
Offer of the Week (Buy box)
The highlighted deal is on a page with more information. Customers can choose to “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart.”
Other Offers
Many stores sell the same item at different prices, with different delivery options, etc.
Description
Adding keywords to your listing makes it more likely that people will find it.
Getting customers to come in
Once your brand is up and running on your Amazon store, it’s time to get as much traffic as possible. You can sell online and make money with the following methods.
Quick Shipping
People often buy things because of the Amazon Prime badge. You can also get this badge if you ship items from one of Amazon’s fulfillment centers. You can also do this with the help of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
Advertising and promotions
By putting ads in search engine results and on product pages, you can raise awareness of your brand and certain products. So, a promotion or coupon is another way to get people to buy your products.
Set prices that are fair
People often shop around to find the best deal. You can stay competitive by using features like automatic price changes and bulk marketing for Amazon Business clients in Seller Central.
You’ve just made your first sale. What’s next?
When you make a sale on Amazon, that’s not the end of your story. This is where everything starts. So, after you sell your first product, get ready to run the real e-commerce marathon.
How to Get the Best Customer Reviews
When you look at something online, do you sometimes find it hard to decide if it’s worth the price? So, the best way to judge products online is by reading what other people have said about them. These are the honest, unbiased opinions that people post.
So, if you’re a seller, these can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. But this will depend on how good your product or service is. No matter what, you should make sure you know the review policies well.
This will help you stay out of trouble and get views the right way.
Getting the company bigger
There are many ways you can help your brand do well.
Advertising
With Amazon’s advertising options, you can reach customers and interact with them in new ways. This is true whether you are just starting to compare things or are ready to buy something.
Also, ads show up where people will see them, like on the top search page or the product detail page. Also, Seller Central gives you access to all three ways to advertise on Amazon.
Items with a sponsor
Sponsored Products are ads for specific item listings on Amazon that raise product visibility and sales. You can find them on pages about a product and pages with search results.
Advertised Brands
Associate Brands show the name of your company and the products it makes. They are ads that show up next to search results. They have your company’s logo, a unique headline, and up to three of your products.
Amazon Stores
On Amazon Stores, you can talk about your business history and the products you sell. You can also set up personalized multipage shopping destinations for certain businesses. (And you don’t need to know anything about websites to use them.)
Coupons and special deals
Customers want to save money, and sales make them more likely to buy. Also, there are three different kinds of sales: discounts, free shipping, and deals where you buy one and get one free. Also, you can offer percentage or dollar-off discounts with digital coupons.
Going Global
Becoming a worldwide company is a big step for any business. It could lead to a big jump in sales and the addition of tens of new clients.
But there are many things that can go wrong with global expansion. Still, you can use Amazon’s global infrastructure and Amazon Global Selling to get your items in front of customers all over the world.
Use Amazon Global Selling to list your items and get them into any of Amazon’s online stores. These can be found in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Conclusion
Now you know at least the basics of how to sell on Amazon. So, start your journey into e-commerce and start selling online!
