15 Tips For Selling On Amazon Successfully

How Do I Sell On Amazon Successfully?

Selling on Amazon can help your business immeasurably. 85% of Amazon’s third-party seller businesses are profitable.

So, how do you ensure that your business doesn’t become part of the other 15% of unsuccessful Amazon businesses?

According to a Junglescout survey of 5,000 sellers, 19% have made over $1,000,000 since they started selling on Amazon.

This could be you if your business is successful. Read our 15 best tips to understand how to avoid failure and make your online business thrive.

Tip 1: Get A Pristine Seller Rating

Good customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business. Having a good seller rating on Amazon builds trust with customers. It also improves your relationship with Amazon.

These are the factors that can negatively affect your seller rating:

Poor customer feedback and customer reviews
Poor refund rate (the time it takes for refunds to be given)
Customer service complaints
Poor response times
Long waits for shipping

In order to improve your seller rating, you will need to offer excellent customer service. You can improve your customer service by improving packaging, with notes from the seller (you) inside each package.

You should avoid A-Z claims, which Amazon customers can make if there are customer service issues and your service is not in alignment with Amazon’s A-Z Guarantee. These claims will tank your credibility and your seller rating.

You should also improve the time it takes for your products to be shipped and encourage your customers to leave a review. Customer feedback will increase your rating significantly.

Tip 2: Choose A Profitable Product Category

Before choosing which products to sell in your Amazon business, you should perform product research.

You should begin your product research using the Amazon Best Seller’s List to find the categories with the highest selling products. You should also use the search bar in Amazon to see which products people are searching for most.

When choosing a product, avoid oversaturated areas where there are many sellers with the same product, and all have positive reviews. The best products to choose from are those with high demand and limited competition.

You should also pick lightweight products and small products to minimize shipping costs.

The average profit margin for online retail is 42%. You should be aiming for a profit margin over 30%, and so you should try and get the best deal for the product from your manufacturer.

If you perform extensive product research, you should end up with a product that outsells competitors, which is cheap to source and has a high profit margin.

Tip 3: Automate Your Business

You can automate your business by delegating tasks to professionals or by using software tools. Automating your business will rid you of tedious tasks and allow you to focus on growing and expanding your Amazon business.

If you are selling on Amazon, you will need to keep an eye on your inventory. If you run out of stock and cannot provide the products sold on that day, you could get negative feedback from many customers.

This is why you should use inventory management software to make sure you never run out of stock. Try the Freshservice inventory management tool.

Reduce the time you spend staring at spreadsheets with accounting software, such as Sage online accounting. Or hire an assistant to perform your bookkeeping.

The easiest way to automate your business and reduce the number of tasks that fall on you is to use a freight company specializing in a full end to end FBA shipping, whom are Amazon Solutions specialists that can also handle account management, product photography, and marketing for you.

If your business is automated, you will be a more successful Amazon seller, with more time on your hands to launch new products and strategies to increase sales.

Tip 4: Become Buy Box Eligible

When you ‘win’ the buy box, your product will appear as the default on a product page with the ‘add to cart’ button, which customers can use to buy your item easily. This dramatically increases your chance of selling the item.

In order to win the buy box, you will need to have a Professional Seller Account. You will also need to have sold a large volume of items. Amazon needs an accurate gauge of your performance to consider you for the buy box.

Your performance metrics are ultimately what will get you the Amazon buy box. You can use the Amazon Account Health page to reveal any improvements that must be made.

If your account is performing well, you stand a good chance of winning the buy box and gaining extra sales.

Tip 5: Improve Your Shipping

If your shipping rate is poor, this can have a negative impact on your ranking, and you will likely receive some negative reviews. It is best to opt for faster, more reliable shipping.

If you use Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), your products will be stored at Amazon’s warehouses and will be packaged and sent out quickly.

How do you get your goods into Amazon’s global warehouses? Find and contact multiple freight forwarders to get a market idea of freight rates for your classification of goods. Different products have different challenges when it comes to shipping. Always compare quotes, and consider the following when considering a logistics company:

Certificates and Licenses: Does the provider have any actual freight and logistics licenses, like the NVOCC – Non-Vessel Common Carrier.
Vetted by Amazon: Are they an Amazon Solutions Provider in Logistics
Add-On Services: Can they consolidate and pick up your goods from multiple suppliers in order to save you time and money especially when dealing with manufacturers in foreign language countries.
Service and Liability: To what extent do they serve you and how are they liable for your products, across what points in time of the shipment.
Channel authenticity: Not every freight forwarder who ships “Matson” or “Maersk” has access to the same level of service at the carrier level, despite shipping the same routes. Some have direct access, while others may be several layers down.

Tip 6: Improve Your SEO and Marketing

63% of product searches start on Amazon. You can harness Amazon’s wide reach by ensuring your product listings appear at the top of searches.

To do this, you will need to make use of SEO by either using a copywriter or by using keyword research:

To perform keyword research- Focus on long-tail keywords, which are made up of three or more words, as this is how people tend to search on Amazon. Or, use Sonar, a free Amazon SEO tool to help identify keywords for your product listings.

In order to better market your product, you should ensure your product detail page is clear, noting all of the product details, including size measurements, color, and the quantity of the product.

Make sure your product descriptions are designed to make your product sound appealing to customers. After all, that is the purpose of product descriptions.

Using these methods will help your product to rank high in Amazon searches. It will also indicate the seller’s level of care and competency, as spelling errors and mistakes in a product detail page can indicate a careless seller who doesn’t take pride in their products.

Tip 7: Have Outstanding Product Photos

The visuals of a product are a huge selling factor that will draw customers in.

All product pages should have decent photographs of the product, as 93% of customers, according to Justuno, consider the visual appearance the deciding factor of purchases.

Professional photos for your products should have the following:

High quality and large resolution
More than one photo of the product
A photo of the product in context (a blanket on a bed, for instance)
A consistent aesthetic (this will help with establishing your brand)

With these qualities, your photos are bound to draw in buyers and increase product sales.

Tip 8: Be a Responsive Seller

As mentioned earlier, customer service is the cornerstone of a successful business. Being engaged with your customers, resolving issues, and answering inquiries is a sure way to get a good reputation.

Be sure to check for customer inquiries and orders often to be as responsive as possible and get orders shipped as soon as possible.

Responding to customer complaints with offers to resolve or compensate for the issue is a great way to maintain a good reputation- after all, you can’t please everyone, so when a complaint does crop up, this should resolve it.

Tip 9: Get The Pricing Right

Pricing your items right can affect sales and your profit margins. You should have competitive pricing so that your products are of better value compared to your competitors.

Amazon has an automate pricing tool that you can use to do this, or you may wish to try a repricing app.

Speak with your suppliers to get the best deals for your products so that you can offer the best possible prices without sacrificing profit.

Tip 10: Utilize Paid Ad Campaigns

Amazon PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a powerful tool to increase traffic to your seller account.

There are 3 Amazon Ad Types: sponsored products, sponsored brands, and sponsored display ads. Sponsored products are the most popular ads.

Amazon PPC allows you to increase the visibility of your products in a cost-effective way, as you don’t just pay for your ad to be shown; you pay when the ad is actually working. Overall it is a good return on investment.

Tip 11: Establish Your Brand

Your branding is a reflection of your brand’s identity and can help you to distinguish your products.

To establish your brand, you must understand your product category and your target demographics. Make your brand name and logo unique and distinct; you want to be memorable.

Tip 12: Sell Private Label Products

Private label products are made by one company to be sold and distributed by another. Having private label products makes your brand unique.

Research and source unbranded products to brand as your own. When your product, seller account, and packaging all have the same branding, this increases the impression you leave on your customers.

Set up another website for your private label products. This could protect you should anything happen to your Amazon account.

Tip 13: Use Influencer Campaigns

Influencers have a broad reach with a huge following, and you can use this resource for advertisement.

Social media channels often rely on sponsorships for income, and so will be open to advertising your products.

Send them your product, ask them to do a giveaway or contest, and attach your Amazon ad to their posts. You can ask them to post an ad you have written. Influencer campaigns can cost from $500 to-1000.

Tip 14: Avoid These Products

There are certain products that you should avoid selling on Amazon:

Large Products. They can be costly to ship.
Fragile products. They can break and cost you money.
Seasonal products. These products will only sell for a short time.
Fad products. Fad products are often competitive.
Outdated products. They will be unpopular if they are redundant.

Tip 15: Have Passion and Ambition

Having passion and ambition is critical for the success of your business. If you are enthusiastic, it means you will devote more time and effort to your research, new products, and improving sales.

If you are reading this article, you likely have an interest in selling on Amazon. Now is the time to ask yourself: will I be happy to spend most of my time nurturing this business? If the answer is yes, now is the time to start!

How To Be Successful With Amazon FBA

To be successful with Amazon FBA, you must have the following:

A high quality, high demand product
Great marketing and advertisement
Fast shipping

These are the three main factors that will make your business successful and increase sales. Your earnings will increase as you put more attention into refining these three factors.

Is It Profitable To Sell On Amazon?

For 85% of new sellers, it is profitable to sell on Amazon. Your profitability depends on several factors.

You need to aim for a high profit margin (over 30%) and a commitment to increasing sales in order to reach your potential earnings from Amazon sales.

There are many Amazon millionaires out there. You could make yourself one with the right business plan. Don’t miss out on success in this lucrative industry.

Is Amazon The Best Online Store?

Amazon is the most dominant online store. The average American spends $1,400 at Amazon per year.

The e-commerce giant’s net revenue is up to 380 billion per year, and it seems to be growing.

The convenience Amazon offers with its competitive delivery rates, low price items, and its range of items in one marketplace makes it the go-to online store for many people.

Brand owners and third-party sellers stand to gain sales and profit from the convenience Amazon offers its customers.

In Summary

Success is accessible on Amazon if you know how to compete with other sellers. This list has highlighted some of the critical tools at your disposal to give you an edge in the business.

Implement these tips along with some hard work, and your business will be profitable before you know it.