Have you ever thought about starting your own business? If so, you are not alone. There are millions of people around the world who have decided to start their businesses and become their bosses.
Amazon is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces in the world. It’s got millions of customers and billions of dollars in revenue every year—so an endless number of potential customers and revenue opportunities are available.
If you want to be your own boss and start selling on Amazon, you need to know what it takes to succeed. Many online marketers claim that it’s easy and anyone can do it—but that is not true! It takes hard work and dedication to be successful as an Amazon seller. This blog will walk you through the steps to help you get started on your Amazon seller journey.
1. Determine Your Product Line
When you’re just starting, it’s vital to have a clear idea of what your product line is going to be. You need to research the market and see what’s selling well, what people are looking for, and what gaps exist in the market that you could fill by using your products.
There are three main ways to do this: retail arbitrage, private label, and wholesale.
- Retail arbitrage means buying products from retail stores and selling them online for a profit. This is often a great way to get started because there’s no upfront cost involved—just time and energy.
- Private labeling means creating your own brand of a product that’s already on the market. You’ll have to create labels and pay for packaging, but it’s still one of the easiest ways to get started with Amazon.
- Wholesale means finding wholesale suppliers who sell in bulk quantities at discounted rates, then reselling those items at a profit on Amazon or other sites like eBay or Etsy.
Amazon’s marketplace can be overwhelming, especially for newer sellers. But finding and choosing the right product increases your chances of business success. You want to ensure that your product line has a high-profit margin because this will allow you to make money from each sale without having to discount your products too much, making it hard for you to compete with other sellers in your niche.
You also want to look out for products with a low barrier entry into the market – making sure that there aren’t many other sellers already selling the same thing which might take away some of your potential customers before they’ve even reached your page.
2. Find a Manufacturer or Supplier
Once you’ve decided which products you want to sell on Amazon, it’s time to find a supplier who can get those items made for you at an affordable price while maintaining quality standards enough that customers will want them.
3. Set Up Your Amazon Seller Account
Setting up your Amazon Seller Account is an essential first step in getting started as a seller. You can choose from two different types of accounts to set up; Individual or Professional:
Individual Seller is best for individuals who plan on selling less than 40 items a month, as long as they fall within certain product categories. There is no monthly subscription fee and the fees per item are lower than other seller accounts. However, this option is best if you plan to start out small.
Professional Seller gives you access to a larger range of product categories than Basic Seller, including unrestricted categories. You can also sell more than 40 items a month and use the advertising features to ensure that your product listing gets seen. It’s also notable for its use of advanced selling tools—such as APIs and reports—that benefit high-volume sellers.
PRO TIP: Make sure to download the Amazon seller app to help you keep track of orders or manage customer queries on the go.
4. Choose Your Fulfillment Method – Amazon FBA vs. FBM
As an Amazon seller, you have a choice when it comes to fulfillment. If you’re shipping products yourself, you can choose to fulfill your orders using Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), which means that the product will be stored in your own warehouse and shipped out directly to customers once they’ve been purchased.
Alternatively, if you want Amazon to handle all aspects of fulfillment—including storing your items in their warehouses and shipping them out when they’re purchased—you’ll want to use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
5. Create Amazon Listing and Prepare For Your Product Launch
The next step is creating your Amazon product listing in preparation to your first product launch. It’s your opportunity to show your customers exactly why they should buy your product by highlighting the benefits, including price and value. Describe what your product is, where it was made and who used it first, if applicable. Include any special uses or information that would set your product apart from the competition.
A product listing consists of the following details:
- Title: 150-200 characters max, capitalize the first letter of every word
- Images: 500 x 500 or 1,000 x 1,000 pixels to increase listing quality
- Variations: Materials, colors, scents, or sizes
- Product features bullet points: 250 characters max, short descriptive sentences highlighting your product’s key features and benefits
- Featured offer (Buy Box): The featured offer on a detail page; customers can add to their cart or “Buy Now”
- Product Description or A+ Content: Enhanced content that allows brand owners to build product description with enriched texts, images, and creative videos
PRO TIP: It’s also useful to have a look and see how other similar products are listed to give you an idea.
Launching a successful Amazon product can be exciting and challenging too, that’s why you have to be well-prepared for your first product launch––it takes time, knowledge, and effort to achieve success. It takes a lot more effort than you realize, it’s not just a matter of listing your product. In order to launch a successful Amazon product, you have to come up with a core strategy that works well with your product.
Read more: Preparing Your First Product Launch on Amazon
6. Amazon Advertising
Your business as an Amazon seller officially begins now. Once you have your product listing completed and your products ready to ship, it’s time to go live.
However, there’s a lot more to it than just throwing up a product listing and expecting sales to start rolling in. To set yourself up for success, you’ll want to increase your visibility, and Amazon Advertising takes a crucial part in this. Amazon offers different types of advertisements that are tailored to your desired advertising goals and outcomes. Here are some of the Amazon Advertising you can use:
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaign
Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) solutions are offered to advertisers, agencies, and self-service portals on Amazon. Under Amazon PPC ad types, we have:
- Sponsored Products
- Sponsored Brands
- Sponsored Display Ads
- Demand-side Platform (DSP) Campaign
You can purchase a variety of display, video, and audio (beta) ads and provide powerful experiences, and services to your shoppers.
- Video Ads
- Custom Ads
- Amazon Audio Ads (Beta)
- Amazon Posts
- Amazon Live
Know more: A Guide to Amazon Advertising and Why Your Business Needs It
What’s Next?
You’ve learned how to become a seller on Amazon, but you know that the competition is fierce and it’s not an easy marketplace to get ahead in. If you want to be successful on Amazon, it’s important to invest in Amazon training, connect and talk to Amazon experts to get the best results.
Generation eCom has been helping brand owners, retailers, and e-commerce businesses achieve their revenue goals by offering extensive Amazon SEO, marketing, product listing optimization services, and essential Amazon training that equips you with the right knowledge to get started with your Amazon business. Contact our team of Amazon experts today: ericpaul@generationecom.com.
Recent Comments