Amazon is the largest eCommerce platform in the world. Originally created as an online book store, Amazon has now become a tech conglomerate that sells anything from toothbrushes to precious metal jewelry. And it is quite easy to sell your products through Amazon, whether you are a direct seller or looking to start a dropshipping business online.
So in this article, let us look at the steps you need to follow to become a top Amazon Seller.
Create your Amazon Seller Account
Starting with the obvious, create your Amazon seller account. If you already have a personal account that you use for shopping, you can use it for starting your seller account. If not, sign up with your personal identification information, a working email and phone number, and your banking information with an internationally chargeable credit card. You will be charged for the first month of your seller account which costs $39.99.
After you submit your application, Amazon will verify your account and you can then access your Seller account. You can then select which service you want to use, from fulfilled by Amazon which completely takes care of packaging, shipping, and delivering products to customers from your doorstep, or other services which might require you to take care of them. Do your research and pick whichever service would be the most beneficial for you.
Find your Niche
Unless you manufacture the products you plan to sell, you have the flexibility to pick what you want to become a seller of. You can consider factors like how popular the product is, its profit margin, and performance history before taking it up. It is also better if you have the interest and expertise pertaining to the product, so you are prepared to handle complexities if any occur once you start the business.
Do Market and Product Research
Once you find your niche at a high level, research what products, in particular, you want to sell. This is where product research tools can be useful. These are dedicatedly created databases containing information on now what products are popular on the market and find how profitable they are, what keywords are they selling for, and more.
In essence, these tools hold all the key metrics you need to understand the market, and competitors and to form a basic idea of what and how you are going to sell on Amazon. Semrush’s Product Research for Amazon is a good tool to get started with, for this.
Pricing Strategy
The next thing to do is create a pricing strategy for your products. Here are some best practices to follow while determining the price of your products to become a successful Amazon seller.
- Study and regularly monitor your competitor’s prices, understand the market demand for your product, and fix your prices accordingly. Remember that your pricing strategy should allow you to cover your costs and make a profit as well.
- Use Amazon’s repricing tool and automated strategies to stay competitive with pricing and make market and data-driven decisions.
- Offer discounts and promotions to attract customers and grow your sales.
- Experiment with a/b testing. Fix different prices to see which ones are most effective, based on demand as well as market conditions, and use data to make your future pricing decisions.
Find your Suppliers
With your niche determined you have to find suppliers for your business. One of the easiest ways to find suppliers is by finding suppliers by reverse searching on the Amazon store itself. You can also use product sourcing service providers like Alibaba who have an exhaustive collection of updated data of wholesalers. Once you make a list of prospective suppliers, make sure to sort out the details like minimum order quantity, cost per product as well as any other charges if applicable.
List your Products and Optimize for Amazon
After securing your product supply comes the part where you list your products on Amazon. Make sure to take high-quality images of your products or hire professional product photographers to get it done as they can have an impact on how customers perceive your products. Also, provide detailed and informative descriptions of your products and follow SEO practices so your products rank higher while being searched for by users.
It is also advised to use Amazon’s “Fulfillment By Amazon” and “Prime Eligible” as it makes it easier for your customers by taking off shipping charges and Amazon will take care of shipping your products right from your doorstep.
Marketing and Advertising
Besides Amazon, focus on building your brand with a website and social media channels to build trust among customers as well as to grow your brand. After all, you may find it useful when you are doing well and want to diversify your business by having a reputation while you are making a name for your brand and growing.
This goes from creating an SEO-friendly website with fast loading time, and social media channels with informative and behind-the-scenes posts depicting what goes behind the products you are selling and what your customers mean to you, as a business owner. Such personalized candid exhibitions can go a long way in building a brand from scratch.
Make Use of Customer Feedback
Customer feedback on Amazon is useful input to understand how your products are working for your customers as well as to understand how you can improve to serve your customers better.
Take the honest feedback of your customers into consideration while making your decisions about suppliers, product quality as well as pricing.
Remember that while making a profit is important for a business to be successful, giving value to customers is just as important. This approach will make for a sustainable business that is beneficial to the customers as well as owners in the long run.
This article should give you an understanding of what you need to do to get started as an Amazon seller. Entrepreneurship is a never-ending process and it is the same with being an Amazon seller.
While making a success with your products initially is a good result, it is nevertheless the end. You have to continuously monitor the market and make data-driven decisions and find more products to expand your business. Hope this article has provided you with the basic ideas for doing it. If you have any suggestions that would add to the content of the article, feel free to let us know in the comments.
