So You Want To Start Selling On Amazon?

Is 2021 going to be the year you start selling on Amazon? If it is, you’re in for both an exciting and, probably, a frustrating time!

Selling on Amazon is not as simple as simply uploading your products, sitting back and watching the sales and money roll in, you have to work at it on multiple levels and whilst you may hit the jackpot and be one of those sellers that sells a hugh amount of products, you could quite easily be one of the masses that sell next to nothing.

So, lets have a look at some top selling tips from our in house experts to help you sell on Amazon.

Decide how you want to fulfil your orders

Like selling on any platform online, speed of delivery is key to customer satisfaction and, in many cases, is a deciding factor on whether or not they place the order with you or one of your competition. Furthermore, Amazon will track your speed of delivery along with a number of other factors (below) to help them decide where to rank your products:

• Percentage of orders achieving the expected shipping date
• Percentage of orders receiving a first time scan by the shipping agent on time
• Percentage of orders shipped with correct shipping method
• Your return rate
• Your refund rate

These are just a few of the metrics they’ll be looking at and, if you consistently achieve and exceed the targets on all of these metrics you will, after time, qualify for Guaranteed Delivery status. Doing this brings multiple benefits, one being that Amazon will boost your product listings and secondly they’re more likely to award you the coveted ‘Buy Box’.

Miss the targets and you could find yourself suffering from penalties resulting in your products falling down the rankings.

If you’re only selling on Amazon then FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) is going to be your best choice for multiple reasons including:

• Price
• Speed
• Automatically qualifying for Prime

Speak to our Amazon team to discuss the best route to market for your products.

Price Competitively!

Pricing is always a difficult one. Price your products too high in search of maximum profit and you’ll likely see lower sales, price your products too low and you’ll likely see more sales but a lower profit margin, it’s a fine balancing act that has no right or wrong and is based on not just your product but the same and similar products being sold by other retailers.

Get The Packaging Right!

If you’re thinking about shipping across borders then you need to pay particular attention to the packaging design for your products! Why is that so important you may ask, well, put simply, different countries have different rules and regulations in regards to packaging and falling foul of these could result in a lot of financial pain!

Shipping into the USA from the UK? You’ll need to change the date format (if relevant) displayed on your products, forget to do so and you could find your entire shipment will be flagged as out of date and destroyed!

Need a different quality mark, barcode format, or simply a statement sticker on your product and forget to add it, you could lose all your product to customs officers without any way to question or correct.

Get Your Branding Right!

If you’re trying to build a brand spend some time getting it right! People (customers) remember memorable brands by colour, name, design and a multitude of other aspects, get this wrong and your product gets forgotten about individually and lumped in the mix with everyone else.

Get the branding right and you’ll get a customer to remember you and return to your product time and time again.

Get Your Customer Service Right!

No one likes poor customer service and Amazon know this and prioritise this.

Great customer service can have as much impact on your sales as the product itself as Amazon uses this as a key element in it’s search page visibility score (Amazon Best Sellers Rank). Think for a moment about positive product reviews, the more genuine reviews your product has the higher the likelihood that other customers will trust the product and make a purchase. Adding sales into the mix, when you make more sales, your products will naturally rank higher, more sales, more reviews, it’s a never ending circle, but get the customer service element wrong and get a poor or negative review against the product and this will have a negative effect on both your product listing positioning and the likelihood of sales being made.

Good customer service doesn’t have to be complicated, simple things such as replying to feedback & reviews (especially negative ones) quickly makes a big difference to the overall customer experience. Ensuring you have your returns policy clearly displayed & meeting your delivery deadlines are key pointers. Customers want, and expect, fast delivery from the outset, failing to achieve your published delivery time is only going to get you a negative review!

Get Your Stock Right!

When you first get started you may be inclined to grab anything and everything you can get your hands on at a reasonable price, STOP!

Whilst the profit margin on a product might look to be great, think about how you’d feel if you received the product at the price you’re going to sell it for. If you think you’d be disappointed with the functionality, the build quality, the packaging or the finish, step away and find another product. After all, if you’re not convinced, what will the customers think, and what do unhappy customers make, that's right, refunds, returns and negative reviews!

Mix up your supply chain to ensure you don’t find yourself stuck with lots of low quality stock that you’re going to sit on for a long while, and if possible, get samples before committing to a larger order.

Still here?

Good, selling on Amazon is a great way to either expand your existing business or indeed, set up from scratch as a new business. Pay attention to the basics and you’ll find the process of being successful to be far smoother than simply jumping in feet first without any preparation, and remember, if you get stuck, we’re only a phone call away.