Once you decide to sell on Amazon, prepare to get your hands busy every day.
Many tasks are required at every step of the way—from planning and launching your store to maintaining smooth operations. The continuous work will motivate you to creatively and objectively think of ways to succeed on the platform.
Let us help you generate amazing ideas from both sides of your brain with these tips, which touch different areas of selling on Amazon.
Product Brainstorming
Two heads are better than one, so call on family, friends, and business partners for more ideas when you brainstorm and lay the plans out for your Amazon business. The more participants, the merrier, and the more ideas you can bring to the table.
Here are the ways you can have guided brainstorming:
- Reverse Brainstorming
- Story Mapping
- Mind Mapping
- Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put To Another Use, Eliminate, Reverse (SCAMPER) Method
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Analysis
- Role-Storming
- Word Banking
- Pick one or have several sessions using different brainstorming techniques. Set a timeline and have healthy discussions with like-minded peers to come up with the best product to sell on Amazon.
Competitor analysis in the brainstorming stage:
Consider researching your competitors beforehand to gauge which strategies will be beneficial for your business. A competitor analysis will give you valuable ideas to grow and beat the competition. Here are the metrics you can check and compare to your own:
- Store optimization
- Pricing
- Amazon pay-per-click (PPC)
- Advertisements outside Amazon
- Website
- Social media marketing strategies
- Fulfillment method
- Product quality
- Brand’s reputation
Some of these can easily be acquired through the help of tools like Helium10, Sonar, and keywordtool.io. You can also personally inspect your competitors’ products by buying from them or checking their websites and social media accounts. This will give you brand new angles to study your product and make it easier to determine the right marketing strategies.
Always keep your customers in mind
You’ll be pleased to know that you and Amazon have a similar goal of satisfying customers and encouraging loyal patrons. To successfully begin this goal, you must first understand your audience. Here are some of the aspects you’ll need to factor in:
- Demographic
- Location
- Needs and values
- Factors affecting their decision to buy
- Products and content they patronize
- Social status and eCommerce spendings
You can acquire this information through research data, surveys, and even interviews with potential, current, and repeat customers. Add the details you will get during your brainstorming.
Get customer feedback and reviews.
Work hard to perfect your product and understand your customers and competitors. So when you finally get a buyer, they will be pleased and leave positive feedback and 5-star ratings.
It may be tough to obtain your very first reviews and ratings since most online shoppers search the review section first before deciding to purchase a product. But thanks to Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program, you can jumpstart getting more feedback from buyers. You can also enact different ways to get reviews and feedback, like incorporating calls-to-action (CTAs) in your social media posts or inserting a note in your packaging about leaving a review after receiving the order.
Optimize your listing for the search engine
Everything about your product is all set, including quality, packaging, and price. Now, it is time to make sure your product listing appears when customers search for keywords relevant to your product through Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The first step you need to do is to search for keywords using different keyword research tools online. You can also conduct a competitor keyword analysis to narrow down the choices of keywords you will incorporate into your store, listing, and ads.
After the research, smoothly incorporate the keywords to your product title, description, bullet points, campaigns, and Amazon backend. SEO-friendly content brings more visitors to your listing, and more visitors mean more potential sales.
Strategize your marketing in and outside of Amazon
The Amazon algorithm has recently changed. Aside from the Amazon PPC inside the platform, A10 now checks the ads outside Amazon and considers the click-through rate and conversion rate from external links.
Amazon PPC Tips:
- Start with a high PPC budget to ensure you will not run out and your ads will appear throughout the day, especially during shopping hours.
- Know when it is efficient to use Sponsored Ads, Sponsored Brand, Sponsored Display, and Amazon Store.
Digital Marketing Tips:
- Open social media accounts where your target audience is, and post engaging content consistently.
- Do not forget your CTA and links leasing to your product listing.
Determine your delivery and fulfillment method
The most awaited sale has come! Make sure your customer does not abandon the cart by offering a delivery or fulfillment method they cannot resist. Here are some of your options:
- Fulfillment By Merchant (FBM): For this method, you will handle fulfillment and deliveries.
- Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA): Amazon will handle fulfillment, delivery, customer service, refunds, and returns.
- Ship Via US Address: Here, you can partner with cross-border shippers for you to ship internationally using a US address.
- FBA Export Program: Amazon’s offer to international shipping where customers will handle all shipping costs. You do not need to pay anything.
Be wary of all Amazon guidelines
According to Market Pulse, there are currently 9.7 million sellers on Amazon, but only 1.9 million are active. To ensure that everything is organized, the platform is governed by different rules, and not abiding by them can mean suspension of your listing and loss of sales.
Here are some of the guidelines you should know by heart:
- Amazon FBA Packing Guidelines
- Product listing and PPC-specifics like character counts, allowed and prohibited words, and image requirements
- Returns and Refunds Regulations
- Product Bundling Policy
- Seller Code and Selling Policies
- Treat the guidelines seriously to avoid any problems and additional costs.
Utilize Amazon Brand Registry
You have invested so much—time, effort, and money—to ensure your Amazon business prospers, so protect your brand on Amazon through Amazon Brand Registry.
Here are the primary benefits you will reap:
- Amazon will proactively check all listings for any anomalies, unauthorized sellers, and unauthorized resellers.
- You can also report a rogue seller to them through Project Zero.
Once registered, you can mark your products with a trademark through Transparency Codes signifying authenticity. Customers can scan the code to know they did not get a counterfeit product. - As a brand owner, you can also use the program to speed up your Intellectual Property Rights Certificate application.
- Begin, operate, and always be guided by data analytics.
You made it a point to add research and data as a basis for your decisions from your brainstorming stage. Keep this habit throughout your selling journey, so you always make informed choices. Through data, you can also do simulations on whether a decision will lead to success, meet your goals one way or another, or not at all.
Amazon Seller Central provides different statistics for PPC monitoring, inventory management, sales, and conversion checking you can utilize together with your systems and tools. As an Amazon seller, keeping an eye on your business through weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reviews is necessary.
In Closing
And there you have it—10 helpful tips that can serve as your training wheels when starting a business.You will learn more valuable lessons along the way, but it’s always best to come prepared, especially in an online jungle as wild and competitive as Amazon. So keep the fire burning and never give up; the work never stops, especially in business.
Featured Image Credit: pixels.com
Jayce is the managing director of Seller Interactive, the number one Amazon advertising agency based in Canada that helps brands build their business on Amazon. His content marketing expertise has led him to work with brands such as Toyota and GoDaddy, producing content that has reached over 20M views in a month.
