Amazon Listing Optimization Overview
Amazons product listing can be broken down into eight different components.
Each section should lead the buyer through a process helping them decide if they should purchase your product or not. Your listing should be search friendly and ideally unique.
Now, lets look at how you can optimize each element in your Amazon listing.
Does Your Brand Have An Amazon Problem
Lets first define our terms. You can either sell your products to Amazon or on Amazon.
When you wholesale products to Amazon, they:
- Own the product
- Make the pricing decisions
You can also sell your products on Amazon through third-party sellers, and this is where things can get a little complicated.
The Private Label Seller
In the past five years, there has been a huge increase in the number of sellers on Amazon that are building their own brands .
Combing Amazon product reviews and sales rank data of national brands, these sellers identify product or price gaps they believe they can fill with their own, newly-developed private label brands.
Typically, these sellers can enjoy 3-6 months of decent sales before their products do well enough to be identified by other private label sellers to target for their own private label versions.
If the private label seller becomes effective at evolving its catalog quickly and capitalizing in the short-term on its newly launched products, such a seller can do reasonably well on Amazon.
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Making Your Way Around Amazon Seller Central
While this guide is meant to summarize key strategies and initiatives you can use to grow your business on Amazon, lets go over a few of the basics, starting with the difference between selling on Amazon and selling to Amazon .
1. Amazon Seller Central with Fulfillment Options
When youre a seller on Amazons marketplace, you own the inventory until a customer receives it. You can opt in to have Amazon facilitate fulfillment and support to customers or do it yourself.
In most cases, being a third-party seller is the easiest and least expensive way to start selling on Amazon. Sellers utilize the Seller Central portal, with some different features available than with the Vendor portal.
2. Amazon Vendor Central
Becoming an Amazon vendor means you can sell direct wholesale to Amazon. However, it then owns the product once it receives it. Amazon Vendor Central is an invite-only program and can be a good option for businesses that dont want to sell directly to Amazon customers.
Benefits of being a vendor:
- Builds customer trust
- Access to additional category initiatives such as Gift Guides, Holiday Collections, etc.
- Access to programs such as Prime Now, Fresh, and Pantry
- Lower chance of account being suspended for unknown reasons
Disadvantages of being a vendor:
- Less direct control over pricing
- Fulfillment is more complicated and offers less control
- Slower payment terms
- Typically the more expensive model
- Increased reliance on Amazon Vendor Manager and Retail teams
Take Advantage Of Promotions
Promotions including Lightning Deals are a great way to sell units at an increased velocity, ultimately leading to more reviews. Lightning Deals are flash sales that are featured on the , one of the most frequently visited pages on Amazon.
Not only do they help increase discoverability of your product, they also help you increase sales during the limited-time sale and even after the deal is completed. This is because you often increase your rank and search relevancy due to the increased units sold during that flash sale, and this carries over for a period of time once the deal completes, sometimes for several weeks.
Lightning Deals for most sellers are invite-only in a sense since you can only run them when they show up on your See All Recommendations section of the screen on Seller Central, and there is often a nominal cost associated with running this deal.
For big events such as Prime Day and during the holidays, Lightning Deals can be very successful in selling hundreds to sometimes thousands of units in the period of a few hours and also in helping new customers discover your brand, even if they dont buy immediately.
The goal is not to always be on promotion or providing deep discounts, but if you can sprinkle these in occasionally, including toward the beginning of your product lifecycle on Amazon, it is a great way to gain additional reviews and build relevancy so other customers can find you.
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How To Sell Print On Demand Products On Amazon For Beginners
There are so many ways to sell things on Amazon. I see many of my friends doing well using the retail arbitrage method. Some people also find local products near their home and send them to Amazon.
Ive never done that before. Im not the kind of person who likes to source a product, pack, and ship it by myself.
Thats too tiring for me.
When I decided to be an Internet Marketer, my goal was not just to make money. I wanted to have more time, too.
So, Ive been selling products on Amazon since 2017, but all of my products are print-on-demand.
I like selling print-on-demand products because all of the products are uniquely designed and have less competition compared to other kinds of products.
Also, all the production processes are done by the suppliers. I dont need to make or ship anything by myself.
I have been selling thousands of coffee mugs, but I never see the products I sell.
There are many articles about selling products on Amazon in this Tiny Marketing Lab, but I just realized that I never wrote a basic article on how to get started on doing all this.
So, in this article, Im going to show you how to make money on Amazon from print-on-demand products , even if you are a beginner.
The process is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!
Lets get into it.
The Opportunity In Marketplaces
Its no secret that marketplaces are a big opportunity for ecommerce brands. The top online marketplaces in the world sold $2.67 trillion in 2020, accounting for 62% of global web sales that year. The growth of marketplaces leaves retailers with one question: should you sell through online selling sites?
Marketplaces like Amazon and eBay can help people discover your brand easier. Amazon has over 150 Prime members and 300 million active customer accounts worldwide. You can set up a selling account fast and reach a global audience with easebut this all comes with a price.
Fees aside, Amazon has been under fire for steamrolling its sellers. From using data about independent sellers to developing competing products to creating blatant copycat brands, you run the risk of losing sales and customer data when selling on marketplaces.
So what does that mean you for? Look at it this way: these marketplaces give consumers a plethora of choices. They give shoppers a quick and easy way to find the products they already want. What they dont do, however, is provide an enjoyable shopping experience where products are organically discovered, like in an online store.
This gives ecommerce businesses a unique opportunity. You can use Amazon to sell certain products and help improve brand awareness, as well as create an online store where you control the experience and the data, and save money on fees.
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What Is A North America Unified Account
A North America Unified Account allows you to sell your listings to online shoppers in Canada, the US, and Mexico.
Your is the marketplace in the country that you lived in when you set up your seller central account with Amazon.
Your target marketplace is the Amazon marketplace in the country where you want to start offering your products for sale.
For example, if you set up your Seller Central account in the US where you live, then amazon.com is your source marketplace where you can already start selling, and amazon.ca and amazon.com.mx are your target marketplaces where you would like to begin selling as well.
At the end of this blogpost, download Just One Dime’s 12-step guide for finding huge-potential products on Amazon.
Use Jungle Scout To Find Low Difficulty Niches
You want to choose a product that has low competition. offers a way for you to input the keyword associated with your product and determine if its a low difficulty niche.
This site makes product research easy and effective in an online manner and will help you decide what to sell on Amazon.
Finding the best niche market is determined by various aspects, including sufficient demand, low competition, physical product opportunities, and additional monetizing opportunities.
When your product meets these features, you can rest assured that you are choosing a product to sell on Amazon that falls within a low difficulty niche category.
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Selling On Amazon Directly
Selling on Amazon directly is similar to selling your products on Etsy or eBay. Even as a side business, you can start selling on Amazon for $39.99 per month plus additional selling fees. The registration process is simple.
The four-step setup process after registration is user-friendly and similar to Amazon FBA:
Youre responsible for listing your product, managing the inventory, and shipping it to customers. When selling on Amazon directly, you have more access to contact customers to request a review or handle issues that may arise before the customer posts a negative review. This is important because you dont want an issue with your customer experience strategy to negatively impact your brand.
How To List A Product On Amazon For Free
As mentioned above, almost every product you could possibly think of can be found on Amazon.
So, unless you are selling a brand new product that has never been seen before, such as a handmade product or a , all you need to do to list a product on Amazon is find the existing products listing.
And the fastest way to do this is to simply go to Amazon just like you would if you were shopping.
1. Find the products page on Amazon
In the search bar, type in the product that you wish to sell. You can give a description of the product or you can type in the . You may have to scroll through the search options to find the exact product that you hope to list.
2. Click the Sell on Amazon button
Once you find your product, on the right side of the screen just below the , you will see a gray button that reads Sell on Amazon.
3. Enter in your products information
After you click the button, Amazon requests the following information about your product:
After that, click Save and Finish. Usually, your product appears on the products listing page within two hours.
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Improve Product Page Ranking
Ask yourself if your price is comparable to your competitors. You need to have a competitive price and unique product descriptions so that your product ends up on page one of the Amazon search results. Page one results mean that customers are seeing your products first, which will increase the probability of a sale.
You can get your products to page one results when you invest in like the following:
Making sure you have high-quality product photos is also important, which is why I recommend using free photo editing tools to improve your image quality.
Research your competition to continually generate sales from high rankings. Tweak your product title to generate a high click-through rate so that you can continually generate organic sales.
Remember that ecommerce promotions often follow retail holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and even other more general promotions like winter clearance or fall sales. Promotional periods are high sales periods, which is another reason your profit margin should be high.
Most often, sellers choose to deviate from a stable price in the following instances:
- Launching new products
- Selling stock clearance items
- Sales like Black Friday or Cyber Monday
Remember, your return on ad spend for any marketing should always be 3:1. So if you spend $100 on marketing, you need to generate $300 in sales to maintain profitability.
Why Does Inventory Management Matter On Amazon
You can be doing all of the right things on Amazon to get people to your listings, but if you arent in stock, youll lose 100% of your potential sales.
Effective inventory management is more important than ever, especially if youre an Amazon seller. In the past year, Amazon has introduced monthly long term storage fees for slow-moving inventory, increased FBA fees, and launched the new Inventory Performance Index metric.
There have also been improvements to the basic inventory management features available in Seller Central. What these changes have in common is a mission to help Amazon merchants manage their inventory more effectively.
Are you struggling with managing your inventory properly? Do you keep running out early or having trouble fulfilling orders properly? . Here are the that can help
First off, what is the Buy Box?
The Buy Box is a section on the right side of an Amazon product detail page where customers can add a product to their cart or make an instant purchase. Amazon generates over $150 billion in sales every year. Of those conversions, over 90% occur using Amazons Buy Box.
If you sell on Amazon and want to increase sales online, winning the Buy Box is pivotal. Retailers featured on Amazons Buy Box for product pages sell more products.
- Promotional messages such as Sale
- Suggestive commentary such as Best Seller
- Symbols
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How To Sell On Amazon In 5 Steps
Although there have been entire books written about how to sell on Amazon, selling your products using this online marketplace can be a pretty fast, easy processâespecially if youre already chosen your products, found a supplier, and evaluated potential costs before setting up your account.
This being said, regardless of their size, every new Amazon seller gets started with the same five steps. Here are the details of what you need to do to start selling on Amazon.
What Is Fulfillment By Amazon
Fulfillment by Amazon is a program where Amazon stores, packs, ships, and handles customer service for the products you sell on Amazon. FBA gives you the ability to sell products on Amazon Prime.
FBA is a fulfillment option that sellers can choose for any or all of their products. Sellers vary on the number of products they choose to fulfill using FBA, depending on their margins, product category, and related seller variables.
Fulfillment by Amazon is a good option for merchants who are looking to increase shipping time and reduce time and money allotted to fulfillment.
FBA Pros and Cons
Less Business Operations: FBA eliminates fulfillment shipping efforts for sellers. Instead of handling warehouse management & packaging and those associated fees, retailers can pass off those task to Amazon
Amazon Prime: Amazon Prime customers purchase more, and more frequently than traditional Amazon shoppers.
- Using FBA increases product discoverability as FBA products feature Prime shipping, and appear for Prime filtered searches.
- Prime users and purchasers increase seasonally, and can add a boost around the holiday. Subscription services climbed more than 50% year after year in the last 3 quarters.
- Conversions are more likely on detail pages that are prime eligible, which can increase sales for products you sell using FBA.
Customer Service & Returns: Amazon handles customer service and returns with FBA orders, which is a perk for sellers who arent customer service specialists.
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How Do I Sell My Product On Amazon
When you offer a product for sale on Amazon, there are two options for selling your product.
Your first option is to match your product to an existing product detail page in Amazons catalog. If your product doesn’t yet exist in Amazons catalog, then you can create a new product detail page for the product.
Costs And Potential Profits
Because you dont have to produce the product by yourself, the upfront cost is very low. Let me break down the things you need to get started:
Heres what you need:
- GearBubble Dropship Integration Starts at $27 per month.
- Design cost Less than $1 per design, or free if you do it by yourself.
If you use the free method, you need to pay only Amazon $39.99 per month to list the products. After youve made some sales, you can create a campaign in GearBubble and order the products by yourself.
Thats a good way to get started. But in the long term, I recommend that you set up a team and let them do everything for you.
Its even better if you have a budget and can start hiring right off the bat. Your business will grow faster than the others.
Thats about the cost.
Next, lets check out the profit youll be able to make per item.
I sell a coffee mug at $14.95, plus $4.95 for shipping. The total revenue I earn is $19.90.
There will be an Amazon fee at $2.99. Amazon will calculate this fee from the price you define.
Then there will be the cost of the coffee mug and shipping from GearBubble, for a total cost of $9.90.
So the total profit you will get from selling 1 mug is $7.01.
For other products, like a shot glass or travel mug, the costs are a bit different. You can log in to your GearBubble account and check the production cost in there.
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How To Create An Amazon Seller Account
First, you need to create an Amazon account if you dont already have one. Go to this page here to create one.
Next, you can register your new Amazon account as a seller account.
Be sure to read the Before Your Register section on the webpage. It provides info about the two types of Amazon Seller accounts, Professional and Individual.
Dont know which account type to use? The answer is simple: if youre going to sell more than 40 items a month, use a Professional account otherwise, select an Individual account.
Why is 40 items the cut off point? Amazon will charge you $0.99 per item when selling on an Individual account. So, if youre going to sell 40 items a month, you might as well pay for the $40 a month Professional account.
In my case, I was only selling a few items, so I chose an Individual account.
Once you choose your account type, youll be asked to login or create an Amazon account using your preferred email. From then on you will need to provide:
For your seller information, youll need to provide your name and address, as well as a Display name. This will be the name buyers see next to the item youre selling. It can be anything you want, but remember its public. I chose BilboBaggins50 because I was selling some old Lord of the Rings video games.