Recent figures show that Amazon accounts for roughly 49.1% of eCommerce spend within the United States.
If you sell on Amazon, you will benefit from the large market share that Amazon currently occupies. Of course, lots of other people are selling on the platform as well, so success doesn’t come easy.
Below we’re going to take a look at how you can become a successful Amazon seller. If you want to get in on the Amazon gold rush, these tips will help you get your piece of the pie.
Let’s begin!
1. Which Approach Are You Going to Take?
If you’re going to sell on Amazon, there are two routes you can go down.
The first is to sell a product in a crowded niche that’s associated with the top-selling items on amazon.
Going into a crowded niche might sound counter-intuitive, but it can be an excellent way to generate a large number of sales.
For instance, suppose a given niche generates around one hundred thousand sales per day. If you manage to capture just one percent of that, you will generate 1,000 sales per day.
The other approach is to look for a niche that doesn’t have a lot of competition.
The lack of competition means you’ll be able to capture a large portion of the market in a short amount of time. However, some of these niches don’t generate a large number of daily sales.
Thus, even if you do capture a large portion of the market, you might not make a lot of money.
2. Creating a Compelling Product
Once you know which approach you are going to take, you need to think about how you’re going to create a compelling product.
If you are dealing with a competitive niche, you need to focus on making a product that is better than what’s already selling.
One way you can do this is by reading the reviews of existing products within your chosen niche.
In doing so, you’ll identify some of the negative things people are saying about the current top-selling items. If your product addresses these issues, you will be able to stand out in a crowded market.
Note that once you release a product, you need to read the negative reviews associated with your product. If you quickly address these issues, you won’t lose out to other sellers.
If you’re dealing with a niche that doesn’t have a lot of competition, you just need to sell a product that matches the search criteria.
However, over time, it’s vital that you focus on improving your product, or else someone might try to steal your market share. Again, you do this by reading the reviews people are leaving for your product and competing products.
3. Take Great Photos
Whether you’re dealing with a little competition or a lot, it’s critical that you have good product photos.
If you’re taking the photos yourself, think about buying a special ‘white backdrop.’ This will allow you to take professional photos without having to spend money on a professional photographer.
If you’re going to be taking the photos on your phone, make sure you use the highest quality settings. This will ensure the photo doesn’t get blurry, should someone use the ‘zoom’ feature on Amazon.
Lighting can also have a big impact on how good a product looks in a photo.
If you own a lamp, you might want to shine it on the products as you’re taking the photos. If you don’t have a lamp, you might be able to solve the lighting problem by using the ‘flash’ feature on your camera.
You also want to take pictures of your product from as many angles as possible.
If people can see your product from all sides, they’ll feel more confident about buying your product. That’s because they won’t feel as though you’re hiding something from them.
4. Create a Thorough Product Listing
You also need to create a thorough product listing that provides a lot of information about your product. One way you can do this is by listing out all the features associated with your product.
The best way to do this is by using a ‘bullet-point’ format so that the information is easy to read. It would help if you also used simple language, as you want to make the information easy to digest.
You might also want to think about highlighting why certain features matter. You can do this by listing the benefits associated with a particular feature. In doing so, you will give people a reason to buy your product instead of a competing product that lacks certain features.
It’s important that you put a lot of energy into this step, as what you write can have a big impact on your ability to rank within the search listings.
If your listing is thin on information, you will not rank well, and thus you may lose out to competitors even if your product is better.
5. Managing Your Sales
When selling on Amazon, you need to figure out how you’re going to track the data associated with your product.
If you do a bad job here, you might not know when you need to order extra stock. You might also make mistakes when you’re doing your accounts.
Many people tend to manage this information using spreadsheets, and that can work well if you aren’t processing a large number of products. However, if you’re shifting lots of products, you might need to invest in an order management system.
If you’re going to invest in an order management system, make sure you select one with ‘Amazon edi integration.’
That’s because you need this kind of integration if you want to import inventory data from Amazon. Fortunately, this integration is an industry-standard, and so most software suites should offer it.
Do You Know How to Sell on Amazon?
If you know how to sell on Amazon, you will be able to join the many people that are making a good living from this platform.
Selling on Amazon can often be a bit of a hit and miss process. That’s because your first product listing might fail, and you may need to go through many ideas before you hit upon one that pays well.
The ability to keep going is generally what separates the winners from the losers on Amazon. Thus, if you can make it through this trial and error period, you should be able to make good money.