Finding Success as an Amazon Seller

More than 50% of shoppers started their online purchasing experience on Amazon in 2017, with over 62% making at least one purchase per month. What can you do to compete on Amazon against other sellers in the marketplace?

Use the Right Strategy

Take the time to research your products and find out if there’s an audience on Amazon for what you’re offering.

Start Lean
Don’t spend a lot of money on inventory when you first start selling on Amazon. Work out what your actual costs will be to make an item profitable.

Starting Seller Expenses

• The initial inventory investment

• Monthly Amazon seller account costs

• UPC Codes (Required by Amazon)

• Photographing your items

• Logo and branding designs

You can choose a seller account that charges your $0.99 per item, or one that lets you move an unlimited amount of inventory at a cost of $39.99 per month plus seller expenses.

Use SKU’s to Your Advantage

Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) numbers allow sellers to organize the items in their inventory. You can mark SKUs with the following information:

• The date you listed an item

• The date that item sold

• Where it ranked on Amazon

• How much you paid for the item

• The price at which the item sold

It’s also a good idea to prefix your SKU’s in such a way that they’re easily searchable. For example, if you’re selling books, add a “BK” at the beginning.

Services like Inventory Lab, ScanLister and other inventory management software allow you to create bulk listings of SKUs in a flash. Properly labeling your SKUs helps you track popular items and find the best price points against other sellers.

Invest in Advertising

Amazon Marketing Services allows businesses to create targeted advertising on Amazon. Those ads also display when users browse products offered by competitors. You receive access to tools that help you create optimized ads that drive sales to your product pages. Amazon only charges you when your ad receives a click.

Target Prime Customers

Prime customers spend twice as much as regular customers on Amazon. It’s much easier to attract this customer base if you become an FBA seller. Amazon boxes and ships your items in two days in exchange for an additional monthly fee.

Amazon has certain standards for receiving items from FBA sellers, and they assume a lot of control once they have your inventory. Decide for yourself if Prime customers are worth the trade-off.

Give your business its best chance at success by leveraging Amazon’s own tools alongside an Amazon inventory management software solution.