Selling on Amazon

Did you know that more than half of all online consumers will start an online shopping search on Amazon? And even when shoppers locate a product on another website, about 90% of people will go to Amazon to compare pricing and selection? Selling on Amazon is the place to be. In 2016, Amazon Prime members in the United States alone numbered 63 million!

But the popularity of online shopping hasn’t only benefited consumers around the world; it has also given an opportunity to aspiring business owners. With the help of Amazon, you can set up an online shop of your own and start generating an income stream surprisingly easily.

Selling on Amazon isn’t just for e-commerce pros either. Instead, the system has been designed with novices in mind. In a minimal amount of time, you can set up your shop and start selling to customers around the country and across the globe.

Amazon’s Success with Third Party Sellers

Amazon has been allowing individuals to sell their products on its website since 2000. As a result, over 40% of total unit sales on Amazon are completed by third party sellers, and every seller has the chance to list items in myriad categories to reach a variety of customers.

When you sell on Amazon, you also have the option of shipping items to customers yourself or allowing Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to take care of keeping products in inventory and shipping them, so you can keep your logistics simple.

Selling as an Individual or as a Professional

When you set up a seller account on Amazon, you have the option of selling as an individual or as a professional.

As an individual seller, you will have the opportunity to list products in more than 20 different categories. Amazon will take fees from each sale. They include a fixed fee and other fees, but you will keep the remaining profits. This plan is best if you are predicting that you will only sell 40 items or less each month.

As a professional seller, you’ll be able to fill out an application for selling products within 10 or more additional categories when compared to individual sellers. However, you will need to pay a fee each month to maintain your status as a professional seller, and you’ll also be charged extra fees when sales are made. Therefore, this seller category is best for those who are planning on going big and selling over 40 products each month.

Additional benefits that come with a professional seller account include:

• The ability to control what you sell and where you sell it. All you need is a single account to control it all.

• The convenience of bulk listing tools to make posting inventory a snap. You’ll also get helpful reporting tools.

• The ability to customize shipping rates and offer discounts and gift wrapping for items that do not include music, videos and DVDs, software, and video games.

• The eligibility to be included at the top of product detail pages, increasing your odds of generating more sales.

Whether you choose to sign up as an individual seller or as a professional seller, you have the option of using Fulfillment by Amazon to handle all of the customer service and shipping. Amazon’s customer service reps will answer questions from your customers, and they will also handle returns and refunds on your behalf. This means that you can manage your online business in a hands-off, headache-free way while focusing on increasing your profit margins.  

How to Increase Your Odds for Successful Selling

While you can certainly list your products for sale on Amazon and sit back as you wait for the buyers to come to you, if you want to increase your odds of becoming a successful online seller, you’ll need to put a bit more effort into the process. This is especially true if you are listing new products on the platform.

Optimizing your Amazon listings is a lot like optimizing your website: the goal is to make it easier for potential customers to find your products when they’re looking for them. Ultimately, listing optimization is a vital step that you need to take if you wish to rank higher in Amazon’s search results.

To make optimization easier, check out the AMZ Tracker software. It’s a keyword rank tracker designed specifically for Amazon, and it allows you to monitor your products’ rankings when it comes to important keywords. With insights into keyword rankings, you will be equipped to optimize every listing to boost your sales. Plus, it also helps you track what your competition is doing, and it will notify you of negative reviews that are posted by customers so you can get in touch with them right away and take the appropriate steps to make them happy.

In addition to optimizing your Amazon listings, you can also market your products in a few different ways:

• Amazon actually has an ad program that is a lot like Google AdWords, so it’s easy to use and affordable. You will only be charged when someone clicks on a link, and you can choose from various categories so you can spend an amount that you feel comfortable with. Plus, you can tweak your ad campaigns once they’ve begun. For example, you can pause and restart a campaign at any time, or you can adjust your budget or change up your keywords. With end-to-end metrics provided by Amazon,  you can refine your ad campaigns to make them more strategic.     

• On top of advertising right on Amazon, you can also advertise on other websites. A good way to do this is to create content about the products that you’re selling. You can then distribute that content on social media, on your own blog, and on fellow bloggers’ sites. You can even ask bloggers to review your products and include links to your Amazon listings to generate more traffic and boost your conversion rate.

• In order to reach a broader audience, you can take the route of posting about your products on social media. Let people know how your items are designed to fix a problem, fulfill a need, and make their lives easier or more fun. Include an eye-catching image or gif to catch people’s attention as they’re scrolling through their busy newsfeed. Offer discounts, too, as a means to get people to click through and give your products a try.  

Save Money When Selling Internationally on Amazon

If you are hoping to sell internationally after creating your Amazon seller account, opting to use FBA when you are first starting out can be helpful, as it can simplify your overseas operations.

Overall, when you sell internationally online, you can enjoy the perks of making sales during buying seasons that occur in other markets throughout the year. This helps you maintain a steady stream of income without having to worry as much about slow periods.

One of the biggest drawbacks of selling internationally, though, is the high margins that are placed upon cross border payments. Amazon typically charges 3.9% just to have your international payments transferred into your bank account, so this can definitely eat into your profits.* Ouch!

You can avoid getting stung by high exchange rate margins, if you set up an online seller account on OFX. Essentially, you will be given a virtual account in the foreign markets where your products are available for sale. Accounts are available in USD, GBP, AUD, EUR, CAD, and HKD. With lower exchange rates across a variety of currencies, you’ll have the potential to save as much as 75% every time you bring your profits home.** Talk about a competitive edge!

*As of 19.1.17. https://payments.amazon.com/help/201212280

**Average savings based on a sample of published transaction fees for cross border payments provided by Amazon and PayPal dated 8.24.16. Quoted savings are not indicative of future savings. Third party intermediary fees may apply.