Small Business Guide to Selling on Amazon

Whether you’re a small business owner or a reseller looking to expand your online business, Amazon is a great place to start. In this guide, you’ll learn how to start selling on amazon, how to become a prime seller, and how to boost sales with adverts.

Why Should Small Businesses Sell on Amazon

There are over 1 million small businesses currently selling on Amazon’s e-commerce platform. 60% of small businesses drive more than half of their online sales on e-commerce sites like Amazon. 

Amazon is the biggest online e-commerce site in the US as well as in the world, generating online sales more than any other platform. So it comes as no surprise that 68% of small business owners say Amazon has positively impacted their online sales.

If you’re still wondering why you should choose to sell on Amazon, you might find this interesting:

• As of now, Amazon is the largest e-retailer company in the US.
• 5% of buyers shop on Amazon every day.
• 25% of consumers make a purchase every few months on Amazon.
• 89% of buyers visit the platform at least once a month.
• 66% of consumers begin their product searches on Amazon.
• 82% of consumers check prices on Amazon before making a purchase decision.
• 89% of buyers are more likely to buy products on Amazon than other e-commerce websites.
• 60% of consumers choose Amazon as their preferred place to buy last-minute shopping gifts.

How to Sell Your Products on Amazon

Selling on Amazon is easy. To be able to list yourself as an Amazon seller and start selling on this platform, follow these steps:

1. Create a Seller Account

If you don’t have a personal or seller account on Amazon, you need to create one. Before you sign up, keep the following information ready as you’ll need them in the process:

• Your business email address. You can also continue with your Amazon customer account.
• A chargeable credit card.
• Government ID proof for the verification process.
• Tax information.
• Contact number.
• A bank account where Amazon can send you sales money.

2. Select Plan

Now you need to select a plan. Amazon offers two types of plans– Individual and Professional. If you choose the Individual plan, you’ll pay $0.99 for every time sold. The Professional plan costs a monthly flat fee of $39.99 irrespective of how many products you sell. There are additional charges like the variable referral fee which Amazon deducts against each transaction.

3. Create a Selling Strategy

Are you a reseller, or a brand owner, or both? Amazon offers flexibility to its sellers to choose from these categories. Brand owners can sign up for a Brand registry to protect intellectual properties. In addition, they can get access to exclusive features like free brand stores, a brand dashboard, and more.

4. Product Listing

Once you’re through, start with creating your first product listing to add items you want to sell. There are several elements to creating product listings. Add description, insert relevant keywords, add high-resolution images, update shipping information, fill in other mandatory details, and submit your product. You’ll see the listing is activated within a few minutes. If you think the task is daunting, take professional help.

How to Become Amazon’s Choice

Fundamentally, products marked as “Amazon’s Choice” are those that have generated enormous sales, are fairly priced, and have met customer satisfaction.

 

If you hover the mouse near that, it says: “Amazon’s Choice recommends highly rated and well-priced products.”

It’s a vote of trustworthiness that Amazon has conferred upon products based on sales performance. Products with this tag are likely to generate more sales. So if you want your products to have this tag, ensure that your products:

• Are Prime-eligible.
• Are always-in-stock.
• Have a great sales track record.
• Have received high customer ratings.

How to Get Your Products Available for Prime Shipping

Prime sellers undoubtedly receive more benefits than other sellers. For example, their products are eligible for Prime shipping which is one of the most preferred shipping choices for customers because it’s fast and reliable.

Products that are eligible for Prime shipping earn a badge. Additionally, Prime-eligible products receive more visibility, higher ranking, more clicks, and sales. Here’re the ways to make your product eligible for Prime shipping.

Fulfillment by Amazon

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a comprehensive, pay-as-you-go service provided by Amazon itself. In this method, you send your items to Amazon by following their standard guidelines, and after that, Amazon takes care of everything — starting from warehousing to packing, shipping and handling, returns, and customer service. If you have limited resources and time to handle the backend job, FBA is ideal for you.

Vendor Central

Unlike selling directly to shoppers, sellers at Vendor Central sell to Amazon and act as it’s wholesale suppliers. However, this is an invitation-only feature and you need to be contacted by Amazon to become a vendor and participate. This works great for manufacturers and brand owners. So this might not be an option for small-scale sellers and third-party sellers.

How to Run Amazon Ads for Your Products

Amazon ads work similarly to Google search ads. As buyers type in relevant keywords or search phrases on the search bar, both organic and paid listings that have the same or similar keywords appear in the results. 

Marketers and small business owners who want to gain quick visibility should try different ad formats. These are pay-per-click or cost-per-click ads and impressions are not chargeable.

When creating ads, sellers create campaigns, ad categories, select products, choose keywords they want to target and choose from ‘broad match’, ‘phrase match’, and ‘exact match’ types, add negative keywords, define bidding strategies, and it’s all set.

Ad types on Amazon are:

1. Sponsored Products

Sponsored product ads or Sponsored Products are one of the most common ad types. As buyers search for products, Amazon pulls up your sponsored ads and shows them alongside organic listings based on your bidding strategy and places them in various target locations.

Eligible sellers are professional sellers, book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors, and vendors. The products must fall in the eligible category and should be eligible for Featured Offer.

2. Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands are cost-per-click (CPC) ads that registered brand owners on Amazon can utilize to showcase banners on the headline. These types of ads have a brand logo, a headline, and multiple product listings.

3. Sponsored Display Ads

Sponsored Display ads are a simple CPC advertising type that doesn’t need a large budget. Professional sellers who are enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry or as vendors and agencies are eligible for this type of ad. It also works great for advertisers who’re already running display advertising.

Sponsored display advertising offers 3 targeting options:

• Views Targeting: Works great if you want to remarket your ads to re-engage your audience.
• Product Targeting: If you want to promote your products via cross-selling, choose this.
• Interest Targeting: This type of ad helps generate brand awareness and increase visibility.

Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce is undeniable, and it offers a wealth of opportunities for both sellers and buyers. With smart strategies, pricing models, and a customer-centric approach, you can easily achieve great success by selling on Amazon.

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