Are you looking for a way to earn a lot of money this 2021? Then look no further than selling on Amazon! Amazon is the biggest online marketplace in the world. Every minute, more than 4,000 items are sold on this e-commerce platform. And according to the data, over 50% of all Amazon sales comes from third-party sellers. In light of all this, it’s not surprising why so many people decide to sell on Amazon.
Currently, Amazon has over 2.5 million sellers actively selling on the platform. This number might seem intimidating, but don’t be discouraged by it. Even as a new seller, you still have the potential to earn (and learn!) so much during your first year. To help you make this possible, we are sharing some of the most important things that new sellers like yourself should do when starting out on Amazon.
Set Up Your Amazon Seller Account
So, you’ve decided to become an Amazon seller. Great! Now, the first thing you need to do to get started is create a seller account. Amazon offers two kinds of selling plans for their vendors: the Individual Plan and the Professional Plan.
The Individual Plan has no monthly subscription fee, which makes it the best choice for sellers who plan to sell fewer than 40 items per month. On the other hand, if you’re planning to sell more than 40 items monthly, the Professional Plan is the option for you. The monthly subscription fee is $39.99, and it comes with more features, like eligibility for listing placement in the Buy Box.
Once you’ve chosen which selling plan best suits your needs, you can then go ahead and set up your Amazon Seller Central account. Amazon Seller Central is where third-party sellers directly market and sell their products to buyers within the Amazon marketplace. It’s open to anyone, and it gives sellers full control of their accounts.
Conduct Your Product Research
Success on Amazon depends largely on the kinds of products that a seller sells. If you want to become successful–even as a new seller on Amazon–then you need to sell products that are actually profitable. And to find out which profitable products you should sell, you must do a few key things: research, research, and more research.
Be constantly searching for competitive, popular, and trending products on the market. Sell products that are always in demand, and avoid seasonal ones that will only make a profit in the short run.
If you don’t know where to search for potential products, you can use a Product Research tool to help you. This tool will show you an unlimited number of products that you can sell, which can be filtered by category, keyword, price, sales per day, and more. This tool is particularly useful when doing product research.
Identify How and Where to Source Your Products
Looking for profitable products goes hand in hand with finding reliable suppliers. After deciding what products to sell, you will need to identify how–and from where–you’ll source your products. On Amazon, there are three types of sellers: retail arbitrage, white label, or private label seller.
Retail arbitrage means sellers buy products from retailers (usually in bulk) and resell them on Amazon. White label sellers also buy products from retailers, but they put their own branding and logo on the products they sell. Private label sellers, however, sell products that are manufactured by a third-party, which are then sold under the seller’s own brand. Products from private label sellers are usually patented and registered on Amazon.
When sourcing products, always make sure that you choose reliable suppliers. Contact suppliers before placing an order. Call them, send them emails, and even visit their facilities if possible. Conduct testing to check the quality of the products and assure you are getting the highest quality from your chosen suppliers.
Choose Your Fulfillment Method
Choosing the fulfillment method that’s best for your business is an important step when you start selling on Amazon. Sellers have three different fulfillment options: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM), and Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP).
FBA means that Amazon stores and manages your inventory in its fulfillment centers. You automatically become eligible for Prime status (which increases visibility and recognition for customers) if you’re an FBA seller. Recently, Amazon introduced the FBA New Selection program which comes with many benefits for new FBA sellers, including the ability to get free monthly storage, free removals, and free return processing for eligible products that are new to FBA. So if you’re a new seller, using FBA would be especially beneficial to you.
FBM on the other hand, means that you, as the merchant, are responsible for storing your products and fulfilling your orders. You do not automatically get the Prime badge as an FBM seller. On the upside, you don’t have to pay any Amazon storage fees when you choose this fulfillment method.
If you want the Prime badge to appear next to your listing without having to use FBA, SFP is the ideal choice for you. SFP means qualified sellers get the Prime badge on their product listings, but they manage their own shipping operations and fulfillment. The only catch is that before a seller qualifies for SFP, they first need to meet several requirements such as having an on-time shipment rate of 99% and maintaining a cancellation rate of less than 0.5%.
Create and Optimize Your Product Listings
After setting up your account, choosing and sourcing your products, and organizing your fulfillment process, you can finally start creating your product listings. Product listings are the product pages where each of the items you sell on Amazon can be found. A good product listing should contain every piece of information that buyers want and need to know about your item, including its title, price, description, and images.
Aside from merely listing your products, you should also be concerned with optimizing your product listings. Optimizing your listings means upgrading your product pages to enhance their search visibility, click-through rate, and conversion rate, which will then generate more sales. There are many ways to optimize your product listing: use a descriptive title, include high-resolution images, write an objective and detailed description, and place relevant keywords on your page.
Using relevant and ranking keywords is particularly essential in listing optimization. Keywords are the words or phrases that buyers type in when searching for products. If you don’t know much about keyword research, a Reverse ASIN Search tool is something you should definitely try out. This useful tool shows you which keywords from competitors have organically ranked on page one of Amazon. You will also be able to see other helpful information, such as the monthly search volume estimate for each keyword, its rank or position on page one, and its common misspellings.
Conclusion
Selling on Amazon can be challenging, especially for beginners. A good amount of time, effort, and information is required to sell well on the largest online marketplace in the world. Fortunately, selling on Amazon has become increasingly easier with programs and tools that are designed to help new sellers make it big on the platform. If you want to make your 2021 more rewarding, start your Amazon business now! Regardless of how much you earn during your first year, selling on Amazon can prove to be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. As the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, himself once said, “Big things start small.”
