Want to learn how to get more sales Amazon?
In the first quarter of 2020, more than 50% of all Amazon’s sales were made by third-party sellers, with Amazon sellers in the US generating more than 50 billion dollars in revenue in the US.
Despite the Amazon statistics though, competition is becoming increasingly fierce, with more and more business-minded people realizing the opportunities that becoming an Amazon seller can provide. If you don’t approach Amazon third-party selling in the right way and have both an educated and adaptive strategy in place, you can end up making little to no profit on the platform.
Amazon seller central is great for getting started, but to scale sales, you need to have a deeper understanding. To make sure you’re able to steadily increase sales we’ve put together ten proven Amazon selling tips.
#1 Optimize Your Listings to Rank
Most product searches start on Amazon. So understanding how to get on the top of listings can make or break your Amazon business.
You may be selling directly on the Amazon platform, but it’s still essential to optimize your listings to rank in the SERPs. One of the most important Amazon selling tips is arguably making sure that search engines can easily identify keywords and understand what you are offering so you can rank accordingly.
Finding Profitable Amazon Keywords
There are many free and paid keyword research tools out there for Amazon sellers to benefit from to pinpoint keywords that have a high search volume, are not overly competitive, and have the right search intent behind them. Using a tool like Jungle Scout is invaluable for product research.
Before you can increase sales on Amazon, you have to understand the two main ways to get your products to appear at the top of search results.
Amazon SEO
Amazon SEO consists of optimizing your product listings so they rank high in the Amazon search results with the related keywords. When you optimize your product listings with the right keywords, you’ll get better rankings and more visibility which leads to more sales. And more sales means more money in your pocket!
You want your products to appear on the first or second page of the Amazon listings for your specific product category. If your product appears on the third page or further down the pages, you’re not likely to make too much money on your product sales, no matter how great your item really is. If people don’t see it close to the front of the list, it’s unlikely they’re going to see it at all. Therefore, they won’t be buying it.
How your product ranks is determined by an algorithm, A9. When an Amazon shopper enters keywords into the search engine, they are immediately directed to pages of products matching their search. So, how does Amazon direct shoppers to the right pages? This is where the amazon’s algorithm enters the picture.
Amazon wants to sell the products so the company gets its cut of the profits. The algorithm was created to increase the number of successful transactions. There are two steps to the A9 process: keyword filtration and purchase likelihood.
The algorithm first considers the keywords entered and targets your product if the keywords appear in your listing. Then, Amazon looks at how well your products have been performing. The products that contain both the keywords and have high performance history will rank higher.
When you use the right keywords in your product listing and make the content details enticing, this will help to improve your ranking according to the algorithm.
Once you’ve collated a list of valuable keywords for a product, make sure to include them in your product title, description, and other areas throughout your product page. Think about your brand name, product name, material, color, size, quantity, and more to make sure you are utilizing all the right keyword opportunities.
While it’s important to make sure you use keywords where they fit, don’t be tempted to stuff them in at every given opportunity. Your listing’s content still needs to read well and be informative to consumers.
Amazon PPC
Amazon offers its advertising and marketing services for sellers, allowing you to target keywords and get products in front of your target audience.
If you have a budget available for advertising, Amazon offers multiple types of ad campaigns, whether you want Amazon to automatically place your product ads where they think is relevant, or you prefer to create manual campaigns and target specific keywords.
There are multiple types of ads available, whether you prefer to create innovative custom ads or stick to display ads. What’s more, you only have to pay per click, so you can benefit from tons of brand exposure and visibility without necessarily having to pay for each person that views your ad.
If you are new to sponsored advertising, you can start small and use the data from your ad campaigns to educate and optimize future strategies.
#2 Have an Adaptive Pricing Strategy
Competitive pricing is key if you want to compete with established brands and stand out from the crowd on Amazon. Unless your product is 100% unique or offers a feature that consumers can’t get elsewhere, the lower you can get your prices while still making a profit, the better.
To go one step further than being competitive with your prices, you should aim to be adaptive too. Market demand is always changing, with new competitors joining the scene all the time, making it essential to be proactive in making sure your prices fit with the times.
For those just starting as an Amazon seller or those with a small inventory, you can change your prices manually or set rules for when your prices change according to what your close competitors are charging.
If you’re offering a wide range of products though, algorithmic repricing is the way to go to maintaining profitable profit margins. This method involves an automatic repricing tool using complex algorithms and real-time data to lower or raise a seller’s prices. Reputable repricing tools like Repricer.com consider a wide range of factors that not only help new sellers to compete but also achieve the Amazon Buy Box.
#3 High-Quality Photography
Your imagery is one of the deciding factors in whether a consumer will make a purchase or not. Ecommerce brands should be prepared to invest significant time and money into getting your product photography right if you want to catch people’s eye and sell yourself.
A blurry or grainy photo can subconsciously immediately put someone off and establish a negative first impression of your brand. Don’t neglect your photography and make sure to offer browsers plenty of photos to display different angles, product detail, and your product in use. You can’t rely on having the lowest price, you need a strong brand.
Always take your photos against a white and clutter-free background so they’re easy on the eye. The harder a consumer’s brain needs to work to imagine themselves using or wearing your product in real life, the less likely you are to make a sale. It should be easy for potential buyers to envision the product in their home and understand how it will benefit their day-to-day life.
If you have the budget available to work with professional ecommerce or product photographers, go for it. There is even the option to offer 360-view images for people to view your product from every angle.
Amazon Image Guidelines
Amazon has specific guidelines regarding product images. You want your photos to be eye-catching and appealing but you also need them to adhere to the guidelines.
Here are some image guidelines to keep in mind when selling your products on Amazon:
- Main image has to be a professional photograph or cover art
- The image must be in focus, accurate, and feature realistic colors
- The product photo has to fill at least 85% of the image frame and the background must be white
- The image can’t contain any unnecessary text or graphics, such as watermarks
- Amazon recommends images be larger than 1,000 pixels on one single side
- 500 pixels minimum and 10,000 pixels maximum on the longest side of the image
- Recommended image is 1:1 square with 2,000 x 2,000 dimensions
- Maximum zoom of 5:1 aspect ratio
- Maximum file size of 10mb for each image
- JPEG images are preferred but TIFF, PNG, and GIF files are allowed, too
- sRGB or CMYK color mode
- Specific product identifier and file extension must be included in file name
- The images should be compressed
By adhering to these guidelines, not only will you be following the Amazon rules but you’ll also be using photos that accurately show your product. This will be well worth it once the sales start rolling in.
#4 Get Into Amazon’s Buy Box
The next of our Amazon selling tips is to try your utmost best to appear in the Buy Box. Almost all retailer that manage to get their products in the Buy Box see this reflected in their sales.
What Is The Buy Box
The Amazon Buy Box is located on the far right of a product listing and includes information that makes it easy for shoppers to buy the product. This section on the Amazon product listing lets shoppers select how they’ll purchase the product.
The Buy Box includes features for the shopper to select such as new or used, shipping speed, and gift options. Amazon shoppers are also able to select the quantity number. Once all this information is entered, the buyer clicks “Add to cart” and the item is ready to be purchased.
This Amazon listing feature is extremely important as it is the gateway to getting your products sold. Once the item has been entered in the Buy Box, it’s likely this will mean money in your wallet.
How To Win The Buy Box
Now that you know what the Buy Box is, you want to do your best to get online shoppers to use the Buy Box in your product listings and get those products into their cart.
Unfortunately, though, unlike Walmart Marketplace that provides sellers with a clear strategy for winning the Buy Box, Amazon keeps their cards a lot closer to their chest. You can increase your chances of winning the buy box by:
- Competitive pricing
- Stock availability
- Use Amazon FBA or seller-fulfilled Prime
- Quick shipping times (2 days or less)
- Seller ratings
- Product reviews
- Product bundles
- Excellent tracking rate and full tracking information
- On-time delivery
- Low refund and cancellation rates
You should aim to incorporate a number of these factors into your selling strategies to not only appear in the Buy Box but elevate your brand reputation and dominate the Amazon marketplace.
#5 Benefit from Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a program that allows sellers to hand over a significant amount of the hassle of fulfilling orders to Amazon themselves. You can store your inventory in their warehouse, where Amazon will pick, pack, and ship all orders for you as and when they come in.
Although using the FBA program isn’t the only way to be a successful Amazon seller, it allows you to offer Amazon Prime to consumers and benefit from the incredibly short delivery times that come with it.
Amazon Prime originally launched over a decade ago in 2007, but in the UK, it now has more than fifteen million members, who tend to spend far more on average each year than non-Prime Amazon users.
By using the FBA program and having the Prime badge on your listings, you can establish an immediate level of trust with consumers and differentiate yourself from products that don’t offer Prime delivery.
Of course, there are higher fees involved with using FBA, but both your sales and overall strategy will see a benefit by leaving you with more time to channel into other areas of your brand.
#6 Use Automation To Get More Reviews
Gaining some positive reviews on your listing is essential if you want to gain a consistent income from your Amazon sales. Reviews are the first place people look when shopping online, with a glowing review being all that you need to push a consumer to make a buying decision.
To start building a solid foundation of reviews for your products, get in touch with customers shortly after your product has been delivered to ask for a review and some feedback. This way, if your customers do have anything negative to say, you can resolve the issue before it becomes a negative review on your listings.
You can even use Amazon to automatically request reviews from your customers and ask for a star rating.
Source
Amazon Review Software
Amazon review software is another technique for getting customer reviews. Third-party software makes it easy to get customer reviews and improve your credibility on Amazon, or see what aspects of your online business you need to improve upon.
xSellco Feedback is one Amazon review software option to consider. This software program will help you improve your feedback rating by collecting reviews through automated requests and sending you notice of the results by phone or email.
Feedbackz is another Amazon review software program that provides automated follow-up email funnels to get feedback from customers and let you know how you’re doing in the sales and delivery departments. With this program, you’ll be able to see how many of your emails actually get opened. After all, the more emails that are opened, the more likely it is you’ll receive a response which can help you tailor your ecommerce business offerings to suit the needs of customers.
Amazon review software is extremely useful as it’s tailored to your specific selling method and gets you customer feedback with ease.
# 7 Provide Exceptional Customer Service
Don’t sit back and relax once your Amazon listings are optimized and launched, there are plenty of other aspects to becoming a successful Amazon seller. One of these is customer service – you need to go above and beyond when dealing with both prospective, current, and returning customers.
Responding to customers in a professional, helpful, and meaningful manner will determine whether people choose to buy from you again or go to your competitors instead. When responding to a customer query, aim to solve all problems in your response and remove any potential obstacles preventing an individual from making a purchase.
Should you get any negative feedback or complaints about your products, tackling these positively and professionally can turn a negative exchange into a profitable one.
How To Manage Amazon Customer Service
You can choose to handle the customer service aspects yourself or let Amazon do the job for you. The Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA) function makes it possible for you to hand over the customer service duties to Amazon and let the company representatives be the go-to contact person for customers to reach out to with questions, comments, and complaints. However, at this time, CSBA is only available to select sellers and by invitation only. But, stay tuned, as this option may become available to more sellers in the future.
When you handle the customer service duties for your company, know that Amazon feedback is an invaluable resource for you to use. The comment section and five-star rating scale make it possible for customers to leave feedback on the seller’s performance. These can actually make or break a seller. When shoppers are comparing products from different vendors, they often look to the feedback section to see the rating and individual comments before buying a product from a specific seller. With this in mind, you need to watch Amazon feedback carefully and react accordingly.
Tailor your customer service with Amazon feedback in mind. If anything needs to be addressed with your delivery time, shipping method, etc., you want to do so ASAP. Make sure to respond to customers promptly, politely, and fully. How you respond and the changes you make to your operations will show your dedication to customer service. It will also help sell more of your products.
#8 Keep Your Amazon Seller Account In Good Standings
No matter how successful you are at implementing these tips and selling on Amazon, it won’t matter if you see this subject line in your inbox: Seller account has been deactivated.
As you sell your products on Amazon, always keep the company guidelines and requirements in mind. Amazon has specific program policies that sellers must follow. These include a seller code of conduct, selling policies, product and listing requirements, shipping policies, and more.
In order for your seller’s account to remain in good standing, you must ensure that all rules and regulations provided by Amazon are strictly followed. These might seem overwhelming at first, but after you’ve been selling for a while, you’re sure to know what to do and what not to do when selling on Amazon.
#9 Proactive Inventory Management
Selling products on multiple channels can get messy without proper inventory management. Although you can benefit from the FBA program, you still need to manage your inventory effectively. Amazon uses the inventory of brands as the main ranking factor when deciding where and when to display certain products.
Letting your inventory fall too low or letting a product go out of stock completely can not only impact your sales but can influence the overall rankings of your products overall.
#10 Content is Key
An overarching Amazon selling tip to keep in mind is that content is king. If your product listings are not well written and informative, no one will buy from you. When describing your products, you should aim to tell a story of your brand, be creative, and use bullet points to spell out your product’s key features.
Writing Product Descriptions For Amazon
The Amazon product listings should be of such a nature they jump off the page and persuade customers to buy the products. When you write your product listings, don’t just add the specifics, make the content creative and engaging. You want shoppers to envision themselves using your products and eagerly anticipate when their new Amazon products will arrive at their door.
Don’t stop with your product listings either as you can use creative content across all your channels to build a positive brand reputation. Blog posts on your website and guest posts on other relevant niche websites can help get the word out on the products you sell on Amazon. This will also help put your brand name on the minds of many.
Social media is also a free tool to use to your advantage, with Facebook and Instagram offering plenty of highly visual ways for you to demonstrate your products and direct people straight to your Amazon listings. Amazon understands the importance of promotion on social media; hence you can even create your own social media discount codes to use, offering your audience an incentive to click through to your product listings.
Ready To Increase Amazon Sales?
When it comes down to Amazon selling tips, your selling strategy is what you make of it. The more time, resources, and budget you have to invest, the more visibility you will gain and the more revenue you can generate.
In a nutshell, you can build up your inventory over time until you have a multi-faceted, educated, and highly profitable Amazon selling strategy in place.
