Amazon was founded back in 1994. Almost 30 years later, it's become the world's biggest e-commerce platform — showing no sign of slowing down.
Considering all this, it's hardly surprising that businesses constantly join the Amazon Marketplace. Specifically, around 3700 new sellers join Amazon every day. If you want to, you can be one of them.
- There are 310 million Amazon customers around the world
- 95 million Americans have a Prime membership
- Over 2 million small and medium-sized businesses sell through Amazon
Selling on Amazon is a piece of cake. There's nothing complex or off-putting about it. Instead, everything is nice and easy — just how it should be.
In this beginner's guide, you can discover how to start selling on Amazon. Additionally, there is plenty of sales and marketing advice to absorb and apply in real life once you've officially joined the Amazon Marketplace.
Ready to start learning? Let's go!
How to Start and Promote Your Amazon Store
First, you'll need to know how to start your own Amazon store.
- Visit Amazon.com and create an ‘Amazon Seller' account
- Go to the Amazon Brand Registry and register your brand
- Wait for your account to be approved (this will usually take around 24 hours)
Choosing an ‘Individual' or ‘Professional' subscription plan would be best. If you're a casual entrepreneur, choose the ‘Individual' plan. Choose the' Professional' plan if you're a big business selling over 35 products a month.
- An individual plan is $0.99 per sales
- Professional plan is $39.99 a month
Once your Amazon Seller account has been approved and verified, you can start listing your products. Whether you sell refurbished iPhones or luxury soaps, the freedom is yours.
Like most sellers on Amazon, your dream will be to attract thousands of customers. Of course, this doesn't magically happen overnight, but there are many proven ways that you can quickly start to boost your Amazon customer numbers without breaking the bank.
One of the most effective Amazon marketing strategies is to use an Amazon PPC agency. This works because the agency professionals handle all your Amazon PPC (pay-per-click) marketing for you, from optimizing keywords to improving your advertising materials. As a result, you experience more sales and significant profits. It's a no-brainer.
Other Amazon Marketing Tips
Aside from implementing a robust Amazon PPC marketing plan, there are plenty of other things that you can do to improve your Amazon marketing and compete with some of the biggest sellers in your industry. Here's a closer look:
- Improve your Amazon SEO
- Offer a wide variety of products at competitive price points
- Include links to your Amazon products across social media
- Send marketing emails with excellent call-to-actions (CTAs)
- Encourage customer reviews and ratings (the better your reviews, the higher your brand trust)
Remember, patience is vital when it comes to Amazon marketing. No business joins Amazon and immediately smashes its sales records overnight. It's a case of patience and focusing on the best Amazon marketing practices for several months. Soon, you'll see results and get the sales numbers you want from Amazon. Eventually, it might even reach a point where you want to ditch all of the other websites you sell products through so that you can exclusively sell through Amazon instead, which is what countless other businesses currently do. Almost all of their revenue is generated through Amazon, which works perfectly.
Make an Attractive Amazon Storefront
You read a handful of helpful Amazon marketing tips in the previous section. One piece of information that was left out is this: make an attractive Amazon storefront.
When you first join Amazon as a seller, you'll be encouraged by Amazon to customize your storefront (which is the first thing that a customer sees when they click on a business profile). Surprisingly, this is something that many businesses don't do, as they don't think it's essential. However, they couldn't be more wrong, as your Amazon storefront is a critical factor in sales, customer engagement, and brand reputation.
For example, let's say that you're selling cutlery through Amazon. When people search for cutlery and open your store, they'll pay careful attention to your storefront. If your storefront is professional and has good branding, they'll be much more likely to buy cutlery from your business — it's really that simple.
On the other hand, if your storefront is completely blank (or includes poor-quality images), it will create a negative first impression. Remember, countless scam businesses have joined Amazon in the past, and they almost always have blank or unprofessional storefronts. The last thing you want to happen is for your potential customers to think you're an inexperienced company or scam business, which is why customizing your Amazon storefront is critical.
So, what makes a good Amazon storefront? The truth is that several key factors contribute to having an attractive Amazon storefront that customers will love. These factors include:
- A professional company logo
- An excellent header image
- A user-friendly font
Also, another pro tip is to include tag lines or notable business achievements in your header image. A general example would be “Voted the most trusted refurbished smartphone seller in Miami” or “Sold over 100,000+ products on Amazon to happy customers”. Essentially, the aim is to inform prospective customers that your business is the real deal and can be trusted.
Don't panic if you don't have in-house graphic designers who work for your business, don't panic. In this scenario, simply outsource the design of your header image (and other Amazon branding materials) to a graphic design company. This way, your logos and pictures will look professional and ready-made for Amazon.
My Business is Struggling to Sell Products Through Amazon — What Should I Do?
As mentioned earlier, patience is critical when selling through Amazon. However, if your sales are disappointingly low and you're not seeing the results that you want, then here are some extra tips to get you moving in the right direction:
- Offer lots of exciting promotions and flash sales (e.g., 50% off products every Friday)
- Outsource your content marketing
- Lower your prices
Lowering your prices is a brilliant strategy if you're looking to boost sales in the short term. This is because many Amazon customers will search for products and then (using the filters tab) sort products by their prices from low to high. If you offer the lowest possible price point for a particular product (or products) in your industry, you will appear first in the search results.
Can I Sell Internationally Through Amazon?
The short and sweet answer is yes, you can sell products to other countries through Amazon. The only catch here is that you'll probably have to increase your shipping costs for this to make your profit margins manageable. This is fine, as (when a business offers high-quality products) most overseas customers don't mind the higher delivery costs.
One of the main advantages of selling internationally through Amazon is that you can reach way more customers than before. For example, since you started your business, you've probably only sold products domestically; suitable? Well, now you can change all that by using Amazon as a platform for trading internationally. The opportunities to tap into foreign markets are endless, from France to China, which you should be very excited about.
Should I Only Sell Through Amazon?
Whether you're a start-up or an already established company, it's recommended that you don't put all your eggs in one basket by only selling through Amazon. Although Amazon is the best eCommerce platform, you should also sell products through your website and other platforms like eBay. This way, you're covering all bases and broadening your market range.
Not to mention, cyberattacks are a big problem in the eCommerce world. Although Amazon's security is excellent, there's nothing to say that it won't be the victim of a cyberattack in the future and therefore experience significant downtime. When Amazon is down, you temporarily can't sell products through it, so you need your backup sales outlets (such as your business website) to keep your cash flow healthy.
Summary
This decade is going to be huge for Amazon.
More customers than ever are using the Amazon website and app to buy all the products they love, so your business needs to register as an Amazon Seller as soon as possible.
You'll be able to increase your profits, gain new customers, and operate like a modern business. As a business owner, it's everything you want, so don't waste any more time. Join Amazon now and start experiencing these fantastic benefits.
