5 Things You Need to Know About How to Sell On Amazon

Amazon is the world’s biggest marketplace. Millions of products are sold to millions of buyers across the globe. The retailer offers a unique opportunity to people who want to make money selling goods online. You can build a profitable and scale-able business by becoming an Amazon Seller. If you are wondering how to sell on Amazon then read on.

There are 5 key things you need to figure out in order to start selling on Amazon successfully: You need a product, to set up an Amazon seller account, product listings, and an order shipping process. Once you get these tasks done, you will know how to sell on Amazon. How to sell on Amazon for beginners will be easy once you go through the following process:

#1 How to Sell On Amazon: Find Products to Sell On Amazon

How to sell on Amazon step by step? You can sell anything on Amazon, but if you want to make money, you will choose something that people will want to buy. There are millions of products on Amazon, and it might seem to some that anything that can be sold is already being sold on Amazon, but don’t let that dissuade you.

You can actually use Amazon to do your research on the best selling products on this platform. You can search for products that are already selling well and offer something with a slight modification. When you are doing your research on Amazon products, look for products that are in high demand and have low competition. Reviews are a good way to gauge the level of competition. You want to look at products with low reviews, but come up under the best seller list. Amazon helps by giving estimated sales of products. This can help you work out how much you stand to make if you sell the same product.

The next thing you might want to consider is the best time to sell a specific product. Some products are seasonal and sell really well around certain holidays. It makes sense to sell Christmas lights in November than to sell them in January. If you are not sure about the seasonality of a product, use Google trends to research your product. Type your product on Google trends and it will show you the search volume for that product. Consistent spikes that happen at specific times of the year are a good indication of seasonality.

How to Source Amazon Products

There are various ways you can source products to sell products on Amazon. Here’s how to sell on Amazon for beginners.

Selling Wholesale and Manufactured Goods

Buying products at wholesale prices and reselling these on Amazon is a more traditional way of getting started with Amazon. Once you have done your product research and you know what you want to sell, you can source these products from wholesale distributors or from manufacturers. You can then add your markup to make a profit selling them on Amazon. The advantage of doing this is that you can buy products in bulk at a low price. If you don’t do this right or don’t pick the right product that is in demand on Amazon, you might end up with volumes of inventory you are able to move.

You also need to price your products correctly. If your prices aren’t competitive, you might end up losing money because of unsold stock. Luckily there are tools that can help you track prices so that you can offer more competitive pricing for your products.

Retail Arbitrage

Many small Amazon sellers who don’t have their own products to sell will find products that sell for less elsewhere and resell them for a profit on Amazon. This is called retail arbitrage. To do this you have to look out for clearance sales. You can then use Amazon’s scanning app to check the profit potential of the product. The upside to selling products this way is that you don’t need to make a large upfront investment but you still need to research your products to know whether they will sell well on Amazon or not.

Selling Private Label Products

Are you wondering how to sell on Amazon as an individual? Private label Amazon sellers will buy products from manufacturers and repackage them with their own brand. There is a huge assortment of products you can sell this way. If you are building a brand, selling private label products on Amazon can help establish your brand even if you are not the manufacturer. The trick is to buy products from manufacturers you trust so you can ensure consistency in quality of products carrying your brand name. The upfront costs may be higher because you may have to buy products in bulk. You also have to factor the cost of rebranding and repackaging the products. If you want to make a name for yourself then this might be the way to go.

Drop-shipping Products

Drop shipping has become a popular buzzword for online sellers. Essentially drop-shipping involves you partnering with a wholesale supplier that will keep an inventory of the products you want to sell online. When you receive an order for products you send it to the wholesaler who will then take care of shipping the products to the customer. You don’t keep inventory and you don’t have to worry about fulfilling customer orders. This method of selling products is generally acceptable to Amazon but there are specific requirements you need to fulfill. Amazon does not allow sellers to purchase products from another retailer who will then ship directly to customers on the seller’s behalf. Amazon also stipulates that all invoices and packing slips should not have any name or contact information that is not the seller’s own.

There are a couple of downsides to drop-shipping. It may be easier to get into because it does not require much capital outlay, but it offers lower profit margins. The other disadvantage is that you have no control over quality, inventory shortages or any shipment issues that may arise. These factors can really hurt your business, unless you can find a reputable supplier who meets Amazon’s requirements on how to sell on Amazon as an individual.

After you have figured out the products that you want to sell and where to source them you can now look at the Amazon Seller account that will suit your needs and budget.

#2 How to Sell On Amazon: Setting Up Your Amazon Seller Account

Before jumping onto the Amazon website to begin selling your products make sure you have the following: your credit card, your banking details, and your tax information. To set up an account with Amazon go to www.seller central.amazon.com and go through the steps of setting up an account. It’s easy and takes a few minutes. Make sure you enter all your information correctly to become one of 65 million people who is already using Amazon to sell products.

There are two types of Amazon seller accounts, the Individual Seller account, and a Pro Seller account. Picking the right one will greatly affect how to sell on Amazon.

An Individual seller account costs nothing to set up and run, but you get charged 99¢ for every item you sell. A Pro Seller account costs $39.99 per month and it comes with a lot of features you won’t get with an Individual Seller account.

There are a couple of things you won’t be able to do with an Individual seller account that you can do with a Pro Seller Account:

No ability to run Amazon PPC advertising.
You won’t be able to create new listings. This means you can only sell products that are already listed. You won’t be able to sell private label products or those handmade products you have.
You cannot sell in all Amazon categories. There are Amazon categories that are only open to Pro Seller Account holders.
You can’t compete with other wholesalers for the “buy box” for products that are similar to yours.

Pro sellers have better API connections to Amazon offers. They can load bulk listings from a spreadsheet. They also benefit from having access to gift wrapping services and customized shipping rates.

An Individual Seller account is a good way to try out Amazon. However, on how to sell on Amazon as an individual, you have to invest money by selling wholesale or private label products on Amazon, then a Pro Seller account is the best.

#3 How to Sell On Amazon: List Your products

Once you are done with the signup process, take time to explore Seller Central. Start by exploring the different drop-down lists. If you are ready to enter your products, select the “Add Product” on the “inventory” list and follow the steps outlined. Remember that you can add your products to an existing list or create a new listing (if you are a Pro seller). You may find the same item listed multiple times, look for the top-ranked list with the best information and reviews. If you want to have a highly optimized listing, you should check out our “Listing Lighting” tool, which will help you create highly optimized Amazon listings that include Amazon SEO terms.

#4 How to Sell On Amazon: Consider Your pricing

When adding a product to an existing listing be prepared for some competition. Pricing is an important consideration. You want to offer the best price without undercutting your profit. Pricing wars are bound to happen but you can use tools like SellerSEO’s ACOSinator to work out your profit with certainty. SellerSEO is a useful platform that helps you make informed decisions about selling your products on Amazon. You also get features that enable you to create effective marketing campaigns, set up and monitor PPC advertising and more. Visit their site for more information.

#5 How to Sell On Amazon: Fulfill Your Amazon Orders

The last major step you need to take when selling on Amazon is shipping. It is how to sell on Amazon on fulfillment. Amazon is strict when it comes to shipping. They require a fast and timely fulfillment of orders or they may penalize you by lowering your seller rating. There are basically two ways you can fulfill your orders: you can either ship orders yourself (this is known as Fulfillment by Merchant or FBM) or you can let Amazon fulfill the orders for you (FBA).

If you are new to the business and have no idea how shipping works you might want to choose FBA. This way you don’t have to keep inventory. How to sell on Amazon on FBA? You can ship products to Amazon who will then package and ship your products when orders are received. You don’t have to worry about having the correct packing material or worry about the security of your products.

Of course, stocking, packing, and shipping products for you come with its own fees, but it comes with a number of added benefits:

– Your items will be listed as Prime Products exposing you to millions of Prime Amazon buyers. – Your products will be eligible for 2-day shipping for Prime customers.
– FBA gives you more preferences when it comes to rankings.
– You can trust that your product will arrive on time and in good condition.

Conclusion

Amazon is an incredibly accessible way of making money online. The platform welcomes all kinds of sellers from people who have a few items to sell to sellers with large volumes of inventory to move. Amazon services provide a huge help for anyone who wants to sell products. It might be easy to get started, but it is a highly competitive space so you really need to do your homework. Always keep in mind that you want to turn a profit, it’s the only way you can grow your business. However, profit takes a little bit more than just pricing.

You need to figure out the cost of your goods, the fees associated with selling on Amazon, sourcing products, listing, managing inventory, and fulfilling orders. When you understand the costs involved you can work out the best way to increase profits and grow your business. If you are an Amazon Seller who is looking to grow his or her business or thinking of being one, tools like SellerSEO can help you take your experience on the Amazon platform to a higher level.