Like any other online business, Amazon needs strategic planning for marketing and selling to be successful. Amazon is one of the largest online markets and offers great selling potential, so success is just a few steps away if you know how to play your cards right.
Highlights
- Careful niche selection is your halfway to success.
- Selecting the right way of sourcing your product is important for a smooth supply chain.
- Research your target audience to determine sales channels for your products,
- Familiarize yourself with the listing and selling costs of Amazon or other sales channels
- A smooth shipping strategy is a way to ensure customer satisfaction
- Product photography and descriptions play a significant role in conversions.
- Good packaging reflects your brand’s focus on quality and customer satisfaction
- Be careful with your pricing strategy to attract budget-conscious customers.
Why We Wrote This?
This blog is a quick guide for sellers looking for ways to streamline their selling strategy. We shared Advanced e-commerce strategies in this blog that explain the areas of improvement in your selling plan. It will help you take your sales to your desired number. From product selection to packaging, we have covered all basic steps with key considerations. So, you know what you can do exactly and what will be the outcome.
Best Amazon Selling Strategies
Regardless of your status as a seller, having an effective Amazon selling strategy for successful online selling is important. In this article, we will cover a few strategies that will guarantee your online business success.
Select Your Niche
If you are starting out in the vast online world of Amazon, you must select the product carefully. The potential of your success highly depends on your product selection. So, the niche you work in holds extreme significance. You can get Amazon marketplace insights from Amazon's best sellers list. You can determine various aspects of those products that will help you with your product selection.
Some of these aspects are:
- Monitor the price potential of various products by searching on Amazon or Amazon Seller app. You can compare by matching low prices and offered prices.
- Reviews can give you an idea about any potential gaps that you can fill with your product.
- You can find the seasonal aspect of your products. Such as sales of fleece hoodies are high in winter.
- The size and weight of the product can give you an estimate of what you need to spend on shipping, profitability, and ability to sell.
- The product research will give you an idea about your target audience. The smaller the target audience, the more strategic planning you would need. Examples of such small target audience niches include pet supplies, home décor, etc.
Source Your Product
The second thing to see to ensure your success on any online platform including Amazon is deciding how you are going to source your product. You can either manufacture your product, work with a wholesaler, or adopt a dropshipping and print-on-demand method. Regardless of the pathway you choose, deciding how to produce your products is important.
In case you work with a wholesaler, there are a few things you can consider.
- Ensure the quality of products from the supplier is top-notch.
- Take quotes from different suppliers to have the best price deal. Mind that high price doesn’t always mean quality, but high quality is always pricey.
- Check the delivery time and customer support of the supplier. It will help you select realistic expectations about product delivery to customers.
- See whether or not they accept returned products or you have to deal with them on your end.
- Ask about their shipping methods.
- Ask about their inventory capacity.
- Ask about branded packaging and inquire about any bulk discounts they offer.
Check Listing and Selling Price
The listing price is the fee that you pay when you list your products either on time of listing or monthly. Similarly, the selling price refers to the fraction of your selling price. The point is, that you have to be prepared to pay for these and some other fees as per Amazon’s rules.
With the Amazon store you can have two selling plans:
- An individual plan is ideal for you if you sell less than 40 units monthly. It will charge you 0.99 dollars per sale.
- A professional plan will cost 39.99 dollars regardless of your sales count. It is ideal for those who sell more than 40 units per month.
Some additional fees you should consider are:
- Referral fee which is the percentage of each sale depending on product category.
- Fulfillment costs depend on size and weight if you use fulfillment by Amazon FBA
- Inventory fees depend on the volume, size, weight, and storage time of products.
Anyways, keeping all these fees in mind, you need to select the product that gives you enough profit return even after all these deductions. Thus, good product research is the key here.
Streamline Your Shipping Strategy
Fast and free shipping is a great way to enhance customer satisfaction. It is one of Amazon sellers’ best practices to earn customer loyalty. Decide whether you will handle the shipping on your own, or take Amazon’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service.
When as a seller you decide to sell on Amazon, you are automatically enrolled in the FBA program. If you choose the FBA for your shipment, you will have tZend your inventory to Amazon’s fulfillment centers. From there Amazon will handle the rest including shipping, customer inquiries, refunds, and handling returns of the products. Thus, following Amazon FBA tips ensures fast and reliable shipping options.
If you are wondering, How I optimize Amazon's performance by optimizing my product’s shipping strategy? There are a few considerations:
- See what’s the maximum distance you are open to offer the free shipping.
- See how your shipping limits affect your business potential.
- See whether it's profitable for you to use third-party product shipping services or not.
There are two shipment methods on Amazon to ship the product to the customer; fulfillment by Amazon, and seller fulfillment. Your successful shipping strategy should be a blend of both.
Strategic Product Pricing and Payment Methods
Selecting the right price for the product is quite important. Your product price should be so low that it causes issues like MAP violation, or it shouldn’t be so high that customers go for affordable alternatives. Thus, thorough research to ensure that your product stays in a competitive range is important. Some of the ways you can use to formulate your pricing strategy are:
- Explore product categories related to your business using the Amazon search function.
- Use the Amazon seller app to track competitor prices and use reference points such as featured offer price etc.
- Use the Automate pricing tool to set your prices as per market demands.
To avoid the cart abandonment rates, you need to optimize the payment methods as well. Provide the payment option as per your targeted audience preferences. Things you should consider while offering payment options are:
- See what your customers prefer. A few options include; credit cards, digital wallets, Amazon gift cards, etc.
- Ensure your customers' and business's security through two-factor authentication, encryption, and fraud detection.
- Secure socket layers (SSL) certificates aka trust badges secure your payment and enhance customers’ trust.
Amazon offers two safe check-out ways, which are:
- Amazon Pay: Provides an easy and secure checkout process using information stored in an Amazon account, with payments received within 24 hours via Express Payout.
- Buy with Prime: Allows displaying the Prime logo and delivery promise on your website, with fees based on product factors and only charged after sales are made.
High-Quality Photography
A great way to hook the customer on your store is high-quality photography of your products. The only drawback of online shopping is, that customers can’t feel the product. With high-quality photography, they can imagine the quality of the product. Photograph your product from different angles in a well-lit and plain background setting. You can consider adding the videos it will enhance the shopping experience of the customers.
Descriptive Product Listing
Aside from good photography, a detailed listing of your products makes a great difference. Use clear, concise, and jargon-free wording to describe your product. Implement SEO best practices while writing to help your listings rank high. Moreover, opt for a benefit-first approach while writing. It will help your customers make informed decisions.
Invest in Good Packaging
Your product packaging speaks a lot for your brand, so choose your packaging wisely. If you have selected the FBA, Amazon Packaging experts will handle your packaging. However, if you handle this yourself, you must invest in good packaging. For effective packaging, there are some considerations you can follow:
- Ensure that the packaging materials like boxes and envelopes have enough space.
- Safeguard your items using protective cushioning.
- Ensure that the package is tightly sealed.
- Include a packing slip inside the package.
- Label the package accurately.
Summary
Turning your product on Amazon into the best-seller category is not that difficult. You need to be strategic with your tactics. You can strategize your social media, your sales, and your marketing protocols to attract more sales on Amazon. Thus, investing your time and effort in creating a good selling strategy can help you achieve your desired goals in no time.
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FAQs
What advanced strategies can boost my Amazon sales?
Product research, product sourcing, SEO, listing optimization, descriptive product listing, and strategic pricing are some of the ways that can help boost your Amazon sales.
How can I outperform competitors with advanced Amazon tactics?
Define your competitors, track their pricing and marketing strategies, and make decisions that stand you out in your product category.
What are some overlooked strategies successful Amazon sellers use?
Successful sellers mostly use Amazon advertising, some of these strategies include:
- Use Amazon’s demand-side Platform (DSP) to buy ad-placements.
- Leverage Amazon live
- Collaborate with Amazon influencers
- Use Amazon attribution to measure the sales impact of their advertising