How to sell on Amazon? Benefits and sales methods

Amazon has positioned itself as the most important e-commerce platform in the world. That is why many online businesses, in addition to selling through their e-commerce, use this marketplace as a sales channel.

One of the things that Amazon stands out for is always offering the customer the best shopping experience. This is the reason why users fully trust this platform to make their purchases. And, therefore, it is the marketplace with the most transactions on the planet.

If you want to know more about how to sell on Amazon as an additional income channel for your e-commerce or online store, here are some important questions that you should know.

Benefits of selling on Amazon

If you decide to sell on Amazon, these are the three main benefits you will get:

Customer trust and security.  The user knows that in the event of any problem, Amazon will respond quickly. And that will also save you time and money.

Simple registration.  Regardless of the business model you choose, selling on Amazon is intuitive. To start you do not need to invest anything or worry about any design, you just have to take care of your catalog.

Greater visibility.  Without the need to do SEO, your reach will multiply, since it is a platform with a lot of traffic. You can even shuffle if you have the opportunity to sell to other countries.

How to sell on Amazon? Types of business models:

There is no set pattern for choosing a model that works best with certain products. There are sellers who work well one and others do not work the same.

So that you choose well, let's see what are the options that an individual has to sell their items on Amazon:

These acronyms stand for Fulfilled by merchant and it is found within the Amazon Seller Central program.

Here, the seller uploads the listings with his products, completes the information and in a short time he can be selling.

On the product file, just below the delivery date, the following phrase will appear 'Sold and shipped by + seller's name'.

These are the highlights of this model:

The seller takes care of the sale, shipping, returns and after-sales service.

It is the easiest option, although with some products it is not profitable.

FBA

In this option, fulfilled by Amazon, you can use the Amazon logistics network to sell products and send them to the buyer.

This model works as follows:

The seller finds a supplier who makes the product or is the one who makes it.

Then, by selecting the FBA model, you send all your stock to Amazon so that it is responsible for storing, shipping and managing everything (including returns).

Obviously, Amazon will charge you a percentage for this management. For logistics management, it will range between 2 and 3 euros (at the date of publishing this post), and depending on the storage time, the cost will range between 26 euros per cubic meter in low season (the first 6 months) to 1000 euros per cubic meter (more than 12 months).

On the product sheet, it will appear with the phrase 'Sold by (seller's name), Fulfilled by Amazon'.

Amazon Vendor

This model corresponds to the Amazon Vendor Central program.

To be an Amazon Vendor you cannot register, but you have to receive an invitation from Amazon itself.

Its operation consists of the seller making his shipment to the Amazon warehouse. And these are responsible for both setting the price of the product and establishing the percentage that the seller takes.

This is done through an algorithm (it cannot be negotiated). In the product file, this model will be reflected as 'Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon'.

5 Steps to Selling on Amazon

After knowing the sales regimes that exist, these are, roughly, the steps and strategies you must follow to sell on Amazon:

1. Make a preliminary analysis of the product and the market

On Amazon there are so many categories and products that it is not worth doing an analysis above.

Take your time to research the market, to validate the volume of searches (of the product that interests you), sales, competition and the possibilities of differentiation. To do this, you can help yourself with these tools: Jungle Scout and Viral Launch.

In this sense, you can get Amazon's potential if:

You get a good profit margin.

Your product doesn't have much competition.

You don't have your own online store.

Also, take into account the commission that Amazon receives for each sale of your product, which usually varies depending on the category.

2. Choose the right sales model

After seeing that your product has a chance to compete on Amazon, you must choose a sales regime. These are the ones we have explained in the previous point.

3. Upload your products

After choosing the sales method and registering, you will have to upload the catalog of your products on Amazon, through Amazon Seller Central, following the instructions.

If the products you want to sell are within the Amazon catalog, you only need to locate it by looking for its name or ASIN. But if it is not created, you must complete all the fields, even the non-mandatory ones.

In addition, we recommend that you do a keyword research to know how users search and add those keywords to the titles or description. Here the image is also important, they must be of the highest quality.

4. Differentiate yourself from others by winning the Buy Box

When several sellers bid for the sale of the same product, only one appears linked to the buy button, called the Buy Box.

And how do you win the Buy Box? Amazon gives points to those who:

They have a good sales record, with at least 3 months of experience.

If you chose the FBA regimen.

If the shipping time of products does not fall below 97%.

They give the best final price of the product.

Positive opinions and ratings.

Response time in 24 hours.

5. Get traffic to your products

Amazon rewards the products that are sold the most, damaging them more visibility and offering them the Buy Box.

But how do you drive traffic to your products? Take into account Amazon's pay-per-click platform, where you can run keyword-based campaigns and bid in real-time. Only then will these products be placed above those positioned organically.

In addition to this marketplace, you can promote your products through other channels such as social networks, email marketing, SEO, and all those actions that you can think of to generate traffic.

Amazon is very powerful, but it doesn't work the same for all sellers, or for all products. The key is to carefully study the market and products, spy on the competition, analyze search and sales volumes, and make decisions based on them.

In addition to doing it through your own online store, have you already valued the idea of ​​selling on Amazon?