Want to make money faster with your startup? Online business is the most fantastic way to create wealth for your business. While there are numerous online platforms, Amazon has been ranked as the top bestseller. If you are going to start selling online, Amazon should just be the place. Amazon’s market place is growing massively as most shoppers shift to online shopping. Want to be a successful seller? Start selling on Amazon today. This article is designed to help you understand how selling on amazon. It also including tiny details such as how much money you can make selling on amazon and whether selling on amazon in 2021 is worth it.
Before diving into the step-by-step process of selling on Amazon, let’s fast look at few facts about Amazon.
· About 90% of U.S consumers shop on Amazon every month
· About 126 million Americans are Amazon prime members
What is best about selling on Amazon is that it does not matter whether you are a new seller; it is still possible to make thousands of dollars every year. However, it is essential to understand successful strategies on how to make money selling on Amazon.
Step By Step Guide On How to Start Selling On Amazon
To successfully start selling on Amazon, you need to consider a couple of factors. What are these things you need to start selling on Amazon?
1. Calculate and prepare startup cost
Every business requires capital to kick off. However, there is no specific amount of money needed as it heavily depends on the source of your products and product type, among others.
There are about three places where you can source your products to sell on Amazon.
· Wholesalers: You can opt to source your products from a wholesaler and resell them at a profit margin on Amazon.
· Retailers: You can decide to purchase your products from a local online retail shop and sell them on Amazon. This process is commonly known as retail/online arbitrage.
· Private label manufacturers: These products will require modification and customization to create your brand and sell them on Amazon.
However, if you are on budget constrain, let’s say about $250, it is advisable to start buying from retail online arbitrage.
What are the specific costs needed to start selling on Amazon?
While you can start at any amount, below are five cost requirements to get started on Amazon. However, the figure can be higher or less based on your finals status and the amount of money you are willing to spend and get started on Amazon. However, you should always aim at keeping your initial investment cost low.
· The initial inventory cost – $150
· Cost of opening an Amazon account – $39.99
· Creating log and product brand – $24
· Product photography – $0-295
· Cost of buying UCP code – $10
Thus, the startup cost of selling at amazon may range between $224 and $518.
2. Think about your selling plan and strategy
There are numerous plans that you can select from. For an individual plan, you will be required to pay $0.99 for every item you sell. However, the professional plan costs $39.99 per month irrespective of the amount of thing you sell.
When it comes to selling strategy, you can choose to be a reseller or the sole owner of the products, or even both.
Open An Amazon Seller’s Account.
To become a seller at Amazon, you need to have a seller’s account with your business email or simply use your customer’s account. Before you click on that signup button, ensure you have the following documents:
· A customer’s account or a business email
· An active phone number
· National ID
· Trade license for business owners and power of attorney if you are just a legal representative
· A recent bank account statement, credit card statement, or utility bill
· An active bank account
Step by step process of opening an Amazon account
· 1st step: Visit Services.amazon.com
· 2nd step: scroll down and click selling
· 3rd step: Select your selling type; a professional seller or as an individual. Beginners should start as an individual seller as you all are charged $0.99 per sale and zero dollars if you do not make any sale. However, for professionals, you all are charged $39.99 whether you sold or not.
· 4th step: Fill out the information necessary, and you all become a seller.
3. Find product(s) to sell
Now that you are already in the online business market, you need to find an attractive product for your customers. You need to study the market and identify a gap that needs to be filled. Ensure that the products you settle for are profitable; otherwise, you have no business on Amazon.
Identify your target market and move towards meeting their needs and wants. How do you find a profitable product to sell? Honestly, it is not a simple question; you need to do lots of research and understand how the market operates and its customers.
Steps that can be used to get a profitable product on the market
# Step 1: Narrow Your Product Research Criteria
At this stage, you should focus on selecting a niche. Visit the sponsored ads selling on Amazon, and if you notice lots of dollars have been spent on advertisement, the product must be giving huge returns. However, you should avoid product categories that are restricted on amazon. Try to get a product that is ungated to maximize your time for testing the products.
#Step 2: Determine the Right Online Tools For Researching In Amazon Product
While using these tools, it is essential to understand that they will not help you get a profitable product but rather ensure you are informed on amazon’s best seller products. You will therefore be required to make a sound decision based on the available data.
With these tools, you will be in a position to filter between bad and promising ideas. While there are numerous tools available in the market for product research.
We recommend you trying out our Product Finder tool because it is most certainly the fastest way to find products!
4. Get a supplier for your product
Now that you got the profitable products you wish to sell, it is time to find your supplier. If you decide to source your products from private label suppliers like Alibaba, here is how you go about it.
1st step: Open an Alibaba account by simply going to Alibaba and clinging join for free
2nd step: Enter your email address and verify. It is advisable to use an alternate email address from your primary one to avoid your inbox being clogged by the supplier’s emails.
3rd step: Fill out your profile data and where it asks for the company name, just fill anything
4th step: Go through your information to ensure no errors and complete your account’s opening with the supplier, and you can start ordering.
What are the factors to consider while selecting a supplier for your products?
- You are in business to make money and as such, getting an accredited supplier for you is the first step to ensuring success. Ensure your chosen supplier has all these three boxes checked.
- Should have access to trade assurance, Paypal, skill AliPay, or other trustworthy modes of payments
- Have a gold label as suppliers
- Have been assessed and certified by Alibaba.
After getting your desirable supplier, it is time to negotiate with them to get a favorable cost for your startup. This is not something you just wake up and order, then start negotiating. Instead, it follows stages of negotiation as follows:
- Get in touch with the supplier and establish a conversation: During this step, you should establish an open line of communication with the supplier. It’s polite to introduce yourself and explain why you need them as suppliers. Your message should be personalized as much as possible.
- Use the Alibaba negotiation template available online: This will make your work easier and understand essential elements to mention to your supplier and avoid being vague or irrelevant.
- Set reasonable expectations: At this stage, you let the supplier know your goals and what they need to do or have to do business with you. If they are satisfied with your terms, they will proceed to reply through email. After which, you would have established a conversation.
- Settle on the prices and place your first order: At first, consider buying a small order of about five to twenty units. After the products arrive at your house or store, it is essential to inspect them and prepare for FBA immediately.
5. Create Amazon listing and ship to Amazon FBA
How do you create an Amazon listing? Listing is how the customers will locate you on amazon and purchase your products. Therefore, it is an essential step while you are considering the best way to start selling on amazon. As such, it is a step by step process.
Before diving into the step-by-step process of listing the product, it is essential to understand what product listing usually entails.
· A product identifier may vary from ISBN, UPC, or EAN to identify with the specific products you want to sell. It is possible to request for UPC from GS1 or apply for an exemption.
· Create a product ID such as SKU to track your inventory
· Provide details of your product ranging from price, quantity, and availability, among others
· Develop keywords to help buyers locate your products quickly.
It is essential to remember that if your product matches an existing seller, your details will be already online; however, if you are the first seller, you must create a new listing.
Steps on How to Create a Listing Account for Your Product on the Sellers Central
- Step 1: Visit amazon sellers’ central; under the inventory tab, select Add a product.
- Step 2: select create new product listing if your products have no prior listing from a competitor.
- Step 3: Select the category of the products you would like to sell. Ensure those products are not under the restricted category. If they are, you will not create your product listing until approval, which could take a while.
- Step 4: fill in your information to get your product listing and send them to Amazon FBA.
- Step 5: create a UPC
- Step6: Open the folder with JPEG, and under product, ID write down your number
- Step 7: Click that save and finish button, and boom! You got your first Amazon listing.
a) Create Your Listing In Sellers Central
Assuming that by now you have streamlined all the elements necessary for listing, it is time to create your listing in seller central.
Find keywords to include in your listing
Keywords enable the seller to place the product at an online market place where potential buyers can quickly locate them. You can use either of the two methods to create a keyword for your listing.
Use our Keyword Research tool: For instance, if you are selling beauty products, it is possible to find alternative keywords using this method, such as cosmetic or fragrance products. Using such words or phrases will help your product appear on the top while searching. It’s definitely the best Amazon keyword research product on the market!
Using ASIN s: Search for top competitors of your products on Amazon. Enter their ASINs into keyword scout to see their ranking. Add them to your listing.
Develop your listing’s title
Include the primary keywords that relate to your product for easy find by customers. Also, the title should have a concise flow, grammatically correct, with proper punctuations if necessary. Use as many characters in your title and other parts of your listing, including the top-ranking keywords from competitors.
State your product’s features and uses in bullet points
Using clear bullets, inform your potential clients of the primary features of your products and use. You do this by stating the point and explaining how the product will benefit the customer.
Use a friendly tone to capture the customer’s attention and be interested in your product. It is essential to mention your product type, what it does, and its use, among others.
Also, do not forget to include pictures, quantity, and materials, among other details.
Describe your listing
Using the description section available on your amazon page, provide details about your business. The information should be educational to assist the customers in understanding your business’s nature and offerings.
If your brand is registered, you can replace this section with an A+ content product description. This will allow you to add more images and texts that make your products noticeable.
b) Buy a UPC barcode reader
It is a requirement by amazon for every seller to have a Universal Product Code or UPC barcode to list your products in sellers central. Where can you buy such a code? You can get it from the global organization that standardizes these codes.
c) Use quality product photos for your listing
Maximizing the use of product pictures is an excellent marketing strategy. Customers tend to be attracted to pictures even before venturing into other details. A quality image is capable of offering information to customers even before checking on the product description. While you can take pictures, it is recommended that you use a professional photographer.
d) Features of your Amazon photography
Your primary product photo should illustrate products on a plain background without watermarks
By-products should occupy about 85% of your primary image
The zoomable size of your images should be at least 1000px by 500px
Include as many photos as you allowed to
e) Create an FBA shipping plan
A shipping plan is the last thing you need to start selling on amazon. Let look at how to create a shipping plan for your business.
- Step 1: Go to your seller central and click edit inventory on the dashboard, and select change to fulfillment by Amazon.
- Step 2: Click on the covert only tab, and after a few minutes, refresh the page, and it will be fulfilled by amazon and lastly, click on print labels.
- Step 3: Click on edit and then send/ replenish inventory and create your inbound shipment. Select case-packed products if you want to send your products in one big box. However, if you want to send multiple products under one large box, you should select individual products.
- Step 4: Fill a hazmat review form. While sending your products, you may be asked for a hazmat review form, and therefore it is essential to fill it out just in case. This form intends to let them know the number of units you are sending to their warehouse and how many you all be sending to them. Just download it and save it on your desktop.
- Step 5: Package dimensions: Fill in your products’ dimensions in the manufacturer’s original packaging. If you are not sure, try to close the estimate. If you have no idea, just enquire from your supplier, and they will be more than willing to assist. After setting those details, hit the continue button.
You will then be asked if there is any prep needed. Whether there is preparation for your products or not, the answer should always be no. After which you hit the continue button, another question pops up. Who labels? Select merchant.
By following this guide that how one becomes or starts selling on amazon. It can seem to be a tedious process but trust me, in the end, if you do it right, you all make money selling on amazon.
Factors to Consider Before One Start Selling On Amazon
For every business, it is guided by policies. As such, selling on amazon requires one to observe certain policies. These policies areas listed below.
v Product detail page rules: The product policies ensure that each product detail page covers only one item. This gives the buyer a clear and consistent buying experience.
v Shipping policies: Certain shipment rules have to be followed in your order fulfillment process.
v Policies and agreements: This simply means that products sold on Amazon must comply with the seller agreement and other amazon policies. It is essential that before listing your products, you understand all the responsibilities as a seller.
v Selling policies: When it comes to the product listing, there are some policies that one ought to adhere to. Otherwise, if they commit an offense or post prohibited content, the account might be suspended. It is essential to adhere to such policies to avoid such incidences.
v Prohibited seller activities: It is essential to visit the selling policies and seller code of conduct before listing your amazon product.
How to Make Money Selling On Amazon
Now that you have your products listed on amazon, you may be wondering how to start making money. The truth is it is not that simple; there are few things that one needs to keep in mind.
Proactive Marketer
Having listed your products on Amazon is not good enough to attract more customers. It is essential to remain proactive and market your products on various social media, blogs, and email marketing. Let the world know of your business and product existence on Amazon. This is what will drive traffic to your products.
Select The Right Niche
You must get products that people are interested in. To do this, you will be required to follow social media trends, news updates that will enable you to understand the customer’s need and move towards providing them. For long-term sustainability, it is essential to focus on products that are always on demand, such as baby products, weight loss, and beauty products, among others. From time to time, keep checking amazon best sellers as remaining on the mainstream market provides you with an edge for continuous demand.
Know Your Competitors And Remain Competitive
It is essential to know what your competitors are doing to maintain a competitive edge and stand a chance to make money on Amazon. Look at how they price their products, the type of marketing strategy they use, individual products, and their offering. Having such information gives an advantage as you can use their weaknesses to gain a competitive edge in the market for your products.
Read All Customer Reviews Of Various Products In Your Niche
This will give you a better understanding of what the customers like and what they dislike and offer products that address such needs.
Maximize Profit
Due to capital constraints, it is okay to start with a single product on amazon. However, if you want to make lots of money through this platform, you need to diversify and sell numerous products. It is also a way of neutralizing the risk of concentrating on a single product. Also, focus on the market best seller products and join the rhythm.
Take advantage of the holiday seasons
It is during times like Christmas that customers spend a lot of their disposable income shopping. Be ready to have stocked in amazon warehouses to handle anticipated demand overflow during such times of the year.
Maximize your profits by joining the amazon associate’s program
…where you can include affiliate links in your products that you are marketing. In this way, when a customer purchases your products, you stand a chance to profit from the sale and referral commission.
By following these four steps, you are in a position to maximize your profits. It is a good hassle for beginners who are looking forward to making good money selling online. Besides, why should you be stressed with inventory management and shipping work while someone does that for you?
Is Selling On Amazon worth It In 2021?
With how covid-19 impacted business globally in 2020, it is normal to wonder how profitable amazon’s business is likely to be in 2021. While the business has not performed as planned due to country and city lockdowns, it is projected that in 2021 is amazon’s business will change for the better.
Are you wondering whether starting on amazon as a seller in 2021 is worth it? Despite the covid-19 impact on businesses, amazon has indicated a positive trend as the top online seller. In 2021, the predictions are even better.
What are the amazon FBA predictions for 2021?
Additional brand registry features: Numerous benefits accrue to having your brand registered on Amazon. By registering your trademark with amazon’s brand registry, you become protected from counterfeiters and offer additional selling features. For instance, a seller will be able to create an A+ content description in their product listing.
Other changes that Amazon is likely to make this year will enhance the seller’s gate of their listings. This will limit counterfeiters and only allow approved sellers to list their products.
Also, there will be more videos and advertising features such as adding clips within A+ content, among other options.
Expand video content: Using plain and simple videos boosts the seller’s product volume. The seller gets an opportunity to create brand awareness and promotes customer’s understanding of a given product. Since we are in a digital era giving customers a digital experience of the product offerings is an excellent way to boost sales.
Prospect for growth: With covid-19 cases still escalating and especially in Europe, more people are likely to shift to online shopping. Despite the disposable income reduction due to job loss, it was reported that about 70% of consumers shopped on amazon within the last Q3. Such positive trends are expected to continue this year.
More advanced ad features and target options: For a better selling strategy, amazon is constantly advancing on its advertising features such as amazon line and attribution. The seller must be brand registered to use these features.
What are the advancements is amazon likely to make?
- Promote advertising reporting that ensures sellers have a better understanding of their ad performance.
- Promotes ad campaigns
- Enhance customer targeting
- The pay per click is likely to increase
- Provide additional support to small and medium-sized businesses: The negative impact of cover-19 has been felt mostly by small across the globe. As a large company, amazon has strategies on how to boost such businesses. In what ways will amazon support small businesses in 2021?
- Promote easy find to small businesses page
- Highlight nearby small businesses such that customers can support the local economy
- Make small businesses the spotlight on the Amazon homepage
- Continue featuring small business in a category that customers are likely to shop
Factors promoting amazon business growth in 2021
Cargo shipment has been lifted: In 2020, it was challenging for online businesses like Amazon to get their products to customers due to such restrictions. The restriction of cargo has negatively impacted Amazon sales. However, movement of people is still restricted and cargo movement open, online business is likely to boom this year, and Amazon will be among them.
People working remotely: While some businesses have resumed their operations, employees are advised to work from home unless they have to be in the office; this intends to minimize physical contact, thus curb the spread of the virus. People are likely to start ordering their staff online. Amazon is on the top list of the most trusted online business seller; more buyers are likely to be reported on amazon.
Digitization: Technological advancement has changed how people conduct business. While having a physical shop is not a bad idea, but it limits one to local customers. However, selling online exposes one to more clients from diverse places. Besides, most customers just conduct their purchases online and have them delivered to their doorstep. As a prospect seller, selling online and especially on amazon, it the best decision would ever make for your startup.
Amazon is diversifying to the Africa continent: Africa can be a cash cow for Amazon sellers as it is a new market that is yet to be exploited. As amazon prepares themselves to start their operations in Africa, as a prospective seller, you should conduct intensive market research to understand African customers’ needs. Find the products they like and be ready to make them available in the market once the opportunity arises. Thus, this is another reason why Amazon FBA is worth it in 2021.
If you wonder whether it’s worth it to sell on amazon in 2021, I hope you got the answer now. There is a big opportunity if you venture and start selling your products on this online business platform. While the above are just predictions, there is a strong feeling that this year’s business on Amazon is likely to change for the better.
How Much Money Can You Make Selling On Amazon?
If you are planning on an FBA seller on amazon and would like some heads up on the amount of income to expect, it is not easy to say for sure. Every seller earns a different amount from the other. It primarily depends on the amount of effort you put into the business. However, in most cases, it ranges between $26000 and $810,000 annual income.
There are different selling ways on Amazon, but the most common one is Amazon’s fulfillment by Amazon program (FBA). Just like any other business, selling on amazon attracts some expenses and fees but what makes this platform more appealing is that the seller’s workload, such as inventory management and shipment process, is off their back.
The following information is presented to simplify the amazon sellers’ average sales monthly:
- Almost 50.7% of Amazon sellers make between $1000 and $25000 monthly and about $12000 and $300000 annually.
- About 20% makes between $25,000 and $250,000 per month which amounts to $300,000 and $3,000,000 annually.
- Only 3.3% make more than $250,000 per month.
- The remaining 23.8% makes under $1000 monthly sales while about 2.1% are not sure of their monthly sales.
In terms of profitability, about 67.2% receives a profit margin above 10%
- About 36% of all sellers on amazon receive a profit margin of more than20%
- While 8.4% indicated that their business was yet to be profitable and 5.3% were not sure whether they were making a profit or not
From the above statistics, you can gauge yourself and plan on where you want to be. Within three months of starting your business on Amazon, you should start noticing small strips of profits. While being dedicated to your business yields more returns, you just need to dedicate 20 hours weekly when it comes to Amazon. If you were wondering how does selling on amazon work, this guide has answered in detail your question and many more others.