Selling online products on Amazon can be an excellent way to earn a little extra cash — or it can be the launching pad for an entire e-commerce business. While there is definitely profit to be made, the competition is fierce with multiple sellers.
Even so, there are plenty of shoppers to go around. Amazon has over “300 million active users” on its sales channels, and 65% of Americans visit Amazon at least once per month. Some say it is the first place they search for things.
Ready to get your slice of the Amazon sales pie? Start mastering these selling tips and your online business profits will stack up.
1. Watch Your UPC Codes
If your Amazon business revolves around retail arbitrage, you will likely be dealing with products already on Amazon or have been before. This could mean the item’s UPC code is in Amazon’s system for the same product.
When you enter your product UPC, you need to pay careful attention to the product descriptions it brings up. Often, manufacturers forget to update UPC even though the product has been updated.
You need to ensure that the details listed on Amazon match your product perfectly. Otherwise, you will have Amazon and angry customers breathing down your neck.
2. Create an Optimized Title
As a shopper, you can easily get overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available on the site. Your target keyword will get thousands of searches and may have a vast sea of competition.
Narrowing down a keyword to find the perfect item can be quite harrowing for customers shop experience, but you can improve the it by creating an optimized product title.
The perfect title will have the essential keywords at the beginning — this allows your mobile customers to see them as well. Amazon recommends adding things like brand, product line, color, material, and size to your title.
You don’t want to overdo it, though. Keep your title under 200 characters.
3. Work Those Product Listings
The information you provide in your product listing is vital. The more details you can give and the more authentic you can make it sound, the better.
One way to improve your listings is to customize the descriptions of the product using the keywords that come up in searches done by potential customers.
Bullet points are a great way to clarify your product information for your customers in an easy-to-consume way. Make sure you keep your bullet points concise. Avoid using long and wordy sentences, but do add a few keywords.
Your description should thoroughly explain your product and highlight a few of the item’s benefits. You also want to make it easy to read with no misspelled words or weird grammar.
4. Product Images Do The Selling
The images on your product listings are imperative to capturing good sales. Part of the in-person customer experience includes interacting with the item, but online, they need to make a buying decision through images.
If your product photos are grainy, blurry, or have junk in the background, they are UNACCEPTABLE. Images like that will do more harm to your business than good. If you can’t take good ones yourself, then opt for professional photos.
Your product photos should be truthful, taken from multiple angles, have a white or neutral background, and be clutter-free. Your high-quality images should also match Amazon’s recommendations.
Remember, what you show in the image should match what the customers read in the product description.
4. Marketing Outside of Amazon
Amazon does not allow you to send traffic from their site to your personal website. You can, however, send traffic from your site to Amazon, and it is something that you should consider doing.
Even if you don’t have a product or business website created for the items you are selling on Amazon, you still have other ways to drive traffic. First, you can utilize your social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to find loyal customers.
You can also create product videos for YouTube and TikTok and have a link to your product page in the description.
Another site you shouldn’t overlook for driving traffic to your listing is Pinterest which has 454 million users on the site each month (91 million of those in North America).
Pinterest now makes it super easy for shoppers to find new products, and you may, in turn, see an increase in sales.
5. Inside of Amazon Marketing
When it comes to marketing your listings to those shoppers already on the site, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) or what it is now called Amazon Advertising Console. With AMS, you are advertising your products within Amazon.
AMS can be found in Amazon Seller Central, and it allows you to make targeted ads that are visible to shoppers.
You pay per click, not by impression, and you get to see your campaign data, making it easier to optimize your campaign and increase your profit margin.
6. Tackling SEO
You can’t get anyone to buy your product if they can’t find your product. New and experienced sellers may not know SEO is the key to success. Improving your Amazon SEO is how you get your product found and become a successful Amazon seller.
In your listing, you want to try to get as many relevant keywords in place as possible. You can use the Amazon Keyword Tool to help you optimize your copy with long-tail keywords relevant to your product category.
The Amazon Keyword Tool will rate the phrases you choose out of 10 based on their search popularity. It is good to mix in both high search volume and long term keywords. Long term keywords will have less competition but typically a lower search volume.
7. Give Your Customers a Positive Buying Experience
No matter what products you are selling on Amazon, it is highly likely that there is another seller on the platform hawking the same thing. One way you can be sure to stand out from the crowd is by offering top-notch customer service.
Giving your customers a positive experience will lead to customer retention and positive reviews (which you really, really need.)
How can you ensure your customers are happy ones? Answer customer inquiries as quickly as possible and resolve disputes professionally.
Those using Amazon FBA don’t have to worry as much about customer service issues because the seller platform will take care of returns and other disputes for you.
8. Speaking of Product Reviews…
Next to SEO, the best thing for your Amazon business is having positive customer reviews. Potential customers rely on reviews to show them which products are worth the purchase.
You need a large number of objective reviews to convince your potential customers to click that buy button.
Don’t just sit around and wait for reviews to show up; you need to take an active role to beat out other sellers. A professional seller stays in touch with those who buy their product, ensure they are satisfied, and remind them to write a review.
Remember, a few too many bad reviews and your seller rating can tank, or worse, get your listing suspended.
9. Price Competitively
If you want to win the Buy Box and increase your chances at making sales, you have to price your products competitively. You want to list at the best possible price — where you are still turning a profit.
Those using FBA for retail or online arbitrage selling can increase their profit margins by choosing the right products with competitive pricing.
Tools like Tactical Arbitrage help you select items that you can list at a competitive price that are selling well on Amazon.
10. Get More Reviews
Just to reiterate how critical reviews are to your chance of landing sales, I’ll repeat it: get more reviews.
People need social proof to click that buy button. Some customers may even look you up to see if you have other reviews elsewhere. It might be a good idea to have reviews in your other marketplaces as well.
If a customer is down to choosing between your product and another that is basically the same, they will start scrolling through the reviews. If the other product has 5,000 and you have 2, who do you think is going to get the sale?
In the customer’s mind, fewer reviews mean more risk. Go back to #8, follow those steps. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
11. Feed The Beast
It may seem elementary but, you can’t sell what isn’t in stock. Make sure that you have plenty of inventory that is available to sell.
You also need to account for shipping times from your supplier especially if it is overseas. (Remember the 2021 shipping chaos)
Managing your inventory is absolutely crucial, especially if you want to maintain your ranking. Losing your rank can take months to get back.
The way that Amazon assigns its sales rankings is based on the quantity of items available to sell. Running out of stock is a no-go for a professional Amazon seller.
When planning your inventory, you need to consider the demand, which may fluctuate at different times of the year.
Holiday shopping may cause your sales to spike and items to go out of stock.
12. Win the Buy Box
Let’s talk about the Buy Box.
If you want to grow your profit margins, you have to do it. That top seller that earned their spot in the Buy Box is pretty much guaranteed to make more sales than all of the sellers that didn’t make the cut.
A few things will help you win the spot. The first is your pricing.
Amazon lists by price of product PLUS the shipping. This strategy goes for the buy box listings as well. If you can sell your product for one penny less than your competitors, you just may earn your spot in the box.
Generally, you can still win the buy box by matching the lowest offer as you don’t want to get into a race to the bottom.
Pricing won’t matter, however, if you are ineligible for the buy box.
You also need your seller account to be FBA or Fulfilled by Amazon. Getting the Buy Box is not the only benefit to using FBA. You will also be able to compete with those Prime listings.
You might want to read up on our article here about the buy box for more tips.
13. Product & Competitor Research
The key to marketing and sales lies in the product and competitor research. It often goes overlooked in most startup businesses until it is too late.
We can’t stress how important it is to know what you get yourself into before diving in.
Tactical Arbitrage really shines in this department. This data is vital no matter if it is retail, online arbitrage or wholesale.
You can do a search for profitable products and will also gain huge insights on how well it sells and how much competition you have to deal with.
This could really make or break your decision of where to spend your money on inventory especially when starting out. Knowing how fast your product will sell can help you to keep the cash flowing.
Having this research data at the tip of your fingers will help you make more profitable inventory purchases and less headaches.
Grab a free trial to Tactical Arbitrage here.
14. Leverage Vendor Coupons
Amazon has some built-in promotional tools that you can make use of as a professional seller. VPCs or Vendor Powered Coupons are one of those promotions.
Customers love VPCs because they are so easy to add to their baskets (in addition to saving them money). Sellers love them because they improve their conversion rates.
Plus, offering a VCP can drive additional traffic to your listing because of the exposure you get by being on the voucher page or in a deal email.
According to Amazon, “Vouchers generate awareness: vouchers typically produce 84% of clicks from outside the product detail page, which indicates that customers interact with your product when they were not actively searching for it.”
Final Thoughts
Having a good Amazon strategy means you can beat out the competition and start churning out profits. Good customer service, solid Amazon SEO, and fantastic photos will help you start earning those golden reviews.
Once the reviews start rolling in, you can make your way to the Buy Box for even more sales. Leveraging VCPs and proper research will separate you from the pack.
Using the tips above can transform you from a beginner to a professional Amazon seller in no time.
Tactical Arbitrage is a one of the best product sourcing tools. Grab a free trial here.
Related Questions
How do I get better at selling on Amazon?
Following our tips will help get you most of the way. Research is the #1 thing you can do to sell well on Amazon. Key research metrics often include keyword research, competition, sales velocity, etc.
Is it still profitable to sell on Amazon?
Yes, if you find and source the right products. You want to find a product you can sell with a healthy profit margin to allow for operational costs and marketplace fees.