In this article, let's figure out How to Sell on Amazon as a beginner in 2023.
We aim to educate new sellers on how to sell on Amazon as a complete beginner, showing you the ins and outs of being a seller on Amazon, while also being an Amazon guide you can come back to at a later date if you have further questions. By continuing to read through this article, you'll be able to start up your Amazon FBA business and stand with the greats in the industry, competing against the best and eventually becoming one yourself.
If you're interested in becoming one of the Amazon sellers yourself, then this is the ultimate guide that will help you stay on top of your game on Amazon in 2023.
How to sell on Amazon: Basics
What is Amazon FBA?
Amazon provides a service called Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA), in which the goal is to assist sellers with storage, packaging, and shipping. By signing up and availing of Amazon FBA, sellers can deliver their products to Amazon fulfillment centers, where the items are to be stored until they are sold.
To become a third-party seller on Amazon, you won't need much, an Amazon seller account, and the items you wish to sell. If you're at all interested in getting into the game and selling items yourself on Amazon's e-commerce platform, signing up on seller central, then you'll have to craft up and business plan, a professional selling plan, and pick the perfect business model to suit your needs.
Amazon business models
Private Label: Creating your own item and brand label.
Wholesale: Finding and sourcing items from brands, buying them in bulk, and selling them on the Amazon marketplace for a profit.
Reselling/Arbitrage: Finding price inequalities between products, sourcing and buying them, which could be from other online sellers or other sellers, through deals with other establishments, then flipping the price for a profit on Amazon.
Dropshipping: Involves purchasing products directly from a manufacturer who fulfills and ships orders directly to the buyer.
Handmade: Finding a gap in the market you can fill and creating the products to sell into that with your own products.
What to sell on Amazon
How to find profitable, high-demand, low-competition products to sell
Profitability
When sourcing your own products, one thing that you'll want always keep in mind is the selling price of these products, the cost for it to be handled and shipped to the Amazon FBA, and the profit you'll create. This is one principle you have to live by in every business decision you make. The rule of 3's (Each product’s sale is broken up into ⅓ for fees, ⅓ in landed costs, and ⅓ for you.).
Breakdown of costs:
Landed costs:
These are the collective costs of producing and shipping your products to Amazon's warehouse.
Amazon FBA fees:
These are the costs of having Amazon handle your product and the costs of having enlisted and sold your product in Amazon e-commerce.
Referral fee
Selling plan fee
Fulfillment fee
Storage fee
Other expenses
Advertising costs
Demand
You will have to research if your product is wanted in the market, and if shoppers will actually go out of their way to buy one of your products. This is a task easier said than done in most cases, but it is an endeavor you'll have to undertake to ensure the success of your Amazon business.
Competition
Before buying and listing your product to be sold on Amazon, if other Amazon stores are already selling your product and if they're receiving good feedback and reviews on the items they sell online with Amazon.
Top categories to sell on Amazon
Home & Kitchen
Beauty & Personal Care
Toys & Games
Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry
Health, Household & Baby Care
Sports & Outdoors
Arts, Crafts & Sewing
Books
Kitchen & Dining
Baby
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How to get ungated on Amazon
What does getting gated or restricted mean?
Being Gated on a brand or category means that an online seller must get Amazon's approval before listing products from a specific brand and or selling items in that restricted category.
What do you need to know to get ungated on Amazon?
The ungating process is Amazon's way of evaluating you as a seller before allowing you to sell a brand or in a category.
Before you move to the next step you have to make sure that your business has at the very least achieve $1,000 in sales.
Amazon is likely to consider these two options when verifying if you are to be ungated or not:
Can you prove the products you are selling are genuine? This is achieved with a manufacturer or distributor purchase invoice or brand letter.
Have you shown a history of responsible selling without much negative customer feedback?
What is the process of getting ungated?
Auto ungating
It is the process of asking Amazon to verify your seller account and see if it will automatically ungate you based on your seller performance. Keep in mind that before you try other methods of ungating, it is best to check if Amazon will ungate you automatically.
And all you need to do is click the “Request approval” button.
If it turns out that you are denied the auto ungating, don't fret. There are other ways of getting yourself ungated and being allowed to sell the premium and quality products that you wish to sell. If you're interested in an in-depth and step-by-step tutorial for all of your ungating needs and inquiries, we have an article for you right here.
How to source products to sell
Online websites
Online websites are wonderful places to find items at affordable prices. Searching online e-commerce platforms such as eBay or Amazon can open doors of opportunity for new products for your business.
Retail websites
Retail websites are e-commerce websites that are maintained by a retailer to sell goods and services to a particular target audience. These are wonderful places to find retail discounts on bulk-bought products. It is great to always have a few retail websites that you frequent to find great deals for items you wish to resell.
Sourcing list
Sourcing lists are lists created by communities of resellers, multichannel sellers, or single-channel sellers who create groups where they share their knowledge with each other, bolstering to higher heights. If one such group creates and publicly releases information on their knowledge about the best deals around, you are sure to pull some wonderful deals from it.
Sourcing
Sourcing and scouring multiple establishments, researching the best deals, and communicating with fellow professional sellers about the products that they sell are all considered sourcing, which will further your knowledge and open up your business to new avenues to expand and grow, diversify your products.
How to list products on Amazon
1. Research the keywords that you think will benefit your listing
There are multiple ways to find the keywords you're going to need, one such way is using the appropriate tools for Amazon sellers and using it to search for whatever keyword you think is most relevant for your product.
2. Purchase the UPC barcode for the product you wish to sell
Amazon requires that your product has a universal product code, which you can purchase directly from GS1.
3. Create your listing in Seller Central on Amazon
Add your product to the listing and select the category you wish to put your product in, if possible choose a specific subcategory.
Under product ID, add your UPC code.
Finally, you can add your product title and brand name.
4. Draft your listing’s title
Make sure that you use the maximum number of characters you can.
Use the keywords you searched for before.
5. Draft your listing bullet points
Be concise and direct in explaining the main points of your product
Include all relevant information such as size, dimensions, materials, etc.
6. Draft your listing description
Creating a worthwhile listing description will help you as advertising that the product will fit the needs of your Amazon customers.
7. Get quality images for your listing
Finding the right photos that will market the product to your shoppers will greatly increase your sales.
How to sell products on Amazon
Product research
Researching products, finding those with high demand and low competition on Amazon to find the most profitable opportunity for your business.
Product Sourcing
Finding a supplier or manufacturer to create and sell to you their product at the right cost. The supplier can ship your products directly to Amazon’s warehouses through fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or to a residence/warehouse of your own.
Product Listing
Create a listing for your product within your Amazon seller account and brand your product.
Promotion
Advertise your product so that your items stand out from the competition against other Amazon sellers in the product search results and create an increase in sales.
Sales management
Monitor your inventory, keep up to date with your stock and sales, make sure your pricing is the most competitive it can be, and scale your business to grow your business to higher heights.
Top Tips to grow your Amazon Business
Find a price that’s profitable and competitive
Finding a product that you can safely and reliably make a profit from and keeping the pricing still competitive will ensure the success of your product in the e-commerce market.
Use great content to increase your sales
The best content gets the most people to check out your product, the greater the content surrounding your product is the more people will flock and buy your product.
Start small – test the market with a few products
If you're unsure of how well a product will do in the e-commerce market of Amazon, start small and test out your products with a smaller amount of product before putting all your eggs into one basket.
Use Amazon's reporting to fine-tune your sales strategy
Amazon creates reports on your products providing integral information that you will need to utilize to make sure that your business prospers and mold your sales strategy based on the information given.
Provide great customer service
By providing great customer service, responding quickly to requests or feedback from your customers it fosters a great relationship between sellers and customers which will greatly benefit your business.
Measure everything you can, especially when making changes
Arbitrage is a business where you have to think ahead, foresight is a necessity for any business, but more so in arbitrage. Trends change and the consumer base is volatile. You will have to put a lot of effort into measuring, comparing, computing, referencing, and doing everything in your power to make sure the future of your business is bright.
Now, do you know how to sell on Amazon?
Amazon is an e-commerce market that provides its sellers the necessary tools and platform that allows each seller to explore the heights that their businesses can reach, providing with it million upon million of loyal consumers always waiting for new products or a new listing that is nearing around the corner. It is the best time as any to get into the e-commerce market, with one of the best and easiest e-commerce markets to get into, through this guide we hope to see you as one of the many that start their e-commerce journey with Amazon.
Don't let this chance of a lifetime slip your hands, take it. Let Amazon help you grow the business that you've always dreamed of.