Amazon is one of the largest online retailers in the world. If you want to start a business selling physical products, particularly if you are dropshipping, then you need to have your products listed on Amazon. You will make an astonishing number of sales. So, how do I sell stuff on Amazon? That is what we want to take a little look at here.
Why Should I Sell My Stuff on Amazon?
People trust Amazon. If somebody is in the market for a product, nine times out of ten, Amazon will be the place they head first. It is the easiest platform to make sales on. This translates to a larger number of sales, and this equals more profit. Nowhere else online can you have millions of eyes on your products with next-to-no effort.
How to Sell Stuff on Amazon.com
This leads us neatly onto our next section. We are going to teach you how to sell stuff on Amazon. Step by step. This way you know exactly what needs to be done in order to ensure the greatest chance of making a huge amount of cash through a great dropshipping platform.
A good proportion of your time, at least in the early days of running your business, will be researching the products you want to sell. There will be certain limitations in place here. For example; if you choose the wrong supplier to work with, then you will not have access to a huge array of products. Amazon also prohibits brand-new sellers from selling their products in new categories.
While we do advocate you using a more in-depth guide on how to research your niche (we have one elsewhere on our website), we feel that these tips will be beneficial:
- Look at how much competition is in a selected category
- The best 'types' of products to sell are those with a higher number of reviews. This means that they have been generating more sales.
- Check the sales rank of any similar products to what you intend to sell. The 'lower' the number, the better. It means those products sell well in their category.
Ideally, you would jump into selling on Amazon with just a few products. You will likely choose products that do not sell well at the start. This is fine. Part of business is trying to find out what works for you and then expanding from there.
Signing Up For a Seller Account
Your next task is to sign up for a seller account on Amazon. You will do this through 'Amazon Seller Central'. When you sign up, you will have both a free and a paid option available.
If you are planning to sell under 30 products per month, then the free option is best. However, if you dream of making it big in the world of dropshipping, then opt for the paid option. You will be saving money if you sell over 30 products in a month. Since the world of dropshipping is pretty cutthroat when it comes to profits, this is important.
Add Your Products to Amazon
Once you have created an Amazon Seller Central account, you can start to add your products to the platform. We suggest that you take your time over this. You are not going to add your product 'perfectly' the first time. You will need to do optimization later on, but do make sure that you put a lot of effort into:
- Ensuring that you choose the right product images
- Ensuring that you have a quality product descriptions
- Have a descriptive product title
It is highly likely that there will be a listing on Amazon similar to your product already. However, if you are dropshipping, it is suggested that you create your individual listing as opposed to piggybacking on somebody else's listing. This will end up providing you with a lot more control over the way that you do business.
Remember; it is important that you price your product well, and pay attention to Amazon seller fees so you are actually making a profit.
Once you have the basic listing up on Amazon, then you are ready to start making sales. Of course, there is still a bit more than you need to do.
Marketing Your Product
On Amazon, most of your sales will be made through the people finding your product through Amazon searches. However, you can also use Amazon paid advertising options, or any sort of paid advertising, to drive traffic towards your products. This is great for that initial sales boost. However, since your budget is going to be quite limited when you are starting your business out, make sure that you stick to more 'specific' keywords if you are planning to use Amazon's paid advertising network.
Of course, you will also have free marketing options available to you. Social media will work wonders when it comes to driving traffic to your products. You may even want to set up your own website as a traffic generator too, although that may be more ideal for the later stages of your Amazon business.
Checking the Rank of Your Product against Similar Ones
It is important that you keep tabs on the 'sales rank' for your product. This number will teach you how well your product is performing against other products in the category. You want this number to be as small as possible. The smaller the number, the better your product is converting against similar products on Amazon.
In the next few sections, we want to talk to you a small amount about optimizing your product listings. You can use your sales rank to determine whether what you are doing is effective.
Optimizing Your Product Pages for Amazon
There are various ways to optimize your product pages. Remember; you are not only optimizing to get found in the Amazon search results here, but you are also improving the attractiveness of your products for a higher conversion rate. We have a few different ideas for you here.
Your product listing will begin with your product title. You need to ensure that the product title is as descriptive as possible, while also containing a few keywords to help your product get found in the searches.
The same goes for your product description. Make it eye-catching. Incorporate some keywords. It should come as no surprise that the products with the best descriptions sell a lot more.
Finally, while it is all done, fine to start with some basic images for your products, you will want to improve them over time. Get some high-quality images, at least 3 or 4 of them, and have them uploaded to the product page. Your conversions will increase if people get interested in the product all shown on the page.
Making Your Sales
If you have done everything properly, then it shouldn't be too long before you start to see the first sales roll in. There is nothing much to remember here. Just ensure that you ship out products quickly, and answer any questions people have for your customer service team. You will be selling products in no time at all.
Conclusion
Learning how to sell on Amazon is not that difficult. Amazon has made the process as smooth as possible. The real difficulty comes from optimizing your products on the site. However, learning how to do that will come with your time. Your main priority right now is to get your products listed. This is quick and easy. Why not get started on Amazon today?
