If you’ve never sold on Amazon before, starting out might seem a bit overwhelming. How do you attract buyers without yet having an established customer base? How do you reach your products’ target audience?
Read our 5 simple tips below to thrive as an Amazon seller.
1. Optimise your product listings
When you search for a product on Amazon, you’re shown products whose descriptions most closely match your search, right? It’d be no use to you if when you searched for ‘wireless headphones’, Amazon showed you dog food!
So, keep this in mind when titling and describing your products. You want to use keywords relevant to both your product and what your potential customer will use to search for your product.
As a basic rule, it’s important to include the following in your product titles:
- Your brand name
- The colour of your item
- Item size
- Item quantity (if sold in multiples)
- Any additional key attributes relevant to your specific product (e.g. in the case of wireless headphones, if they are noise-cancelling etc.)
Optimizing your product listings in this way will help draw visitors onto your product page.
2. Keep pricing up-to-date
Everyone wants a great deal when they purchase on Amazon – in fact, it’s expected nowadays – so watch out for your competitors!
Keep regular tabs on the prices of similar products from competing brands on Amazon. If possible, out-compete them with lower pricing, even if it’s just pennies cheaper. If you had a choice between two near-identical products, one costing £12.99 and the other costing £12.95, I’d bet you’d near-always go for the latter!
However, if it’s not feasible to lower your prices, consider offering free shipping. It’s a simple way to drive down the perceived cost of an item, as ‘free’ is always enticing, and the customer doesn’t feel like they’re paying for anything but the physical product. Amazon also enables you to offer coupons to the potential customer, further heightening their feeling of snagging a great deal.
Regularly updating your pricing to compete with similar products and sellers helps convince buyers you’re the best choice.
3. Out-perform your competitors
Similar to tip 2, it’s important to keep your competitors’ products in mind when describing and demonstrating your own. Pay attention to the reviews a competitor’s product might get – have their reviewers identified their products as having any shortcomings or flaws?
If so, show your customers how your similar product is better!
For example, say your company sells umbrellas. A review for a competitor’s umbrella might say how it rusted quickly and wasn’t very durable. In your umbrella’s description, make sure to note that it is rust resistant (if true) or demonstrate via a video how durable it is!
Where appropriate, you might even give customers a guarantee on the quality of your product in comparison to others on the market.
Use your product description and images to show potential customers how your products outperform the competition- convince them yours is best!
4. Get five-star reviews!
Highly-rated reviews are perhaps the best way to indicate the quality of your product; potential customers are much more likely to purchase from you if they see high praise from existing customers!
Five-star reviews might be difficult to receive when you’re first starting out and your existing customer pool is small, so consider potential incentives for your customers to review.
You might, for example, want to consider including a note or a packaging insert inside your orders asking (politely!) for a review.
Another important factor is the Q & A section of your Amazon product listing. Customers are able to ask questions via this feature about the specific details of your product; quick and comprehensive replies will ensure customer satisfaction upon the arrival of their order. Tell them exactly what they’re getting!
Nothing convinces potential customers to buy like rave reviews from real people- scoring 5-star reviews on your products is a hugely valuable advertising strategy.
5. Keep tabs on your inventory
It goes without saying that you don’t want to frustrate your potential customers, so make sure to keep tabs on your inventory!
Everyone has, at some point, been browsing for a product and excitedly found the perfect one, only to find that it has sold out. This can be annoying and will deter that potential customer from your brand, not to mention losing you that sale on the spot!
Make sure to sync whatever inventory management software you use to your Amazon Seller Account to be aware of low inventory and avoid situations like this.
Some inventory management software also includes tools that auto-order more stock for you when stock count reaches a specific low, so less work and more peace of mind for you!
Keeping on top of your inventory keeps things running smoothly and customers happy!
If you don’t have the time to do this and feel ready to outsource your Amazon marketing, see what we can do for you!