Amazon, one of the largest retailers in the world, connects sellers with buyers. It’s quite easy to sell on Amazon; more than 40% of Amazon’s sales are from 3rd party sellers. However, there are certain things that all sellers should know before selling on this platform.
9 Things You Need to Know Before You Sell on Amazon
Millions of sellers sell their products on Amazon. However, only a handful of them do it in the right way.
Amazon is a big and exciting marketplace, offering a huge customer base for your products. You also don’t have to spend on marketing, or worry about building a store from scratch. However, knowing a few things will help make things easier for you.
No. 1# Amazon’s Buy Box Policy
Let’s say a potential customer looks for products on Amazon. They navigate to the product’s main page. Here, they can check prices offered by competing sellers as well.
However, as an Amazon seller, you can choose to compete for the Buy Box—a bright call-to-action button in a shade of yellow. This icon is displayed on the product details page, where customers begin their shopping at Amazon. As a seller, it’s important that you know how this handy feature works.
How The Buy Box Feature Works
A key feature of Amazon is that multiple sellers can list similar products on the website; customers have the freedom to choose among these. Winning the ‘buy box’ and becoming the featured seller helps you increase sales.
But this is hard to achieve.
In fact, it is highly unlikely that your ecommerce store easily gets ranked. Becoming the featured seller is seemingly next to impossible. However, even if you don’t become the featured seller, it’s important for you know how the buy box works. You should learn how different segments of your Amazon storefront are weighted.
Many Amazon policies are in line with the best eCommerce practices. It’s important that you know these—you can read up on them here. As rule of thumb, it’s important to ensure that you handle every transaction smoothly. This includes delivering the product(s) on time, and proper communication with the customers as required.
You can use the following tactics to increase your sales on Amazon:
- Start by selling products that are not sold on Amazon already, or ones that have a very low level of competition.
- Sell products at highly competitive prices; this attracts bargain shoppers, and can improve your ranking.
No. 2# Amazon Retains Complete Control Over Your Listing
There are numerous reports of sellers getting frustrated with Amazon not letting them change their listing. Some others allege that this ecommerce giant changes certain details without the seller’s consent. And if something like this happens with you, you can’t really do anything about it.
It’s clearly mentioned on the agreement you sign with Amazon that they (Amazon) have the right to alter the content, design, functionality, and appearance of the site. They also have the right to delay or suspend listing of, to de-list, or refuse to list any or all products of their sellers.
No. 3# Competition Is Stiff
While it’s best to start selling a product that isn’t already available on Amazon, the crown of being the only seller doesn’t last long.
The moment a successful product goes out of stock, Amazon will alert all FBA sellers. So, don’t get surprised to see merchants selling your exact product after a week or so.
No. 4# Amazon Doesn’t Collect Taxes On Your Behalf
Another common mistake sellers make on Amazon is this: they believe that Amazon will collect taxes for them for every transaction. However, this doesn’t actually happen. It’s clearly written in the agreement that Amazon is not responsible for determining whether taxes apply to a particular transaction or to collect and remit the same to the authorities.
However, Amazon does offer tax calculation services. The company adds taxes to your sales if you ask them to.
No. 5# You Cannot Sue Amazon Over A Rogue Seller Or Buyer
Hijackers are a big problem for Amazon.
They find it difficult to get them off their platform. It doesn’t help that Amazon, as a rule, doesn’t judge what is wrong or unethical. They mention this quite clearly on their agreement.
Amazon is a huge marketplace. While selling on it has benefits, there are a couple of disadvantages to working with them too. It’s really important that you read the agreement with its terms and conditions well.
It’s always a better idea to build your own store, then listing it on Amazon. When you build your store using e-commerce store builders like Shopify, you can integrate your store directly with Amazon and start selling immediately. 🙂
These are the import facts every seller should know before going on sale on Amazon. One of my friends recently started selling on Amazon and AMZ Coupon Server helps him to make his sale on Amazon successful. Thanks.