Guest post by freelance writer, Kristin Savage
Amazon has changed the face of ecommerce forever. The American giant is active on 12 different marketplaces and has more than 300 million active users. In addition, there are 2 million sellers on Amazon. Looking at the global picture, you can’t help but admire the machinery running Amazon. However, for those of you trying to make a living out of it, these numbers may not be as bright and shiny as we think.
Selling on Amazon is a tricky business. The competition is getting stronger and there are more and more people joining every day. An Amazon seller is like a grain of sand on a Californian beach. It’s only natural we raise the question of third-party Amazon sellers and their survival on the market.
What are the major issues? What can you, as a third-party Amazon seller do in order to secure your spot and win profit?
Third-Party Sellers
Amazon offers the widest variety of products for you to purchase. More than a million products are added each day.
Some are sold directly by Amazon while others are handled by independent sellers.
“Third-party sellers are independent sellers who offer a variety of new, used, refurbished, and collectible merchandise” as defined by Amazon itself.
As a third-party seller, you work independently and have no one but yourself to turn to. In other words, you are in charge of:
- the merchandise
- finding customers
- fulfilling the order (although you can opt for FBA)
- customer service
- advertising.
To sum up, you’re on your own.
However, you are far from lonely when it comes to your competition. It’s enormous.
Having a huge number of competitors means you could go down easily without any warning. In order to prevent this from happening you need to come up with a strategy and increase your sales as soon as possible.
In order to be successful on Amazon, you need to stand out, offer professional services and quality goods. How can you take matters into your own hands and increase your profit? Let’s take a look together.
1. Be Unique
This first step might be the hardest.
Your products define you and they can make or break your Amazon business. If you can make a unique offer, you can win customers.
What does it mean to have a unique offer? It means:
- a wide variety of products
- products only a few other sellers have
- a personal stamp
- merchandise that is hard to find.
This is a killer recipe which won’t let you down. However, due to the enormous increase in the number of sellers, it’s becoming almost impossible to be a part of a minority of sellers offering something special and recognizable.
Don’t worry. There’s plenty of other steps we’ll go through.
2. Stock
Stocking up is the Bible of selling on Amazon. You need to take care of your inventory, making sure it’s full and ready to be shipped.
How can you ensure you always have available products and there are no delays in shipping?
You need to:
- find a great supplier
- check your numbers and inventory every day, multiple times
- be thorough and consistent in stocking up.
If your stock is impeccable, you’ll also avoid having problems with Amazon’s policy, so you definitely need to have this under control.
3. Feedback and Reviews
You may be thinking how feedback shouldn’t even be a part of this article and how we’re wasting your time with this section.
However, we can assure you that the reviews your customers leave you, plays a crucial part in your success as an independent Amazon seller.
People trust the reviews. Reviews are even more valuable than a personal recommendation from a friend. Most people read the seller’s reviews prior to placing an order, to make sure they made the right choice.
Where does that leave you?
You need to :
- Make sure your customers are satisfied with every aspect of your services. Go to great lengths to make them happy and provide a comfortable buying experience for them.
- Consider negative reviews as a lesson learned, and work towards removing them. Don’t ignore them. Use them to improve your services.
The higher your reviews, the more customers you have.
4. Accuracy in Product Descriptions
Your Amazon product descriptions are like a lovely saleswoman meeting the customers in your store. You need to make sure she has nice manners and tends to every customer who steps inside.
What are the qualities of a good product description? Here’s what:
- Detailed: Vague product descriptions are meaningless, off-putting and make you seem unreliable. People need details in order to make a purchase.
- Precise: Don’t bother decorating your descriptions with shiny adjectives and using other tricks. Make sure your product description provides facts and accurate information necessary for the customer to understand what he’s buying.
- Accurately written: There can be no grammar or spelling mistakes in your product descriptions, or else you’ll seem highly unprofessional. Use online writing tools such as Grammarly, to help you achieve absolute accuracy in writing.
- Multiple languages: Providing information in different languages can do wonders for your business. You know your market, so try making the descriptions available in at least one more language. You can check out some of the best translation services on PickWriters to make this happen for you.
5. The Right Price
Forming the price is a tricky one. You want:
- Your merchandise to be affordable but not cheap
- Your price to be leveled up with the competition
- Your price to reflect your quality
- To make s profit.
In order to form the right price, you need experience as a seller and you need to be tactical. Smart moves are key in sales, and there’s no room for much improvisation.
Do you want our advice?
Make sure the price is in accordance with the quality. That means you’re not going to lower the price just because the mediocre sellers do. Their products are not as good as yours.
If you do this, there’s nothing to regret. People appreciate quality and are often willing to pay a little extra to get it.
Related: 6 Amazon Repricing Strategies Every Seller Needs to Know
Conclusion
Surviving as a third-party seller on Amazon requires a lot of effort, hard work, and detailed planning. It seems that you need to up your game in order to meet the rising standards. That means more working hours and deeper dedication to your job. Unfortunately, not everyone can meet the standards and some people are bound to experience failure.
We hope we’ve helped you up your Amazon game and gave you some useful advice. Hopefully, this guide inspires and motivates you to commence your strategic thinking and make new business decisions. We also hope you’ll experience progress and make your business flourish. Make sure to stay faithful to your principles and strive for greatness.
