Running a successful Amazon business is challenging. In order to be competitive with your many competitors, it is important to rank highly, which in turn means understanding Amazon’s A9 algorithm. Ranking can be complicated and difficult, and the same is true of converting traffic to actual sales.
However, it is possible to build a highly profitable Amazon eCommerce business if you know how.
Here’s the top five things you need to know before launching your first product on Amazon.
Amazon Rankings Work On Sales Performance
The first thing you need to understand before selling on Amazon is how rankings work. Rankings on Amazon work completely differently to ranking on Google.
When seeking to rank your site highly on Google, you need to consider a range of factors which show the search engine how relevant your site is, from on-page optimisation and technical SEO to backlinks from reputable sources.
Amazon, however, is mostly interested in one thing: your sales. This is because ultimately your store will make money for Amazon itself, so its algorithm is strongly based on how much money you can make for them. Reviews and on-page optimisation also play a role, but to a much lesser extent.
The reason many new Amazon businesses fail is they get locked in a vicious cycle of not making enough sales as a new seller, which means they cannot rank high enough, and then cannot make enough sales, and so on.
However, there are a few factors you can consider in preparing to launch a product or products on Amazon to boost sales and break this cycle.
How To Select Profitable Products
Selecting the right product to sell will go a long way to make sure you secure high sales, high rankings and therefore more sales. The key is in finding a product which strikes a balance between not having too much competition in terms of others sellers, and having a large enough market to feed sales.
Briefly, here are the five features to look for to determine products which strike this balance:
- The first ranked competitor has less than 500 reviews
- Price bracket over £15 (or $20)
- Product is not brand-driven
- Product is lightweight
- Encourages repeat customers (ie something people buy more than once)
Of course, you should also select products related to your interests or passions. This will make your business much more interesting and enjoyable to you, and therefore more likely to succeed!
This is a good place to start when researching Amazon to find appropriate products: start with the broad product categories which interest you. Then drill down to look through sub categories and find products which fit the criteria mentioned above.
Know Your Tools and Resources
If you are starting to think that selling on Amazon sounds challenging, you would be right! Luckily, there are many tools and software available which can help sellers boost sales.
Amazon seller tools fall into many categories. There are FBA total management software which aim to be total management solutions, such as Sellics, Hello Profit and CashCowPro. There are also Amazon ranking tracking tools (our favourite is KeyWorx), profit tracking software, feedback tracking software, keyword software, tools for protecting against listing hijackers, and many more.
As you might expect, some are more effective at doing this than others. Some can make the difference between a 6 figure and a 7 figure business. Others are frustrating to use and/or basically a waste of time. Check our guide to for our reviews of individual Amazon SEO tools.
Price Your Products Correctly
How you price your products is also incredibly important. You want to set a price which is low enough to attract visitors to your page. However, you do not want to price your product below what your customers are willing to pay and risk losing potential revenue and cutting into your profits.
Value-based pricing can be very useful in determining the correct price for your products. This is a way of calculating the maximum price your customers are willing to pay for your product. Value-based pricing essentially looks at how much your competitors are selling their products for (the cost of the “best alternative”), and adds on any extra value you are able to offer through your product. This extra value could be higher quality, more features and better services such as shipping time.
In essence, this is what your client thinks the product is worth based on their own needs, feelings and opinions. Depending on your product, this perceived value can by highly subjective – a product may be worth much more to some people than others. For this reason you must know your target market and keep this in mind when setting your pricing.
On Page Optimisation
The final thing you should know before launching any product on Amazon is how to optimise your listing.
On-page optimisation should cover two things. Firstly, you want to optimise your page for Amazon’s algorithm so that you achieve a higher ranking through having the correct keywords. Secondly, you want to ensure conversion of visitors to sales through better copy and images.
Both these things are important and should be used in combination. For a successful Amazon business, you need to get visitors to visit your page in the first place, and of course you need to make sure they buy your product once they’re there!
Some things to keep in mind for on-page optimisation on Amazon:
- Use the correct keywords for Amazon’s A9 algorithm
- Simple, effective layout
- Listing looks great on mobile & tablet devices
- Copy which converts
This of course is a general overview of an in-depth process. To make your Amazon business thrive, read up more and develop your skills in on-page optimisation as well as other aspects of creating the perfect product listing for Amazon.