About half of all e-commerce sales in the United States occur on the Amazon platform. That makes it an extremely enticing opportunity. So, how do you start selling on Amazon? There are many options for high quality content and starting with advertising is a must. Before embarking on major investments, the best first step is to set expectations for what success for your products might look like.
You may have products that you want to sell on Amazon already, or you may be looking for a custom offering for the platform. Regardless, before making the financial leap of sending inventory to your nearest Amazon center, you will want to understand what the competition looks like on the platform today. It is also important to recognize when a pivot is needed (failing out your past idea and moving to another product, angle, or platform as needed). Move forward only once you have found a potentially successful niche.
Positioning
What is your unique selling proposition on the Amazon platform? There are multiple competitive advantages on Amazon. Having a superior product is often not enough. With millions of available products, it is easy to get lost deep in the search pages.
For your products to show up on the first pages of the search results for your targeted keywords, you will need both sales volume and acceleration. Amazon wants to see that your product is selling, and not just to friends or family members (in fact, reviews from them might cause Amazon’s advanced algorithms to flag your account). It is important to continue to grow sales as well over time. A decrease in sales (especially from the nightmarish out-of-inventory) can plummet your search results position.
Gaining sales is of course the easiest with a unique selling proposition on Amazon. Unfortunately, simply having a better product is not enough to succeed on the Amazon platform. Due to the sheer number of product listings on the platform, it is easy to get lost deep in the sea of search results. In order to succeed, you will need to find a unique strategy for selling on Amazon.
This unique strategy might deal with reviews, advertising, or content. While deciding which, if any, product to list on Amazon, look for the following advantageous situations:
Reviews
- Your competitions’ reviews are low, and the reasons for their low reviews do not apply to your product/brand/listing
- There are very few reviews for main keyword competitors (it’s likely a new segment)
- You have a strong existing brand and user base likely to quickly build positive reviews (as seen on other platforms your brand sells on)
Advertising
- No sponsored ads appear for targeted keywords
- Limited, low-quality, or nonexistent video ads appear for targeted keywords
Content
- You can produce clearer and more informative content regarding product’s superior benefits
- You can show better brand reputation through higher quality content
- You are able to provide an easier shopping experience through appropriate instructions, sizing, ingredients, or other product listing content related to the decision-making process
Research, Research, Research
There are many tools that can be used to investigate the existing playing field. We will consider the three most commonly used (and fully developed) below. There are two main software offerings. These include both free and paid options, mainly Helium 10 and Jungle Scout. The third may seem obvious, but it is an often-overlooked step. By intelligently navigating through Amazon’s search function and relevant listings, we can create a well-informed view of the playing field.
Helium 10
This software uses web scraping to pull readily publicly available information from Amazon’s platform. By using information like the top seller rankings for the category and keyword, Helium 10 is able to estimate total monthly revenue for various ASINs.
(An ASIN is Amazon’s standard identification number, basically their version of a SKU. A listing might have multiple variants within the listing/product family. Each variant has its own ASIN.)
By creating a free Helium 10 account, it is possible to review top-selling ASINs and their generated revenue, as well as keyword search traffic (to understand demand). Record this information; we will be investigating these listings to help measure the level of opportunity.
The free option includes limited searches and alerts. This is typically sufficient for listing a single product. Paid options for Helium 10 offer a variety of different features including multiple support options like webinars and a private Facebook group. Various paid plans include increased usage allotments, and typically range between $39 per month and $399 per month.
Jungle Scout
Like Helium 10, Jungle Scout uses web scraping to provide information like revenue totals and keyword search volume. Jungle Scout has no current free option, but allows for additional information such as searchable (and automatically graphed) historic data.
Looking at historic data allows one to quickly see if trends are rising or falling. Information like number of competing brands, competing products, and even average price can be shown. How can this be useful? If a five-dollar product has thousands of comparable competitors, with sharply increasing competition and decreasing average price, this is unlikely to be a category worth competing in.
Some Jungle Scout subscriptions even allow you to look at information as detailed as what keywords your top competitors are advertising on.
Amazon Search
First, how many products are available in your category? This is such a simple, important, and overlooked step in the research process. What are the top search items? What are the review stars and quantity for items on the first and second pages? What does the content look like? Are they using a brand store page? Is everything being fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)?
What trends do you notice here?
Account Creation
Still wanting to sell on Amazon? At this point you should understand how to differentiate your product with an overall platform strategy. You’re now ready to showcase your product with your unique brand and niche.
Brand Registry
Speaking of a unique brand, before creating your account you will want to have a trademark for your brand. Either your name, or logo should be registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This allows you to sign up for brand registry, which opens additional content areas. You will be able to utilize A+ content on the product page and have a brand page where consumers can find your full catalog. Most importantly, having brand registry allows you to defend your unique listings so others cannot sell directly through your soon to be beautifully created product pages.
If you do not yet have a registered trademark, it is highly recommended to go through Amazon’s IP accelerator program, as it will allow you to use brand registry within a number of weeks, rather than waiting many months for USPTO to process your application directly. You will still receive a trademark through USPTO, but the IP accelerator process will get you selling faster.
The benefits of a trademark extend beyond selling on Amazon. You get exclusive rights to your trademarks for as long as you wish, as long as you pay the service fee every ten years. You may want to look up resources on the proper use of trademark symbols to see the benefits of registration.
First Product Listing
Put your best foot forward with your listing. Utilize your research during this stage. Remember what will make you stand out. Once you are ready to put it all together, areas to thoughtfully fill include:
- Product Title: utilize all characters with readable but keyword and feature-rich words
- Product Description: again, as complete as possible with all features and characteristics listed in keyword-rich content
- Images: these should include annotations and show important information such as product sizing
- A+ Content: this is a mix of graphics with images and additional descriptions
- Brand page: showcase what makes your brand unique
It may make sense to work with an Amazon expert to craft your first product listing; there are many agencies available, including ArgonDigital. You may even have luck with individual contractors if their portfolio shows work that is equal to or better than the competition you already looked at.
Advertising
Advertising is necessary to get initial sales and gain momentum on the platform. As mentioned earlier, Amazon looks at both sales volume and the speed of your sales growth as part of the determination for where your products will land in the search results. There are several options for advertising, including sponsored search product ads, brand ads, video ads, and even more advanced options through Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP).
Amazon DSP has more advanced opportunities such as automatically targeting audiences its algorithms find similar to your existing buyers. It comes with a hefty investment if doing it alone, but this can be greatly reduced with agencies and tools that group other accounts together. Select an advertising option that makes sense for you and your budget.
If you need more guidance, contact us. We are here to help!
