About 225,000 third-party sellers had over $100,000 in sales in 2019. That number surely increased during the pandemic.
Amazon provides a platform for small businesses to sell hundreds of thousands of products. It can be a viable business if you know the basics of the FBA program.
There’s so much more to just listing your products on Amazon and expecting them to sell. Being an FBA seller takes a lot of time and resources if you want to succeed.
Are you ready to learn how to get started with the Fulfillment by Amazon program?
Let’s get started!
1. Are You Ready to Sell on Amazon?
Why are you thinking about being an FBA seller? Do you think it’s easy money?
Being an FBA seller is just like running a business. There are no shortcuts to success. Yes, you get to use Amazon’s resources, brand, and traffic to get business.
Remember that you’re competing against millions of other sellers, plus Amazon. They all sell products similar to yours.
There are pitfalls of selling on Amazon that you don’t realize until you’re deep in the business. For instance, you need to know how sales taxes get handled.
Simple missteps could derail your business. Make sure you consider all of them before you start your FBA seller account.
2. Product Research
You might already know what you want to sell. It could be a unique t-shirt design or a set of mugs. You could have grand ideas to sell larger products on Amazon.
The first thing you need to do is to decide if it can sell on Amazon or not. Then you have to figure out if you can make money selling the product.
To determine if a product can sell on Amazon, do keyword research. People rarely browse for products on Amazon. They go to the site, knowing what they need.
They do a quick search and find the best product for them. There are tools like JungleScout, Ahrefs, and Sellics.
Google Trends is another good indicator of product interest and sales trends. You can predict if your product is seasonal or if there is steady interest all year long.
Look at what’s listed on Amazon in your product category. Note the prices of those products. Check the listings and reviews.
Find out what people like about the product and what they don’t like. Find ways to make your product idea more aligned with the audience.
3. Choose Product Suppliers
You validated your product idea. Now it’s time to find product suppliers. This is an important decision because the supplier determines the quality of your product.
The quality of the product leads to better reviews. Better reviews lead to more sales.
There are sites like Alibaba and AliExpress that connect wholesalers with manufacturers. You could use a dropshipping platform such as Printful and GearBubble.
Contact suppliers and learn about their processes. Take a look at their pricing, order minimums, shipping charges, and payment options.
Place orders with a couple of suppliers to test them. Consider the product quality and quality of service.
Make sure that the supplier’s pricing is in line with your own pricing models. Double-check your profit margins and figure out how many products you need to sell each month for a solid business.
4. Create an Amazon FBA Account
The foundation is in place. It’s time to create an Amazon FBA Seller account.
This is a very simple process. Create a seller account and then convert it into an FBA account.
Take a look at the plans available and decide which one is right for you. An individual account charges $.99 per sale, while the professional account costs $39.99 a month.
Remember that Amazon also charges a referral fee. There may be additional storage fees depending on how large the product is and how long inventory sits on the shelves.
5. List Products on Amazon
Get your product information ready for listing. You’ll need to have the UPC code or ISBN if you’re selling books. There are other product identifiers such as GTIN and EAN.
This is necessary to categorize and index your product.
You’ll need the SKU number, which is your own inventory number. Get the price, available inventory, brand, product description, and images.
This is a good time to revisit your pricing. As you’ve gone through this process, you learned that there are a lot of small costs that eat into your profits.
Amazon will have you match an existing listing if you’re selling the same product as someone else. Otherwise, you’ll create a brand new listing.
Be sure to create a listing that includes your keywords in the headline, description, and bullet points. Give buyers as much detail as possible about the product.
You don’t need to get cute here. Give the benefits and the facts about the product.
6. Handle Backend Issues Promptly
You’ll check your listings in Seller Central. You’ll get sales metrics and reports. These reports give you a lot of information and they’re hard to read.
There are Amazon seller platforms that make it easier to read them. They also help you create listings and ad campaigns.
You’ll be able to see information like reviews and customer contacts. It’s important to respond to these queries and issues quickly.
Follow up with buyers and ask for reviews. This helps new buyers decide to buy your products.
Become an Amazon FBA Seller
Are you ready to become an FBA seller? It takes more work upfront to build a successful business. Follow the steps in this article, and you’ll hit your sales goals in no time.
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