Selling On Amazon: Q&A

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Thinking of Selling on Amazon?

First, make sure you read my post How to Sell on Amazon.

Next, you’ll want to join our Facebook Group for Amazon Sellers.

Below are a few more insights into selling on Amazon, but if you have more questions about Amazon selling, here are more resources for you:

Free Amazon Training Videos
Highly Recommended Online Amazon Training Course
Amazon Boot Camp (includes training, private support & community)
My interview on the Brilliant Business Moms podcast
Make Thousands on Amazon in 10 Hours a Week paperback book

Question: Hi Saira, I’ve recently started selling on Amazon. Do you have any blog posts about selling items that are not already in Amazon’s database? My items are doing well, I just would love to learn more about optimizing them and moving forward. Amy

Answer: Hi Amy, Here are a couple of tips I can share that may help you.

Reviews

A big driver of Amazon sales is the REVIEW system. I found your items & you have all 5-star ratings which is great, although there are not many of them. Here are some ideas to get more 5-star ratings:

Customize the packing slip that is included with the product to talk more about yourself/your company & give them a little encouragement to (If you are happy with your purchase, please give us a 5 star rating.).
Follow up with an email afterwards.
Add extra personal touches to make customers want to leave good ratings. Including a small freebie (it can be as simple as a sticker or a mint) or taking care when you package the product (wrap it in colored tissue paper) can go a long way!
Ask other people to leave ratings on Amazon for you… maybe ask some of your other customers (or friends)… or join Mom Resource (we help each other out like that!).

Ranking

Another driver is the Best Seller Rank, which is based on how popular items are & how recently they sold (if you just sold one, you’ll move way up the list, but the more time lapses between sales, the lower your rank goes)…. I noticed you have 3 separate listings on amazon, but my guess is it would help to have ONE listing with all the variations together under the same listing… For example, look at these cloth diapers. They are all variations of the same thing. I feel like this will encourage people to click around & find the style for them (like in your etsy shop) and strengthen your sales ranking & reinforce your great reviews. If I remember correctly, I think the only way to add variations to the same listing is by using Amazon’s upload feature. It’s a little tricky but the Amazon help desk is usually very helpful (in my experience). You wouldn’t have to keep everything in stock with Amazon, but could offer free shipping & a realistic turnaround time & ship it from home when it sells.

Bundling

Bundling is another idea – I see you offer your product by itself. Maybe you want to offer another option to buy it with a complementary product like a 3-pack of chapstick for a little extra money? Offering more options may help you get found (e.g. if someone was searching for a 3-pack of chapstick, they have the chance of running into your product).

Department

If you do decide to bundle with chapstick, Amazon may require you getting into the beauty department – not sure on this – but that may be another benefit as you are currently in Office Supplies, which doesn’t lend itself to a lot of over lap.

Advertising

I have had some success with advertising within Amazon, without having to spend much money. They make it very easy to setup & monitor. I always setup an end date just in case, so I don’t end up leaving it on auto-pilot for too long.

Thanks again for reaching out Amy! Keep in touch & let us know if you implement any of these changes & how they work out for you.