fbpx

How To Start Selling On Amazon

Dec 13, 2018

Share

Share

Selling products on Amazon is one of the biggest money-making opportunities in the history of the world – and it is open to any individual from any country.
Right now, you have the right and the opportunity to sell products on the largest internet sales platform in the world – on Amazon. That’s right – you don’t need to set up a store, get traffic, or go through all the pain of starting a brand online.

The biggest shop window in the world is waiting for you to put your products in its shop window.

So, what do you need to know before start selling on Amazon:

Do you need business experience? No
Do you need technical skills?
No
Can you make good money starting as a new seller?
YES

Here is the guide on How to start selling on Amazon and all the important steps you need to take to get your own successful business by selling products on Amazon:

How to Know What to Sell on Amazon to Make Money

Clearly, this is the biggest question on your mind if you are new as an Amazon seller. For certain types of items (handbags being a great example), you’re going to need to get clearance to sell your stuff. Amazon already has deals set up with certain suppliers for certain products, so before buying any stock or getting excited about what you’re going to sell, check in with them first.
No big surprise but… you’re not the only person selling on Amazon.
It has thousands of sellers already established in selling various products. You’re going to need to do some research and find something that you can supply that no one else is already selling.
It is all about finding your niche product.
One “niche selection” tip, is that your product doesn’t have to be a newly invented product. It can be very similar to someone else’s – just cheaper / higher quality / more features / fewer features.
Remember that there is a great variety of products that do the same thing but slightly differently out there, which all sell well due to things like quality and price. The mobile phone is a classic example. Most of the planet owns a mobile phone these days, but the type an average student is going to buy is totally different from the one grandpa likes. This is true in every product niche, so don’t be afraid if you have competitors who are similar – just not the same!

How Often Do I Get Paid Selling Products On Amazon?

You are going to need to plan your finances and around these payment dates, so it is a good idea to sit down and work out some finances before you get started selling on Amazon to make money. Let’s be realistic, you’re not going to become a millionaire overnight ( sorry, we like to keep it real here at YLT-Translations) so you need to sit down and work out what your stock and operating costs are going to be from day one.
Amazon pays out every 2 weeks, so you’ll need to keep a check on your dates to stay on top of your costs, inventory, and income.
how long does it take to get paid after selling on amazon
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” is one of the most sound pieces of advice ever given in business. You need to factor in how you are going to react if things go amazingly well ( e.g. can you get your hands on more stock in good time?) or pretty bad (I’m not getting as many sales as I had hoped, I need to improve my Amazon listing).
Fortunately for most of the issues you are going to face, you can find the answers here on this blog, so signing up for our mailing list is a free and easy way to stay informed on how to start selling on Amazon successfully and improving your Amazon listing.

Tax is also something you are going to need to consider. If you have never worked as a freelancer or run a business then you’ll need a little local advice on what your responsibilities are. In addition, most people selling on Amazon decide to translate their listings into other languages to maximise sales in different markets. If you’re going to do this, then you’ll need to make sure that you comply with whatever regulations apply in that area of the world.
If getting paid every 2 weeks puts pressure on your finances, then you should consider a quicker payment system like Storfund. Storfund takes the pressure off your cash flow system by paying you daily for your Amazon sales in your local currency (awesome!).
It’s pretty straightforward. It plugs directly into your seller account to get the sales totals. The coolest thing about the service is you can turn it on and off at any time, so if you’re getting strapped for cash, get paid daily for a small fee. If things are going better, just switch it off with one click! A few of our clients are having a good time with Storfund already, so if you have an Amazon listing in good standing, this could be a useful way to better balance the books in your Amazon business.

What About Competition?

Yes, you are not the only one reading this blog! Amazon already has lots of people selling on its platform, so you are going to face competition.
As I mentioned earlier, you need to choose your product carefully. There are some basics you need to consider.
Is my product going to break easily? Returns are going to cost money, so better to find something that is easy to ship – not too heavy and not fragile. In addition, lots of products that you will consider will already be selling on Amazon.
Think of items that are slightly different in some way, so that your listing has a place in the market.
Your perfect product has these features:

Low competition
Easy to ship
Good profit margin

 

Get A Good Feedback Profile

In the modern world, online reviews are everything. Selling on Amazon is no exception. So how about giving people cheap products in exchange for positive reviews? Great idea, and one that was working really well until 2016. Amazon then banned any form of  “incentivised review” and so it is now strictly not allowed according to their terms of service. I cannot stress how seriously Amazon take their terms of service for this, so please please don’t ignore their rules.
how to get good reviews on amazon
If you’re trying to get some review to get your products kick-started, you should take a look at Amazon’s vine system.

What is the Amazon vine system?

The Amazon vine system sends free products to trusted Amazon customers so they can review the products. The customers are carefully selected by Amazon as trusted customers and passed on free products for review. The seller has no direct contact with the reviewer and there is a small fee for the service.

How to Optimize Your Amazon Product Listing to Start Making Money

To start selling products on Amazon you need to rank higher with your Amazon Product Page. And to start ranking higher you need to optimize your product listing.

Below, you will find some of the key strategies for Amazon Product Listing Optimization:

  • Image Optimization
  • Keyword Research
  • Product Listing Translations

Images – You’ll need great images of your products. If you’re buying from a supplier that already has great products photos then great, otherwise you’re going to need to get some photos done by a professional or by buying a lighting kit and a camera yourself.

Keyword Research In addition, you’ll need to be aware of keywords and ranking factors for your listing. This part is critical to getting sales on Amazon so take it seriously!
You’ll need to do some research on what keywords you want to rank for and what associated products you will pop up for. There is no point in having lots of people see your product if that’s not what they were looking for. Amazon will track this and see that your product is not being clicked and so it will become less visible in searches which will be bad for sales.

Translations – Whichever market you start selling in, there will be another Amazon market that is worth expanding into. Most sellers start in their native language but this isn’t always the best move for making sales. The largest markets on Amazon are:
North America (USA + Canada)
UK
Japan
Germany

In order to show up in the rankings in each foreign market you will need:

  1. Accurate translation of your listing
  2. High-quality keyword research in the new language

A quick Google translate should do the job, right? Wrong. Often sellers put their listing into another language this way, only to find that after a few months they have damaged their listings ranking by not bothering to do proper keyword research in the new language. Yes, we know that doing keyword research in Japanese is tough, so that’s what our dedicated YLT Japanese keyword team spend their time doing.
Read more about Amazon Listing Translations
If you’re curious about how that process works, drop us an e-mail as we love talking about how we can open up new markets for your listing.

If you liked this article, then your smartest next step is to check out :

How To Improve Your Amazon Listing: Effective Selling In New Markets
The YLT-Translation + Ranking Process


Words and images by:
Ryan Champion