People often wonder how to start selling on Amazon. Whatever one may say, the Internet gives us limitless opportunities for making money. For example, anyone living even in the smallest provincial town can start selling goods all over the world using the largest trading platform and uncomplicated software for Amazon sellers and earn big money.
So, how do you open your online store on the most famous e-commerce platform you ask? This step-by-step guide will let you know exactly what it takes to make money selling on Amazon.
General Information about Selling on Amazon
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world where you can list your products for sale. In exchange for some of the fees you pay to this platform, your products can be shown to millions of customers; it is the best choice for maximizing your reach and, as a result, income.
The first thing to remember is that an Amazon business is a complete product business. You sell real goods to real people; this is not some easy money-making scheme.
You can sell on Amazon in several ways:
- Sell goods of your own production
- Sell products under your own brand
- Sell other people’s goods by purchasing them in bulk and use Amazon warehouses for storage, logistics, etc.
- Sell goods by dropshipping (without having them in stock and purchasing them from suppliers when they are ordered (bought) from you)
To avoid problems and mistakes, you can use the profit-saver software from SageSeller. This service uses cost-saving solutions and a profit-building approach to provide you with a seamless sales process free of pitfalls.
If you have an account with an American and European bank, Amazon payments will be made to them, but if you do not have an account or live outside the United States or Western Europe, you will need to register with the Payoneer payment system (Amazon does not work with PayPal).
The next preparatory step will be the collection of all the necessary documents for registration with Amazon: a scanned copy of the passport (if the passport is not in English, you will need a notarized translation), as well as a financial statement from the Payoneer payment system or your bank statement, which Amazon will verify and see your residential address.
The next and important point is registration on the online retail platform. This process has a certain number of nuances, but the main thing is that all the data in your documents and information that you specify when creating an account on Amazon match and are identical. Otherwise, you will not be able to go through the next stage –passing the identity confirmation (verifying your account). After successful registration, you need to set up certain account settings and install special software for Amazon sellers.
Selecting a Sales Plan
When registering, you will have the opportunity to choose a sales option: “Professional selling” ($39.99 monthly) or “Individual Seller.” The specialists of the SageSeller service recommend choosing the “Individual Seller” option for beginners with a commission of $0.99 for every sale you make. You can change the settings in the sales options without any problems in your Amazon account.
Special software and tools for market analysis and search for goods that are selling well at the moment are very important and necessary for the successful release of sales on Amazon. An example of such online tools is the FBA Calculator for Amazon Sellers by SageSeller. The company also offers help to monitor your listings and the fees that Amazon charges you. They provide an automated service that will not only help you avoid the most common mistakes newbies make but also improve your sales process and increase your bottom line.
After all these procedures, the beginner follows the process of finding the right product, goods that are in good demand, and potential buyers. And depending on the sales model, you can either simply add to inventory and sell via dropshipping, or you buy it, send it to Amazon warehouses, and Amazon, in turn, processes the incoming orders for your product. The sales execution method is very important to maximize your results. Using Amazon Fulfillment as your execution method will be one of the best decisions you can make to increase your Amazon sales.
Definition of a Successful Product
As with any buy-and-sell business, at Amazon, you need to start with a portrait of your target audience and a thorough analysis of your competitors. To monitor competitors, you need to go to the product section and select a similar segment.
Without a lucrative product to sell, you won’t have an Amazon business. A product that can bring good money to a beginner is at the intersection of your interests and profits. All sellers of the same product appear on the same product page. When selling on Amazon, you can add a product offered on the same product detail page as other sellers.
There are several dozen categories on the platform available for everyone, both novice and experienced sellers. Newbies don’t need to get approval from Amazon to sell all kinds of products in these categories:
- Sports equipment and goods
- Health and personal hygiene products
- Clothes and accessories
- Home and garden products
- Musical instruments
- Repair tools etc.
There are also other categories for which such approval is required. If you have chosen to sell products presented in these categories, you need to apply for the Professional Selling model.
Product categories that require Amazon approval:
- Cars and motorcycles
- B2B segment products
- Collectible coins
- Jewelry
- Others
To maintain the quality of goods at the proper level, Amazon can limit the number of sellers in any of the categories presented. Therefore, SageSeller recommends choosing these categories if your products meet 100% of the set standards. If you nevertheless decide to fill out a segment in these categories, you need to request approval by filling out a special application. It will take no more than three business days for your application to be reviewed, after which, Amazon will notify you of the verdict.
