How to sell on Amazon in 2020 (in 4 steps)

Many eCommerce companies see marketplaces as an opportunity to increase their sales, but how exactly is this done? We tell you in four steps how to sell on Amazon because, although it is not complicated, you need to know some things to do it with guarantees.

Actually I am going to synthesize the whole process in four steps to highlight some milestones that every merchant should know. The reality of your business, its needs, and the expectations you have of it will mark other steps and strategies, but these that we are going to detail are essential.

1. Product and market analysis

Amazon has such a huge volume of business, it sells so many categories and products that, if we do an overly simplistic analysis, we can think that everyone can sell there. My recommendation is that you do not start from that premise without doing a preliminary analysis to avoid serious problems later.

I always emphasize that Amazon is not for everyone. It will interest you if:

You have a good margin: manufacturers and distributors with good volume negotiations are the ones that can play the most in a market in which price is the most important variable. Retailers that are fairer should opt for other channels.

Your product is of low competition: if it is the only one better than better, but entering a saturated market within Amazon is a barrier in which, fighting for the price, you bid farewell to your margin.

You don’t have your own eCommerce: Amazon eats everything and will become your competition by cannibalizing sales.

2. Choose the sales regime

Now that you are clear that you can compete on Amazon, you will have to make the following important decision. There is no single mode of the sale so you should know them all with their advantages and disadvantages before launching.

You can pick between Seller Marketplace and Seller Retail. The characteristics are:

Retail:

Single-customer provider: You only sell to Amazon, not to the end customer.

Last in the hierarchy: the priority is the customer, then the platform and, finally, the seller retail and this applies, for example, to any claim or management.

The negotiation is direct with Amazon: you must make clear what will happen to the excess stock, return policy, or the default payment method of 90 days.

Remember that Amazon decides the price at which you market your products. If they decide to lower it to a lower amount than you sell them on your eCommerce or any other platform, they can represent a great threat. In exchange, it will prioritize the sale of these products.

Marketplace:

You sell to the end customer through Amazon, which operates as a simple intermediary.

You decide the sale prices of each item.

Although this can be a bit confusing, I must tell you that if you choose to sell as a Marketplace Seller you would still have to make one more choice. You can sell on Amazon as FBM (Fulfilled By Merchant) which is when you as a seller manage from order receipt to logistics, delivery… The alternative is the so-called FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon), in this case, they take care of absolutely everything: We send the product to them and they market it.

The most powerful sales formulas for Amazon are always the ones that interest them the most because they are obsessed with process control and customer retention.

3. Upload your listings or products

Obviously, when you choose the sales regime and create your account, the next step is to upload the catalog of your products for sale on Amazon. For this, you have to resort to Amazon Seller Central and follow the necessary steps. This is what the interface looks like.

When the products you want to sell are already in the Amazon catalog, all you need to do is locate it by searching for its ASIN, name, or EAN13 and then add the price and stock that you put up for sale.

4. Work the recruitment

You need to drive traffic to your products and, above all, generate sales so that certain traction begins to exist. Amazon only has one premise: it wants to sell the more the better (taking care of the customer so that it is recurring).

You have at your disposal the Amazon PPC (Pay Per Click) platform. It is not that it is a wonder, it is somewhat limited, but in return, it is not as expensive as other alternatives like Google and Facebook Ads. You could hire an Amazon expert to work on this part, and that could save your time, money and bring you better results in the low time.

It works in a similar way to those already mentioned. Campaigns based on keywords, bids in real-time and, the product with the best parameters is the one that will occupy a prominent space in searches over those positioned organically.